Songwriter makes himself mysterious
Mark Kozelek is cloistered in his San Francisco apartment, nursing himself back to health after a bout with the flu. The 37-year-old singer-songwriter many know from the seminal, beautifully downcast Red House Painters or from his equally melancholy new moniker, Sun Kil Moon, is just beginning to feel up to speed again after canceling three shows.
"Ten years ago I would've had the energy to get on a plane even if I was sick," Kozelek says, laughing over the phone. "I was supposed to play these shows in the South, but it's hard traveling around in the winter. You're around a lot of people that are sick."
Kozelek, recognizable by some from his role in the movie "Almost Famous" as a member of fictional band Stillwater, hasn't released an album of original material with Red House Painters or a solo disc since 2001. But with the new Sun Kil Moon album "Ghosts of the Great Highway" currently sitting at the top of the CMJ album charts, his artistic cachet has taken on a healthier look, and he's enjoying a new round of public enthusiasm.
"Well, you know, it's kind of like role-playing," he says. "You've had the same relationship for 10 years, and then [someone] bleaches [their] hair blond, and there's some kind of new thing there. I'm somehow mysterious again. I think there's just something about a band that's been around for 10 years that hasn't really progressed that noticeably and maybe it becomes a bit dull to people."
Despite the malady, Kozelek is kind and loquacious, and his talking voice, like his singing voice, is deep and heavy. What seems to engage him most is discussing Sun Kil Moon and the new album, a gorgeous, sadly epic album Kozelek is touring to support.
Kozelek is playing solo club dates, in part because it affords him the chance to manipulate any song from his extensive catalog at whim. Also, attesting to Sun Kil Moon's unstable nature, Kozelek has yet to cobble together a definite lineup for the group.
"I don't have a band," he says, laughing again. "There never was one. `Ghosts' was a record I made and brought people in for overdubs. In the meantime, I'm a songwriter, and there's a million ways of going out and performing, and I really enjoy being out by myself."
Recorded piecemeal in 2002 and 2003 with Red House Painters drummer Anthony Koutsos along with members of San Francisco legends American Music Club, "Ghosts of the Great Highway" is as subtle and delicate as it is visceral and rocking. With a loose lyrical concept documenting the lives of Judas Priest guitarists, Ohio natives (Kozelek's birthplace), and notorious boxers cut down before their prime, Kozelek's storytelling emerges as a perfect accompaniment to the expansive, wistful songs.
On the acoustic song "Pancho Villa," fluttering Portuguese guitars swoop and descend seamlessly into a lovely string section, approximating the slow, rhythmic rise and fall of a bird's wing. "Lily and Parrots" is a sprightly, belligerent rocker with jagged guitars and terse drums. Harnessing the spirit of "Katy Moon," a lengthy Red House Painters number, "Duk Koo Kim" enthralls the listener during its 14-minute duration.
"Honestly, this record just came from nothing," says Kozelek. "I basically had gotten to a place where I knew I needed to make a record, but I didn't have songs together. I got a record contract and basically just told them [Jet Set Records] I was going to need a lot of time. It wasn't going to be three weeks. They left me alone for 15 months, and I just recorded songs as I wrote them."
