After gaining attention through work with Michael Stipe of R.E.M., Vic Chesnutt met with varying levels of success around Athens, Ga. The PBS documentary \Speed Racer"" displayed his life and work in its formative stages. Following albums displayed the themes of strange people and their odd lives. This continued through his latest work.
Silver Lake, Vic Chesnutt's new album, is distilled from various pieces of his past and reassembled in a work that seems impenetrably personal but instantly accessible. Occupied by a eunuch in ""Sultan, So Mighty"" and a free-spirited hospital patient in ""Fa-La-La,"" the album focuses on self-conscious outsiders and their tales. The Daily Cardinal recently spoke with Chesnutt.
What was it like to have a documentary made about you?
It was kind of weird and it was really fun. It was a little scary talking about myself like that. Back then, I hadn't done it that much. Looking back on it, I feel like and idiot. I felt like everything I said was pretty stupid. It was kind of embarrassing but I think the director did a really good job because people have responded to it really well.
Did you feel like you were putting more of yourself out there than you wanted to?
Oh no. I don't mind doing that. I wasn't very eloquent. I drank too much coffee and the crew would say, ""Tell me your life story. I have 30 minutes of tape. Go."" It was hard.
What were those first days with Michael Stipe like?
We had a good time, a really good time. We had a relationship before we cut a record.
Have you kept up with him?
Oh, yeah. Sure.
Why does Silver Lake deal mainly with people off to the side, with fringe characters?
These are the people I have an affinity with.
You draw on a lot of sources for Silver Lake, from a fifth century Chinese poem to a story about a eunuch. How did they get to be that wide-reaching?
I can be inspired by anything.
Why did you choose a very old Chinese poem?
I just loved it. It always stuck with me and it just reverberated over the years.
So it's been something conceived a while ago?
I learned it a long time ago, maybe in 1988. I didn't write the words until 1998. I always thought it was beautiful. It was just a very powerful metaphor.
Why did you discuss a eunuch in ""Sultan, So Mighty?""
I wanted to explore the subversive relationship. It just compelled me to write it.
There's a lot of names for your music. What sort of music do you consider yourself making?
I call it folk rock. I don't really explore that many Americana themes. You don't see Wilco writing a song about eunuchs and shit like that. I rock a little and I folk a little. I don't like being called Americana because I think that's a lazy labeling job. I guess if you're not rap or Blink-187 or something like that you're labeled Americana.
What is it about Athens, Ga., that keeps producing good musicians?
I think it's just tradition, maybe. It just feeds on itself. There was a hippie pocket in the '60s in the middle of a very conservative state. In the '70s it kind of turned into a cool art-school scene, a sort of do-it-yourself art-school rock. That's where R.E.M. came from and the B-52s. It feeds on itself. You plant a fuckin' oak tree and it grows up and makes little fuckin' oak trees.
What do you got in mind for the future?
I'm not sure. I have no idea what kind of record I want to make.
