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CHEEZEBALL.NET:  Thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions.  In a review of Thirteen Cities, Uncut dubbed you “laureate of the lost.”  Your thoughts on the mantle?  Do you feel a responsibility toward a certain kind of character?  Is there something particularly American about the stories you tell?

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WILLY VLAUTIN:  I never think about any of those sorts of things. I never think about the people in my songs as lost or losers or bums, and really I never even think of them as characters. I've always gotten through life spilling my guts in stories. As a kid I never had the courage to just tell it straight. I never felt I deserved to complain and I was always too shy to admit that I was having a rough time, but inside a story I was free. I could tell it as I saw it. It's the way I grew up dealing with the hard times in my life.

So really I never write about people as character studies or even think of them as working class or that my stories are stories of the under-class. I usually keep my stories pretty close to me, 'cause in a lot of ways I write so I don't cave in on myself. I change the name and the place and I usually polarize the hell out of a situation but usually it'll be a situation I'm hovering around. Like the song “Capsized.” Me and this girl split up and were both pretty beat up by the end. I felt horrible about it, for awhile I told myself I'd never have a girlfriend again. I was really wrecked about the whole thing and shit I got pretty dopey and dramatic. During that time I wrote “Capsized.” A song about a guy that forces himself to forever bump around and never settle down after he'd broken up and hurt this woman. In the song the guy makes himself never have any close ties to anyone again. Hell I was like that for a month or so, then luckily it faded and you keep trying and you move on and try not to fall into that. And that's sort of how they come out. I don't know if their American or not really. The landscape probably is. I am in love with the West and I do set the majority of my songs there, and really I set them in the West 'cause I like dreaming about it, I like when I live there in my head. But aside from that I hope the lyrics will hit on a more basic human level. That's what I hope to do, whether or not I'm successful is another matter.

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CHEEZEBALL.NET:  Most of your narrators—i.e., Frank in The Motel Life, Walter on Post to Wire, or the chap with “$87 and a Guilty Conscience” on Thirteen Cities—are, despite their flaws, fundamentally decent, trustworthy, and credible.  Have you ever been tempted to render your narrators a bit more slippery or unreliable?

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WILLY VLAUTIN:  I'm glad you think the characters are fundamentally decent. I do as well. I think most of my characters are alright, but struggling. My early RF songs have some rough people, some that are more slippery and unreliable. Songs like “Safety” or “Trembling Leaves.” Even the new ones do. Like the narrator's friend in “$87,” but in general you're right. I have a hard time spending large amounts of time with a truly evil person, and generally, at least so far, I've never met a person that was purely evil. Generally they are evil and alright, untrustworthy and funny, and criminals and generous. That's what makes bad people so rough is that they're usually just a bit worse than everyone else. I'm not talking about mass murderers or Stalin or Hitler. I'm talking about people you know that end up doing bad things. I've always been interested in those sorts of people, but if I have to spend a couple years with someone then they have to at least being hovering around being alright. If they're sitting on the fence of decency and criminal and land on the decency side more than the criminal side then they make sense to me.

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CHEEZEBALL.NET:  We see that you guys have been touring extensively in Europe the last couple of years.  Anything in particular that has led to your success abroad?  Do you get a chance to do much exploring while you’re out on tour?

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WILLY VLAUTIN:  You're right for the last few years we've toured mostly in Europe. We have good management over there and a good label, but more than anything I think the guys and myself like seeing Europe. None of us had done much traveling outside the US before RF, and to get a chance in one’s life is pretty lucky. We don't get to see a ton of stuff 'cause we play most nights but you do get to see things here and there, and most of the guys stay over there for vacations here and there. So all in all a lucky break for us.

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CHEEZEBALL.NET:  Do you have any insight into why so-called “Americana” music seems to do well overseas?

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WILLY VLAUTIN:  I'm not sure why exactly. I know the magazines promote it over there. Writers seems to like to write about it and people do come out to the shows. I think more than anything it's an older crowd sort of audience. Music lovers who are beginning to gravitate more towards songs and stories. For us it was more of a case that we got good management over there. We'd never had good management before and it really changed things for us. We have a guy that understands the kind of music we play and how to get it to people that would like it. So for us it was just luck that we met the right sort of management. RF has never made good business decisions. We've blundered quite a bit so it was a huge relief when we finally did something right.

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CHEEZEBALL.NET:  Well, we wish you continued success, both abroad and here in the States.  And thanks for your time and indulgence in granting us an interview.  Before we let you go, however, we’d like to ask one final question, if we may.  Given that cheezeball.net is dedicated to the merciless pursuit of all things cheezy, and given that your lyrics evince a certain familiarity with casinos, we wondered if you would be so kind as to serve as guest arbiter of lounge cheeze.  Using our five-cheezball scale (5 cheezeballs = unlistenable schlock, 3 cheezeballs = a difficult slog, 1 cheezeball = the odd forgivable misstep) please rate each of the following lounge acts:  Wayne Newton, Charo, the Rat Pack, Tom Jones, and El Vez.  Feel free to justify your responses.

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WILLY VLAUTIN: 

5 cheezeballs: Charo
1 cheezeball: Wayne Newton
1 cheezeball: The Rat Pack
1 cheezeball: Tom Jones
1 cheezeball: El Vez

*You're talking to a guy who loves lounge acts.

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FURTHER READING:

CHEEZEBALL.NET'S REVIEW OF THIRTEEN CITIES
RICHMONDFONTAINE.COM
WILLY VLAUTIN.COM
NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW OF THE MOTEL LIFE

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