Most of ‘All Hail West Texas’ was written during orientation at a new job I had. I had basically worked this job before, I knew this stuff, so I was writing lyrics in the margins of all the Xeroxed material. – John Darnielle
I think all writing is necessarily autobiographical to a greater or lesser extent, and the less it tries to be confessional, the more likely it is that you’re somehow sneaking the things you need to say in there. – John Darnielle
As an idea occurs to me, I’ll either follow it or not, but I’m more instinctive than master-planner about stuff. – John Darnielle
Once you start talking to people, you find out there’s a lot more wrestling fans than you think there are. – John Darnielle
I hang out and sign records for an hour or two hours every night, and I like to hear as many people’s stories as I can, because if somebody wants to share their story with me, I want to honor that. – John Darnielle
Readings are more like weaving a tapestry. Possibly people are getting a cathartic release – but music is physical. Music pummels you. It’s got a beat; it’s loud. Whereas this is more cerebral. – John Darnielle
If you show up to work five days in a row, nobody’s going to pat you on the back – everyone does that. Well, do that with your writing. Just show up. Be there for it. When you get an idea, write it down somewhere and then be a steward of that idea. – John Darnielle
Something I’ve learned being in this industry for so long is that if you want to work with somebody, call them up. Very few musicians have any illusions about genre boundaries. They are useful descriptive terms, but they don’t really bind musicians. – John Darnielle
Sometimes I do ‘So Desperate’ solo in the middle of the set. I really love to sing that song. – John Darnielle
To me, everything is always new. People involved in my personal life make fun of me a lot for not being jaded. – John Darnielle
I watched ‘Fame,’ and I just love the choreography. It just gives me a place to be in another zone. – John Darnielle
I am permanently a student of people who make great songs, but besides sort of learning by absorption, I just love listening to music, hearing what’s going on, hearing new things or new old things. – John Darnielle
Most of my interests in terms of writing are dark, so it’s discordant how much I try to lock into the vibe of wherever I’m at. Inhabiting the life of the imagination is the nature of survival strategy – you build yourself little worlds to enjoy. – John Darnielle
I got a promo of ‘Nichts Muss’ in what would have been 2002 or 2003 and fell totally in love with it after listening to it on an airplane that took me to Australia via Taipei and Kuala Lumpur. – John Darnielle
Life is entirely unthinkable without any of the creative arts, and they’re all a continuum – the force in question is creativity, not its mode of expression. – John Darnielle
I get nostalgic about having lived in Ames, Iowa, even though being a vegetarian in Iowa is not fun. But I really love Durham more than any place I’ve ever been; some small towns can be really provincial and strangling, but Durham is the best city in the world. – John Darnielle