END OF THE ROAD WEEK: Richmond Fontaine Interview September 2009 [PART 1]
By: Chris Helsen
Some 15 years after they started making music together, Portland’s Richmond Fontaine released their 8th studio album, We Used to Think the Freeway Sounded Like a River, in August to as much critical esteem and fan fervour as their previous run of almost flawless Americana, from 2002’s Winemucca, through the seminal Post to Wire (2004) to last album Thirteen Cities (2007). Ahead of a full UK tour and appearance at our beloved End of the Road festival, Rockfeedback caught up with singer, songwriter and acclaimed author of two novels (soon to be three), Willy Vlautin, before an intimate single release show in London.
RFB: If people haven’t heard of Richmond Fontaine, what kind of band would you say you are? Americana? Alt. country? How do you feel about those kind of labels for bands who make a similar kind of music to you?
You know, when we have a pedal steel in our band it’s hard not to call us an Americana band. I never really worry about it, I like Americana! I like all roots music in general, and I’ve always been a fan. My songwriting’s based in the roots and folk tradition, so calling us Americana’s great.
RFB: There seems to be some clear influences from country music, from classic country singers through the likes of Gram Parsons, do you see those guys as touchstones for your work?
It’s hard you know, I came to country music through punk rock, in particular the West Coast/L.A. “cow punk” scene. X was a band I liked in high school and a band called the Knitters, and through them was the first time I really let myself like country. I grew up with Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, and I really like Willie Nelson but I did not like Merle Haggard. He was associated with Rednecks and conservatism and narrow mindedness. But then X, or the Knitters I guess [a side project made up of X members], covered one of his songs ‘Silver Wings’ and I thought “Wow he’s an amazing songwriter”; and once I grew up a little bit I realised it’s not him, it’s not his fault that some of his fans are that way. And now Merle Haggard has been one of my favourite songwriters for like 15 years. So yeah I do like country. In my heart of hearts I’d say my songwriting heroes are guys like Tom Waits, Shane MacGowan and early Springsteen , though.
[cue an interesting-to-only-me conversation about ‘80s American music in which I was delighted to hear Willy also loved Gun Club’s Fire of Love and shared my obsession with The Replacements – even getting caught shoplifting the classic Let it Be: this man is my hero.]
RFB: What about contemporary music, do you follow current bands? Any peers out there that you particularly like – I know that you recently toured with M.Ward...
Yeah that guy’s an amazing musician, and he’s got a seriously amazing band. I think everyone’s great! I went through a huge M.Ward phase recently, and there’s a guy out of Portland named Delorean who’s an amazing songwriter, a genius I think. I like Laura Veirs, I think she’s really talented. She’s a Portlander too. I mean I listen to people like Louis Armstrong and shit like that more than I listen to new music I hate to admit– there’s so much stuff around it’s hard for me to keep up! I just saw Neko Case and she was great, and Jenny Lewis too, I like her. In one week recently I saw PJ Harvey, Neko Case and Jenny Lewis and they’re all really strong songwriters who are also really different from each other. And they’re all really talented too. I like Drive By Truckers too.
RFB: In terms of tangible alt. country comparisons, people may compare you to the likes of Wilco, Ryan Adams and Whiskeytown, do you like those guys too?
Yeah I always like Wilco’s records, you know they’re always going to be good. I’m a lyric guy, always have been so if a band’s lyrics get me then they get me. In terms of those [alt. country] guys, I really like Mark Olsen of the Jayhawks, he’s a great songwriter and a guy who breaks my heart just hearing his voice. I like Whiskeytown a lot, I wore out Strangers Almanac. I thought that was a seriously good record.
“You Can move Back Here” sounds to me like it could fit on, say Whiskeytown’s Strangers Almanac, or Wilco’s Summerteeth, it’s got that country rock kind of vibe...
Ah cool, thanks. I was obsessively listening to Reckoning by REM when I wrote that tune so it’s definitely REM-ish too.
RFB: Moving on to the new album, what can fans expect in terms of previous Richmond Fontaine records? Whereas you always sound like “Richmond Fontaine”, each of the last few records seem to exist as a “whole” work separate from the one before.
When I was writing this record I was touring a lot with Thirteen Cities and I was in love with the American West and the desert and problems with the West, and I was always writing about it. And I thought I would just write more about that. Then I came home from that tour and a lot of personal stuff happened, like my Mum died and I broke my arm real bad, and I went more introspective and started writing songs that were based more in the Northern West and based more on my life, trying to figure stuff out.
RFB: A lot of your work (including the novels) has centred on your home town of Reno, but you certainly seem to have moved away from that now – how did the writing for this record come about, on tour?
No I hardly write at all on tour, and it was after The Fitzgerald that I quit writing about Reno. I was kind of embarrassed to have written so much set in Reno, but my heart was there and my family, and I was in love with the city on so many different levels, and homesick about it for so many years. But I couldn’t move back there with the way I was living my life. Basically with this record I just went home from touring and I was kinda beat up, my Mum was the last of my immediate family besides my brother and we didn’t get along that well sometimes. So I came back and I was a bit of a wreck in the head, and how I’d get by was writing songs trying to figure my situation out. Until a few days ago I didn’t even ever think about it, and now people have been asking me and I’m like, “The Boyfriend”, ah f**k why did I put that on the record? I’m going to have to talk about it! But I didn’t even think about it, I was just writing them so I wouldn’t go crazy. But I’d be foolish and really petty if I didn’t answer questions about songs when I put them on there. I hate it when guys do that, put a song out there and then say “I don’t want to talk about it”, I think you put it out there and you should just go all the way with it. Usually I would write a story around what I was thinking and hide what I’m saying and thinking, and this record I just didn’t do that as much.
[RICHMOND FONTAINE INTERVIEW PART TWO]
Artists in this article: Richmond Fontaine