1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 For best IPTV provider, please visit: WWW.IPTV.CAT For best IPTV provider, please visit: WWW.IPTV.CAT 2 00:00:04,655 --> 00:00:06,689 [static crackling] [melancholic rock music] 3 00:00:06,827 --> 00:00:08,862 - [Narrator] The space between the dials, 4 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 For best IPTV provider, please visit: WWW.IPTV.CAT For best IPTV provider, please visit: WWW.IPTV.CAT 5 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:13,517 the speaking valves, the fields of sonic elation. 6 00:00:13,655 --> 00:00:15,758 These were your homage. 7 00:00:15,896 --> 00:00:18,896 The mutant, the dross of our universe, 8 00:00:19,034 --> 00:00:22,310 you put them together, this was your offering. 9 00:00:22,448 --> 00:00:25,310 The unsung, broken but still smiling 10 00:00:25,448 --> 00:00:28,689 discarded toys of our collective pasts. 11 00:00:29,551 --> 00:00:32,620 It is a hard world for little things. 12 00:00:32,758 --> 00:00:35,172 Polish is to be despised. 13 00:00:35,310 --> 00:00:37,275 In a glaring, shiny world, 14 00:00:37,413 --> 00:00:41,000 the recesses, the unloved and the cast off. 15 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:43,931 This is your dominion. 16 00:00:44,758 --> 00:00:45,724 This is Sparklehorse. 17 00:00:46,931 --> 00:00:50,344 [static crackling] 18 00:00:50,482 --> 00:00:55,482 ["Sad and Beautiful World" by Sparklehorse] 19 00:01:05,931 --> 00:01:10,931 ["Sad and Beautiful World" by Sparklehorse continues] 20 00:01:18,758 --> 00:01:20,655 ["Sad and Beautiful World" by Sparklehorse continues] 21 00:01:20,793 --> 00:01:24,206 "Sometimes I get so sad" 22 00:01:31,172 --> 00:01:34,310 ["Sad and Beautiful World" by Sparklehorse continues] 23 00:01:34,448 --> 00:01:38,517 "Sometimes you just make me mad" 24 00:01:49,172 --> 00:01:53,241 "It's a sad and beautiful world" 25 00:01:56,793 --> 00:02:01,862 ["Sad and Beautiful World" by Sparklehorse continues] 26 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:07,068 "It's a sad and beautiful world" 27 00:02:13,103 --> 00:02:17,275 ["Sad and Beautiful World" by Sparklehorse continues] 28 00:02:17,413 --> 00:02:20,344 [ominous booming] 29 00:02:20,482 --> 00:02:23,379 [cars whooshing] [engines revving] 30 00:02:23,517 --> 00:02:25,448 - I like the tracks 31 00:02:25,586 --> 00:02:29,241 when you can almost barely hear his voice, 32 00:02:29,379 --> 00:02:32,379 but a feeling comes through, ["Maxine" by Sparklehorse] 33 00:02:32,517 --> 00:02:35,586 and the feeling is so tender, 34 00:02:35,724 --> 00:02:37,896 ["Maxine" by Sparklehorse] 35 00:02:41,068 --> 00:02:42,827 and in a way sad, 36 00:02:42,965 --> 00:02:44,896 but sad beauty. 37 00:02:45,034 --> 00:02:48,931 - You know, the reason I think that his music appeals 38 00:02:49,068 --> 00:02:53,655 to so many people is 'cause it's just so genuine. 39 00:02:53,793 --> 00:02:56,448 It's just really feels like it's coming from inside of him. 40 00:02:56,586 --> 00:02:58,482 It's completely honest. 41 00:02:59,758 --> 00:03:01,517 It's almost confessional. 42 00:03:01,655 --> 00:03:06,103 - It has that quality to it. ["Maxine" by Sparklehorse] 43 00:03:06,241 --> 00:03:10,275 Not just that it sounds sort of scratchy and old, 44 00:03:11,448 --> 00:03:15,000 but that it's sort of caught in two worlds, 45 00:03:16,241 --> 00:03:19,379 and at times it's more in the present 46 00:03:19,517 --> 00:03:22,448 and at times it's sort of stuck 47 00:03:22,586 --> 00:03:26,137 in its own sort of temporal vortex. 48 00:03:26,275 --> 00:03:29,827 - You know, he was a man that lived. 49 00:03:29,965 --> 00:03:32,379 And he had a darkness to him, 50 00:03:34,931 --> 00:03:37,310 and I don't mean that in a bad way, 51 00:03:37,448 --> 00:03:41,275 but he did struggle with his own demons. 52 00:03:41,413 --> 00:03:43,965 And I can hear that in his music. 53 00:03:44,103 --> 00:03:46,793 I can hear that in the awkward, creaky tones 54 00:03:46,931 --> 00:03:48,275 and the rusty... 55 00:03:49,379 --> 00:03:51,655 There's like a rusty feel to his music. 56 00:03:51,793 --> 00:03:53,551 - [Narrator] Mark Linkous, 57 00:03:53,689 --> 00:03:56,758 singer, songwriter, composer and founder 58 00:03:56,896 --> 00:04:00,137 of the American alternative rock band, Sparklehorse, 59 00:04:00,275 --> 00:04:03,413 was hugely influential and lauded by his peers. 60 00:04:03,551 --> 00:04:05,965 ["Maxine" by Sparklehorse continues] 61 00:04:06,103 --> 00:04:08,482 Mark Linkous had a dramatic life. 62 00:04:08,620 --> 00:04:10,724 [static crackling] 63 00:04:10,862 --> 00:04:12,103 - [Mark] My parents split up 64 00:04:12,241 --> 00:04:14,655 and they sent me to my grandparents to live with, 65 00:04:14,793 --> 00:04:18,517 'cause me and my brother lived with my mom, 66 00:04:18,655 --> 00:04:21,000 and she worked in a factory. 67 00:04:22,551 --> 00:04:23,344 - We had a good time. 68 00:04:23,482 --> 00:04:25,551 I mean, we rode a lot of dirt bikes, 69 00:04:25,689 --> 00:04:27,724 and that's when Mark first started to get into music. 70 00:04:27,862 --> 00:04:30,379 I remember the first guitar he ever got. 71 00:04:30,517 --> 00:04:32,655 My mom bought it for him. 72 00:04:33,931 --> 00:04:35,689 You know, he had a really good, 73 00:04:35,827 --> 00:04:39,241 more stable kind of deal at my grandparents' house. 74 00:04:39,379 --> 00:04:41,724 And those were my dad's parents, 75 00:04:41,862 --> 00:04:43,896 and they were wonderful with him. 76 00:04:44,034 --> 00:04:46,586 They were extremely close. 77 00:04:46,724 --> 00:04:48,551 - [Mark] And my grandfather was... 78 00:04:48,689 --> 00:04:50,310 He was a coal miner. 79 00:04:53,310 --> 00:04:55,620 A couple people told me about him, 80 00:04:55,758 --> 00:04:58,689 when they still used mules with carts 81 00:05:01,068 --> 00:05:04,137 to haul the coal out of mines, 82 00:05:04,275 --> 00:05:07,793 he got this really stubborn mule that wouldn't move, 83 00:05:07,931 --> 00:05:09,482 and he punched it in the middle of the eyes 84 00:05:09,620 --> 00:05:12,034 and it fell over dead. 85 00:05:12,172 --> 00:05:16,310 He was very strict, but he was very generous as well. 86 00:05:16,448 --> 00:05:19,275 You know, I told him about this, that I needed a new guitar, 87 00:05:19,413 --> 00:05:22,517 and the next day he had three $100 bills 88 00:05:22,655 --> 00:05:24,482 on the kitchen table for me. 89 00:05:24,620 --> 00:05:27,448 "Or you must toil with the pick on the drill" 90 00:05:27,586 --> 00:05:30,413 "And sweat for your bread in that hole in Oak Hill" 91 00:05:30,551 --> 00:05:34,344 "That goes down, down, down" 92 00:05:34,482 --> 00:05:37,586 "When I was a boy said my daddy to me" 93 00:05:37,724 --> 00:05:40,793 "Stay out of the mines, take my warnings said he" 94 00:05:40,931 --> 00:05:42,275 "Or would just you be choked" 95 00:05:42,413 --> 00:05:44,172 "And apart or you'll be broken down" 96 00:05:44,310 --> 00:05:45,551 - [Mark] They would come home from the deep mines 97 00:05:45,689 --> 00:05:46,620 and just be... 98 00:05:46,758 --> 00:05:50,344 Everything was black from the coal soot. 99 00:05:50,482 --> 00:05:52,586 I knew I didn't wanna do that. 100 00:05:52,724 --> 00:05:54,137 I thought that it would be a great way 101 00:05:54,275 --> 00:05:56,862 to stay out of the mines if I tried music. 102 00:05:57,000 --> 00:05:58,655 [projector clicking] 103 00:05:58,793 --> 00:06:01,724 - [Narrator] Horse stories are philosophers stones of sorts 104 00:06:01,862 --> 00:06:04,310 for wayward Southern souls perhaps, 105 00:06:04,448 --> 00:06:07,482 circle all around the little things that need protecting. 106 00:06:07,620 --> 00:06:10,931 The grandfather that cold cocked a mule in the mines. 107 00:06:11,068 --> 00:06:14,379 The animal would not move, knocked it unconscious. 108 00:06:14,517 --> 00:06:16,517 The same grandfather left you the cash 109 00:06:16,655 --> 00:06:19,000 for a new guitar on a table. 110 00:06:20,310 --> 00:06:24,482 Virginia stately, Virginia cut over rural America, 111 00:06:25,482 --> 00:06:27,275 full of drugs and religion. 112 00:06:27,413 --> 00:06:29,379 - Well, I really got into punk. 113 00:06:29,517 --> 00:06:33,344 You know, I had all the original punk records, 114 00:06:35,827 --> 00:06:40,103 all the Pistols records, the Stranglers, the Damned, 115 00:06:41,275 --> 00:06:42,344 all the Fall. 116 00:06:42,482 --> 00:06:43,620 "Hold on" 117 00:06:43,758 --> 00:06:47,862 "Turn it on, it's all on me" 118 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:50,551 "I wanna hold on" 119 00:06:50,689 --> 00:06:52,034 - Tonight's Grammy Awards, 120 00:06:52,172 --> 00:06:53,827 the air will be full of household names, 121 00:06:53,965 --> 00:06:55,620 stars and superstars, 122 00:06:55,758 --> 00:06:58,103 so why not we pay some attention to representatives 123 00:06:58,241 --> 00:07:01,034 of those many, many people in the same business 124 00:07:01,172 --> 00:07:03,793 as the Grammy nominees, but not in the same spotlight. 125 00:07:03,931 --> 00:07:06,896 Call it a look at some unsung singers. 126 00:07:07,034 --> 00:07:08,724 A new group called Dancing Hoods 127 00:07:08,862 --> 00:07:10,965 will be playing Kamikaze this Friday. 128 00:07:11,103 --> 00:07:14,379 I say a new group called Dancing Hoods. 129 00:07:14,517 --> 00:07:16,000 - Dancing Hoods, yeah. [patrons chattering] 130 00:07:16,137 --> 00:07:17,275 - Yeah. 131 00:07:17,413 --> 00:07:18,724 Now, you can find the work of Dancing Hoods 132 00:07:18,862 --> 00:07:20,344 at the Upper West Side's Tower Records. 133 00:07:20,482 --> 00:07:22,310 This is their LP, their first, 134 00:07:22,448 --> 00:07:24,275 and hey, there's only one left. 135 00:07:24,413 --> 00:07:26,793 However, I know where you will not find them tonight. 136 00:07:26,931 --> 00:07:28,827 You will not find them 3,000 miles that way 137 00:07:28,965 --> 00:07:30,724 amidst the glamour of the Grammy Awards. 138 00:07:30,862 --> 00:07:32,517 But I know you can find them, 139 00:07:32,655 --> 00:07:36,827 in less splendid surroundings about 25 miles that way. 140 00:07:36,965 --> 00:07:40,689 ["Baby's Got Rockets" by Dancing Hoods] 141 00:07:40,827 --> 00:07:43,137 All four of the Hoods live together in this house 142 00:07:43,275 --> 00:07:44,310 in Merrick, Long Island. 143 00:07:44,448 --> 00:07:46,206 Live together, create together, 144 00:07:46,344 --> 00:07:48,896 and in a tiny basement chamber 145 00:07:50,931 --> 00:07:51,655 at most any hour of the day or night, play together. 146 00:07:51,793 --> 00:07:55,586 "You're living in a cul-de-sac" 147 00:07:55,724 --> 00:07:59,241 "Just another bad day by the way" 148 00:07:59,379 --> 00:08:01,689 - [Dennis] So you live in squalor, 149 00:08:01,827 --> 00:08:04,103 you never have any money. [laughs] 150 00:08:04,241 --> 00:08:05,965 What are you doing this for? 151 00:08:06,103 --> 00:08:07,448 What indeed? 152 00:08:07,586 --> 00:08:09,517 Well, as you might expect from young men living together, 153 00:08:09,655 --> 00:08:10,793 sharing the same ideal 154 00:08:10,931 --> 00:08:12,793 and not yet overwhelmed by success, 155 00:08:12,931 --> 00:08:15,586 they're doing it because it is their dream. 156 00:08:15,724 --> 00:08:16,724 - There's nothing like playing 157 00:08:16,862 --> 00:08:18,344 out in front of a bunch of people, 158 00:08:18,482 --> 00:08:20,172 nothing like walking out onstage 159 00:08:20,310 --> 00:08:21,413 and hearing people yell for you. 160 00:08:21,551 --> 00:08:23,137 You know they're really there for you. 161 00:08:23,275 --> 00:08:25,586 [upbeat rock music] 162 00:08:25,724 --> 00:08:27,103 "It was for me" 163 00:08:27,241 --> 00:08:29,103 - [Dennis] Of course, as you might also expect, 164 00:08:29,241 --> 00:08:31,586 they're all also doing it because it's fun. 165 00:08:31,724 --> 00:08:34,862 - Actually, I'm looking to turn the heat on next winter. 166 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:38,172 [upbeat rock music] 167 00:08:42,482 --> 00:08:43,655 - Suppose they made it, 168 00:08:43,793 --> 00:08:45,172 I wonder how they'd sound five years from now. 169 00:08:45,310 --> 00:08:46,758 - I know they're very idealistic at the moment, 170 00:08:46,896 --> 00:08:48,172 God bless them. 171 00:08:52,344 --> 00:08:53,896 - [Narrator] Already musically accomplished 172 00:08:54,034 --> 00:08:55,655 on so many levels, 173 00:08:55,793 --> 00:08:59,103 guitar, songwriting, bandsmanship, 174 00:08:59,241 --> 00:09:01,965 you came home to Virginia from LA, 175 00:09:02,103 --> 00:09:03,862 following the end of the Dancing Hoods, 176 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:05,379 back from all the poodle rock 177 00:09:05,517 --> 00:09:08,137 and the demons that climbed your back there. 178 00:09:08,275 --> 00:09:10,206 With an eight-track board from David Lowery 179 00:09:10,344 --> 00:09:11,413 and mostly self-taught, 180 00:09:11,551 --> 00:09:14,310 you made an artifact full of happy accidents. 181 00:09:14,448 --> 00:09:18,103 You made sonic imperfection a thing of glory. 182 00:09:18,241 --> 00:09:22,551 You made "Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot." 183 00:09:22,689 --> 00:09:27,620 ["Someday I Will Treat You Good" by Sparklehorse] 184 00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:38,448 ["Rainmaker" by Sparklehorse] 185 00:09:38,586 --> 00:09:42,241 "Rainmaker's coming" 186 00:09:42,379 --> 00:09:45,482 "Rainmaker's coming" 187 00:09:46,310 --> 00:09:47,068 [tape rewinding] 188 00:09:47,206 --> 00:09:47,896 ["Weird Sisters" by Sparklehorse] 189 00:09:48,034 --> 00:09:49,931 "Parasites will love you" 190 00:09:50,068 --> 00:09:53,517 "When you're dead" 191 00:09:53,655 --> 00:09:56,517 "La la la, la la" 192 00:09:57,965 --> 00:09:58,586 ["Hammering the Cramps" by Sparklehorse] 193 00:09:58,724 --> 00:10:02,172 "Hey, little dog" 194 00:10:02,310 --> 00:10:05,517 "Can you fly" 195 00:10:05,655 --> 00:10:08,827 [tape rewinding] - Vivadixieswordfish... 196 00:10:08,965 --> 00:10:11,448 Oh, I can't even remember how to say it. 197 00:10:11,586 --> 00:10:12,655 - Vivadixie... 