Photo Credit: Jo McCaughey
Kurt Vile feels he has a little unfinished business in Milwaukee when he returns to perform at Turner Hall Ballroom on Friday, Dec. 21. In 2016, he played his first and only Milwaukee show at the Pabst Theater, and, while he enjoyed the warm reception from the crowd, he admits the show wasn’t his best.
“I was excited and nervous,” recalls Vile during a recent interview. “We were playing theaters, and theaters were new to me. I didn’t love my show that day.”
When he and his band The Violators return to Milwaukee, he promises to “completely obliterate that show.”
“We’re definitely going to kill it this time,” he says.
With increasing experience on the road and in the studio since that show, it’s easy to not doubt his growing confidence and swagger as an artist. His latest album, Bottle It In, released in October, finds him continuing to push the boundaries of his sound and exploring diverse sonic textures.
The album’s 13 songs were recorded in different studios around the country during breaks in his busy touring schedule the last few years. He worked with several producers he had worked with previously. While some artists might opt to stay and record in one studio, he says that traveling is such a part of his job description that it felt natural to record in chunks when opportunity or inspiration presented itself.
“Along the way, while I was playing, I would go into the studio as opposed to touring an album cycle for a year or two straight and starting a record off from scratch at one place,” he says. “That wasn’t realistic because that’s not how my life has been lately.”
While he knew he was going to have a new album at some point, he enjoyed the low-pressure recording ventures.
“[On an album like this] there are different excursions and eventually it turns into your ultimate piece,” he says. “I knew I was recording more than enough. Just keep going. Don’t think if this is too much for a record.”
That thought process led to unexpected sonic journeys. Due to his busy schedule, which included his album with singer/songwriter Courtney Barnett, he decided to push the album’s spring release back.
“Just in pushing it back, I went back into the studio and recorded things I wouldn’t have otherwise recorded,” he says. “That’s kind of the journey and why you make music. You don’t really know what’s going to happen. Maybe it’ll eventually be a record or maybe it’ll be more.”
The album’s title track acted as a centerpiece for the album. It’s a track Vile has wanted to play live but has found “deceptively tricky to play live” thus far.
“It’s more a living, breathing organism than just a song passing by on an album,” he says. “It’s a time capsule of where I’m at, a little more important than just a song that fills part of an album or something. That one surprised me not only how it turned out but by everyone that was involved and played on it.”
The album marks a return to some of his earlier recording techniques, albeit more refined.
“I was into keyboards on my earlier recordings and synth experiments and noise and tones and psychedelia. My first albums on Matador were more mature, conventional records. B'lieve I'm Goin Down was a gateway to going back to self-production,” he says. “I moved into a new place and had keyboards all over the place and was doing experiments like the old days. I think I extended that into the studio as well.”
“Come Again” is a song he wrote on banjo. The final version features Lucius on harmonies.
“Sometimes you add more studio dates, and next thing you know, you’ve written songs of inspiration that you didn’t think you would write,” he says. “I wasn’t sure if it would make the record but it’s an ear worm. A lot of people tell me it’s catchy. It’s hypnotic. I like those kinds of banjo jams.”
Vile enjoys seeing his hard work pay off with each record. It allows him to spend more time with his family.
“We see the payoff of every record and there’s a little more time off to see the world with family,” he says. “You strike while the iron’s hot and things get a little better all the time. I play bigger festivals, get more exposure and more people come out to the shows. Each step up at a time you see the reason why you have to go away for a while and come back.”
Kurt Vile and The Violators play Turner Hall Ballroom on Friday, Dec. 21, at 8 p.m. with opener Jessica Pratt.
