Mark Kozelek

Van Morrison is a messy eater. I know this because I was once down the pub with a professional interviewer, who said that Van turned up to their meeting with curry stains all down his lapels.

This guy also interviewed Leonard Cohen; apparently the meeting turned into an all night drinking session at a hotel bar, where Cohen was really funny. It’s weird to think of him as having a sense of humour. Cohen’s lyrics are hardly a laugh riot.

Apparently, one of the most depressing musicians of the modern era is also pretty funny. Mark Kozelek sings long, mournful guitar ballads, which are appropriately described as ‘sadcore’. He even managed to make turn AC/DC’s song You Aint Got a Hold On Me, which is about fellatio, into a romantic lament.

However, when interviewed, Kozelek gives short, funny answers. Asked about a clip of him laughing on tour, he says:

When you're eating stale nuts from a vending machine on Thanksgiving Day and watching "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" in Portuguese, you can either laugh about it or cry.

On his collaboration with Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard:

I've known Ben for a while. We met at a music festival in Spain years ago, where we both got food poisoning. We've been friends ever since.

On touring:

Happiness to me is to not have to listen to a drummer going WHACK WHACK WHACK on his snare drum for a half hour at sound check.

On flying:

People ask me about my guitar all of the time. I just tell them it’s a gift for someone. I hate trying to explain my living to someone on a plane. It feels like the people around me are thinking, “yeah, right. if this guy is so popular, what’s he doing sitting back here in coach?”

Though Kozelek often gives interviews, the details of his early life still aren’t really known. People just don’t ask him about it. Instead, they ask the same questions over and over:  One that always comes up is – Why did you let Gap and Gears of War use your songs in adverts? Isn’t it selling out?

I don't think of it in those terms. Honestly, I just look at the zeros on the end of offers and decide from there. I need to eat and pay bills and taxes like everyone else. If along the way Gears of War helps me reach a wider audience, it beats mailing thousand of CDs to college radio stations that no one listens to anymore.

We do know that Kozelek was born in Ohio in 1967, and started playing guitar after seeing a relative playing a John Denver song. He was a lazy student, and often skipped school to play guitar. In his late teens, he moved to Atlanta, Georgia with his band to try and find success. The band broke up, and he ended up doing odd jobs. He then formed a new band, Red House Painters. He borrowed the name from a friend “who was in a painting crew in Tennessee called The International league of Revolutionary House Painters”.

They had sudden success:

“I literally went from working front desk at the Chelsea Motor Inn to a week later, a record company in England wiring money to my bank account, saying "Make an album." I felt a lot of pressure.”

After six albums, Red House Painters broke up, and he started releasing solo records, and set up a new band, Sun Kil Moon.

If you haven’t heard of Kozelek, you might recognise him from some brief film appearances. He played a bassist in the film Almost Famous, and has a brief cameo in Vanilla Sky:

What to Hear: April by Sun Kil Moon, Songs for a Blue Guitar by Red House Painters, and their first self-titled album

Why: His songs are long, meandering and depressing, but also surprisingly enjoyable