Things you buy through our links may earn Vox Media a commission. I spent a weekend buried in classic films about men exacting brutal revenge — First Blood , Red Dawn , Death Wish , Assault on Precinct 13 , Billy Jack — and spoke with Darnielle for almost an hour and a half about his new record, his thoughts on moral panics, and his latest novel, Devil House.
The studious music nerd and sometime music critic left me with a solid writing tip and recommendations for unheralded Yes and War albums. How does it feel to be on the business end of potentially millions of people discovering the same song at the same time? It was so awesome, because I come from a very indie sensibility. I have great publicists now, right? Big Guy has a publicist now! Obviously, I did 20 years of touring to get the music out there.
And it was on Moral Orel years ago. How do you feel about being pegged as a guy who writes songs that make people cry? When you get real sad, one of the things that can help you climb out of it is laughing at yourself and how into your feelings you are. My sadness, however great it is, is one small story in a world full of stories. So you indulge it, but you find the season to escape it. If they peg me as a sad songwriter, they pegged me. How does the exercise of writing a concept album start for you?
How do you find time to do the job of a songwriter and performer while you fill your head with the ideas that feed the writing process? When I start writing, I almost never start with the concept. Tallahassee was different. You want to pitch something, right? But I can write anywhere. I also have the native iPhone app I keep a list of song titles in.
You workshop song titles separately from songs? It sounded cool. Pagan has a pejorative air. Paganism, I know from studying classics, is kind of a fake term. I was interested in that. They sense an opportunity. So when you write about that stuff now, there is a sense of urgency to it.
