What does one say about Josh Tillman? He is an odd dude. That said, the three of us kind of had a love-in discussing the Father John Misty Album “Fear Fun”. I earned back some good-will after the whole Bon Jovi incident (which I’m gonna need when they see what I have planned next.)
A few Josh Tillman quotes:
On the writing of Fear Fun:
“I got into my van with enough mushrooms to choke a horse and started
driving down the coast with nowhere to go. After a few weeks, I was
writing a novel, which is where I finally found my narrative voice….
It was a while before that voice started manifesting in a musical way,
but once I settled in the Laurel Canyon spider-shack where I’m living
now, I spent months demoing all these weird-ass songs about weird-ass
experiences almost in real-time, and kind of had this musical
‘Oh-there-I-am’ moment, identical to how I felt when I was writing the
book.”
On the name “Father John Misty”:
“I had to give it a name, so I kind of wanted to confuse people with
this ridiculous red herring [and] admittedly patently ridiculous name
that’s also phonetically beautifully and looks good in print. Sort of
a name I’ve decided to give to this weird, subconscious, dream
fragmentation I have of this homosexual, shamanic drifter who bounces
around [and] stirs up weird shit in my dreams. Like making out with my
brother. So I guess the aggregate of all those things just felt right.
But really and truly, the whole thing is just kind of about the fact
that it really doesn’t matter what the fuck you call yourself, as long
as the goods are in the explicit honesty.”
On the book that he wrote:
“It’s about this couple named Charles and Agnes Brimley, and Charles
is an author writing this book about a herd of post-apocalyptic
chihuahuas,” Tillman explains, “They go to Salt Lake City, walk by a
funeral home, impersonate another couple, and order a ’69’ casket for
themselves—a casket that you can 69 in. While Charles is writing his
book, he gets into the casket and realizes that the voice of God is in
there, and God’s name is Josh Tillman, and Josh Tillman divulges the
secrets of Charles’ universe. I really like how the book is going so
far.”
So, pretty great stuff if you ask me.