198 00:10:12,793 --> 00:10:13,965 What is it? 199 00:10:14,103 --> 00:10:16,586 - "Submarineplot." - There you go. that one, 200 00:10:16,724 --> 00:10:17,758 - When I saw the album title, 201 00:10:17,896 --> 00:10:19,724 "Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot" 202 00:10:19,862 --> 00:10:20,793 as one word, I thought, 203 00:10:20,931 --> 00:10:22,379 "This sounds quite interesting." [laughs] 204 00:10:22,517 --> 00:10:24,379 - So first time I heard it, I was like, 205 00:10:24,517 --> 00:10:27,034 "Oh, my God, who is this, and what is it 206 00:10:27,172 --> 00:10:29,310 and where is it coming from?" 207 00:10:29,448 --> 00:10:32,172 [birds chirping] 208 00:10:37,034 --> 00:10:40,241 - Okay, so this is the original location 209 00:10:40,379 --> 00:10:45,379 of Sound of Music where the first Sparklehorse record 210 00:10:45,551 --> 00:10:49,275 was recorded with John Morand and David Lowery. 211 00:10:49,413 --> 00:10:51,379 - My role in that first "Vivadixie" record 212 00:10:51,517 --> 00:10:55,000 was to be Mark's friend and to be his supporter, 213 00:10:55,137 --> 00:10:58,068 because I think he'd been kicking around, 214 00:10:58,206 --> 00:10:59,896 like trying to be in bands. 215 00:11:00,034 --> 00:11:02,206 He'd been to New York, he'd been to Los Angeles, 216 00:11:02,344 --> 00:11:04,241 he'd lived in Charlottesville, which is, you know, 217 00:11:04,379 --> 00:11:06,172 a college town, has a little music scene, 218 00:11:06,310 --> 00:11:08,551 and Richmond has a music scene... 219 00:11:08,689 --> 00:11:10,413 There were people who got him, 220 00:11:10,551 --> 00:11:14,517 but I just felt like I just needed to be his friend 221 00:11:14,655 --> 00:11:16,965 and sit there with him 222 00:11:17,103 --> 00:11:20,586 while we sort of discovered what these songs should be. 223 00:11:20,724 --> 00:11:24,172 ["Spirit Ditch" by Sparklehorse] 224 00:11:24,310 --> 00:11:29,310 "I want my records back" 225 00:11:30,965 --> 00:11:35,862 "And that motorcycle gas tank" 226 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:39,758 "that I spray painted black" 227 00:11:44,655 --> 00:11:46,827 - Mark and his brother played in this band before that, 228 00:11:46,965 --> 00:11:47,655 what were they called? 229 00:11:47,793 --> 00:11:49,586 Salt Chunk Mary. 230 00:11:49,724 --> 00:11:51,413 And they were more... 231 00:11:52,344 --> 00:11:55,103 They were more thrashy and kind of louder 232 00:11:55,241 --> 00:11:56,689 than what Sparkle... 233 00:11:56,827 --> 00:11:58,931 Maybe like the more extreme rock stuff 234 00:11:59,068 --> 00:12:00,482 that Sparklehorse has. 235 00:12:00,620 --> 00:12:04,793 That's what Salt Chunk Mary sounded like, right? 236 00:12:04,931 --> 00:12:07,206 - He needed to get back to the reason why he got into music 237 00:12:07,344 --> 00:12:09,517 in the first place, you know? 238 00:12:09,655 --> 00:12:14,620 You know, what inspired him in the very beginning, you know? 239 00:12:15,172 --> 00:12:16,931 And that's what did it, I think, 240 00:12:17,068 --> 00:12:21,344 coming back here and just being with, you know, friends, 241 00:12:21,482 --> 00:12:25,655 you know, being with people that he could really relate to 242 00:12:25,793 --> 00:12:28,620 and really be himself. [birds chirping] 243 00:12:28,758 --> 00:12:31,551 - [Mark] After living in New York and Los Angeles, 244 00:12:31,689 --> 00:12:32,689 I just had to get... 245 00:12:32,827 --> 00:12:34,862 You know, be away, be isolated, 246 00:12:35,000 --> 00:12:37,655 you know, have some open spaces. 247 00:12:39,068 --> 00:12:43,620 I've come to learn that the holes and the silent parts 248 00:12:43,758 --> 00:12:46,689 in music are very important. 249 00:12:46,827 --> 00:12:48,034 It's really important for me to be able 250 00:12:48,172 --> 00:12:49,827 to just make as much noise as I want 251 00:12:49,965 --> 00:12:52,793 and not disturb other people, 252 00:12:52,931 --> 00:12:54,689 especially having a recording studio. 253 00:12:54,827 --> 00:12:58,896 I don't even like for my wife to hear me singing. 254 00:13:00,034 --> 00:13:01,517 - You know, we recorded this music 255 00:13:01,655 --> 00:13:03,034 and then his wife had to go to bed 256 00:13:03,172 --> 00:13:05,034 and it's kind of this small house out in the country, 257 00:13:05,172 --> 00:13:06,965 so he was sort of sketching out 258 00:13:07,103 --> 00:13:08,551 what he wanted to sing and the words, 259 00:13:08,689 --> 00:13:12,241 and he's singing really quietly into this microphone. 260 00:13:12,379 --> 00:13:14,310 So like, over the next few months, 261 00:13:14,448 --> 00:13:17,413 like, whenever Mark could, you know, 262 00:13:18,689 --> 00:13:20,000 record and stuff like that, 263 00:13:20,137 --> 00:13:23,379 he started recording at night and singing really soft. 264 00:13:23,517 --> 00:13:25,310 And it was just sort of this revelation. 265 00:13:25,448 --> 00:13:28,724 Like, he had these songs inside of him, 266 00:13:29,862 --> 00:13:34,413 and he'd been sort of singing them hard and loud, 267 00:13:34,551 --> 00:13:35,827 maybe not like traditional rock, 268 00:13:35,965 --> 00:13:38,827 but just harder and louder before. 269 00:13:39,724 --> 00:13:43,068 But when he slowly unwrapped these songs 270 00:13:44,000 --> 00:13:48,827 in a really quiet way and just sort of gently let them out, 271 00:13:48,965 --> 00:13:51,862 they became something entirely different 272 00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:55,379 and they became their true selves, right? 273 00:13:55,517 --> 00:13:57,586 And became more who he is 274 00:13:58,413 --> 00:14:00,896 and how he spoke and who he was. 275 00:14:01,034 --> 00:14:05,448 ["Homecoming Queen" by Sparklehorse] 276 00:14:15,068 --> 00:14:20,034 ["Homecoming Queen" by Sparklehorse continues] 277 00:14:30,275 --> 00:14:35,310 ["Homecoming Queen" by Sparklehorse continues] 278 00:14:37,896 --> 00:14:41,689 "A horse, a horse" 279 00:14:41,827 --> 00:14:46,448 "My kingdom for a horse" 280 00:14:46,586 --> 00:14:50,379 "Rattling on magnetic fields" 281 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:54,620 ["Homecoming Queen" by Sparklehorse continues] 282 00:14:54,758 --> 00:14:58,448 "Yes, I did use up" 283 00:14:58,586 --> 00:15:02,482 "The last box of sparklers" 284 00:15:02,620 --> 00:15:06,758 "Before they went bad" 285 00:15:06,896 --> 00:15:11,931 "Got wet or decayed" 286 00:15:13,965 --> 00:15:19,000 "Homecoming queen" 287 00:15:22,931 --> 00:15:25,931 "Homecoming queen" 288 00:15:31,137 --> 00:15:32,620 - I thought it was completely amazing. 289 00:15:32,758 --> 00:15:34,620 It just came right out of the blue for me, 290 00:15:34,758 --> 00:15:38,344 and I totally loved it and played it a lot. 291 00:15:39,862 --> 00:15:41,379 Yeah, I thought it was remarkable. 292 00:15:41,517 --> 00:15:42,379 I just... 293 00:15:43,517 --> 00:15:47,068 It had so many elements from so many worlds that I knew. 294 00:15:47,206 --> 00:15:48,793 - I think my brother sort of described it 295 00:15:48,931 --> 00:15:52,068 as like gothic country music in a way. 296 00:15:52,206 --> 00:15:55,310 And it's very haunting and beautiful. 297 00:15:56,413 --> 00:16:00,172 There are a lot of strange biblical references as well. 298 00:16:00,310 --> 00:16:03,482 - It's very dreamlike and ethereal in places, 299 00:16:03,620 --> 00:16:06,275 and yet there was random moments 300 00:16:08,896 --> 00:16:10,655 of distorted ugliness 301 00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:13,965 that I appreciate. 302 00:16:14,103 --> 00:16:19,034 I liked the kinda way it was sort of slightly schizo. 303 00:16:19,172 --> 00:16:23,896 - [Mark] The way country people, kinda being so isolated, 304 00:16:25,965 --> 00:16:28,068 they have to kinda improvise 305 00:16:28,206 --> 00:16:30,896 with things they have access to. 306 00:16:31,965 --> 00:16:35,068 I always thought that was a really admirable trait 307 00:16:35,206 --> 00:16:37,551 of country people, you know? 308 00:16:39,206 --> 00:16:41,862 I think that's why a lot of music is... 309 00:16:42,000 --> 00:16:44,344 It seems really boring and sterile to me now, 310 00:16:44,482 --> 00:16:45,689 'cause a lot of it 311 00:16:45,827 --> 00:16:49,482 just seems like most of it's either being made in LA 312 00:16:49,620 --> 00:16:51,827 or New York, and you have, you know, 313 00:16:51,965 --> 00:16:55,241 a guy who's the engineer, that's his job, 314 00:16:55,379 --> 00:16:59,551 or a producer, you know, his job is a lot of times 315 00:16:59,689 --> 00:17:02,931 to stand over the musicians and say... 316 00:17:04,275 --> 00:17:07,103 Like standing over a painting and saying, like, you know, 317 00:17:07,241 --> 00:17:08,965 "Use green now." 318 00:17:09,103 --> 00:17:10,275 - You know, I think the studio 319 00:17:10,413 --> 00:17:14,793 was really like more where he was comfortable, 320 00:17:14,931 --> 00:17:15,965 rather than playing... 321 00:17:16,103 --> 00:17:18,172 Playing live wasn't as appealing, 322 00:17:18,310 --> 00:17:20,275 but it was something that he had to do. 323 00:17:20,413 --> 00:17:22,758 With him, it was just like getting all these elements, 324 00:17:22,896 --> 00:17:24,655 like recording the band was one thing 325 00:17:24,793 --> 00:17:27,241 and getting interesting sounds doing that. 326 00:17:27,379 --> 00:17:29,068 And then it was just adding things, 327 00:17:29,206 --> 00:17:31,034 just finding interesting things 328 00:17:31,172 --> 00:17:34,827 maybe you wouldn't associate with pop music, 329 00:17:36,965 --> 00:17:39,862 but they're interesting sounds 330 00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:42,137 and they were, to him, I think equal 331 00:17:42,275 --> 00:17:46,000 and just the biggest part of the picture. 332 00:17:46,137 --> 00:17:49,241 - His genius was that he was so good 333 00:17:49,379 --> 00:17:51,689 at taking a mosaic approach 334 00:17:54,103 --> 00:17:56,620 and allowing himself to just have a chorus 335 00:17:56,758 --> 00:18:00,206 for a year [laughs] and not do anything with it. 336 00:18:00,344 --> 00:18:05,206 And he never strained himself [laughs] in that respect. 337 00:18:05,344 --> 00:18:06,448 - He used to have this shirt 338 00:18:06,586 --> 00:18:07,620 and it was the slogan 339 00:18:07,758 --> 00:18:09,482 for some sort of... 340 00:18:09,620 --> 00:18:13,862 Like a plumbing company or a construction company 341 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:16,724 or a chimney sweeping company or something like that. 342 00:18:16,862 --> 00:18:20,310 And the slogan was, "We may not be good, 343 00:18:20,448 --> 00:18:22,413 but we sure are slow." 344 00:18:22,551 --> 00:18:23,655 Right? 345 00:18:23,793 --> 00:18:25,379 In a lot of ways, I always think of Mark, 346 00:18:25,517 --> 00:18:29,551 and I think about that slogan summing up, in a way, 347 00:18:29,689 --> 00:18:32,620 his musical philosophy, right? 348 00:18:32,758 --> 00:18:35,482 His attitudes towards art and everything. 349 00:18:35,620 --> 00:18:37,896 He always loved all of these broken things, 350 00:18:38,034 --> 00:18:40,137 these kind of lo-fi things, 351 00:18:40,275 --> 00:18:43,310 these songs that would be, you know, 352 00:18:44,172 --> 00:18:48,482 like a Daniel Johnston song, or a Skip Spence song 353 00:18:48,620 --> 00:18:50,068 or a Departmentstore Santas songs... 354 00:18:50,206 --> 00:18:53,689 These songs that were kind of like lo-fi, 355 00:18:53,827 --> 00:18:55,517 a little bit broken. 356 00:18:56,413 --> 00:18:59,482 Where everybody else was playing fast in those days, 357 00:18:59,620 --> 00:19:04,068 he and I started liking all this slow music, you know? 358 00:19:04,206 --> 00:19:08,206 So yeah, we may not be good, but we sure are slow. 359 00:19:08,344 --> 00:19:10,206 - [Mark] I was recording some of my first record, 360 00:19:10,344 --> 00:19:11,862 I was still a chimney sweep. 361 00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:14,172 I had this wrong idea that being a chimney sweep 362 00:19:14,310 --> 00:19:17,896 was a very respected, regal occupation to have. 363 00:19:18,034 --> 00:19:21,206 And then I learned the hard way that it wasn't. 364 00:19:21,344 --> 00:19:25,275 If I wasn't able to articulate my feelings 365 00:19:25,413 --> 00:19:28,931 into some type of art, I think I would explode. 366 00:19:29,068 --> 00:19:30,689 And yeah, that's the only thing I know how to do, really. 367 00:19:30,827 --> 00:19:34,586 ["Saturday" by Sparklehorse] 368 00:19:34,724 --> 00:19:39,724 "You are a sea of air" 369 00:19:42,379 --> 00:19:46,206 "I play great keyboards" 370 00:19:46,344 --> 00:19:48,517 "Of horses' teeth" 371 00:19:48,655 --> 00:19:53,689 "On Saturday" 372 00:19:56,586 --> 00:19:59,068 "On Saturday" 373 00:20:02,172 --> 00:20:06,793 ["Saturday" by Sparklehorse continues] 374 00:20:10,413 --> 00:20:11,793 "I'd like to tell you" - There were three albums 375 00:20:11,931 --> 00:20:14,448 that were the main inspiration 376 00:20:15,689 --> 00:20:17,344 for me starting as a solo artist, 377 00:20:17,482 --> 00:20:19,413 and one was "Closing Time" by Tom Waits 378 00:20:19,551 --> 00:20:21,344 and the other was... 379 00:20:21,482 --> 00:20:23,137 I think it was "Bryter Layter" by Nick Drake, 380 00:20:23,275 --> 00:20:26,172 and the other one was Sparklehorse's first record, 381 00:20:26,310 --> 00:20:27,827 and I just played it to death. 382 00:20:27,965 --> 00:20:29,310 - I think that first album, 383 00:20:29,448 --> 00:20:31,206 it made quite a big wave, really. 384 00:20:31,344 --> 00:20:33,758 I was sitting next to a young lady at work 385 00:20:33,896 --> 00:20:35,655 who's, you know, just turning up 30, 386 00:20:35,793 --> 00:20:39,068 so I've got more than 15 years on her, 387 00:20:40,379 --> 00:20:44,000 and she was given a couple of tracks from "Vivadixie" 388 00:20:44,137 --> 00:20:45,931 on a lover's tape from her teens! 389 00:20:46,068 --> 00:20:48,275 So you know, it reached far and wide. 390 00:20:48,413 --> 00:20:52,896 ["Good Morning Spider" by Sparklehorse] 391 00:20:53,896 --> 00:20:57,137 - [Narrator] Then such an unhappy accident would occur. 392 00:20:57,275 --> 00:21:00,344 You were found on the floor of a London hotel room, 393 00:21:00,482 --> 00:21:02,241 following the critical success 394 00:21:02,379 --> 00:21:04,482 you'd received for "Vivadixie," 395 00:21:04,620 --> 00:21:06,206 in terrible need of sleep. 396 00:21:06,344 --> 00:21:07,586 Too much all at once, 397 00:21:07,724 --> 00:21:11,586 you, a gentle introvert playing arenas with Radiohead 398 00:21:11,724 --> 00:21:16,275 and then the pills, the drugs, trying to sleep. 399 00:21:16,413 --> 00:21:19,413 You live to see what Frank Stanford wrote about dying 400 00:21:19,551 --> 00:21:23,241 in the poem you shared with us, "The Light the Dead See." 401 00:21:23,379 --> 00:21:27,000 He said, "The light grows, a white flower. 