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Phil Elverum calls Mount Eerie's <i>Wind's Poem</i> "the Loudest Record I've Ever Made"

11:30 a.m. · August 10, 2009 · by Michael Hoven

The album title evokes serenity and softness, but Wind's Poem is loud and, to Phil Elverum's chagrin, is being referred to as Mount Eerie's "black metal" album. "It's not black metal. At all," Elverum told the Village Voice in a conversation that covered the new album, touring, Twin Peaks and, inevitably, Facebook. It may not be black metal, but Elverum did aim for "huge sounding things, and production that creates bombastic sounds or just colossal sounding things." Asked what the next album will be like, he says, "hopefully louder."

If Elverum is hard to place neatly in a genre, it's equally difficult to pin down his philosophy. He speaks of the "darkness" that reminds him of the obliteration of native cultures and he eschews Facebook, but also appreciates that computers and the Internet allow him to live in the woods in Washington and connect to customers worldwide. He says liking Twin Peaks is "a form of patriotism," which I just don't really get.

Musicians aren't always good at talking. Elverum is, and he finds a good interlocutor here in the Village Voice's Michael Miller, whose questions didn't come from scanning a press release. Listening to Elverum makes you want to listen to the music because it's clear there's a lively mind behind it.

[The Village Voice via LHB]