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| downtowncrowd.com
The Mountain Goats An Exclusive Q&A with Frontman John Darnielle
by Nicole Willis John Darnielle is the founder and core member of the North Carolina-based indie-folk band, the Mountain Goats. While the band members have changed over the years, Darnielle has been the group’s frontman since he founded the band in the early 90s. In recent years, he has branched out from songwriting and begun writing novels. The Mountain Goats are about to embark on a US tour, and they will be making a stop in Pensacola to play Vinyl Music Hall on December 13. This tour will highlight the band’s latest album release, Jenny from Thebes, which was released this past October. Whether you are a seasoned Mountain Goats fan or simply enjoy the atmosphere of live folk music, this show is one you won’t want to miss. We had a chance to catch up with Darnielle to learn more about some of his latest projects and the upcoming tour before their stop in Pensacola. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased online at vinylmusichall.com. To keep up with the band, follow @mountaingoatsmusic on Instagram or Facebook.
DTC: You just dropped a new album, Jenny from Thebes. Can you tell me a little bit about the process of creating and developing this body of work? JD: Well, it’s been a long process, and it’s got a lot of moving parts. There’s the part of the process that is the writing and the winnowing of that. Then there is conceiving of where to do it, who to do it with and who to bring along. Those are the two major aspects. I was in the middle of writing a bunch of other songs when I wrote one that happened to reference an old character,
which is something that I generally don’t do—it’s not on a list of forbidden things, but it’s on a list of things you generally don’t do. I thought of what it would be like to do some more of that and it was really exciting. It was like, ‘Oh, you’re pursuing this course that you normally wouldn’t.’ Writing goes pretty fast for me once I get started, although I had a lot of other stuff going on. One part of the process for me was I was really busy, so a number of the songs were originally conceived without an instrument nearby. I was on a TV set without an instrument, shooting the show called Poker Face. I got an idea for a song so I had to tap out the rhythm on my chest and just sort of sing it out loud, and then go home and find out what key it was in. It was really fun and challenging to be doing things that way. Then eventually we met in Tulsa as a band to record the whole thing with Trina Shoemaker, Kathy Valentine, Matt Nathanson and Alicia [Bognanno] from Bully joining us. Making any album is a really complicated journey—kind of like asking somebody to tell me about your four years in college—there’s a lot in it.