402 00:21:28,310 --> 00:21:31,689 It becomes very intense, like music. 403 00:21:31,827 --> 00:21:33,689 ["Good Morning Spider" by Sparklehorse continues] 404 00:21:33,827 --> 00:21:36,758 [static crackling] 405 00:21:45,448 --> 00:21:49,000 [ominous electronic music] 406 00:21:52,241 --> 00:21:54,000 - [Mark] Well, someone gave me a big bottle 407 00:21:54,137 --> 00:21:55,655 of Mexican Valium, 408 00:21:58,206 --> 00:22:01,931 and I guess I just had been taking 'em real heavy 409 00:22:02,068 --> 00:22:03,241 for a while. 410 00:22:03,379 --> 00:22:06,793 That's one of the last things I remember. 411 00:22:08,620 --> 00:22:10,758 I guess I just passed out, 412 00:22:10,896 --> 00:22:13,034 and both my legs up underneath of me, 413 00:22:13,172 --> 00:22:15,931 so they were kinda pinned up under me. 414 00:22:16,068 --> 00:22:17,896 I guess the maid found me that morning 415 00:22:18,034 --> 00:22:21,482 and the paramedics came [static crackling] 416 00:22:21,620 --> 00:22:24,000 and they pulled my legs out. 417 00:22:25,275 --> 00:22:28,344 It releases from circulation being cut off, 418 00:22:28,482 --> 00:22:31,344 all this potassium builds up and that... 419 00:22:31,482 --> 00:22:34,137 And the limbs that are cut off, 420 00:22:34,275 --> 00:22:35,862 it goes through your heart and gives you a heart attack. 421 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:37,862 [ominous electronic music continues] 422 00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:41,482 But I guess it did kill me for a few minutes or something. 423 00:22:41,620 --> 00:22:43,103 [monitor beeping] 424 00:22:43,241 --> 00:22:47,137 ["Saint Mary" by Sparklehorse] 425 00:22:58,034 --> 00:23:02,034 ["Saint Mary" by Sparklehorse continues] 426 00:23:02,172 --> 00:23:07,172 "Blanket me" 427 00:23:08,655 --> 00:23:11,655 "Sweet nurse" 428 00:23:11,793 --> 00:23:15,344 "And keep me from burning" 429 00:23:19,137 --> 00:23:24,103 - And this song I wrote about the sisters in America, 430 00:23:24,241 --> 00:23:27,586 the sisters are nurses to the Americans, 431 00:23:30,827 --> 00:23:35,137 specifically these two Irish girls, Fiona and Aimer. 432 00:23:37,620 --> 00:23:40,103 They just took really good care of me in the hospital. 433 00:23:40,241 --> 00:23:41,620 And to the extent 434 00:23:41,758 --> 00:23:46,689 where they would come in on their days off to check on me. 435 00:23:47,241 --> 00:23:50,827 And I don't know, I guess I've just always, 436 00:23:50,965 --> 00:23:53,137 I felt like I needed to... 437 00:23:55,586 --> 00:23:58,310 I mean, they saved my life there. 438 00:23:59,482 --> 00:24:00,793 It wasn't just the sisters, 439 00:24:00,931 --> 00:24:04,793 but the doctors really were very compassionate 440 00:24:06,103 --> 00:24:07,000 and that... 441 00:24:10,482 --> 00:24:11,206 I don't know, 442 00:24:11,344 --> 00:24:12,551 I just feel like I owe 'em, 443 00:24:12,689 --> 00:24:15,689 'cause they literally saved my life. 444 00:24:16,655 --> 00:24:19,931 - I just went and hung out with him for a few days. 445 00:24:20,068 --> 00:24:22,586 I mean, it was kind of crazy. 446 00:24:22,724 --> 00:24:24,517 I mean, the first thing he did... 447 00:24:24,655 --> 00:24:26,931 Well, the first moment that we had alone, 448 00:24:27,068 --> 00:24:29,137 he said, "You have to kill me. 449 00:24:29,275 --> 00:24:33,068 I can't live with this pain, you know? 450 00:24:33,206 --> 00:24:35,068 Just unplug something." 451 00:24:35,206 --> 00:24:36,379 You know, it's like, 452 00:24:36,517 --> 00:24:40,000 "I'm [chuckles] not going to do that, Mark." 453 00:24:40,137 --> 00:24:41,310 It's pretty... 454 00:24:42,241 --> 00:24:44,103 Pretty intense. 455 00:24:44,241 --> 00:24:45,793 - But he had a tough time after that. 456 00:24:45,931 --> 00:24:48,241 I mean, the recovery was extremely slow. 457 00:24:48,379 --> 00:24:50,137 It was very, very painful. 458 00:24:50,275 --> 00:24:53,724 He wanted to get back to what he does, 459 00:24:53,862 --> 00:24:56,482 and he did as soon as he could. 460 00:24:57,517 --> 00:25:00,724 I mean, that's when he was working on "Good Morning Spider," 461 00:25:00,862 --> 00:25:03,413 and he did a lot of that out of a wheelchair. 462 00:25:03,551 --> 00:25:06,172 All of it, really, even toward... 463 00:25:06,310 --> 00:25:08,068 From a wheelchair. [melancholic classical music] 464 00:25:08,206 --> 00:25:11,034 - [Narrator] But you persisted after the operations. 465 00:25:11,172 --> 00:25:14,379 It was as if our hero had been thrown by his own horse. 466 00:25:14,517 --> 00:25:15,482 And here to tell us about it, 467 00:25:15,620 --> 00:25:18,000 from a great stoep of a concert stage 468 00:25:18,137 --> 00:25:20,241 in a crumpled cowboy hat. 469 00:25:21,344 --> 00:25:23,103 Despite your restriction to a wheelchair, 470 00:25:23,241 --> 00:25:26,137 you once told me that as long as Vic Chesnutt did it, 471 00:25:26,275 --> 00:25:28,241 you knew you could do it. 472 00:25:28,379 --> 00:25:31,206 Following multiple operations on your legs, 473 00:25:31,344 --> 00:25:32,551 you said you felt pressured 474 00:25:32,689 --> 00:25:35,000 into finishing "Good Morning Spider" too quickly 475 00:25:35,137 --> 00:25:38,241 and that the collaborations were too phoned in, 476 00:25:38,379 --> 00:25:41,758 saying it was your least favorite of all your records. 477 00:25:41,896 --> 00:25:44,551 But it's now undisputed that despite the adversity, 478 00:25:44,689 --> 00:25:47,620 "Good Morning Spider" is a document of resurrection 479 00:25:47,758 --> 00:25:51,137 containing timeless pop songs and every bit is wonderous 480 00:25:51,275 --> 00:25:53,103 to to behold as "Vivadixie." 481 00:25:53,241 --> 00:25:54,689 - [Mark] David Lowery, 482 00:25:54,827 --> 00:25:56,793 he came to see me in the hospital in London 483 00:25:56,931 --> 00:26:00,793 and played a song for me that I always loved. 484 00:26:00,931 --> 00:26:03,689 And he left the guitar and I think he forgot about it. 485 00:26:03,827 --> 00:26:06,517 - I brought over a guitar 486 00:26:06,655 --> 00:26:07,689 and also, at some point, 487 00:26:07,827 --> 00:26:10,586 I went down the street and got him a Coke, 488 00:26:10,724 --> 00:26:12,758 because they wouldn't give him a Coke. 489 00:26:12,896 --> 00:26:15,172 And... [laughs] 490 00:26:15,310 --> 00:26:19,724 "Well, if you won't kill me, get me a Coke." [laughs] 491 00:26:19,862 --> 00:26:21,689 [somber classical music] 492 00:26:21,827 --> 00:26:22,793 - [Narrator] Following the accident, 493 00:26:22,931 --> 00:26:26,068 Mark had to learn to live with disability. 494 00:26:26,206 --> 00:26:29,103 His friend and fellow musician, Vic Chesnutt, 495 00:26:29,241 --> 00:26:30,551 served as a compass, 496 00:26:30,689 --> 00:26:32,793 helping Mark navigate the required adjustments 497 00:26:32,931 --> 00:26:36,034 facing a disabled touring musician. 498 00:26:37,241 --> 00:26:40,379 I think that Vic had weathered so much 499 00:26:42,793 --> 00:26:45,724 and dealt so gracefully with people 500 00:26:48,275 --> 00:26:51,689 and other musicians and situations 501 00:26:51,827 --> 00:26:55,896 that musicians find themselves in, and in a wheelchair, 502 00:26:56,034 --> 00:26:58,931 and that Mark had Vic in his life, 503 00:26:59,068 --> 00:27:03,758 you know, to sort of be someone to blaze a trail for him 504 00:27:05,137 --> 00:27:08,448 and not make him feel as odd, you know? 505 00:27:08,586 --> 00:27:13,586 He made it seem doable. ["Painbirds" by Sparklehorse] 506 00:27:14,620 --> 00:27:18,172 "Goddamn, it's so very hot" 507 00:27:25,758 --> 00:27:30,620 "Supposed to come a rain, but it's not" 508 00:27:35,620 --> 00:27:40,206 "Oh, yeah" 509 00:27:40,344 --> 00:27:45,689 "Here come the painbirds" 510 00:27:46,655 --> 00:27:51,758 "Oh, yeah" 511 00:27:52,103 --> 00:27:56,310 "Here come the painbirds" 512 00:27:56,448 --> 00:28:00,586 ["Painbirds" by Sparklehorse continues] 513 00:28:00,724 --> 00:28:02,724 - [Narrator] Walking wobbly, 514 00:28:02,862 --> 00:28:05,034 you went to your brother Matt. 515 00:28:05,172 --> 00:28:07,896 "I've gotta ride," you said, 516 00:28:08,034 --> 00:28:10,724 your old Guzzi with the big nickel tank. 517 00:28:10,862 --> 00:28:12,172 You couldn't find first gear, 518 00:28:12,310 --> 00:28:14,413 so he leans down and taps it for you, 519 00:28:14,551 --> 00:28:18,068 always an expert cyclist, and you were off. 520 00:28:19,344 --> 00:28:20,724 - [Mark] Well, it seems like I was in a wheelchair 521 00:28:20,862 --> 00:28:22,827 for a long time. 522 00:28:22,965 --> 00:28:27,931 It made me be a little more perceptive to small things, 523 00:28:28,310 --> 00:28:31,379 you know, babies and animals and sex, 524 00:28:33,344 --> 00:28:34,448 things like that. 525 00:28:34,586 --> 00:28:37,689 "Shining motorcycle" 526 00:28:42,206 --> 00:28:46,448 ["All Night Home" by Sparklehorse] 527 00:28:49,310 --> 00:28:53,034 "Through the trees we rifle" 528 00:29:02,551 --> 00:29:06,793 "We're gonna drive all night home" 529 00:29:13,344 --> 00:29:14,241 "We're gonna drive" - I did a tour 530 00:29:14,379 --> 00:29:16,620 and I played guitar with Joe Henry, 531 00:29:16,758 --> 00:29:18,724 and a lot of the dates, 532 00:29:20,206 --> 00:29:23,068 Sparklehorse opened for Joe Henry. 533 00:29:23,931 --> 00:29:28,000 And that was kind of right after Mark's accident, 534 00:29:28,965 --> 00:29:30,103 where his legs... 535 00:29:30,241 --> 00:29:32,379 You know, where he fell asleep on his legs. 536 00:29:32,517 --> 00:29:34,620 And so he was playing... 537 00:29:34,758 --> 00:29:36,206 The first time I saw 'em, 538 00:29:36,344 --> 00:29:38,379 and he was playing in the wheelchair and stuff, 539 00:29:38,517 --> 00:29:39,620 and it was just, like, 540 00:29:39,758 --> 00:29:43,482 this was really touching and beautiful music. 541 00:29:46,482 --> 00:29:49,206 - Yeah, I mean, that was the time period, you know? 542 00:29:49,344 --> 00:29:51,137 It was, you know, Flaming Lips, 543 00:29:51,275 --> 00:29:56,241 although they had more of a built-in producer studio guy 544 00:29:56,620 --> 00:29:58,241 who was working with them. 545 00:29:58,379 --> 00:30:01,137 There was a lot of us who are more kind of soloists 546 00:30:01,275 --> 00:30:04,482 who were attempting to create these little worlds, 547 00:30:04,620 --> 00:30:05,862 these magical worlds, 548 00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:09,379 and sort of get out of the confines of, you know, 549 00:30:09,517 --> 00:30:13,275 scratchy, crappy, cassette recording. 550 00:30:13,413 --> 00:30:15,827 - A common hue between many of the groups 551 00:30:15,965 --> 00:30:20,172 that, you know, might be in the same sentence together, 552 00:30:20,310 --> 00:30:23,862 or breath, you know, whether it was Rev 553 00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:27,827 or Sparklehorse or Flaming Lips and Grandaddy, 554 00:30:28,655 --> 00:30:31,965 and I would be hesitant to just stop there. 555 00:30:32,103 --> 00:30:33,517 I think there was a lot. 556 00:30:33,655 --> 00:30:35,103 I don't know if it was a... 557 00:30:35,241 --> 00:30:38,068 I can't say from my point it was ever a conscious effort 558 00:30:38,206 --> 00:30:41,103 to say, "This is the street that I live on 559 00:30:41,241 --> 00:30:42,896 amidst these other houses 560 00:30:43,034 --> 00:30:46,655 and these are the only other kids that I play well with." 561 00:30:46,793 --> 00:30:48,827 And I don't think they would either. 562 00:30:48,965 --> 00:30:51,241 - I think where Mark and I both ended up 563 00:30:51,379 --> 00:30:54,827 was having an appreciation for, you know, 564 00:30:57,655 --> 00:31:00,413 the dirty little nasty and the gritty stuff, 565 00:31:00,551 --> 00:31:04,379 but just like trying to achieve this overall balance 566 00:31:04,517 --> 00:31:07,344 with like, you know, the lush cinematic 567 00:31:07,482 --> 00:31:09,241 and the beautiful stuff and combine them, 568 00:31:09,379 --> 00:31:12,413 and I think that we were treading on that same path. 569 00:31:12,551 --> 00:31:14,551 "He smashed into the cemetery gates" 570 00:31:14,689 --> 00:31:16,724 ["Happy Man" by Sparklehorse] 571 00:31:16,862 --> 00:31:21,862 "All I want is to be a happy man" 572 00:31:23,310 --> 00:31:27,241 "All I want is to be a happy man" 573 00:31:29,379 --> 00:31:34,000 ["Happy Man" by Sparklehorse continues] 574 00:31:41,517 --> 00:31:46,344 ["It's a Wonderful Life" by Sparklehorse] 575 00:31:55,724 --> 00:32:00,689 ["It's a Wonderful Life" by Sparklehorse continues] 576 00:32:01,241 --> 00:32:06,241 "It's a wonderful life" 577 00:32:08,448 --> 00:32:11,793 "It's a wonderful life" 578 00:32:15,068 --> 00:32:17,965 ["It's a Wonderful Life" by Sparklehorse continues] 579 00:32:18,103 --> 00:32:19,379 - [Narrator] Having gained a reputation 580 00:32:19,517 --> 00:32:23,172 for unparalleled DIY workmanship and invention, 581 00:32:23,310 --> 00:32:26,172 and despite your professed difficulty with words, 582 00:32:26,310 --> 00:32:28,517 you dealt a now chemical stroke of timelessness 583 00:32:28,655 --> 00:32:30,137 with your next effort. 584 00:32:30,275 --> 00:32:32,206 This album would be considered by many 585 00:32:32,344 --> 00:32:34,206 the apex of your career. 586 00:32:34,344 --> 00:32:36,965 An assemblage of pure Mark Linkous aesthetic 587 00:32:37,103 --> 00:32:38,758 was presented to the world 588 00:32:38,896 --> 00:32:41,689 under the shell-shocked and soot black halo of 9/11. 589 00:32:41,827 --> 00:32:44,758 ["It's a Wonderful Life" by Sparklehorse continues] 590 00:32:44,896 --> 00:32:46,896 - I know my tastes aren't necessarily mainstream, 591 00:32:47,034 --> 00:32:48,379 I don't care about that. 592 00:32:48,517 --> 00:32:50,689 I just think I can tell good from bad, 593 00:32:50,827 --> 00:32:54,482 and "It's a Wonderful Life" is a masterpiece 594 00:32:55,931 --> 00:32:57,655 and it stands up there with... 595 00:32:57,793 --> 00:32:59,344 I mean, masterpiece is an overused term, 596 00:32:59,482 --> 00:33:02,034 genius is an overused term as well, 597 00:33:02,172 --> 00:33:03,068 but I think it's a masterpiece. 598 00:33:03,206 --> 00:33:07,103 ["Piano Fire" by Sparklehorse] 599 00:33:18,758 --> 00:33:23,758 "I got sunburnt waiting for the jets to land" 600 00:33:25,689 --> 00:33:26,862 - I remember being in the studio 601 00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:29,275 and my wife, Michelle, called and said, 602 00:33:29,413 --> 00:33:31,137 "Oh, John, you're gonna be really excited to hear this. 603 00:33:31,275 --> 00:33:33,275 Mark Linkous from Sparklehorse called, 604 00:33:33,413 --> 00:33:35,241 and he wants you to call him back, 605 00:33:35,379 --> 00:33:36,275 and you call him back 606 00:33:36,413 --> 00:33:38,482 when you come out of the studio tonight." 