You might say Willie Vlautin is something of a spin doctor. Not in the sense that he’s a master of hype or one of those slick marketing types that would sell his own mother the Brooklyn Bridge. No, nothing like that. He’s more a teller of tales, a writer who spins stories about dark, despondent characters who are down on their luck and ready to gamble their last dollar at a shot of somehow getting their lives back on track. It’s not exactly upbeat stuff - in fact his story songs are often downright depressing. Nevertheless, over the course of seven albums with his Oregon-based band Richmond Fontaine (including a new effort released this month called Thirteen Cities), and with the recent publication of his first novel, Motel Life, Vlautin has established himself as one of Rock’s most prolific pundits. The band’s music is pure Americana, a firsthand, dust blown vision of what it’s like forever navigating the forgotten roads of the heartland, with its seedy motels and a two bit towns dotting every stretch of the endless highway. But the prose is pure Steinbeck in its description of hapless individuals who attempt to rise above desperation and turn the struggle to survive into something that’s noble and worthwhile.
On the eve of the new album and his novel’s near simultaneous release, Amplifier had a chance to sit down with Vlautin and to ask him about his career, his ambitions and, above all, the impetus for these harrowing narratives.
Amplifier: Where do these characters that populate your music and this book come from? Are they drawn from your past? From your own experiences? Hopefully your life hasn't been this despondent!
Willy Vlautin: Hell, I guess I’d probably be dead if I lived as hard as the characters. I guess more than anything the heart of the characters are mine. I think my heart lives there. When I think of myself I think of the characters. I’ve always done that I guess. Instead of saying I’m a wreck I’ll write about a guy that’s a wreck. Plus I usually write songs to try to figure something out or to get something out so they usually tend to be dark. It was something I started doing as a kid just to get by and now I can’t stop. I wish I could write more upbeat stuff. I just saw the band The Sadies last night and if I could be like that I’d be set.
Amplifier: Your music has always had stories of these down and out type of characters. So why do you find such an affinity with those that are so down on their luck? Have you ever considered writing an optimistic love song?
WV: I’ve never really thought of my characters as anything but ordinary people. I never think of them as losers or bums even though from the outside they sure look it. I’ve always been interested in the decisions people make when they are hurting or weak, broke or beat up. It’s usually the decisions you make under duress that define you. I’ve always struggled with that, been haunted by that I guess. So I tend to write about it. I always approached song writing as a way so I wouldn’t go crazy, not as away to entertain. I sure wish I could go back in time. My brother used to get all the ladies with his guitar playing. In high school I used to sit in with a band that everyone danced to and loved. I always wanted to be in a band like that, but in the end you are who you. But hell I do try and write love songs. I’ve written a handful. I’m a huge fan of epic romantic songs. I tried to do that on the new record with “4 Walls.”
Amplifier: It’s the same thing with the places and settings described in your songs. You have such an eye for detail. Do you incorporate places where you've actually been into your stories and songs or do they spring from your imagination?
WV: To me details in a narrative sorta song really make or break it. If the detail is there and you buy into it then that leads you farther into the story. I always use place in songs just because I am such a fan of hearing about different places. When Tom Waits sings about Johnsburg, I daydream about the place, I’ll create in my head where that place is. When Shane MacGowan sings about Thailand or Spain I daydream myself there. It’s a pretty great way to escape. Especially if you’ve never been anywhere. When I was a kid my Dad went to England and brought back Rum, The Sodomny, and The Lash by the Pogues and The Gift by The Jam. I barely knew anything about England but I created a whole idea of life there just by those records. So when I work on songs myself I always try to put in places that I’ve been to or thought were interesting or romanticized about. I hope to do the same thing that those records did. I hope to get the listener to the world I’m writing about.
Amplifier: Would you consider Thirteen Cities a soundtrack of sorts for the book? The storylines may not be the same but there seems to be lots of parallels between circumstances described in the songs and the circumstances in the book, especially in the songs "$87 and a Guilty Conscience That Gets Worse The Longer I Go" and "I Fell Into Painting In Phoenix, Arizona" In another song there's a mention of the book's title, "Motel Life.” Coincidence? We think not!
