Paint the Town Red When Mark Kozelek Hits Galway
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ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT Galway Advertiser October 4 2007 TheWeek Page 59 Paint the town red when Mark Kozelek hits Galway BY KEVIN MCGUIRE actually a degrading place to be. It took me some forever. I got an offer to audition to be one of the music, the mystique, but I just don’t feel the need time to realise that. I guess it’s sort of like band dudes in Rock Star right after Almost to have it all explained to me by hanger-ons or working at coffee shops for 10 years and then Famous but I turned it down. Being Larry Fellows people who ‘were there’. Suicide is such a MARK KOZELEK was born in Masillon, Ohio, in realising ‘f*** this, I’m going to open my own was a blast, but a once in a lifetime thing. I made personal, private, delicate subject.” 1967. It’s an area where farming some nice friends down there. That has Red House Painters have been a significant and mining are the main sources been the best part. Cameron and I are still influence upon current bands like Coldplay, of employment, but the young There are always nice audiences in Ireland. I’m not just saying in touch. I have a lot respect for him.” Keane, Snow Patrol, and Plain White T’s “I’ve Kozelek felt it would be better to that - I’d tell you if they weren’t - but the crowds there are Throughout the early 1990s, Red House only heard of a few of these bands. I’ve heard the seek a different path in life and Painters, American Music Club, Codeine, guy from Snow Patrol [Gary Lightbody] is a fan,” so he moved to nearby Atlanta always respectful. I’ll travel a long way for something like that. Idaho, and Low were the leading says Kozelek. in the mid 1980s. exponents of the slowcore subgenre of Kozelek, Sun Kil Moon, and Red House “It was an adventure just leaving behind shop’. I’m happy to be out of that label world. It’s a alternative rock. The introspective lyrics and Painters have always had a captive audience in everything I knew and starting from scratch,” good place to get a start, but if you can do it minor-key melodies owed as much to Joy Division Ireland and Mark Kozelek is looking forward to Kozelek tells me. “Culturally, Atlanta is a very yourself, it’s the best way to go.” as they did to Nick Drake and Sandy Denny. So the prospect of playing here. different place from where I grew up. There was In recent years Kozelek has released new will Kozelek be going to see the Joy Division/Ian “There are always nice audiences there,” he also lot of racial weirdness there, stuff I read material under his own name and under the Curtis movie Control when it comes out? says. “I’m not just saying that - I’d tell about in history books but never knew still moniker of Sun Kil Moon, which he said in an “Probably, but I’m not in a hurry,” he you if they weren’t - but one existed. There are these little areas that are kind interview is essentially Red House Painters says. “It’s the obvious movie for thing is that the crowds of progressive, but overall, Atlanta is a big, shiny, under another name. hipsters to be excited about at the there are always respectful. corporate city. How did the name change came about? “To moment. It’s got all the hype I’ll travel a long way for “The things that I noticed there are probably confuse people. I don’t know - I just needed a that all the other movies something like that.” subtle or even invisible to people who have grown change.” Can he see himself releasing another had: director is a fan, all up there, but transparent to someone visiting. I Red House Painters’ album in the future? “Yes” the right people are Mark Kozelek plays a learned a lot - you learn a lot from travelling, he says “but it won’t be called Red House involved, this one is the solo show at Róisín Dubh living in different places, whether or not they’re Painters.” real deal, etc, etc. But a on Saturday November 3 the ideal place to be or not.” few years from now, it’ll as part of a nationwide In Atlanta Kozelek met a kindred spirit in In the movies likely be just another tour. Tickets are drummer Anthony Koutsos and together they In recent years Kozelek has also busied himself hokey movie on the shelf available from the formed Red House Painters before relocating to by appearing in a number of movies including like Sid and Nancy or the Róisín Dubh, Zhivago, San Francisco. The line-up was completed by 1992 Almost Famous, Vanilla Sky, and Shopgirl. He ones about Jim Morrison, and Redlight Records. with Gordan Mack on guitar and Jerry Vessel on describes the experience of the Cameron Crowe Edie Sedgwick, or whoever. bass. For the next four years the quartet would directed Almost Famous as “a lot of fun, no work It’s kind of amusing, release a number of acclaimed albums including at all”. watching someone trying to Down Colourful Hill. By the end of the “The hardest part was getting up at sum up something so complex 1990s problems with their record label 4am for the early calls,” Kozelek into a two hour led Kozelek to pursue a number of says. “Billy Crudup worked movie. I love solo projects. Kozelek is older and hard, Cameron worked, the the wiser after his experience. grips worked. But as for me, albums, “There was discouragement I was kind of on vacation in the from time to time but it all got me a surreal, bubble-like world. to where I am now,” he says. “I’m It was fun to do that with in a position now of owning my Cameron and the other own label, my own business, which actors for seven months. I makes me happy. Being on a label - have great memories of it major or indie - for the most part, is all, but I couldn’t do that Mark Kozelek. Pic:- Nyree Watts.