GIG: MARK KOZELEK

PREVIEW BY LACHLAN JOBBINS

With his new Sun Kil Moon album April in stores and his lyric book Nights of Passed Over republished, Mark Kozelek is returning to Australia for a solo show at Enmore’s Factory Theatre on July 25.

After 16 years and more than a dozen albums, Kozelek is feeling comfortable as an artist and a songwriter. ‘As I get older I guess there’s a level of perspective on things. I’m 41 now, and I’m very different to the way I was at 23, 24, 25.’

As singer/songwriter of 90’s American ‘slowcore’ rockers Red House Painters, he made an art form out of deeply personal songs of pain and loss. At the height of the grunge movement in 1992, the debut, Down Colorful Hill, combined acoustic folk-rock and guitar-driven epics in a way totally unlike the popular music of the time.

After the breakup of the band in the late 90s, he took small acting parts in Almost Famous, Vanilla Sky and Shopgirl, published a book of lyrics in Portugal, made contributions to soundtracks and tribute albums, and released records under his own name and as Sun Kil Moon. He established Caldo Verde Records in 2005, and has released several albums since then.

The latest, April, shows an artist in fine form. The loss and sadness are still there, but these songs are clearly the work of a man who has found his calling. With age has come maturity.

‘I’m much more relaxed about song-writing than I used to be,’ Kozelek says. ‘When I was young I was very much a notebook guy, carrying it around and recording my thoughts, but now I just tend to wait and let songs come. I don’t worry too much about it, because I know that there will always be a next one, and probably it’ll be better than the last one.

‘My sales are just where they’ve always been. After you’ve been doing this for 10, 12 years, you realise I’m not going to make a hit single. But people are still buying my records because they know my music. It’s the cult following thing. I just don’t want to reach a point where I’m putting out bad records because I’m getting complacent!’

Mark Kozelek will be playing with guitarist Phil Carney, with whom he’s been touring for a few years. For more details, visit www.markkozelek.com.

Mark Kozelek
25 July, 8pm
The Factory Theatre
105 Victoria Road, Enmore
Tickets: $30 (or $45 with a copy of new Sun Kil Moon album)

9550 3666 or www.factorytheatre.com.au