607 00:33:38,620 --> 00:33:39,862 And so I think, "Wow, great!" 608 00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:44,068 I mean, you know, I expect he's called to ask me 609 00:33:44,206 --> 00:33:45,103 to produce, you know? 610 00:33:45,241 --> 00:33:48,896 Why else would he call me out of the blue? 611 00:33:49,034 --> 00:33:50,379 And you know, we chatted a little while 612 00:33:50,517 --> 00:33:53,827 and I was thinking, "Well, okay, when's he gonna ask me?" 613 00:33:53,965 --> 00:33:54,793 And then he just said, 614 00:33:54,931 --> 00:33:56,379 "John, I wanted to ask you something." 615 00:33:56,517 --> 00:33:57,793 And I was like, "Okay, great." 616 00:33:57,931 --> 00:33:59,758 And he said, "I wanted to see if you could recommend 617 00:33:59,896 --> 00:34:04,172 any studios where I might be able to work." [laughs] 618 00:34:04,310 --> 00:34:06,896 And I was like, "Oh, that's..." 619 00:34:08,103 --> 00:34:12,103 So I kind of recovered, tried to hide my disappointment 620 00:34:12,241 --> 00:34:13,482 and mentioned a couple. 621 00:34:13,620 --> 00:34:15,344 And I said, "Oh yeah, by the way, you know, 622 00:34:15,482 --> 00:34:18,862 there's a particular studio in Amsterdam I'm gonna recommend 623 00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:22,413 'cause I've just finished making a record there." 624 00:34:22,551 --> 00:34:24,896 And he said, "Oh, so you were you making... 625 00:34:25,034 --> 00:34:26,413 What, was it one of your records?" 626 00:34:26,551 --> 00:34:29,068 And I said, "No, I was producing a band over there." 627 00:34:29,206 --> 00:34:32,103 And he said, "Oh, do you produce records?" 628 00:34:32,241 --> 00:34:33,620 [John chuckling] 629 00:34:33,758 --> 00:34:35,655 And so I said, "Yeah." 630 00:34:35,793 --> 00:34:37,862 So he said, a little pause, 631 00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:39,758 "Would you be interested in producing something for me?" 632 00:34:39,896 --> 00:34:41,689 [John laughing] 633 00:34:41,827 --> 00:34:44,655 And so I said, "Yes." [laughs] 634 00:34:44,793 --> 00:34:46,724 Thinking, "I thought that was why we were gonna have 635 00:34:46,862 --> 00:34:48,448 this conversation in the beginning." 636 00:34:48,586 --> 00:34:50,586 And you know, I'm never quite sure with Mark, 637 00:34:50,724 --> 00:34:54,758 having known him now, knowing his dry sense of humor, 638 00:34:54,896 --> 00:34:58,862 I wonder if that was some kind of weird joke, or... 639 00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:01,034 I mean, I'll never know. 640 00:35:02,206 --> 00:35:03,482 - [Narrator] Your peers would heed the call 641 00:35:03,620 --> 00:35:05,137 when you said you didn't wanna play every instrument 642 00:35:05,275 --> 00:35:06,172 on every song, 643 00:35:06,310 --> 00:35:07,793 and that you wanted other people's brains 644 00:35:07,931 --> 00:35:09,448 and input involved. 645 00:35:09,586 --> 00:35:12,137 Enter John Parish, Alan Weatherhead, 646 00:35:12,275 --> 00:35:16,172 Adrian Utley, Dave Fridmann, Nina Persson, 647 00:35:16,310 --> 00:35:19,000 Tom Waits, PJ Harvey and others. 648 00:35:20,517 --> 00:35:23,172 - Well, all the people that I've worked with 649 00:35:23,310 --> 00:35:26,310 or collaborated with, I've always... 650 00:35:28,758 --> 00:35:32,793 I was fans of their music before I ever met 'em, you know? 651 00:35:32,931 --> 00:35:35,931 I was a huge Portishead fan before I ever met Adrian, 652 00:35:36,068 --> 00:35:39,241 you know, and now we're great friends. 653 00:35:39,379 --> 00:35:42,551 And the same with Tom Waits, you know? 654 00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:46,448 His records, especially his later records, 655 00:35:46,586 --> 00:35:48,275 starting with like the Island ones, 656 00:35:48,413 --> 00:35:52,586 with "Rain Dogs" and "Swordfish" and "Bone Machine," 657 00:35:52,724 --> 00:35:53,862 all that. 658 00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:57,206 I just love the sound of those records so much, 659 00:35:57,344 --> 00:36:00,758 and it's still hard for me to comprehend 660 00:36:02,137 --> 00:36:05,310 the fact that, you know, we were on record together, 661 00:36:05,448 --> 00:36:09,172 that he sings lead vocals on a Sparklehorse album. 662 00:36:09,310 --> 00:36:13,275 ["Dog Door" by Sparklehorse] 663 00:36:15,620 --> 00:36:18,896 "Well, she's as mean as a needle" 664 00:36:19,034 --> 00:36:22,965 "Don't get too close to the heater" 665 00:36:23,103 --> 00:36:28,068 "Like a mean shopkeeper who got an extra gun" 666 00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:34,931 "She about six-foot-four, and she's a wrecking ball" 667 00:36:35,413 --> 00:36:36,724 - I was slightly nervous 668 00:36:36,862 --> 00:36:39,793 about actually what I was going to be able to contribute. 669 00:36:39,931 --> 00:36:41,862 But of course, you know, when you get in the studio, 670 00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:44,862 you start working with things, it's not... 671 00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:48,586 The lines are very much more blurred, you know? 672 00:36:48,724 --> 00:36:50,586 You know, I might have played some instruments or whatever, 673 00:36:50,724 --> 00:36:51,931 or suggested different things, 674 00:36:52,068 --> 00:36:54,862 and it's not producer sits in the chair, 675 00:36:55,000 --> 00:36:56,758 artist, you know, goes in the studio 676 00:36:56,896 --> 00:36:57,793 and performs or whatever. 677 00:36:57,931 --> 00:37:01,172 It's a much more fluid situation. 678 00:37:01,310 --> 00:37:04,551 - When I was working with him, John Parish was producing, 679 00:37:04,689 --> 00:37:07,172 but John's not a bombastic man 680 00:37:09,275 --> 00:37:11,620 about, you know, he won't... 681 00:37:11,758 --> 00:37:13,758 He's not like Phil Spector who tells you what to do, 682 00:37:13,896 --> 00:37:15,793 I imagine, you know? 683 00:37:15,931 --> 00:37:17,344 So it was very much... 684 00:37:17,482 --> 00:37:19,517 From my side of it, 685 00:37:19,655 --> 00:37:22,068 it was seemed a very good collaboration. 686 00:37:22,206 --> 00:37:25,344 And Mark was very clear often about what he wanted 687 00:37:25,482 --> 00:37:28,034 and his sounds and stuff, 688 00:37:28,172 --> 00:37:30,689 but very, very open to working with 689 00:37:30,827 --> 00:37:33,413 the people that he'd surrounded himself with. 690 00:37:33,551 --> 00:37:37,310 - I remember the beginning of one day, 691 00:37:37,448 --> 00:37:41,310 he seemed so down when I arrived at the studio. 692 00:37:41,448 --> 00:37:45,620 And I mean, I'm not one of those kind of producers 693 00:37:45,758 --> 00:37:48,103 that kind of, you know, jivvies everybody up 694 00:37:48,241 --> 00:37:49,034 and like, "Come on!" 695 00:37:49,172 --> 00:37:51,931 You know, that's not really my... 696 00:37:53,793 --> 00:37:55,586 I'm not comfortable working in that way. 697 00:37:55,724 --> 00:37:56,827 And I thought, 698 00:37:56,965 --> 00:37:59,758 "Well, how are we gonna do something today? 699 00:37:59,896 --> 00:38:02,758 It seems like he's so despondent 700 00:38:02,896 --> 00:38:06,551 that he just can't see that there's any worth 701 00:38:06,689 --> 00:38:07,793 in what he's doing." 702 00:38:07,931 --> 00:38:10,275 But he had, you know, a couple of chords, 703 00:38:10,413 --> 00:38:12,000 and he was kind of messing around a little bit 704 00:38:12,137 --> 00:38:14,241 with this guitar part. 705 00:38:14,379 --> 00:38:16,172 And I sort of said, "Well, those chords are really nice. 706 00:38:16,310 --> 00:38:17,310 Those chords are great. 707 00:38:17,448 --> 00:38:19,275 Can we do something with them?" 708 00:38:19,413 --> 00:38:21,724 And he sorta almost said, 709 00:38:21,862 --> 00:38:23,551 "Well, you know, see if you can do something with them, 710 00:38:23,689 --> 00:38:25,724 you know, because I don't know what... 711 00:38:25,862 --> 00:38:26,689 I try, you know..." 712 00:38:26,827 --> 00:38:29,310 And just kind of dismissed it. 713 00:38:31,793 --> 00:38:34,068 And so I sort of messed around with the chords a little bit, 714 00:38:34,206 --> 00:38:35,551 didn't change 'em at all, you know? 715 00:38:35,689 --> 00:38:36,862 They were absolutely... ["Gold Day" by Sparklehorse] 716 00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:38,413 It was a great chord sequence 717 00:38:38,551 --> 00:38:42,413 and it was the chord sequence for the song "Gold Day" 718 00:38:42,551 --> 00:38:45,000 from "It's a Wonderful Life." 719 00:38:46,206 --> 00:38:49,068 And I, you know, recorded some bass 720 00:38:49,206 --> 00:38:52,068 and we managed to cut a drum track and a guitar track. 721 00:38:52,206 --> 00:38:53,620 And by about halfway through the day, 722 00:38:53,758 --> 00:38:58,413 I could see that he was kind of getting a sense of the song. 723 00:38:58,551 --> 00:39:00,275 And then by sort of halfway through the afternoon, 724 00:39:00,413 --> 00:39:03,206 he put down that beautiful vocal. 725 00:39:04,137 --> 00:39:06,137 And by the end of the day, 726 00:39:06,275 --> 00:39:09,344 he was so excited and so happy, 727 00:39:09,482 --> 00:39:12,862 and for me, that was the best day of the session. 728 00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:15,517 'Cause I thought, "Wow, you know, there is that power 729 00:39:15,655 --> 00:39:19,241 within his music that even despite himself, you know, 730 00:39:19,379 --> 00:39:23,655 he can pull himself out from such a dark place 731 00:39:23,793 --> 00:39:26,724 with the beauty of what he's doing. 732 00:39:28,206 --> 00:39:33,206 "In silver piles of smiles" 733 00:39:34,206 --> 00:39:39,241 "May all your days be gold, my child" 734 00:39:39,724 --> 00:39:44,724 "May all your days be gold, my child" 735 00:39:45,482 --> 00:39:47,793 "May all your days be gold" 736 00:39:47,931 --> 00:39:49,103 - I think they'd been working before. 737 00:39:49,241 --> 00:39:53,689 And I got there and there was John Parish Scott, 738 00:39:53,827 --> 00:39:58,103 who played drums, and fantastic samples and stuff. 739 00:39:58,241 --> 00:40:02,482 And Polly Harvey was there for the whole period, 740 00:40:02,620 --> 00:40:07,000 and John and me and Mark, and we could swap instruments, 741 00:40:07,137 --> 00:40:08,586 and it was really... 742 00:40:08,724 --> 00:40:09,586 It was really nice. 743 00:40:09,724 --> 00:40:13,413 And he was so, you know, self-effacing 744 00:40:13,551 --> 00:40:16,413 and kind of humble when we met, you know? 745 00:40:16,551 --> 00:40:17,413 [engine revving] 746 00:40:17,551 --> 00:40:20,275 ["More Yellow Birds" by Sparklehorse] 747 00:40:20,413 --> 00:40:24,551 - He indulged me with the inspiration behind certain songs. 748 00:40:24,689 --> 00:40:26,034 and I asked him, 749 00:40:27,724 --> 00:40:30,275 where in the world did the idea 750 00:40:31,206 --> 00:40:32,965 for "More Yellow Birds come from? 751 00:40:33,103 --> 00:40:34,275 Is it literal? 752 00:40:35,482 --> 00:40:36,724 How did that come to you?" 753 00:40:36,862 --> 00:40:39,931 'Cause it's one of my favorite images in his work. 754 00:40:40,068 --> 00:40:43,000 And he said there was, in fact, someone, 755 00:40:43,137 --> 00:40:45,000 I think in England or somewhere in Europe, 756 00:40:45,137 --> 00:40:47,206 that, after his accident, 757 00:40:49,172 --> 00:40:53,068 just kept sending him these little fake canaries, 758 00:40:53,206 --> 00:40:55,862 these little fake gold trenches. 759 00:40:56,896 --> 00:40:58,413 And they would really just cheer him up. 760 00:40:58,551 --> 00:41:00,000 He'd open up the mail one day 761 00:41:00,137 --> 00:41:04,137 and he'd literally have more yellow birds. 762 00:41:04,275 --> 00:41:09,310 "Please send me more yellow birds" 763 00:41:09,620 --> 00:41:12,896 "For the dim interior" 764 00:41:13,965 --> 00:41:17,517 - We recorded the song "More Yellow Birds," 765 00:41:19,275 --> 00:41:20,379 which is kind of different. 766 00:41:20,517 --> 00:41:22,172 It's sort of an anomaly on that record. 767 00:41:22,310 --> 00:41:24,241 It's just kind of different from everything 768 00:41:24,379 --> 00:41:27,206 and it's a different set of musicians. 769 00:41:27,344 --> 00:41:30,379 We just did that in the studio here in Richmond, 770 00:41:30,517 --> 00:41:32,965 pretty simply, we recorded it live. 771 00:41:33,103 --> 00:41:34,482 I think what he did for a lot of that record 772 00:41:34,620 --> 00:41:37,379 is he would record the guitar and then take the guitar away, 773 00:41:37,517 --> 00:41:39,172 so that's what happened on that song. 774 00:41:39,310 --> 00:41:43,206 Usually things we would work on take a long time. 775 00:41:43,344 --> 00:41:44,931 It was a lot of tracks and sifting through 'em. 776 00:41:45,068 --> 00:41:47,586 And this was really like a couple takes, 777 00:41:47,724 --> 00:41:49,034 a couple overdubs, 778 00:41:49,172 --> 00:41:51,068 and then he just sang it once, 779 00:41:51,206 --> 00:41:53,482 like, that's the only vocal we ever did on it. 780 00:41:53,620 --> 00:41:57,724 ["Sea of Teeth" by Sparklehorse] 781 00:42:01,551 --> 00:42:06,655 "For the love we had" 782 00:42:10,827 --> 00:42:14,482 "In some ways, feeling sad" 783 00:42:16,862 --> 00:42:17,689 - The first thing I asked him 784 00:42:17,827 --> 00:42:20,655 is, "How do you write the songs? 785 00:42:20,793 --> 00:42:21,724 How do you actually do it? 786 00:42:21,862 --> 00:42:23,344 Do you sit down with a drum track?" 787 00:42:23,482 --> 00:42:25,448 'Cause I know he's used drum machines in the past, 788 00:42:25,586 --> 00:42:27,000 or maybe you have a little guitar riff 789 00:42:27,137 --> 00:42:28,206 or something and build it together. 790 00:42:28,344 --> 00:42:30,344 "Or do you have something in your head 791 00:42:30,482 --> 00:42:31,482 that you have to lay down?" 792 00:42:31,620 --> 00:42:32,724 And it was really fast. 793 00:42:32,862 --> 00:42:34,137 "No, it's in my head." 794 00:42:34,275 --> 00:42:35,896 I said, "The whole thing is in your head?" 795 00:42:36,034 --> 00:42:37,965 And he says, "Yeah, the whole thing, all the time, 796 00:42:38,103 --> 00:42:42,758 is in my head, and then I have to try and make it happen." 