Love, tape, and John Vanderslice

May 28, 9:04 PMIndie Rock ExaminerAlli Sands

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Indie Rock Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

 

“All that third-wave rap stuff that came out in the late 80s and early 90s changed my life. There was just so much lyrical invention, and I’d never heard more freedom than in those rappers’ works.”

It came as a shock when John Vanderslice, the man who has been described as the “the nicest guy in rock”, revealed his affinity for early rap music, and went on to say that, “Chuck D was huge for me.” However, in his next breath, Vanderslice describes how Neutral Milk Hotel, “Made me want to make records…. All that distorted acoustic guitar, I’d never heard anything like that,” which seemed far more reasonable consider his work as a musician and an audio engineer at his all-analog recording studio, Tiny Telephone.

Vanderslice’s journey into the world of music began when he was fifteen years old, and his mother bought him a four-track cassette recorder. After laying down tracks of a keyboard with a drum machine, some guitar, and two separate vocals, the fledgling audio engineer had created something that John describes as, “I’d never heard anything like that before, and I was totally hooked from then on.”

Seven albums and numerous collaborations later, Vanderslice has found that exploring different themes with each record, “Gives you structure and allows you to pursue some kind of focused idea.” Previous to Romanian Names, Vanderslice’s most recent release, Pixel Revolt (2005) extracted the musician’s political convictions without him being aware of what direction he was taking with the album, “I didn’t realize that it was going to be political. Something inside of you pushes you toward a narrative and content, and things just creep into your content."

Yet after “shying away from making music about love,” Romanian Names came to fruition after Vanderslice decided it was time to take on the usually clichéd topic, “I wanted to make a record about love, relationships, and loss, not necessarily involving just romantic love.” Romanian Names reflects Vanderslice’s insightful knowledge of all-analog recording and acoustic instruments in a poetic, intelligent opus that is just as nice as John claims not to be.

To find out whether or not the rumor is true about John Vanderslice, head down to the Hi-Dive tomorrow night.