Episode Details

I caught up with Kurt for the Art of Longevity at his home in the leafy, trail-threaded neighbourhood of Mount Airy ("there's like one coffee shop, one grocery store kind of thing"), where, if you're a local dad with a creative streak and a guilty conscience, you too might one day hand him something strange and wonderful. 

Philadelphia's Been Good To Me is Kurt’s tenth album, and it arrives draped in the city's 250th anniversary of independence, although Kurt would like you to know that the Philly references preceded any civic occasion. "I've really been calling out Philly the whole time," he says, without particular urgency. "I called myself Philly's constant hitmaker, you know, early on, so all signs were pointing to this for natural reasons."

The phrase natural reasons crops up around Kurt Vile the way it tends to around artists who have figured something out that they couldn't quite explain if you put them on the spot. His producer Rob Schnaff asked him early in the sessions: is this your Philly record? Kurt had already sung Philadelphia into three different songs by that point. 

Sometimes an album tells you what it is before you know it. 

The record was made in part, as increasingly his records are, at home. His home studio has become the full circle he didn't quite plan to draw but which now makes complete sense: back in his twenties he was recording DIY bedroom tapes; now he's in his forties doing essentially the same thing, except for a major label (Verve) and in high fidelity. The method hasn't changed but the context has - the proverbial “slacker” has become an all out star of considerable standing in the global indie rock scene. 

The Art of Longevity Season 13 is powered by Bang & Olufsen. 

The book of the podcast, Riding the Rollercoaster, is now available. 

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