797 00:42:42,896 --> 00:42:44,931 And with varying degrees of success, 798 00:42:45,068 --> 00:42:47,103 I guess it depends on who he's working with, 799 00:42:47,241 --> 00:42:48,965 where he is working and so on. 800 00:42:49,103 --> 00:42:51,068 He asked me what's my favorite song. 801 00:42:51,206 --> 00:42:53,965 And I said, "Oh, it changes on a daily basis, 802 00:42:54,103 --> 00:42:58,310 but the most supreme example of your work for me 803 00:42:58,448 --> 00:43:00,620 is "Sea of Teeth" from "It's a Wonderful Life." 804 00:43:00,758 --> 00:43:02,137 It's just poetic. 805 00:43:02,275 --> 00:43:06,586 It's not so much about death for a change, but supreme love. 806 00:43:06,724 --> 00:43:10,655 And he just went, "Great, that's my favorite song too," 807 00:43:10,793 --> 00:43:12,448 and he explained that that 808 00:43:12,586 --> 00:43:14,758 is because the song that he heard in his head, 809 00:43:14,896 --> 00:43:16,689 he nailed down. 810 00:43:16,827 --> 00:43:18,448 That was the closest he got 811 00:43:18,586 --> 00:43:22,586 to nailing down the sounds he heard in his head. 812 00:43:56,206 --> 00:44:01,206 [projector clicking] [typewriter clicking] 813 00:44:03,793 --> 00:44:07,379 ["Maxine" by Sparklehorse] 814 00:44:16,965 --> 00:44:18,862 - [Narrator] To a limb of gauzy clouds, 815 00:44:19,000 --> 00:44:21,103 breathe ancient dark slopes, 816 00:44:21,241 --> 00:44:23,827 gradually yielding to the day. 817 00:44:23,965 --> 00:44:25,655 You made an escape to the Southern Highlands 818 00:44:25,793 --> 00:44:27,758 of the Great Smoky Mountains, 819 00:44:27,896 --> 00:44:30,448 a place of communion with salamanders, 820 00:44:30,586 --> 00:44:32,241 but also of hungry ghosts. 821 00:44:32,379 --> 00:44:34,482 ["Maxine" by Sparklehorse continues] 822 00:44:34,620 --> 00:44:36,758 For all your previous inventive propulsions 823 00:44:36,896 --> 00:44:40,379 and gasoline horsies and the company's anticipation 824 00:44:40,517 --> 00:44:42,586 of your next Sparklehorse album, 825 00:44:42,724 --> 00:44:45,586 you hadn't escaped the mines at all. 826 00:44:45,724 --> 00:44:47,586 - I've lived in New York and Los Angeles, 827 00:44:47,724 --> 00:44:50,344 and when I returned to the South, 828 00:44:52,482 --> 00:44:57,034 I just decided that I wanted to live in the country, so... 829 00:44:57,172 --> 00:44:58,241 [birds chirping] 830 00:44:58,379 --> 00:45:00,379 And Virginia was fairly isolated, 831 00:45:00,517 --> 00:45:03,310 and where I've moved to now is... 832 00:45:04,517 --> 00:45:07,793 Literally, it's on top of a mountain in the Smoky Mountains 833 00:45:07,931 --> 00:45:10,586 in North Carolina, and it's... 834 00:45:10,724 --> 00:45:13,827 I mean, it's so high up that the clouds 835 00:45:13,965 --> 00:45:15,689 are sometimes under me. 836 00:45:16,931 --> 00:45:18,448 And there's bears, 837 00:45:19,413 --> 00:45:22,000 and I've actually been trapped in the house by a bear. 838 00:45:22,137 --> 00:45:23,793 One time I couldn't go to my studio, 839 00:45:23,931 --> 00:45:26,448 'cause there was a bear in my truck. 840 00:45:26,586 --> 00:45:30,344 ["Mountains" by Sparklehorse] 841 00:45:36,620 --> 00:45:41,379 "Once I was a big old bear" 842 00:45:41,517 --> 00:45:46,517 "Reigning blows on sparkly snares" 843 00:45:46,655 --> 00:45:50,310 "In the woods after the snow" 844 00:45:50,448 --> 00:45:53,586 "The white noise witch, her hammer's cold" 845 00:45:53,724 --> 00:45:55,448 - I mean, North Carolina, it's a big state. 846 00:45:55,586 --> 00:45:58,137 It's the southern, southern tip in the Smoky Mountains, 847 00:45:58,275 --> 00:45:59,793 right on the border of Georgia, 848 00:45:59,931 --> 00:46:01,931 about two hours from Asheville, which... 849 00:46:02,068 --> 00:46:03,310 Asheville's already in the middle of nowhere, 850 00:46:03,448 --> 00:46:07,413 but it's the only airport in western North Carolina. 851 00:46:07,551 --> 00:46:08,586 So you fly into Asheville, 852 00:46:08,724 --> 00:46:10,068 Theresa, his wife came and picked me up, 853 00:46:10,206 --> 00:46:12,793 and you drive through the most beautiful mountain range 854 00:46:12,931 --> 00:46:14,724 you've ever seen in your life. 855 00:46:14,862 --> 00:46:17,137 And he lived up in these mountains, 856 00:46:17,275 --> 00:46:18,965 I mean, he literally lived in the middle of nowhere. 857 00:46:19,103 --> 00:46:20,896 I mean, it took... 858 00:46:21,034 --> 00:46:23,068 Yeah, it was a trek to get there, you know? 859 00:46:23,206 --> 00:46:24,620 You live with bears and rattlesnakes. 860 00:46:24,758 --> 00:46:29,413 - Well, the times that I was ever in the cabin with Mark 861 00:46:31,724 --> 00:46:35,551 were social times, and socializing with Mark, 862 00:46:38,758 --> 00:46:42,448 it was just as sublime as listening to his music, 863 00:46:42,586 --> 00:46:45,862 in other ways. [birds chirping] 864 00:46:46,000 --> 00:46:50,482 Listening to LPs like crazy, old random selections 865 00:46:50,620 --> 00:46:53,793 from his album collection was among... 866 00:46:57,137 --> 00:46:59,448 Just really, the more fun moments of my life. 867 00:46:59,586 --> 00:47:01,551 [birds chirping] 868 00:47:01,689 --> 00:47:03,862 - It seemed like in Virginia that, you know, 869 00:47:04,000 --> 00:47:06,758 I don't know if it was a product of the world changing, 870 00:47:06,896 --> 00:47:11,310 but it seemed like the land was drying up a little bit. 871 00:47:11,448 --> 00:47:14,413 And this spot in North Carolina 872 00:47:14,551 --> 00:47:17,206 was almost this valley that was untouched. 873 00:47:17,344 --> 00:47:19,689 And it almost had its own... 874 00:47:20,551 --> 00:47:23,655 Well, I guess it sort of does have its own weather system, 875 00:47:23,793 --> 00:47:28,275 where it rains almost every day, but then it'll stop, 876 00:47:29,172 --> 00:47:30,827 the sun will come out 877 00:47:30,965 --> 00:47:34,068 and you can just sort of smell the soil. 878 00:47:34,206 --> 00:47:35,586 And there's lots of water. [birds chirping] 879 00:47:35,724 --> 00:47:37,689 There's creeks and rivers everywhere. 880 00:47:37,827 --> 00:47:39,862 And you know, it's nice, 881 00:47:41,586 --> 00:47:43,586 but it can be dangerous too, 882 00:47:43,724 --> 00:47:47,724 'cause sometimes I get to where I don't come off 883 00:47:48,620 --> 00:47:51,620 the top of the mountain for too long, you know? 884 00:47:51,758 --> 00:47:55,137 I get to where I just don't want... 885 00:47:55,275 --> 00:47:56,931 I don't wanna leave. 886 00:47:58,172 --> 00:48:01,448 And that's one of the reasons it took five years 887 00:48:01,586 --> 00:48:04,862 between "It's a Wonderful Life" and this record. 888 00:48:05,000 --> 00:48:06,241 - [Narrator] From a hidden storefront 889 00:48:06,379 --> 00:48:08,275 in the tiny North Carolina town, 890 00:48:08,413 --> 00:48:11,275 a cavern gleaning veins of lyricism 891 00:48:11,413 --> 00:48:14,172 from water-worn, tired mountains 892 00:48:14,310 --> 00:48:17,620 existing long before words on the mouths of man. 893 00:48:17,758 --> 00:48:20,689 The outside world was the blinding overburden 894 00:48:20,827 --> 00:48:24,103 where you'd tipple and haunt your way with the obvious mark 895 00:48:24,241 --> 00:48:26,896 of one who'd gone as dark as any had gone before. 896 00:48:27,034 --> 00:48:28,517 ["Return to Me" by Sparklehorse] 897 00:48:28,655 --> 00:48:30,586 Your haulage was stunning gems, 898 00:48:30,724 --> 00:48:34,310 whole worlds sourced from unsung rooms, 899 00:48:34,448 --> 00:48:38,551 amalgams of unreachable ore from beneath the tonnage. 900 00:48:38,689 --> 00:48:41,241 Ionically charged by the Appalachians, 901 00:48:41,379 --> 00:48:44,379 this wide-ranging LP would comprise 902 00:48:44,517 --> 00:48:47,724 your most lyrical and romantic effort yet, 903 00:48:47,862 --> 00:48:50,620 music indeed dreamt for light years 904 00:48:50,758 --> 00:48:52,896 in the belly of a mountain. 905 00:48:53,827 --> 00:48:56,068 "With tears from me" 906 00:48:56,206 --> 00:48:58,482 - You know, like anyone who gets on a stage 907 00:48:58,620 --> 00:48:59,448 and performs their music, 908 00:48:59,586 --> 00:49:02,724 they have a desire to be acknowledged. 909 00:49:05,103 --> 00:49:07,827 At the same time, he's still making music for himself. 910 00:49:07,965 --> 00:49:10,103 He wasn't making it for anyone else, so... 911 00:49:10,241 --> 00:49:13,862 I think, you know, he also was a great producer as well, 912 00:49:14,000 --> 00:49:15,137 and he was also involved 913 00:49:15,275 --> 00:49:18,310 in so many different little projects. 914 00:49:19,758 --> 00:49:24,379 So he kept himself busy, probably 'cause he had to, I think. 915 00:49:24,517 --> 00:49:28,379 - So you're at 2 Locust Street in Andrews, North Carolina, 916 00:49:28,517 --> 00:49:32,068 where you get the sort of Bavarian revival, 917 00:49:36,000 --> 00:49:39,241 tourist-geared vernacular architecture. 918 00:49:41,068 --> 00:49:44,517 This door is the door of Static King. 919 00:49:44,655 --> 00:49:45,896 Behind me is 920 00:49:46,034 --> 00:49:49,758 where Mark's sort of mechanic's tinker shop was. 921 00:49:53,344 --> 00:49:56,931 It was like stepping into something like LA, 922 00:49:57,068 --> 00:50:01,482 or some fantastic wonderland to step into his studio. 923 00:50:03,379 --> 00:50:04,724 It was like... 924 00:50:04,862 --> 00:50:08,344 I've often called him sort of the backwoods Willy Wonka. 925 00:50:08,482 --> 00:50:11,137 [traffic whooshing] 926 00:50:11,275 --> 00:50:13,000 - You know, for a while, in the last five years, 927 00:50:13,137 --> 00:50:14,172 I wasn't really producing much, 928 00:50:14,310 --> 00:50:16,689 so people, including my manager, 929 00:50:16,827 --> 00:50:20,482 would send me CDs that I think, you know, 930 00:50:20,620 --> 00:50:22,137 they thought might be inspiring, 931 00:50:22,275 --> 00:50:25,896 or someone that I might want to collaborate with. 932 00:50:26,034 --> 00:50:28,827 And she sent me "The Grey Album," 933 00:50:30,724 --> 00:50:32,413 and I just loved that, you know? 934 00:50:32,551 --> 00:50:35,448 'Cause I was listening to a lot of Beatles at the time, 935 00:50:35,586 --> 00:50:40,068 and I was huge Beatles fan and I liked Jay-Z too, 936 00:50:40,206 --> 00:50:41,896 so it was a great... 937 00:50:42,827 --> 00:50:46,586 You know, I got that at the perfect time. 938 00:50:46,724 --> 00:50:49,103 - [Narrator] While the mountain range insulated you, 939 00:50:49,241 --> 00:50:51,620 the human world around you left you wanting, 940 00:50:51,758 --> 00:50:54,379 and you had to import your peers. 941 00:50:54,517 --> 00:50:58,586 With spotty cell phone service and an often broken laptop, 942 00:50:58,724 --> 00:51:01,482 you were painfully propagating your fourth album, 943 00:51:01,620 --> 00:51:03,724 while at once managing to grow your alliance 944 00:51:03,862 --> 00:51:06,862 with Brian Burton, AKA Danger Mouse. 945 00:51:08,448 --> 00:51:10,068 He'd come from LA to support you 946 00:51:10,206 --> 00:51:12,689 and make propitious contributions to the effort 947 00:51:12,827 --> 00:51:14,379 in your mountain studio, 948 00:51:14,517 --> 00:51:16,655 where you both bought piles of LPs 949 00:51:16,793 --> 00:51:20,241 at one of the most remote record shops in the nation. 950 00:51:20,379 --> 00:51:23,620 But the birth of these dreams would be difficult at best. 951 00:51:23,758 --> 00:51:25,586 Sometimes sleeping in the dank studio 952 00:51:25,724 --> 00:51:28,137 on a decaying velvet sofa, 953 00:51:28,275 --> 00:51:30,344 you were indeed dealing in death, 954 00:51:30,482 --> 00:51:34,275 birth and every love and loss in between. 955 00:51:34,413 --> 00:51:37,793 - There was one time I was signed with Virgin Records, 956 00:51:37,931 --> 00:51:40,206 and I had written this song when I was very young 957 00:51:40,344 --> 00:51:41,724 and they wanted me to put it on the album, 958 00:51:41,862 --> 00:51:42,965 'cause they thought it was a single, 959 00:51:43,103 --> 00:51:45,310 and I felt really uncomfortable about it. 960 00:51:45,448 --> 00:51:47,275 And I needed somebody to back me up, 961 00:51:47,413 --> 00:51:49,482 because they were giving me a lot of grief. 962 00:51:49,620 --> 00:51:52,517 And I rang Mark up, and I was just saying, 963 00:51:52,655 --> 00:51:53,724 "You know what, they're trying to get me 964 00:51:53,862 --> 00:51:55,586 to put this song on the album and you know, 965 00:51:55,724 --> 00:51:57,965 I don't relate to it anymore and it's whatever." 966 00:51:58,103 --> 00:52:00,275 And he said, "You know, you caught me. 967 00:52:00,413 --> 00:52:03,620 I'm trying to fix the brakes on my car 968 00:52:03,758 --> 00:52:06,724 and I can't afford to fix them. 969 00:52:06,862 --> 00:52:10,482 So you wrote that song at one point in your life 970 00:52:10,620 --> 00:52:12,137 and it meant something to you. 971 00:52:12,275 --> 00:52:15,862 So put it on the bloody album, you know, stand by... 972 00:52:16,000 --> 00:52:16,758 It's your song. 973 00:52:16,896 --> 00:52:18,241 No one forced you to write it. 974 00:52:18,379 --> 00:52:22,103 You wrote that song, so have a little bit of respect 975 00:52:22,241 --> 00:52:25,586 for your music, because," you know, he goes, 976 00:52:25,724 --> 00:52:28,517 "When I was younger, I said no to a lot of things." 977 00:52:28,655 --> 00:52:30,413 "And for songs that I had written," he goes, 978 00:52:30,551 --> 00:52:34,034 "and today I can't afford to fix the brakes on my car." 979 00:52:34,172 --> 00:52:35,931 - It's still hard to make ends meet, 980 00:52:36,068 --> 00:52:39,000 you know, financially, sometimes. 981 00:52:39,137 --> 00:52:40,931 And that's what I think of, 982 00:52:41,068 --> 00:52:43,965 and I wish that I'd sold more records in America, 983 00:52:44,103 --> 00:52:47,310 or just sold more records in general, 984 00:52:47,448 --> 00:52:50,103 just to make, you know... 985 00:52:50,241 --> 00:52:52,862 I've had these boots now for three years. 986 00:52:53,000 --> 00:52:54,413 I'd like to... [laughs] 987 00:52:54,551 --> 00:52:57,275 It's about time to get a new pair of Red Wings. 988 00:52:57,413 --> 00:53:01,344 [somber classical music] 989 00:53:01,482 --> 00:53:04,896 - [Angela] I think that he was, in part, 990 00:53:06,448 --> 00:53:08,793 a casualty of the things that are wrong 991 00:53:08,931 --> 00:53:11,068 with the music industry. 992 00:53:11,206 --> 00:53:13,655 I resent the industry. 993 00:53:13,793 --> 00:53:16,965 - I can't imagine how someone would... 