photo by michael persico

Aspiring Hitmaker

Kurt Vile loves the classics. He wants to make a few of his own.

by Katherine Silkaitis

Download our inaugural Umm…Drop podcast with Kurt Vile.

“I’m real obsessive,” Kurt Vile readily admits. He’s obsessed with bands, with his own songs, with making things perfect, with music in general.

It was Pavement in high school, he says, and later, “I pretty much got obsessed with everybody worthy of critical acclaim—the Beatles, the Kinks … ” Old music in general, he says, from the blues to Tom Petty.

Vile’s debut album Constant Hitmaker—plus the slew of CD-Rs, EPs and vinyl releases he’s recorded over the years—sounds like both Animal Collective and Lee Hazelwood. “I’ll listen to different songs all the time, and it just comes out [in the music],” he explains. Most tracks are self-recorded and there’s a decidedly lo-fi and quirky quality to his songs. They’re psychedelic yet personal, beautiful and morose, catchy pop tunes punctuated by meandering ballads.

“I’m really emotionally into it. I really love music and I just make sure every song is the best. It’s not like my music is indie rock or something, or I’m trying to be cool. I’m just trying to make it really pretty. Not everyone will like it, but I just really mean it,” Vile says earnestly.

Though 2008’s Constant Hitmaker isn’t even a year old, Vile says the follow-up, Childish Prodigy, is nearly complete. Like its predecessor, Prodigy has its share of home recordings, but Vile says the majority of it was recorded in a studio under the guidance of producer Jeff Zeigler.

“My music travels stylistically, but it’s always channeled through my voice and my guitar style. I highly doubt I’ll do something crazy like Beck or Neil Young and jump genres,” Vile says. “It’s fun because you don’t know exactly what kind of music is going to come out, but it’s not going to be any crazy transition. It’ll just always sound like me.”