Jan 7, 2022
On today's episode, I talk to musician John Vanderslice. Raised
in rural North Florida, Vanderslice was forced into piano lessons
as a young child, and eventually picked up the guitar and started
writing songs as a teen. After moving to San Francisco in 1989,
John made three records as a part of the experimental band MK
Ultra, including the critically-acclaimed The Dream is Over. His
obsession with recording craft persisted: while working as a waiter
at Chez Panisse in 1997, he opened Tiny Telephone Recording as an
affordable outlet for the Bay Area’s indie rock community. Between
2000 and 2014, John released 10 records on Barsuk, Dead Oceans, and
Secretly Canadian, and collaborated as a producer and musician on
records by Spoon, the Mountain Goats, Okkervil River, Death Cab for
Cutie and Tune-Yards. Taking a break from his own recording, he
became a full-time producer for a number of years, and in 2018,
John decided to leap back into his solo career with full force,
releasing a number of albums and EPs, the latest of which is a
tribute to Dave Berman entitled "John, i can’t believe civilization
is still going here in 2021! Congratulations to all of us, Love,
DCB"
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