994 00:53:18,793 --> 00:53:20,827 And I'm saying this from a place of sympathy 995 00:53:20,965 --> 00:53:22,068 at a record label, 996 00:53:22,206 --> 00:53:25,896 how to best present a band like Sparklehorse. 997 00:53:26,034 --> 00:53:27,310 How do you... 998 00:53:27,448 --> 00:53:29,482 I mean, that's always been a problem for us as well. 999 00:53:29,620 --> 00:53:31,655 It's like, you're doing something that's... 1000 00:53:31,793 --> 00:53:33,896 It's just you, it's just, you know, it's Mark and Scott 1001 00:53:34,034 --> 00:53:34,793 and it's... 1002 00:53:34,931 --> 00:53:36,310 [somber classical music continues] 1003 00:53:36,448 --> 00:53:39,931 There isn't a whole lot of room there to sparkle that up, 1004 00:53:40,068 --> 00:53:43,310 to make it more appealing and to market it. 1005 00:53:43,448 --> 00:53:45,137 And yet, people really enjoy it. 1006 00:53:45,275 --> 00:53:48,965 - I don't get the sense that he craved fame. 1007 00:53:51,241 --> 00:53:53,758 I think he deserved a lot more 1008 00:53:54,655 --> 00:53:57,000 than he got in his lifetime, 1009 00:53:58,413 --> 00:54:00,896 you know, perhaps financially 1010 00:54:04,344 --> 00:54:07,310 and just overall recognition. 1011 00:54:07,448 --> 00:54:09,000 - I remember being utterly shocked 1012 00:54:09,137 --> 00:54:11,620 that someone that had created these four albums 1013 00:54:11,758 --> 00:54:13,931 lived in a four-room cabin 1014 00:54:16,517 --> 00:54:20,689 hanging off the side of the mountain, you know? 1015 00:54:20,827 --> 00:54:24,172 And I remember being shocked that his cars 1016 00:54:24,310 --> 00:54:26,689 were often in a state of disrepair 1017 00:54:26,827 --> 00:54:29,000 and that he had to do tours 1018 00:54:33,172 --> 00:54:37,172 that he probably wasn't physically up to doing at times, 1019 00:54:37,310 --> 00:54:39,000 just because it would... 1020 00:54:39,137 --> 00:54:41,862 You know, he would get some decent pay for it. 1021 00:54:42,000 --> 00:54:43,310 [somber classical music continues] 1022 00:54:43,448 --> 00:54:45,724 - He talks a lot about being filled with things 1023 00:54:45,862 --> 00:54:47,517 that are either dead, 1024 00:54:47,655 --> 00:54:51,724 or things that he can't get out of him, you know? 1025 00:54:53,517 --> 00:54:55,896 And it's really beautiful and it's intense. 1026 00:54:56,034 --> 00:54:57,896 And Mark was... 1027 00:54:58,034 --> 00:54:59,758 He was beautiful and he was intense 1028 00:54:59,896 --> 00:55:01,000 and he was... 1029 00:55:01,137 --> 00:55:03,758 A lot of people, I feel, in life have, you know, 1030 00:55:03,896 --> 00:55:07,482 a wall to protect themselves, and he never had that. 1031 00:55:07,620 --> 00:55:09,793 And I think sometimes it's the purest people 1032 00:55:09,931 --> 00:55:10,793 that get led astray. 1033 00:55:10,931 --> 00:55:13,482 - You know, he was so sensitive, God! 1034 00:55:13,620 --> 00:55:15,379 I mean, I've never met anyone... 1035 00:55:15,517 --> 00:55:18,137 Almost never met anyone as sensitive as him. 1036 00:55:18,275 --> 00:55:20,206 - I got taken to a child psychiatrist, 1037 00:55:20,344 --> 00:55:21,586 'cause I would freak out every time 1038 00:55:21,724 --> 00:55:24,344 I got taken to get my hair cut. 1039 00:55:25,965 --> 00:55:29,137 So at one point, they locked me in the car, 1040 00:55:29,275 --> 00:55:31,310 and I kicked the windows out of the car, 1041 00:55:31,448 --> 00:55:34,000 and my parents took me to a child psychiatrist. 1042 00:55:34,137 --> 00:55:36,206 And I was like, "I just wanna have long hair 1043 00:55:36,344 --> 00:55:38,793 like Alice Cooper, you know?" 1044 00:55:45,000 --> 00:55:46,103 ["Revenge feat. The Flaming Lips" by Sparklehorse] 1045 00:55:46,241 --> 00:55:50,275 "Pain" 1046 00:55:50,413 --> 00:55:55,413 "I guess it's a matter of sensation" 1047 00:55:59,034 --> 00:56:01,724 "But somehow" 1048 00:56:01,862 --> 00:56:06,172 "You have a way of avoiding it all" 1049 00:56:12,586 --> 00:56:15,827 "In my mind" 1050 00:56:15,965 --> 00:56:20,827 "I have shot you and stabbed you through your heart" 1051 00:56:25,689 --> 00:56:30,689 "I just didn't understand" 1052 00:56:31,000 --> 00:56:34,793 "The ricochet is the second" 1053 00:56:37,344 --> 00:56:39,034 - [Narrator] In 2009, 1054 00:56:39,172 --> 00:56:41,137 Sparklehorse and Danger Mouse embarked 1055 00:56:41,275 --> 00:56:44,344 on an ambitious project to fuse their talents 1056 00:56:44,482 --> 00:56:46,551 with songs portrayed by a handpicked array 1057 00:56:46,689 --> 00:56:48,137 of lead vocalists. 1058 00:56:49,965 --> 00:56:52,655 It would become, in Mark's time, 1059 00:56:52,793 --> 00:56:56,068 the last Sparklehorse album to see the light of day, 1060 00:56:56,206 --> 00:56:57,620 "Dark Night of the Soul." 1061 00:56:57,758 --> 00:57:00,137 ["Little Girl" by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse] 1062 00:57:00,275 --> 00:57:02,793 - We have some tracks that we're working on, 1063 00:57:02,931 --> 00:57:05,551 and I would like for it to have different vocalists, 1064 00:57:05,689 --> 00:57:10,241 if I could, almost like R and B records and hip-hop records 1065 00:57:10,379 --> 00:57:14,724 often have different guest lead vocalists for songs. 1066 00:57:16,482 --> 00:57:18,827 - I found out that him and Brian, 1067 00:57:18,965 --> 00:57:21,586 Danger Mouse, were making an album together, 1068 00:57:21,724 --> 00:57:23,758 and I actually hung out with Brian. 1069 00:57:23,896 --> 00:57:25,310 ["Jaykub" by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse] 1070 00:57:25,448 --> 00:57:28,379 It turns out that he was a big Grandaddy fan, 1071 00:57:28,517 --> 00:57:30,206 which was really cool. 1072 00:57:30,344 --> 00:57:34,275 The idea was to ask all these different singers 1073 00:57:35,275 --> 00:57:39,137 and songwriters to help contribute, and I was asked, 1074 00:57:39,275 --> 00:57:42,172 and by some weird stroke of luck, 1075 00:57:42,310 --> 00:57:43,931 I got two songs on the album. 1076 00:57:44,068 --> 00:57:46,827 ["Jaykub" by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse continues] 1077 00:57:46,965 --> 00:57:49,724 "Jaykub" 1078 00:57:49,862 --> 00:57:53,379 "It's time for you to wake up" 1079 00:57:53,517 --> 00:57:58,448 "And accept your awards" 1080 00:58:03,000 --> 00:58:04,758 "Inside" 1081 00:58:04,896 --> 00:58:05,655 - [Narrator] In this project, 1082 00:58:05,793 --> 00:58:07,000 you found sweet relief 1083 00:58:07,137 --> 00:58:10,344 in avoiding the chore of lead vocals altogether, 1084 00:58:10,482 --> 00:58:12,827 which would also allow you to flex your perspective range 1085 00:58:12,965 --> 00:58:14,517 as a songwriter, 1086 00:58:14,655 --> 00:58:17,517 by appointing the singers as if by casting call. 1087 00:58:17,655 --> 00:58:20,724 And not only would your mutual hero, David Lynch, 1088 00:58:20,862 --> 00:58:22,482 provide the original photography 1089 00:58:22,620 --> 00:58:25,034 for the limited edition book package, 1090 00:58:25,172 --> 00:58:28,034 he'd also make his vocal debut on two tracks. 1091 00:58:28,172 --> 00:58:33,103 ["Dark Night of the Soul" by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse] 1092 00:58:36,275 --> 00:58:38,620 "All alone" 1093 00:58:39,586 --> 00:58:41,931 - We were at the Static King, 1094 00:58:42,068 --> 00:58:46,137 and Mark surprised us with David Lynch mixes 1095 00:58:46,275 --> 00:58:48,206 coming out of his gear. 1096 00:58:52,965 --> 00:58:56,655 And he said, "Do you know who this is?" 1097 00:58:56,793 --> 00:59:00,448 And Mark said, "Listen, listen to this. 1098 00:59:00,586 --> 00:59:02,482 And it was "Star Eyes" 1099 00:59:04,172 --> 00:59:06,965 and it was just the most beautiful thing, 1100 00:59:07,103 --> 00:59:11,827 and all of us loving David Lynch to the extent we did, 1101 00:59:11,965 --> 00:59:14,793 and it's just that I could tell it's a really hopeful thing 1102 00:59:14,931 --> 00:59:18,379 for Mark, because he was seeking David Lynch's mentorship. 1103 00:59:18,517 --> 00:59:23,551 ["Star Eyes feat. David Lynch" by Danger Mouse/Sparklehorse] 1104 00:59:24,586 --> 00:59:27,689 - He came a couple of times here to the studio. 1105 00:59:27,827 --> 00:59:29,758 He sat right in that chair right there. 1106 00:59:29,896 --> 00:59:33,103 And I lived in Virginia for four years. 1107 00:59:36,000 --> 00:59:37,965 I went to high school in Virginia. 1108 00:59:38,103 --> 00:59:42,206 Dean, who is the engineer here, lived in Virginia, 1109 00:59:42,344 --> 00:59:45,758 grew up in Virginia and Sparklehorse's in Virginia. 1110 00:59:45,896 --> 00:59:49,620 And we would talk, and I would drink red wine 1111 00:59:51,310 --> 00:59:55,517 and Sparklehorse, I forget what kinda drink he had, 1112 00:59:55,655 --> 00:59:59,310 but it was more like a bourbon or a whiskey. 1113 01:00:00,379 --> 01:00:04,482 - In all my years there, I never saw him... 1114 01:00:04,620 --> 01:00:07,275 Like, he really bonded with Mark 1115 01:00:09,034 --> 01:00:12,068 in his brief, short amount of time that he knew him. 1116 01:00:12,206 --> 01:00:16,241 Like, just the way he looked and talked with Mark 1117 01:00:17,172 --> 01:00:19,862 was unlike anyone else I'd seen, 1118 01:00:21,620 --> 01:00:26,413 And I felt like they were both cut from a similar cloth, 1119 01:00:26,551 --> 01:00:28,068 but there was something about Mark 1120 01:00:28,206 --> 01:00:32,241 that David really instantly went from zero to 100 1121 01:00:33,862 --> 01:00:38,620 on the friend level, because he just, either A, got Mark, 1122 01:00:39,482 --> 01:00:43,517 liked him, understood him and wanted to help him... 1123 01:00:43,655 --> 01:00:45,448 - There's a few people like this, 1124 01:00:45,586 --> 01:00:48,172 where you don't really need to talk. 1125 01:00:48,310 --> 01:00:51,689 You just sit and then something comes up 1126 01:00:51,827 --> 01:00:53,827 and you talk about things. 1127 01:00:53,965 --> 01:00:56,241 And because Dean was here, 1128 01:00:56,379 --> 01:00:59,000 we talked a lot about equipment 1129 01:01:00,482 --> 01:01:04,551 and then we'd talk about life in general, and... 1130 01:01:05,551 --> 01:01:08,482 But he was just so great to sit with 1131 01:01:08,620 --> 01:01:10,482 and have a drink with. 1132 01:01:12,551 --> 01:01:14,620 And Sparklehorse hadn't been doing anything, 1133 01:01:14,758 --> 01:01:17,551 so Danger Mouse wanted to go out 1134 01:01:17,689 --> 01:01:20,620 and, you know, kinda light a fire under him. 1135 01:01:20,758 --> 01:01:24,137 And he wanted me to do still photographs. 1136 01:01:26,275 --> 01:01:28,206 Not a video, but stills. 1137 01:01:28,344 --> 01:01:30,344 And I thought that was a cool concept. 1138 01:01:30,482 --> 01:01:32,793 He got me all these tracks and I said, 1139 01:01:32,931 --> 01:01:36,931 "If I listen to it and I get ideas for pictures, 1140 01:01:38,655 --> 01:01:40,034 then we'll go." 1141 01:01:40,172 --> 01:01:42,241 - It was like a gallery show where they were premiering, 1142 01:01:42,379 --> 01:01:46,551 you know, the photos, they had the music on loop. 1143 01:01:48,448 --> 01:01:51,206 It was at Michael Kohn Gallery in LA. 1144 01:01:51,344 --> 01:01:52,758 It's sort of really indicative 1145 01:01:52,896 --> 01:01:54,724 of the kind of person he was, 1146 01:01:54,862 --> 01:01:58,827 'cause here is this pretty big, you know, unveiling 1147 01:01:58,965 --> 01:02:02,310 of this, you know, multifaceted work 1148 01:02:02,448 --> 01:02:04,620 with kind of thick imagery 1149 01:02:05,793 --> 01:02:08,103 and amazing, cinematic songs 1150 01:02:10,000 --> 01:02:12,724 from artists all over the map 1151 01:02:12,862 --> 01:02:16,103 in terms of the recording industry. 1152 01:02:16,241 --> 01:02:20,241 And at the party, there was, like, Hollywood types. 1153 01:02:20,379 --> 01:02:21,896 I mean, I think Rick Rubin was there, 1154 01:02:22,034 --> 01:02:23,862 Flea, Crispin Glover, 1155 01:02:24,000 --> 01:02:27,448 like just bizarre tapestry of individuals. 1156 01:02:27,586 --> 01:02:30,827 But this whole party's going on and I stepped outside, 1157 01:02:30,965 --> 01:02:34,137 and it's Mark sitting by himself on the curb, 1158 01:02:34,275 --> 01:02:37,172 you know, like completely fish out of water, 1159 01:02:37,310 --> 01:02:40,310 uncomfortable, like, anxiety-ridden. 1160 01:02:42,068 --> 01:02:44,482 And he's just sitting there by himself. 1161 01:02:44,620 --> 01:02:48,206 - You know, you felt this vulnerability 1162 01:02:48,344 --> 01:02:52,827 and not a lot of self-worth, you know, feeling, and... 1163 01:02:57,517 --> 01:02:58,931 Which was really sad. 1164 01:02:59,068 --> 01:03:03,965 ["Star Eyes feat. David Lynch" by Danger Mouse/Sparklehorse] 1165 01:03:06,068 --> 01:03:09,310 "Mine" 1166 01:03:09,448 --> 01:03:11,379 "Star" 1167 01:03:12,931 --> 01:03:14,896 - The ringtone is the opening measure 1168 01:03:15,034 --> 01:03:17,137 of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir." 1169 01:03:17,275 --> 01:03:19,586 It's a call from Brian Burton. 1170 01:03:20,827 --> 01:03:22,758 The collaboration with Danger Mouse and Lynch 1171 01:03:22,896 --> 01:03:25,379 wasn't going to be released as planned, 1172 01:03:25,517 --> 01:03:27,758 due to a dispute with EMI. 1173 01:03:27,896 --> 01:03:31,000 Burton decided to go ahead and release it as a CD 1174 01:03:31,137 --> 01:03:34,862 with no content, a statement, a thumb in the eye, 1175 01:03:35,000 --> 01:03:38,965 a defiant mirror held up to the music industry. 1176 01:03:39,103 --> 01:03:41,551 Your respect for Brian so immense, 1177 01:03:41,689 --> 01:03:44,275 you responded with Pluck. 1178 01:03:44,413 --> 01:03:46,862 - [Brian] You know, there's a beautiful companion piece, 1179 01:03:47,000 --> 01:03:48,724 the book which came out, 1180 01:03:48,862 --> 01:03:50,448 and when that originally came out, 1181 01:03:50,586 --> 01:03:54,310 it was accompanied by two CD-Rs, correct? 1182 01:03:54,448 --> 01:03:56,034 Like, blank discs. 1183 01:03:56,172 --> 01:03:57,344 There was one... 1184 01:03:57,482 --> 01:04:00,517 There was one CD-R that came in in the back of it. 1185 01:04:00,655 --> 01:04:02,724 You know, I can't get into too many of the details 1186 01:04:02,862 --> 01:04:05,275 about the legalities of exactly what happened, 1187 01:04:05,413 --> 01:04:10,034 but you know, since there were two very strong elements, 1188 01:04:11,103 --> 01:04:13,551 the goal would've been 1189 01:04:13,689 --> 01:04:16,931 to have them both coincide with each other, 1190 01:04:17,068 --> 01:04:21,000 both through a book and also through a gallery, 1191 01:04:21,137 --> 01:04:25,137 which is something that we eventually put together 1192 01:04:25,275 --> 01:04:26,758 and got to show. 1193 01:04:26,896 --> 01:04:30,655 It just happened that the music being released 1194 01:04:30,793 --> 01:04:33,551 and the book and the gallery thing 1195 01:04:33,689 --> 01:04:36,206 didn't work out in the right time. 1196 01:04:36,344 --> 01:04:38,068 They didn't, you know, for a lot of reasons. 