Tag: kurt vile

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Music

Kurt Vile – Chazzy Don’t Mind

There are very few albums that really need to be over an hour long. 30-40 minutes is probably ideal, and usually anything even approaching the 60 minute mark starts to feel like hard work before I’ve even listened to a note. And yet: Kurt Vile’s new LP (watch my moves) – which clocks in at a frankly intimidating 74 minutes – is still very welcome indeed. There’s something about his breezy riffs and wandering melodies that reassures you (or me, at least) that everything’s going to be ok. And that’s exactly what it delivers, never outstaying its welcome. Let’s break the two-hour mark on the next one please, Kurt.

https://www.kurtvile.com

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Music

Kurt Vile – Dandelions

Dandelions is one of two Kurt Vile originals on his new five-track EP Speed, Sound, Lonely KV (ep), which also includes three covers: one of Jack Clement and two of US country legend John Prine who passed away earlier this year. From the opening, carefully picked acoustic melody and dreamy background washes to the hushed, muted percussion, this is vintage stuff from an artist who has that rare talent of being simultaneously rousing and reassuring. “That sounded pretty sick” says Vile as the music gradually fades away. I couldn’t agree more.

https://kurtvile.com

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Interviews Music

Interview: Harkin

“The desktop of my mind has been cleared. Now it’s time to clutter it up again.”

A founding member of the band Sky Larkin, Katie Harkin has just released her debut self-titled solo album. In the intervening years she’s toured and recorded with some of the most successful and acclaimed indie rock acts in the business, including Kurt Vile, Courtney Barnett, Waxahatchee and Wild Beasts, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that Harkin is an absolute gem of an album: urgent, expressive, affecting.

I’m incredibly grateful to Katie for taking the time to answer some questions for The Predatory Wasp… and if you haven’t yet listened to the album, I highly recommend you do so.

Congratulations on the release of your debut album – it’s brilliant. When did you start recording it, and was the process generally positive, stressful, invigorating, a combination of all of these… or something else entirely?

Well thanks! I felt a huge amount of growth through the process. I recorded it without a label (we founded our own to release it- Hand Mirror), and though organising everything and clinging onto hard drives as I moved between studios in different time zones was stressful, it was thrilling to do it all on my own terms.

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