WV: I don’t think of Thirteen Cities as a soundtrack to The Motel Life as much as I do The Fitzgerald. I sorta wrote those two at the same time. Thirteen Cities to me is more about getting older and running out of places in your mind or literally to run to. It’s that old saying, you can only run so far before you run back into yourself. I think a lot of the record is about running into yourself or running out of ideas on how to escape yourself. And once that happens you have to look at who you are, and most of the time it’s not the greatest thing to see. A lot of the characters are almost penitent. They want to be alright, to be better. “$87…” is a lot like that and so is “Capsized.” As far as “Westward Ho!” I do mention The Motel Life. Thanks for catching that. I think I was just trying to explain why I like motels. As a kid. motels always meant freedom, escape. I think I was just trying to figure out why I have always been drawn to them, and that song came out. And hell it’s also just nice to run off all those old motel names. There’s so many great names that motels have had over the years.
Amplifier: As a songwriter, was the transition to writing short stories and a novel an easy one? Have you ever considered adapting any of your songs into short stories or another novel?
WV: I’ve written stories since I was 20. I read a collection by Raymond Carver and it just about killed me. I still can’t believe how much his writing affected me. I started writing the week I finished What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. I wrote stories for six or seven years then switched to novels. A lot of songs end up stories and stories end up songs. I wrote a story called “Kid Collins” which became the song “Casino Lights” which is on the record The Fitzgerald. I do that all the time. They kind of go in and out of each other. I just sold a novel called Northline. “Northline” is a song on Winnemucca. The idea of the novel came from the song so I guess it’s all sorta mixed up together.
Amplifier: Would you mind giving us your thoughts about each of the Richmond Fontaine albums up to now. What was going on with you and the band at the time and how did each album affected the trajectory of the group? Do you set out to make each album some kind of progression over the previous one so that you find yourself covering new ground?
WV: Safety: I’d never been in a studio, and the other guys hadn’t been either. We didn’t know anything. It was a homemade studio in a basement. We just had a bunch of songs and we plowed through them the best we could. I like a lot of the songs on it. Some I can’t believe I wrote. “Safety” for instance is such a dark, dark song. I couldn’t write that song today and hope I never do again.
Miles From: We had two lucky breaks. I met the pedal steel player, Paul Brainard, and I also met Larry Crane who engineered and produced it. It’s still a raw, low budget affair but again, I like the songs. We tried pretty hard on that one.
Lost Son: I think this was our first record where we had any confidence at all. Our friend Luther Russell helped us out and again we had Larry Crane. It’s our hardest and darkest record. I wish I was a better singer on that one but no luck there. I like the songs, although I’m glad I don’t live like I did when I recorded that one.
Winnemucca: To me this was the first one where I had confidence. I like this one a whole lot and this one was the first with Sean Oldham, our drummer. He’s just the greatest, and the whole worn out desert feel to the record I like.
Post to Wire: Well, on this one we got lucky twice again. JD Foster was nice enough to work with us and Larry Crane needed his house painted and we swapped him for studio time. JD was really great, the coolest, and really, he saved the band in a lot of ways. We were pretty worn out and broke, and he came along and boosted our confidence and we made a pretty cool record. This is the record that first started doing us good in Europe.
The Fitzgerald: I always wanted to make a stark mood record. A record that lives and dies by the story. Once again JD came out to Portland and we recorded it. I’m just glad it came out… it’s a record I always wanted to make and finally got to. And it turned out pretty great. People seem to really like this one. A guy came up to me the other day and said he couldn’t stop listening to it until his girlfriend made him because she said it was making him too depressed all the time.
Amplifier: Why do you think it is that European audiences have embraced the band before audiences here back home? What is the reaction like overseas when you're playing over there? Is it a rabid following? The press seems to love you, that's for sure.