1197 01:04:38,206 --> 01:04:39,482 I wish they had, 1198 01:04:39,620 --> 01:04:42,620 and through my wishing they had, 1199 01:04:42,758 --> 01:04:47,379 I guess that's why the CD-R was in there and was blank. 1200 01:04:48,413 --> 01:04:52,137 You know, that's about as much as I can say, you know? 1201 01:04:52,275 --> 01:04:54,965 We had a goal, we didn't quite get there... 1202 01:04:55,103 --> 01:04:56,758 - [Narrator] Getting signed to Anti- records 1203 01:04:56,896 --> 01:04:59,551 to record your own next album, 1204 01:04:59,689 --> 01:05:00,931 occasionally gigging, 1205 01:05:01,068 --> 01:05:04,206 travels beyond the mountains became more frequent, 1206 01:05:04,344 --> 01:05:07,000 traversing the Great Smokys on your bike, 1207 01:05:07,137 --> 01:05:09,275 or in your old black Benz, 1208 01:05:09,413 --> 01:05:10,862 toward Knoxville. 1209 01:05:12,655 --> 01:05:14,793 Unmooring from your marriage, 1210 01:05:14,931 --> 01:05:16,827 separation growing, 1211 01:05:16,965 --> 01:05:19,965 soon the riveting miles would begin to fray 1212 01:05:20,103 --> 01:05:21,758 over the jutting and yawning cracks 1213 01:05:21,896 --> 01:05:25,793 between your mountain cabin and a new life in Knoxville. 1214 01:05:25,931 --> 01:05:29,862 [ominous bell ringing] [static crackling] 1215 01:05:30,000 --> 01:05:34,827 The Christmas-time loss of Vic Chesnutt was a deep blow, 1216 01:05:34,965 --> 01:05:38,103 your affinity for him, almost religious. 1217 01:05:38,241 --> 01:05:39,448 His songwriting, 1218 01:05:39,586 --> 01:05:43,172 your mutual and not-too-dissimilar afflictions. 1219 01:05:43,310 --> 01:05:46,172 You said as long as he could do it, you could. 1220 01:05:46,310 --> 01:05:47,517 But Vic had announced to the world 1221 01:05:47,655 --> 01:05:51,517 that autumn that the hospitals, the pain, the bills, 1222 01:05:51,655 --> 01:05:53,517 all of it was too much. 1223 01:05:53,655 --> 01:05:55,448 And not a week into that faded winter, 1224 01:05:55,586 --> 01:05:58,241 he would succeed in taking his life. 1225 01:05:58,379 --> 01:06:01,206 - I have a house in Athens, Georgia, 1226 01:06:01,344 --> 01:06:02,517 and he's my... 1227 01:06:04,413 --> 01:06:06,103 You know, his wife still lives behind me. 1228 01:06:06,241 --> 01:06:09,551 He lived behind me when Vic died. 1229 01:06:09,689 --> 01:06:11,034 I saw them take him out to... 1230 01:06:11,172 --> 01:06:12,068 When he was dying, 1231 01:06:12,206 --> 01:06:15,241 I saw them take him out to the ambulance. 1232 01:06:15,379 --> 01:06:18,034 The first thing I knew that I had to do 1233 01:06:18,172 --> 01:06:20,758 was to call Mark and tell him. 1234 01:06:21,724 --> 01:06:24,413 And I knew he wasn't gonna take it well. 1235 01:06:24,551 --> 01:06:27,379 - He was very strong and didn't really open up to me 1236 01:06:27,517 --> 01:06:31,000 on the phone about Vic and what had happened, 1237 01:06:31,137 --> 01:06:35,172 but he did say to me that, "I always felt all right 1238 01:06:35,310 --> 01:06:36,827 as long as Vic was around." 1239 01:06:36,965 --> 01:06:39,206 And he was able to do it... 1240 01:06:41,896 --> 01:06:44,655 He spoke to that effect about it. 1241 01:06:44,793 --> 01:06:46,586 So it was almost sort of, 1242 01:06:46,724 --> 01:06:51,206 wow, someone that really helped him with his bearings, 1243 01:06:53,413 --> 01:06:57,482 and the fact that Mark suffered with chronic pain 1244 01:06:59,517 --> 01:07:03,827 and still wore braces to be able to walk properly, 1245 01:07:07,206 --> 01:07:08,793 Vic was crucial. 1246 01:07:08,931 --> 01:07:11,620 A crucial friend, you know, an ally. 1247 01:07:11,758 --> 01:07:14,586 - Mark was not in a good place. 1248 01:07:14,724 --> 01:07:16,344 He was out in the Smoky Mountains. 1249 01:07:16,482 --> 01:07:18,931 He was kind of living in his studio. 1250 01:07:19,068 --> 01:07:22,000 He might've been in Knoxville, I wasn't really sure, 1251 01:07:22,137 --> 01:07:25,000 but I thought maybe he was... 1252 01:07:25,137 --> 01:07:27,896 He was definitely drinking again, 1253 01:07:28,758 --> 01:07:31,586 which he did off and on, but I wasn't really sure. 1254 01:07:31,724 --> 01:07:34,482 But I thought maybe there was some drug issues again... 1255 01:07:34,620 --> 01:07:35,517 I didn't really know. 1256 01:07:35,655 --> 01:07:37,758 He just seemed like he was in a bad place. 1257 01:07:37,896 --> 01:07:40,620 - The thing about Mark is that sometimes he would disappear 1258 01:07:40,758 --> 01:07:42,793 off the radar, you know? 1259 01:07:43,827 --> 01:07:46,103 And I might get in touch with Scott or someone 1260 01:07:46,241 --> 01:07:48,413 and see how he's going and stuff. 1261 01:07:48,551 --> 01:07:50,034 So I was never that worried. 1262 01:07:50,172 --> 01:07:52,137 You know, he'd bob up again. 1263 01:07:52,275 --> 01:07:53,413 - There was such a strong connection 1264 01:07:53,551 --> 01:07:54,758 between the two of them. 1265 01:07:54,896 --> 01:07:58,448 I really worried when that broke, when Vic died, 1266 01:07:58,586 --> 01:08:01,413 that this was just gonna affect Mark in a bad way, 1267 01:08:01,551 --> 01:08:02,689 and it... 1268 01:08:02,827 --> 01:08:04,034 I think, unfortunately, 1269 01:08:04,172 --> 01:08:07,517 it turned out that set him into a spiral downward. 1270 01:08:07,655 --> 01:08:11,827 ["Devil's New" by Sparklehorse] 1271 01:08:20,275 --> 01:08:23,620 ["Devil's New" by Sparklehorse continues] 1272 01:08:23,758 --> 01:08:25,482 - [Narrator] When we put ourselves prostrate 1273 01:08:25,620 --> 01:08:29,758 before our muse, other things can walk over us. 1274 01:08:29,896 --> 01:08:33,931 When pain and the seeking to end that pain enter the room, 1275 01:08:34,068 --> 01:08:36,965 we can be cornered, compressed, 1276 01:08:37,103 --> 01:08:39,793 and thus a selection of limited outcomes are sought. 1277 01:08:39,931 --> 01:08:41,758 ["Devil's New" by Sparklehorse continues] 1278 01:08:41,896 --> 01:08:43,896 From within this narrow corridor, 1279 01:08:44,034 --> 01:08:46,689 a life of choosing just the right sound, 1280 01:08:46,827 --> 01:08:48,965 the perfect words for this melody, 1281 01:08:49,103 --> 01:08:53,482 the hook, the economy of a two-and-a-half-minute pop song, 1282 01:08:53,620 --> 01:08:54,724 a gut punch, 1283 01:08:54,862 --> 01:08:56,275 where determinations are made 1284 01:08:56,413 --> 01:08:59,068 to occupy a land finally devoid 1285 01:08:59,206 --> 01:09:01,724 of the witches of white noise. 1286 01:09:01,862 --> 01:09:03,931 ["Devil's New" by Sparklehorse continues] 1287 01:09:04,068 --> 01:09:05,896 We know from the study of ballistics 1288 01:09:06,034 --> 01:09:10,620 that the line of sight is placed according to bullet rise, 1289 01:09:10,758 --> 01:09:12,758 and that there are particular circumstances 1290 01:09:12,896 --> 01:09:15,137 when point-blank range makes sense, 1291 01:09:15,275 --> 01:09:17,931 given a host of variables: 1292 01:09:18,068 --> 01:09:20,310 Muzzle velocity, gravity... 1293 01:09:21,586 --> 01:09:24,206 The morning was cold, drear. 1294 01:09:24,344 --> 01:09:25,517 March the 6th. 1295 01:09:27,275 --> 01:09:31,172 Glaring at your friend's hard-from-behind, disdainful eyes, 1296 01:09:31,310 --> 01:09:34,172 and with a gun beneath your black coat, 1297 01:09:34,310 --> 01:09:37,275 in the middle of uprooting your studio, 1298 01:09:37,413 --> 01:09:41,344 your persistent chest cold, the imminent divorce, 1299 01:09:41,482 --> 01:09:46,241 the unfastening from your mountains, the loss of Vic, 1300 01:09:46,379 --> 01:09:49,586 the pain and new album to launch, 1301 01:09:49,724 --> 01:09:51,724 you walked to the alley outside the house 1302 01:09:51,862 --> 01:09:54,344 to do what Frank Stanford did, 1303 01:09:54,482 --> 01:09:56,379 what Breece D'J Pancake did. 1304 01:09:56,517 --> 01:09:58,137 ["Devil's New" by Sparklehorse continues] 1305 01:09:58,275 --> 01:10:01,344 And Vic now gone, you sought release, 1306 01:10:04,655 --> 01:10:08,482 a lone robin on a limb beyond the alley of notifiers. 1307 01:10:08,620 --> 01:10:12,655 With feather vestments, under a Knoxville skyline, 1308 01:10:12,793 --> 01:10:14,862 you took your own leave. 1309 01:10:15,000 --> 01:10:17,586 ["Devil's New" by Sparklehorse continues] 1310 01:10:17,724 --> 01:10:19,758 If you could have at once embraced the howling 1311 01:10:19,896 --> 01:10:23,551 and filtered the human, the region held great promise, 1312 01:10:23,689 --> 01:10:27,758 but it was the human howl that haunted you into the deed. 1313 01:10:27,896 --> 01:10:29,482 What is important about your leave 1314 01:10:29,620 --> 01:10:30,931 is that you showed us all 1315 01:10:31,068 --> 01:10:34,206 that no matter how well a person appears to be doing, 1316 01:10:34,344 --> 01:10:36,620 or how badly they appear to be doing, 1317 01:10:36,758 --> 01:10:39,137 that you never know when a tear will appear in the fabric 1318 01:10:39,275 --> 01:10:42,310 that keeps us all on this land together. 1319 01:10:42,448 --> 01:10:45,689 However much a person carries on and gets on with it, 1320 01:10:45,827 --> 01:10:50,448 you never, ever know when the last day will arrive, 1321 01:10:50,586 --> 01:10:52,103 that either we learn to treat each other 1322 01:10:52,241 --> 01:10:54,517 like it's the last time we'll hear their voice, 1323 01:10:54,655 --> 01:10:55,689 or we don't. 1324 01:10:59,655 --> 01:11:03,551 [melancholic classical music] 1325 01:11:13,034 --> 01:11:17,068 [melancholic classical music continues] 1326 01:11:17,206 --> 01:11:20,275 - I guess I find it hard to separate, 1327 01:11:22,034 --> 01:11:24,551 knowing Mark, from the sounds. 1328 01:11:26,034 --> 01:11:30,965 Sometimes when you meet artists and then hear their music, 1329 01:11:31,206 --> 01:11:33,000 or one comes before the other, 1330 01:11:33,137 --> 01:11:37,206 it's quite easy to dissociate the sounds you hear 1331 01:11:38,413 --> 01:11:40,965 from the person that you meet. 1332 01:11:41,103 --> 01:11:43,448 That wasn't so easy with Mark. 1333 01:11:43,586 --> 01:11:45,862 [melancholic classical music continues] 1334 01:11:46,000 --> 01:11:47,931 Well, a strange thing happened 1335 01:11:48,068 --> 01:11:51,689 that I got a text message from him and he said, 1336 01:11:51,827 --> 01:11:54,827 "I'm gonna miss you," or "Miss you." 1337 01:11:56,931 --> 01:12:00,862 And this was about a day before, two days before... 1338 01:12:01,000 --> 01:12:02,241 "Miss you." 1339 01:12:02,379 --> 01:12:03,103 "I'm gonna miss you." 1340 01:12:03,241 --> 01:12:04,517 It was one of those two things, 1341 01:12:04,655 --> 01:12:06,137 and I thought it was odd, 'cause I thought maybe... 1342 01:12:06,275 --> 01:12:08,172 Well, maybe he had just sent it, 1343 01:12:08,310 --> 01:12:11,310 it was meant to go to somebody else. 1344 01:12:12,758 --> 01:12:14,310 I don't know. 1345 01:12:14,448 --> 01:12:16,896 So I sort of pushed it off a bit as just like, 1346 01:12:17,034 --> 01:12:19,965 "Okay, he hit the wrong button or something." 1347 01:12:20,103 --> 01:12:22,103 [melancholic classical music continues] 1348 01:12:22,241 --> 01:12:25,758 And then I got a call early in the morning 1349 01:12:26,862 --> 01:12:30,827 from someone very far away, and it says, 1350 01:12:30,965 --> 01:12:32,551 "I'm very sorry about your friend." 1351 01:12:32,689 --> 01:12:34,896 And it took a nanosecond 1352 01:12:35,034 --> 01:12:38,000 to know who they were talking about. 1353 01:12:39,586 --> 01:12:41,137 It was less than... 1354 01:12:42,931 --> 01:12:44,620 It was even less than that. 1355 01:12:44,758 --> 01:12:48,103 It was just immediately, it came to me that Mark, 1356 01:12:48,241 --> 01:12:48,965 it was Mark. 1357 01:12:49,103 --> 01:12:51,310 And when Vic Chesnutt died, 1358 01:12:52,724 --> 01:12:56,379 it really muddied the waters inside of Mark, 1359 01:12:58,620 --> 01:13:00,517 made 'em all turbulent and really hard to see. 1360 01:13:00,655 --> 01:13:03,482 And he was quite torn up about it 1361 01:13:05,448 --> 01:13:08,551 in the way that he spoke with me. 1362 01:13:08,689 --> 01:13:11,275 And there was a bit of anger... 1363 01:13:13,551 --> 01:13:15,689 There was more than a bit, 1364 01:13:16,965 --> 01:13:20,000 there was anger there at what he perceived 1365 01:13:20,137 --> 01:13:22,724 was a world sort of gone wrong, 1366 01:13:25,275 --> 01:13:26,965 at least around Vic. 1367 01:13:28,172 --> 01:13:31,655 And he felt very akin to what he perceived 1368 01:13:35,172 --> 01:13:37,206 was Vic's own feeling of helplessness, 1369 01:13:37,344 --> 01:13:41,172 that whatever Mark had gleaned from that situation, 1370 01:13:41,310 --> 01:13:42,655 from that event, 1371 01:13:44,620 --> 01:13:48,689 really began to rip at the internal parts of him. 1372 01:13:53,137 --> 01:13:55,310 - You know, the thing about Mark 1373 01:13:55,448 --> 01:13:57,965 is he was all heart, you know? 1374 01:14:00,000 --> 01:14:01,655 And that even comes back to the whole idea 1375 01:14:01,793 --> 01:14:05,068 of him not having that defense, that wall, 1376 01:14:05,206 --> 01:14:06,206 to be able to say, 1377 01:14:06,344 --> 01:14:08,586 you know, fuck you to the world, you know? 1378 01:14:08,724 --> 01:14:10,172 He just had this openness. 1379 01:14:10,310 --> 01:14:12,586 His heart was open, always, 1380 01:14:14,034 --> 01:14:16,931 and that sometimes served him, 1381 01:14:17,068 --> 01:14:20,379 and sometimes, it meant that he felt everything. 1382 01:14:20,517 --> 01:14:22,068 You know, there was no filter. 1383 01:14:22,206 --> 01:14:23,620 He felt everything. 1384 01:14:23,758 --> 01:14:26,275 And I could imagine that his pain 1385 01:14:26,413 --> 01:14:29,448 was centered in his heart, you know? 1386 01:14:30,275 --> 01:14:33,103 And the fact that he sings so much about the heart 1387 01:14:33,241 --> 01:14:36,896 and about being filled with stuff, you know, 1388 01:14:37,724 --> 01:14:40,103 sometimes dead stuff. 1389 01:14:40,241 --> 01:14:43,241 - He was one of those peculiar beings that... 1390 01:14:43,379 --> 01:14:47,000 Almost like a radio program from the past, 1391 01:14:50,275 --> 01:14:52,655 Like, "The Shadow knows!" 