| [The following article appeared in CMJ New Music Monthly
in April 1998. Enjoy!]
ART is PAIN
Kristin Hersh: How's your beautiful
woman?
Vic Chesnutt: She's good. We've been in Nashville for a few weeks, mixin'
the record. So, I think I drove her insane.
Kristin: Did you make the record there, too? How come?
Vic: Well, that's where all the guys were. I recorded with a band,
Lambchop, and they all live there. And we had to do it on the weekends, 'cause they work
during the week.
Kristin: How was it?
Vic: It was great, they've got good studios up there and, you know,
Waylon [Jennings] is in the studio recording during the week, and then I pop in there on
the weekends.
Kristin: And what about the band, did it feel like
yours?
Vic: Well, I've known them for a while. And they're a big band, there's
like ten of them.
Kristin: Ten? Holy shit! What do they play?
Vic: Well, there's horns, and several guitar players, and organ and
vibes, and drums, and percussion... Unlike your new record which is...
Kristin: Me! Me, me, me, my big head, all by itself... 'cause I have no
friends anymore. [laughs] I had huge plans for it too. I was going to have the Giant Sand
guys play. I played with them in Austin. I did some benefit [concert] with them and I had
had this idea that the production approach would be "acoustic combo" like
upright bass, brushes and piano. And so I played these new songs at a benefit with them,
and they said, "You know, Kris, the new songs would sound good with upright bass,
piano and brushes." And I thought, "Yes, and I will steal Giant Sand to do
it." And then I was going to have DJ Bonebreak to play marimbas...
Vic: Wow!
Kristin: ... and Lisa Germano play violin.
Vic: Sure!
Kristin: I wanted to ask all my friends to come, and yet, I showed up at
work every morning, and the songs would ask for these little pieces of nothing that would
be insulting to ask anyone but myself to play.
Vic: I love those records you make. They're the best... You did it at Joe
Henry's right?
Kristin: Yeah, Joe's Garage, literally Joe's garage. I was going to do it
in my house. I was just going to crawl into the closet and make the record. I guess I was
bummed about the Muses dying, so I just wanted to hide.
Vic: Yeah, I bet you were.
Kristin: Oh God, ehh, ouch. But I was telling Joe
Henry this and he said, "Yeah, just come over to my house, and I'll push the buttons,
and you won't have to think about it." And then it was awesome, 'cause he's awesome.
And our kids are best friends.
Vic: Yeah that's great. I love it, it sounds really great.
Kristin: Oh, thank you. Are you exhausted?
Vic: I am, I'm just sick of hearing the songs over and over. You know how
it is.
Kristin: I haven't actually listened to my record,
to tell you the truth, and I just finished two months of promo, where, you know, people
ask you to talk about it. I just end up kind of staring off, talking about the Muses some
more [laughs], trying to change the subject, because I haven't heard my own record.
Vic: Yeah, I hate talkin' about myself.
Kristin: My problem is, I just know how bad brains
lie to you, you know? The brain is the first organ that's going to he to you. And they're
saying, "Well, talk to us with your brain and tell us what your brain thinks about
this." And I know not to trust my own brain, so I shut it up a long time ago.
[laughs]
Vic: That's a tough thing to have to do, and I
guess they think it's natural, or something, to have to sit there and talk about yourself
all day long.
Kristin: Oh, it feels awful, too. I mean, I like talking about music
sometimes, music in general, 'cause I think it's a nice energy. It's as close as I get to
having a religion, but I don't like talking about my "me." You know, Kristin
with car keys and shoes. And they always expect me to be so arty and depressive, that
their questions are just awful. They're almost mean because they bring so much emotional
baggage to the table. Like you, they're always blaming you about writing about your
wheelchair; they're always blaming me for writing about being crazy. No matter how many
times I say, "You know, you're bringing a lot to this, you're projecting here."
They just think, "Oh, I wonder why she said that? Hmm, she's crazy." [laughs]
Vic: [laughs] Yeah, I'm not looking forward to it.
I used to love it. Like the first one I ever did, I loved it. It was like going to the
psychiatrist everyday.
Kristin: Yeah, yeah. It's true. It's way too much like that.