WV: We just got lucky in Europe. The British press were the first to help us out. A magazine called UNCUT got behind Post to Wire and then everything fell into place. We have great management over there. It was the first time in the band’s career that we had anyone work hard for us and it really changed everything. We all got passports and got to travel to Europe and tour. It’s been lucky for us on so many levels. Just to see some of the world is pretty damn lucky and it’s lucky ‘cause we had a reason to stay together. I think we always believed in the band; we just needed someone else to tell us.
Amplifier: Thirteen Cities is your first album recorded at Wavelab in Tucson. What made you choose to go there to do the album? What effect did it have on the sonic quality overall. It seems so haunting and eerie - does that have something to do with that desert locale?
WV: JD and Craig Shumacher, the owner of Wavelab, are old friends and JD kept telling me we should go down to Tucson and record. Well, I’m a huge fan of Calexico and Giant Sand and the Richard Buckner and Steve Wynn records recorded there. So I was excited as hell to get to go there. I’d always wanted to make a big soundtrack desert sorta record and so when I knew we were recording there I just sorta lost my mind in that idea. The idea of giving up and disappearing in the desert, the idea of drifting around the desert. There’s always been great songs about drifters and I wanted to do a whole record like that. Wavelab has a great feel to it, and I think just being there, the whole band got behind the idea. Plus we got lucky and there were great musicians there who helped out. Nick Luca is just amazing and Joey Burns and Jacob Valenzuela from Calexico also play great stuff on it. Howe Gelb even played a song. So we were really lucky and honored to get to make the record there.
Amplifer: Going back to the beginning… what inspired you to become a musician and to form a band in the first place? Did you hear a lot of music playing around your house when you were growing up?
WV: I grew up in Reno, Nevada. The only real record I remember at my house was Willie Nelson’s Greatest Hits and Some That Will Be. My mom played that one all the time and it’s still one of my favorite records. I guess I got my real ideas about music when my brother moved to LA when I was 13. He began sending me records by X, Green on Red, Rank and File, The Long Ryders, The Del Fuegos, The Blasters, Los Lobos. The whole LA roots rock scene. I was hooked then. Also there was a great band out of Reno called “The Boston Wranglers” who were a lot like the Byrds or the Long Ryders and I used to see them all the time.
I think more than anything records were like friends to me. Tom Waits, X, Rank and File and Long Ryders. I thought of them as friends. I liked them so much I wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to be in a band where my band was on a flyer, where we drove around in a van, played shows, had records in stores. I have no musical talent really. I just wanted to be a part of it.
Amplifier: What inspires you to do what you do? And how do you find fresh inspiration for your songs and stories? Do you ever feel tapped out in trying to come up with a new character or plot for your story/songs?
WV: Jim Harrison was asked why he wrote, and he more or less said he wrote so he wouldn’t implode on himself. I guess I’m the same way. I began writing to try and figure out things that bothered me or haunted me. When I began writing stories I fell in love with the craft of it, the discipline of it. And also of the ability to control a world. You really can’t control much in life, but in writing you can. It’s also my favorite thing to do. Writing stories and playing guitar are my only real hobbies besides horse racing. If I tap out, I tap out, but maybe that’ll mean I’m a happier person, and hell, that ain’t so bad.
Amplifier: Who are you grooving to these days?
WV: We just finished a tour with a band called the Endrick Brothers and I can’t stop listening to them. Also been listening to the Sadies, Ennio Morricone, and Calexico. So as you can see, I’m still wrapped up in desert music. Man, I love all those bands! Also just sorta stumbled on to M. Ward. A good friend of mine plays with him but I’ve never really heard him and I really like his stuff as well. It’s produced really well.
Amplifier: So what's next?
WV: I think we’re more or less touring for the rest of the year. I’m just writing stories right now and the U.S. release of The Motel Life is May 1 so I’m as excited as hell about that. It’s lucky to get a book out. It takes a huge weight off your back and finally all the people who thought you were nuts ‘cause you always said you were working on a novel will get off your back. That is, I guess, until they read it and find out that you are nuts for real.
--Lee Zimmerman
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Richmond Fontaine's Thirteen Cities is out now on Union Recordings.
http://www.richmondfontaine.com
http://www.myspace.com/richmondfontaine