1392 01:14:52,793 --> 01:14:56,000 That comes in and out to you at points, 1393 01:14:57,310 --> 01:14:58,724 and at times, it sounds real familiar, 1394 01:14:58,862 --> 01:15:00,965 and at times, it disappears and is... 1395 01:15:01,103 --> 01:15:02,827 It's almost like he, at times, 1396 01:15:02,965 --> 01:15:06,344 had trouble fully materializing on Earth, 1397 01:15:08,482 --> 01:15:10,344 and there was always this other part of him 1398 01:15:10,482 --> 01:15:14,551 that just couldn't quite make some sort of a jump 1399 01:15:15,413 --> 01:15:16,827 to fully be here. 1400 01:15:19,310 --> 01:15:20,655 There was always this other part of him 1401 01:15:20,793 --> 01:15:23,103 that seemed very ghost-like, 1402 01:15:24,310 --> 01:15:27,413 and I think he wrestled with it in some ways. 1403 01:15:27,551 --> 01:15:30,241 I think you can hear it, sometimes, in the songs 1404 01:15:30,379 --> 01:15:32,241 and the music and the voice. 1405 01:15:32,379 --> 01:15:34,482 Comes in and out, 1406 01:15:34,620 --> 01:15:38,068 almost like when you go into some crazy old house 1407 01:15:38,206 --> 01:15:39,551 and you think you smell perfume 1408 01:15:39,689 --> 01:15:43,275 that hasn't been there in 100 years. 1409 01:15:43,413 --> 01:15:48,034 - I had this weird thing happen where, the day before... 1410 01:15:52,206 --> 01:15:53,620 I know this does sound very weird, 1411 01:15:53,758 --> 01:15:56,137 but the day before he died, 1412 01:15:56,275 --> 01:15:58,793 I had been in town, in Dublin, 1413 01:15:58,931 --> 01:16:03,482 and I'd passed a venue, and I looked up at the window, 1414 01:16:05,310 --> 01:16:07,379 the top left-hand corner window, 1415 01:16:07,517 --> 01:16:10,206 where the two of us had sat... 1416 01:16:10,344 --> 01:16:11,896 We weren't allowed to smoke in this room, 1417 01:16:12,034 --> 01:16:14,034 so we had with the window open 1418 01:16:14,172 --> 01:16:16,448 and we were smoking out the window, 1419 01:16:16,586 --> 01:16:19,275 and it was kinda where the two of us really connected. 1420 01:16:19,413 --> 01:16:21,000 And I was looking up at that window 1421 01:16:21,137 --> 01:16:23,862 and I hadn't thought about him for quite some time. 1422 01:16:24,000 --> 01:16:25,896 And I looked up at that window 1423 01:16:26,034 --> 01:16:29,103 and I just had a really vivid memory, 1424 01:16:30,310 --> 01:16:32,275 to the point where I just could see him 1425 01:16:32,413 --> 01:16:34,413 and smell him and everything. 1426 01:16:34,551 --> 01:16:39,206 It was really strong, really, really strong, the day before. 1427 01:16:39,344 --> 01:16:42,275 - You know, he was sick, he had a disease, 1428 01:16:42,413 --> 01:16:44,034 he suffered from depression. 1429 01:16:44,172 --> 01:16:45,689 It's a disease. 1430 01:16:45,827 --> 01:16:50,482 I don't know if it would've gone that way anyway, you know? 1431 01:16:50,620 --> 01:16:55,000 I mean, you know, I actually really question that, 1432 01:16:55,137 --> 01:16:58,965 you know, a lot of it is just the fact 1433 01:16:59,103 --> 01:17:02,586 that we don't really have the sort of same healthcare system 1434 01:17:02,724 --> 01:17:05,068 that the rest of the world has, 1435 01:17:05,206 --> 01:17:07,379 and especially with mental health, 1436 01:17:07,517 --> 01:17:11,413 that he was just never really treated properly. 1437 01:17:12,482 --> 01:17:14,655 When he was in periods when he didn't have money, 1438 01:17:14,793 --> 01:17:16,620 like, during that period, 1439 01:17:16,758 --> 01:17:20,068 he was completely functioning untreated, 1440 01:17:21,241 --> 01:17:23,724 suffering from severe depression. 1441 01:17:23,862 --> 01:17:25,896 He was reclusive anyway. 1442 01:17:26,931 --> 01:17:28,517 You know, people kinda come to help him, 1443 01:17:28,655 --> 01:17:33,275 moved him down to Knoxville to live with a friend 1444 01:17:33,413 --> 01:17:35,000 and everybody... 1445 01:17:35,137 --> 01:17:38,103 I know that his brother, at least, 1446 01:17:38,241 --> 01:17:39,689 sort of thought that, you know, some sense of relief. 1447 01:17:39,827 --> 01:17:42,896 "Okay, all right, we got him sort of back in civilization. 1448 01:17:43,034 --> 01:17:44,586 He's not out in the middle of nowhere. 1449 01:17:44,724 --> 01:17:48,137 He's around people where he can get help. 1450 01:17:50,000 --> 01:17:51,620 He's, you know, living with somebody 1451 01:17:51,758 --> 01:17:55,827 and you know, this should help maybe get him out 1452 01:17:56,758 --> 01:17:58,862 of his downward spiral." 1453 01:17:59,000 --> 01:18:01,275 So I was actually really surprised when I found out 1454 01:18:01,413 --> 01:18:02,482 that he had shot himself, 1455 01:18:02,620 --> 01:18:06,586 because I thought he was on his way up again. 1456 01:18:06,724 --> 01:18:08,413 It seemed like he had got... 1457 01:18:08,551 --> 01:18:11,241 I was sort of relieved, right? 1458 01:18:11,379 --> 01:18:13,551 - But what was so terrible 1459 01:18:15,827 --> 01:18:17,000 about what he was going through 1460 01:18:17,137 --> 01:18:20,620 is he was being hit by not one, not two, not three, 1461 01:18:20,758 --> 01:18:25,724 but a handful of things, major life stressors, at once. 1462 01:18:25,862 --> 01:18:28,310 He'd just lost a dear friend, 1463 01:18:30,068 --> 01:18:33,344 you know, less than three months prior, 1464 01:18:33,482 --> 01:18:36,413 he was in the middle of moving not just his home, 1465 01:18:36,551 --> 01:18:38,241 but his studio, 1466 01:18:38,379 --> 01:18:42,862 to a city, from a extremely rural, isolated existence, 1467 01:18:46,241 --> 01:18:49,413 into a bustling Southern city, you know? 1468 01:18:49,551 --> 01:18:51,551 He was making new friends. 1469 01:18:51,689 --> 01:18:54,275 He was embarking on a new album 1470 01:18:56,068 --> 01:18:58,965 that he was almost finished with. 1471 01:18:59,103 --> 01:19:01,620 I think that Mark was very... 1472 01:19:04,172 --> 01:19:07,068 With hindsight, I understand more and more 1473 01:19:07,206 --> 01:19:09,551 that Mark was really, really 1474 01:19:11,379 --> 01:19:14,310 under a tremendous amount of stress 1475 01:19:15,172 --> 01:19:17,172 that would buckle the best of us, 1476 01:19:17,310 --> 01:19:19,344 the toughest of the lot. 1477 01:19:19,482 --> 01:19:20,758 Mark was tough. 1478 01:19:21,862 --> 01:19:23,310 - He would be really honest with me. 1479 01:19:23,448 --> 01:19:24,724 I mean, we would talk... 1480 01:19:24,862 --> 01:19:26,241 You know, we talked about suicide, 1481 01:19:26,379 --> 01:19:30,896 we talked about depression, we talked about these things. 1482 01:19:31,965 --> 01:19:35,517 You know, we talked about his battles openly, 1483 01:19:35,655 --> 01:19:38,000 him and I, and we talked about it with Melissa as well, 1484 01:19:38,137 --> 01:19:38,827 very honest. 1485 01:19:38,965 --> 01:19:40,310 We were very close. 1486 01:19:40,448 --> 01:19:41,965 And he told me it was tough and he told me it was hard, 1487 01:19:42,103 --> 01:19:43,827 but I was just trying to be supportive, you know, 1488 01:19:43,965 --> 01:19:45,275 in whatever I could do, 1489 01:19:45,413 --> 01:19:49,689 trying to think of anything that could help, you know? 1490 01:19:49,827 --> 01:19:53,034 And then I got that call on a Saturday. 1491 01:19:58,068 --> 01:20:02,068 ["Morning Hollow" by Sparklehorse] 1492 01:20:02,206 --> 01:20:04,827 - [Narrator] There is a consensus among those who knew him 1493 01:20:04,965 --> 01:20:08,689 that they will never know another person as rare as Mark. 1494 01:20:08,827 --> 01:20:12,275 His spectral bearing lent a magic to his diamond-hard focus 1495 01:20:12,413 --> 01:20:14,655 and creative determination. 1496 01:20:16,206 --> 01:20:17,827 It's tempting to lump Mark's fall 1497 01:20:17,965 --> 01:20:21,482 into so many sordid and tabloid-worthy tales 1498 01:20:21,620 --> 01:20:24,379 on the indulgence of failed relationships, 1499 01:20:24,517 --> 01:20:28,758 addictions, suicide and the melancholia intrinsic 1500 01:20:28,896 --> 01:20:32,724 to those who are in the business of feeling things. 1501 01:20:32,862 --> 01:20:36,206 But that would absolve us of our own duty to ourselves, 1502 01:20:36,344 --> 01:20:39,206 for within each of us is that opening, 1503 01:20:39,344 --> 01:20:42,620 within each of us is a soul that cobbles together images 1504 01:20:42,758 --> 01:20:44,931 to tell our own unique stories, 1505 01:20:45,068 --> 01:20:47,896 no matter how broken we may be. 1506 01:20:48,034 --> 01:20:50,413 How we take care of that is the trick, 1507 01:20:50,551 --> 01:20:53,586 and the care and grooming of the creative cause. 1508 01:20:53,724 --> 01:20:56,206 It has to go somewhere. 1509 01:20:56,344 --> 01:20:59,103 By fastening yourself to yours, 1510 01:20:59,241 --> 01:21:02,137 you avoid tearing it away from those around you. 1511 01:21:02,275 --> 01:21:04,275 What are you tethered to? 1512 01:21:04,413 --> 01:21:06,517 Does it help you with your chains? 1513 01:21:06,655 --> 01:21:11,000 For within each of us is a bit of Sparklehorse. 1514 01:21:11,137 --> 01:21:15,241 ["Morning Hollow" by Sparklehorse continues] 1515 01:21:15,379 --> 01:21:18,862 - [Gemma] He's left a huge hole in my heart. 1516 01:21:21,206 --> 01:21:24,103 - [Ed] He left us all this beautiful music. 1517 01:21:24,241 --> 01:21:26,310 - [John] His music exists in the world forever 1518 01:21:26,448 --> 01:21:27,620 and his work... 1519 01:21:27,758 --> 01:21:29,379 - [Adrian] Like many great artists before him, 1520 01:21:29,517 --> 01:21:31,310 people will discover his music. 1521 01:21:31,448 --> 01:21:34,344 - [Matthew] Subsequent generations of listeners 1522 01:21:34,482 --> 01:21:39,448 will come across these records and find something amazing. 1523 01:21:39,931 --> 01:21:42,862 - [Matt] Just, yeah, he put some love 1524 01:21:43,000 --> 01:21:45,172 and some beauty into this world. 1525 01:21:45,310 --> 01:21:48,482 - [Narrator] These distillations of sound between the dials, 1526 01:21:48,620 --> 01:21:50,620 the speaking valves, 1527 01:21:50,758 --> 01:21:54,758 the fields of sonic elation were your homage. 1528 01:21:54,896 --> 01:21:57,586 The mutant, the dross of our universe, 1529 01:21:57,724 --> 01:22:00,724 you put them together, this was your offering. 1530 01:22:00,862 --> 01:22:05,655 The unsung, broken but still smiling, discarded toys 1531 01:22:05,793 --> 01:22:08,517 of our collective pasts. 1532 01:22:08,655 --> 01:22:11,206 It is a hard world for little things. 1533 01:22:11,344 --> 01:22:13,413 Polish is to be despised, 1534 01:22:13,551 --> 01:22:16,000 in a glaring, shiny world, 1535 01:22:16,137 --> 01:22:20,137 the recesses, the unloved, the cast off, 1536 01:22:20,275 --> 01:22:21,965 this is your dominion. 1537 01:22:22,103 --> 01:22:23,896 This is Sparklehorse. 1538 01:22:24,034 --> 01:22:29,000 ["Morning Hollow" by Sparklehorse continues] 1539 01:22:35,310 --> 01:22:36,551 ["Chaos of the Galaxy / Happy Man" by Sparklehorse] 1540 01:22:36,689 --> 01:22:41,655 "More would be laid at your feet" 1541 01:22:42,551 --> 01:22:45,275 "If you give me" 1542 01:22:45,413 --> 01:22:49,689 "Just a little smile" 1543 01:22:49,827 --> 01:22:54,793 "The dogs on my trail wouldn't drag me back to jail" 1544 01:22:57,172 --> 01:23:02,206 "I woke up in a horse's stomach upon a foggy morning" 1545 01:23:03,965 --> 01:23:08,965 "His eyes were crazy and he smashed into the cemetery gates" 1546 01:23:10,689 --> 01:23:15,689 "All I want is to be a happy man" 1547 01:23:17,310 --> 01:23:22,310 "All I want is to be a happy man" 1548 01:23:25,517 --> 01:23:30,517 "I've seen teeth across the horizon" 1549 01:23:32,965 --> 01:23:37,793 "Fangs spanning yellow against the earth" 1550 01:23:39,000 --> 01:23:44,000 ["Chaos of the Galaxy/Happy Man" by Sparklehorse continues] 1551 01:23:52,827 --> 01:23:54,103 "And if" 1552 01:23:54,241 --> 01:23:58,793 "I woke up in a horse's stomach upon a foggy morning" 1553 01:24:00,241 --> 01:24:05,275 "His eyes were crazy and he smashed into the cemetery gates" 1554 01:24:07,137 --> 01:24:12,137 "All I want is to be a happy man" 1555 01:24:13,551 --> 01:24:17,724 "All I want is to be a happy man" 1556 01:24:20,172 --> 01:24:25,137 ["Chaos of the Galaxy/Happy Man" by Sparklehorse continues] 1557 01:24:46,482 --> 01:24:51,482 "I woke up in a horse's stomach upon a foggy morning" 1558 01:24:53,206 --> 01:24:58,172 "His eyes were crazy and he smashed into the cemetery gates" 1559 01:25:00,000 --> 01:25:05,068 "And all I want is to be a happy man" 1560 01:25:06,551 --> 01:25:11,551 "And all I want is to be a happy man" 1561 01:25:13,413 --> 01:25:18,413 "All I want is to be a happy man" 1562 01:25:20,034 --> 01:25:25,034 "All I want is to be a happy man" 1563 01:25:27,931 --> 01:25:32,931 "All I want" 1564 01:25:35,103 --> 01:25:40,103 "All I want" 1565 01:25:41,517 --> 01:25:46,206 "All I want" 1566 01:25:46,344 --> 01:25:48,793 "All I want" 1567 01:25:52,448 --> 01:25:57,413 ["Chaos of the Galaxy/Happy Man" by Sparklehorse continues] 1568 01:26:08,068 --> 01:26:11,413 ["Eons" by Jake Hiorns] 1569 01:26:23,517 --> 01:26:27,689 ["Eons" by Jake Hiorns continues] 1570 01:26:38,965 --> 01:26:43,137 ["Eons" by Jake Hiorns continues] 1571 01:26:56,000 --> 01:27:00,241 ["Eons" by Jake Hiorns continues] 1572 01:27:11,862 --> 01:27:16,034 ["Eons" by Jake Hiorns continues] 1573 01:27:26,034 --> 01:27:30,206 ["Eons" by Jake Hiorns continues] 1574 01:27:45,068 --> 01:27:49,241 ["Eons" by Jake Hiorns continues] 1575 01:27:59,931 --> 01:28:04,172 ["Eons" by Jake Hiorns continues] 1576 01:28:14,965 --> 01:28:19,103 ["Eons" by Jake Hiorns continues] 1577 01:28:30,034 --> 01:28:34,206 ["Eons" by Jake Hiorns continues] 1578 01:28:44,896 --> 01:28:49,068 ["Eons" by Jake Hiorns continues] 1579 01:28:59,896 --> 01:29:04,103 ["Eons" by Jake Hiorns continues] 1580 01:29:15,000 --> 01:29:19,172 ["Eons" by Jake Hiorns continues] 1581 01:29:30,034 --> 01:29:34,206 ["Eons" by Jake Hiorns continues] 1582 01:29:44,827 --> 01:29:49,000 ["Eons" by Jake Hiorns continues] 1583 01:29:59,862 --> 01:30:04,000 ["Eons" by Jake Hiorns continues] 1584 01:30:15,758 --> 01:30:19,034 ["Eons" by Jake Hiorns continues] 1585 01:30:29,793 --> 01:30:33,931 ["Eons" by Jake Hiorns continues] 1586 01:30:59,724 --> 01:31:03,965 ["Eons" by Jake Hiorns continues] 1587 01:31:29,758 --> 01:31:33,931 ["Eons" by Jake Hiorns continues] 1588 01:31:59,517 --> 01:32:03,758 ["Eons" by Jake Hiorns continues]