Vic: And then, you know, 20 days into it, I'm like,
"God, I'm going to kill myself." Psychiatrist not doing right. Psychiatrist bad.
Kristin: Yeah, and they don't give you any drugs.
Vic: Yeah, and if they do give you any, it's the bad kind.
Kristin: So, does your new record sound different?
Vic: Well, you know, since there's a whole lot of people playing on it,
it sounds different.
Kristin: Ten other people. That'd make anybody sound different. Can you
hear you at all?
Vic: I hope. Well, I mean I kind of hope not, but you know, they always
put the vocals up real loud, even though I tell them to turn them down... I got us a promo
copy [of Strange Angels]. Somebody sent me one.
Kristin: How did you get that?
Vic: I don't know, but it came in the mail.
Kristin: How is it?
Vic: It's great! You know it is. It's got, like, a few of the best songs
I ever heard. I don't know how you do it, but there's always at least one, sometimes five
or ten, but at least one line that is like, you know, the best line in history.
Kristin: I wish I knew my own lyrics.
Vic: I love that one, which is the one? About the bed? "fightin' the
bed like a river" ["Heaven"]. God, I was like, "Jeez."
Kristin: Oh, that's a sad song. You know, that's the only song I've
written since the Muses, and it's so obviously about my band dying and [me] running away
to the Mojave Desert, and what a wimp I am for doing it. It's embarrassing. It's like
telling somebody a dream that's really easy to analyze. There's even a line about a
drummer in it. But I was just so bummed about the band running out of money and stopping,
that I had to get stuff out, and I actually used a song to do it, which I kind of disagree
with in principle. Self expression kind of turns into whining. It just seems like puking
on everybody, like they don't need it, and yet I was so bummed about the band dying that I
felt that I deserved to be selfish. And I can put that song on a record and everybody has
to hear it. Now I get to puke on you, 'cause you killed my band. [laughs]
Vic: Yeah, exactly: You kill my band, I puke on
you. You know, that's it. There you go.
Kristin: An eye for an eye.
Vic: Sure, but I think it's really amazing, as always.
Kristin: Ah, what are you talkin' about? You're the king of all perfect
lyrics. Your songs are my soundtrack way more often than my own songs are.
Vic: Well, that's good to know.
Kristin: They're smart and they're funny. Which I guess is the same
thing. But, they sound like you when you talk. Like, sometimes your mouth moves faster
than your brain, and it takes a minute for you to catch up to what you just said, which is
always totally brilliant. [laughs] And the songs are the same way, they sound like you
talking, like you're just letting your mouth go.
Vic: Exactly, that's how I do it. Let it go. And
the hardest part is going, "I don't know, it's a little embarrassing." But, you
know, you've got to let it go.
Kristin: Do you feel embarrassed?
Vic: I am, always. I'm always embarrassed by my songs.
Kristin: See, I'm hoping to cultivate some shame. I think I don't have
enough, because I have absolutely none. People keep sitting me down and saying,
"Aren't you embarrassed to do what you do?" I think, "Well, no, but maybe I
should be." But I think that—
Vic: Well you can't be, you couldn't be—
Kristin: Well, some of the songs make me sound like a crazy person or a
nymphomaniac. They make me say weird shit that I would never walk into a room and say. And
yet when I'm playing I feel like I'm playing with a part of me that could be all of them.
You know, black or white, male or female, straight or gay, so where would the shame come
in if you're all the same?
Vic: Sure, I mean, that's what I'm saying, there's no shame.
Kristin: So why are you embarrassed?
Vic: Well, with me, you know, it just, this is my
life, you know, not just my singing, but I'm always ashamed of me, you know. It's a part
of my problem. Ouch!
Kristin: What?
Vic: I just stuck a pin in my hand, by accident.
Kristin: Wow, are you all right?
Vic: It didn't puncture.
Kristin: You know, art is pain, man.
Vic: Who?
Kristin: Art.
Vic: Oh, Art. Art is pain. Yes.
Kristin: Who? [laughs]
Vic: Yes, he is.
Kristin Hersh's new album, Strange Angels (Throwing Music-Rykodisc), was
reviewed in the March issue. Vic Chesnutt's most recent album is About To Choke (Capitol).
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