THE MOUNTAIN GOATS



It’s official. The Mountain Goats are determined to make Australia the new Japan by releasing an exclusive Aussie Only EP entitled Babylon Springs to coincide with their upcoming tour. “It’s not going to be for anywhere else in the world.” Enthuses wordsmith and chief Mountain Goat John Darnielle with enough infectious excitement for you to believe that he may actually be onto something.

“When we first came down to Australia people were so amazing to me. I came down all by myself and played these little shows and people were really cool to me.” He says with genuine fondness. “When we came back last year people were incredibly cool to us and we had the best damn time.”

In regards to the new EP, Darnielle further explains.

“When I was a young record collector I thought it was awesome if you could get the French pressing of something that would have a different track on it. I thought that was rad so when 4AD gave me the opportunity I jumped at the chance. I’m really stoked about it. I’ve always liked the idea of regionally specific recordings and it seemed kinda ripe to be coming back over without anything new so I had these other songs that weren’t gonna fit on the new album anyway for a variety of reasons so we went over to Scotland where Tony Doogan has a new studio, he’s the guy who produced Tallahasse, and we did five songs with him and the drummer from Belle and Sebastian. If you liked Tallahasse your gonna like it. It’s got the same kinda crisp, acrid feel to it.”

It’s not hard to see where the reckless passion that infuses so many of The Mountain Goats tracks comes from. Darnielle has such an intense love of telling stories and talking about music. After releasing a number of tapes recorded on a four track through various Indy labels such as Shrimper and Absolutely Kosher throughout the Nineties, The Mountain Goats slowly built a devoted fanbase, which saw them sign a deal with 4AD and release 2002’s Tallahasse.

“Everyone always says it was a four track but this is something people assume cause it was a home recording.” Explains Darielle. “I actually used to record directly into a boombox. There was no overdubbing or anything, just guitar and voice live so obviously it’s quite different. The writing is essentially the same but I think I’m better at it than I used to be.”

Is there any chance of the tape releases being reissued on CD in the near future?

“The original recordings were made for a pretty small cult audience, know what I mean? People who don’t have any problem listening to something that was recorded live into a Boombox. I’d hate for people who were used to hearing these smooth sounding, clear recordings to rush out and buy something that cost 25 cents to record”

Pretty much all of The Mountain Goat’s songs have a strong narrative drive and an amazing sense of storytelling. Do you ever think there will come a time when you wake up and think “Shit...I have no more stories left to tell”?

“No…I mean the way I think about stories is like when your telling a story to a child. Kids ask for the same stories over and over again and it never gets old for them. There’s no such thing as telling the same story twice. If you play the same song two nights in a row it tells a different story cause everyone’s circumstances are different. So I think stories are permanent and they’re always out there in the air for anybody who wants to grab one and tell.”


Have things such as Myspace and the Internet changed the way you interact with fans?

“Very little changes with the way I interact with fans. I’ve always been pretty easy to approach. I come from the Mid-Nineties Indie Rock scene where the whole where the whole distinction between fan and artist is pretty blurry. At the same time a lot of the songs I write are looking at pain in someway or another looking at pain and a lot of the people who listen to my stuff to do so because they’re wanting someone to meet them in a painful place and so people often come up to me and want to share their stories which puts me in a strange position because I’m all about it. I love to hear them but people often assume that if I’m telling stories that relate to them that I’ve done the sorts of things that they have…which isn’t always the case. I had a guy write to me after Tallahasse came out and it was very clear to him that I knew what it was like to cheat on my wife and I don’t know what that’s like! I’m never gonna know what that’s like!”

With the upcoming tour and an ever-growing number of people discovering Darnielle and Co’s disarmingly potent blend of Lo-Fi Folk Pop, it seems that The Mountain Goats will be feeding on even greener pastures than before. Now if they would just hurry up and release their new album before I wear my copy of We Shall All Be Healed out.

“One of the favourite things about people who listen to my stuff and, knock wood when I say this, is that I tend to be the only thing that people listen to for a while. As a big music fan, I know what that’s like. About a year ago I went through the same thing with Smog and if it wasn’t Smog then I didn’t wanna hear it and wow, that’s kinda cool to think that I make music that makes people feel that they don’t need anything else for a while.”

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