Artist Spotlight: Father John Misty (as published on JimmyLloyd.com)

Julio Enriquez, photographer.

 My first introduction to Joshua Tillman was through the syrupy, lush music of Fleet Foxes, for which he was their drummer from 2008-2012. Sweetly dense and full of endearingly retrospective flavor a la Beatles or the polyphonic texture of America, the aesthetic of Fleet Foxes found its place among the sentimental folk rock of Iron & Wine and similarly homespun, barn demo projects. However, Fleet Foxes, who became a bonafide indie darling in the US and especially Europe, didn't suit Tillmans' temperament, and the project lacked the dystopian gravitas that Tillman eventually found in his creative voice as Father John Misty. 

My gut instinct in listening to Tillman talk, is, this is where the idea of rock star could have continued, instead of the way it is currently being shopped and consumed as its aimless, tattered carcass. He strikes me as someone who can't help but turn a critical eye toward the vapid, image and aesthetic-obsessed music industry. He is sometimes scathingly condemnatory during interviews and self-effacing in his role as songwriter/performer, and you get the sense that, rather than satire, "Father John Misty" is his job description. To sing about the end of times - and with pitch-perfect, unfaltering certainty. It's definitely not a surprise to learn that Tillman is taking chilling reference from his evangelist Christian upbringing in his dark, mystical auguring.

Ironic, though, that he sort of fits the schema as rockstar as it was originally conceived - the disillusionment of Jim Morrison or the prophetic wisdom of Bob Dylan - because much like these now larger than life figures, he couldn't be less interested in such a title. In a recent interview with NME, he has said he has "a lot of contempt for myself on stage, and a tenuous relationship with my status as a performer," essentially, that fame “smells like burning garbage”, and "everything that happens on stage is bull****".

In his first Father John Misty release, "Fear Fun" (released by Sub Pop in 2012), that struggle against aesthetic is felt in the contrast of such melancholic and nihilist poetry against instrumentation which at times harkens to the lush textures of Fleet Foxes, a swinging, a sometimes almost coquettish vibe. Almost as if, to those who weren't really listening, that ignorance would be bliss. The genius is, that he's aware of how many current listeners don't listen too hard. That tongue-in-cheek juxtaposition is hair-raisingly felt throughout "Fear Fun", from the knee-tapping " Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings" to the gospel backdrop of "Now I'm Learning To Love The War". All you need to do is listen, and you get just how tortured Tillman is by the plastic Hollywood veneer, as you chuckle about how beautifully, yet shoulder-shruggingly it's executed, almost like being in a melancholic stupor about the upcoming work week at a sunny Sunday afternoon family picnic.

On that note, his recent album release (2015) "I Love You, Honeybear" continues this frame of mind, yet with a glimmer of brightness - at least the end of the world is better with company. Tillman states in an interview with The Guardian, that the album is an attempt to "debunk the sacred objects" of life and love into their disappointingly tangled and imperfect reality. If you can meet Tillman on the other side, you can find solace together. All you have to do is dig in;

After all, he's said himself: "Someone's got to help me dig."