Quotes from Kurt Vile

If somebody else wanted to do a song for McDonald's, that's up to them. I wouldn't do something like that, but whatever.

Around '93, the radio started playing 'Loser' by Beck and 'Cut Your Hair' by Pavement, and then I got way into Pavement. That was kind of a gateway drug into indie rock. I got all their B-sides, and I got that 'Hey Drag City' comp, so I got into all those Drag City bands.

When I leave a recording session, there is usually a lot of paranoia or superstition on my part, like I'm afraid to hear what we've done.

I get to come home to my family. It's awesome, just constant adventure, never a dull moment. So much life.

'Street Legal' is like a cult classic. It's pretty cheesy at times, but you learn to embrace it.

Australia is a wild place.

When I was 20, I moved up to Boston with my girlfriend, who's now my wife. She went to grad school, and I met a bunch of cool friends there.

I'm not cynical, but the reality is that life is mortal. Terrible, sad things happen. Everybody loses friends and family. I'll be on tour and get really scared if my wife won't answer her phone within one minute. I'm sensitive.

The real reason I was lo-fi before was really just because that's what I could afford.

I feel like if you sit down and have an assistant engineer and a producer in a top-notch studio and everyone sets up all the mikes perfect, all of a sudden it's really hard to live that melancholy song. It's hard to really live it in the moment.

There's so many ways you can play one chord progression that the repetition isn't ever exactly the same.

Finger-picking, in general, is a hypnotic thing. I feel like I'm more A.D.D. all the time, so the music has to be hypnotic.