A Little Horseplay
Mark Linkous has renewed confidence in his ability to create beautiful, eerie, dreamy pop music. Chronic depression kept him from recording and documenting any of the songs that he's written over the past five years. But a collaboration with laptop music genius, Dangermouse, and close, non-judgmental friends encouraged Linkous-the creative force behind Sparklehorse-to re-enter his home recording studio called Static King, an old ski chalet nestled in a remote area of the Smoky Mountains in western North Carolina.
Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain is his fourth full-length CD and features guest appearances by Dangermouse, Tom Waits, Stephen Drodz of the Flaming Lips, longtime musical colleague Johnny Hott, Sophie Michalitsianos, Scott Minor and producer Dave Fridmann, who have helped Linkous achieve his artistic vision of bringing an electronic aspect into pop music.
"I liked coming up with pop songs and singing and playing them, then just letting them go. That would be the end of it. I kinda had lost interest in recording songs. I had no interest in preserving them and in documenting them at all. That took up about three years. I was in such a bad depressive state that I didn't want to record at all," says Linkous.
Friends sent Dangermouse's Grey Album to Linkous in hopes of inspiring him to record his own music again. He identified strongly with the laptop musician's innovations. "I love the concept of combining Beatles' samples with the Jay-Z record," he says. "I guess the whole aesthetic thing of chopping things up in hip-hop style appealed to me. I want to bring some of that into pop music." Linkous used analog and digital recording equipment and techniques to enhance his cinematic-like music. For Tuesday's performance, the quiet, soft-spoken Virginian's band includes himself on acoustic guitar and vocals, Hott on drums, melodica and pump organ, Paula Jean Brown (Giant Sand) on bass and vocals and Chris Michael on guitar and keyboards.
"I try to make my songs feel like the feeling you get from watching a TV documentary sometimes. Like a place in time," he explains. "They could sound like '70s pop music like Bread. The challenge is making them compelling and interesting pop songs."