SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Life, death, rebirth are timeless themes pondered by philosophers and poets. And now it's Father John Misty's turn.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MAHASHMASHANA")
FATHER JOHN MISTY: (Singing) Singers could describe. Mahashmashana, all is silent now and in the next universal dawn.
SIMON: "Mahashmashana" is the new album from Father John Misty, nom de plume, I think it's safe to say...
FATHER JOHN MISTY: (Laughter).
SIMON: ...For Josh Tillman who joins us now from Los Angeles. Father/Josh, thanks so much for being with us.
FATHER JOHN MISTY: Oh, my pleasure.
SIMON: And mahashmashana is a Sanskrit word, I gather.
FATHER JOHN MISTY: Yeah. It means the great cremation pit, where the universe goes to die after its cycle of birth and death. And despite the lofty title, the concerns are pretty terrestrial in my work. And I just liked the contrast of such a grand concept mapped on to what I'm usually singing about.
SIMON: I have to ask you - did anyone you work with say, you cannot begin this with a 9-1/2-minute cremation song?
FATHER JOHN MISTY: (Laughter) Maybe I need to surround myself with better people.
SIMON: (Laughter) They encouraged you - you mean?
FATHER JOHN MISTY: (Laughter) Yeah. I guess they've just been indulging me long enough now, they've created a monster.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MAHASHMASHANA")
FATHER JOHN MISTY: (Singing) Do the corpse dance with these on?
SIMON: What's behind this album, as far as you're concerned?
FATHER JOHN MISTY: As I am rounding the corner of 40 - I don't know - there's just intimations of impermanence that are creeping over the horizon. It's not like an endless vista of possibility anymore. And at least for right now, conceptually, it's just - it's a little bit of, like, an exciting proposition.
SIMON: You know, most of us say that's the part we're not looking forward to.
FATHER JOHN MISTY: Right. Well, that "Mahashmashana" song I really think of as being a love story. But this corporal form, you know, it just - the body wins every time. And love is kind of the foot soldier of that destruction - sounds like a hit.
SIMON: I mean, some of us like to think that it's love that supersedes and survives all.
FATHER JOHN MISTY: I mean, isn't love sort of, like, underwritten? Isn't the price of love, like, grief to some extent?
SIMON: Yeah, absolutely, it is. Absolutely...
FATHER JOHN MISTY: Yeah.
SIMON: ...It is. How do you approach songwriting? You know, because obviously you have some pretty profound themes, and at the same time, you have these everyday details of life that are invoked.
FATHER JOHN MISTY: I mean, a lot of the time, songs start with - just some phrase will spontaneously jump into my head that I think, we need a song that starts that way. And on this album, like on a song like "Mental Health," I was just in the car and went, (singing) in the panopticon.
And I knew that I wanted a song that started that way.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MENTAL HEALTH")
FATHER JOHN MISTY: (Singing) In the panopticon, they never turned the cameras on. The guards and the narcs went home. They do a fine enough job on their own.
That, to me, was kind of a jumping-off point about discussing what passes as sanity in this day and age, and that what is good for the liberation of our soul and what is good for producing a productive citizenry may be at cross purposes.
SIMON: You say what passes for sanity.
FATHER JOHN MISTY: (Laughter) Right.
SIMON: Meaning?
FATHER JOHN MISTY: Oh, it isn't any kind of overt criticism of the mental health industry or anything like that. But I just view it more as like, if you were looking at your child or something and you were thinking about what you wanted for them, you know, you want them to be free. And I'm not sure that what is prescribed - I just have my doubts.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MENTAL HEALTH")
FATHER JOHN MISTY: (Singing) Oh, magic child, run, baby run, baby, run, baby run.
We live, you know, largely in these mental frameworks. You know, our perspective determines a lot about what we perceive to be reality. And yeah, it is a bit of a joke to wrap up a song like that with such an unsatisfying conclusion, and then, for it to end on something that feels so much like a platitude. But I think that if you look at that phrase from a different perspective, it's actually a lot more empowering.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MENTAL HEALTH")
FATHER JOHN MISTY: (Singing) But it's all in your mind.
SIMON: Does something take over as Father John when you start writing a song?
FATHER JOHN MISTY: You know, I mean, I was always really loath to admit that the stage name had any effect on the writing, but I think it does run some interference for me. I think maybe, in some Bergmanesque psychodrama, this Father John Misty guy really has it out for Josh Tillman.
SIMON: I've got another track, "I Guess Time Makes Fools Of Us All." Why the disco sound?
(SOUNDBITE OF FATHER JOHN MISTY SONG, "I GUESS TIME MAKES FOOLS OF US ALL")
FATHER JOHN MISTY: I mean, partially because it's so uncalled for. It occurred to me that if the song had a great beat, I could get away with it.
SIMON: You've got a line in there that says, I guess time just makes fools of us all.
FATHER JOHN MISTY: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I GUESS TIME MAKES FOOLS OF US ALL")
FATHER JOHN MISTY: (Singing) Our naked bodies go on trial.
SIMON: In what way? I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'd like to nail it down.
FATHER JOHN MISTY: Yeah. Well, I mean, each verse takes a different angle on it. My favorite verse in there is where I'm saying that time even makes a fool of God. For the sake of this lyric, when he says, after a millennia of good times God said, hey, this time, let's have a dream where we raise the stakes a little. Let's make things interesting.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I GUESS TIME MAKES FOOLS OF US ALL")
FATHER JOHN MISTY: (Singing) Come on, let's make things interesting. Parachute into the Anthropocene. An amnesiac, a himbo Ken doll. I guess time does make fools of us all.
That eventually, God would get to a place where he was having exactly my experience. And this is sort of a Hindu idea - you know, the forgetful God, that we're wearing the mask of God.
SIMON: All of us are wearing the mask of God.
FATHER JOHN MISTY: Yeah. And that with enough time, God - he would be dying to know what it was like to be a fool like me.
SIMON: (Laughter) Father John Misty, otherwise known as Josh Tillman - his new album, "Mahashmashana," out now. Thank you so much for being with us.
FATHER JOHN MISTY: Oh, my pleasure. Thank you, Scott.
(SOUNDBITE OF FATHER JOHN MISTY SONG, "I GUESS TIME MAKES FOOLS OF US ALL") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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