https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/john-darnielle-wants-to-tell-you-a-story Skip to main content The New Yorker * Newsletter To revisit this article, select My Account, then View saved stories Close Alert Sign In Search * News * Books & Culture * Fiction & Poetry * Humor & Cartoons * Magazine * Puzzles & Games * Video * Podcasts * Archive * Goings On * Shop Open Navigation Menu To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories Close Alert The New Yorker New Yorker Favorites * The Miseducation of Maria Montessori * A New Story for Stonehenge * Dinner with the Queen * Barbra Streisand, Rising Star The New Yorker Interview John Darnielle Wants to Tell You a Story The Mountain Goats front man and novelist discusses art as labor, the value of religious faith, the beauty of Chaucer, and, more or less, the secret to happiness. By Helen Rosner April 24, 2022 * * * * * Save this story for later. John Darnielle stands among vehicles with his left hand behind his head. Photograph by Allison Donnelly for The New Yorker * * * * * Save this story for later. John Darnielle, the leader--and, at times, the only member--of the band the Mountain Goats, writes songs that are narrative, literary, and full of recurring lyrical motifs: cruel stepdads, grief, sci-fi, death metal, small southern towns, religious ephemera, delusion and ambition, the blurred lines between love and hate. It sounds teen-angsty, laid out like that, but Darnielle, who is now in his mid-fifties, has had from the time of the band's formation, in the early nineties, a knack for avoiding the maudlin in favor of the uncannily precise. His songwriting style drills into the intimacy of small moments, telling stories about specific people in specific times and places. One of the Mountain Goats' most famous songs, "This Year," from the 2005 album "The Sunset Tree," is the semi-autobiographical story of a teen with a miserable home life, finding joy where he can. The refrain is an ecstatic threat: "I am going to make it through this year if it kills me." In 2020, when the pandemic turned the world upside down, "This Year" broke out, reaching beyond the Mountain Goats' passionate, occasionally insular fan base, to become an agonized anthem of the moment. Readers of the Guardian voted the track to the top slot of their "Good Riddance 2020" playlist. Darnielle grew up in California and moved to Portland, Oregon, after receiving his high-school equivalency. He returned to California following the darkest period of a drug addiction and worked as a psychiatric nurse. In 1991, he enrolled at Pitzer College, where he studied English and classics, and began recording as the Mountain Goats. After four years of prolific lo-fi releases, the Mountain Goats started recording in a studio; three decades and twenty-odd albums later, the band is a pillar of the indie-rock world. Today, Darnielle lives in Durham, North Carolina, and when he's not making music he is writing novels. (His second book, "Wolf in White Van," was long-listed for the 2014 National Book Award.) I met up with him recently, when he was visiting New York on tour, in the uncommonly luxe indoor-outdoor greenroom above the newish venue Brooklyn Made. A bandmate floated in a small body of water on a rooftop deck. ("Listen," Darnielle said. "I would never tell anyone what to write, but, if you didn't mention that you found my bassist lounging in a hot tub, I'd be so unhappy.") Later, when Darnielle was back home in Durham, we continued our conversation by phone. He was on a break between tours and preparing to release his latest novel, "Devil House ," an elegant and unsettling story of a true-crime writer unravelling a nineteen-eighties Satanic Panic killing. We spoke about art as labor, the value of religious faith, the beauty of Chaucer, and, more or less, the secret to happiness. This conversation has been edited and condensed. More New Yorker Interviews * Dean Baquet on his tenure as the Times' executive editor, and the state of journalism. * Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the "shit show" in Congress--and her vision for how to change it. * Min Jin Lee on her arrival in America and why she reads the Bible before writing. * David Hockney shows off a new series of paintings and discusses the work he has left to do. * Stevie Nicks talks about style, spirits, and writing one of her best songs. * Patricia Lockwood discusses her "atrocious" early writing and how getting COVID rewired her brain. Sign up for our daily newsletter to receive the best stories from The New Yorker. Support award-winning journalism and get a free tote bag. Subscribe today. [helen_rosn] Helen Rosner is a staff writer at The New Yorker. In 2016, she won the James Beard award for personal-essay writing. More:Pop MusicSongwritingLiteratureWritingArtists The New Yorker Recommends What our staff is reading, watching, and listening to each week. E-mail address [ ] Sign up By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. The New Yorker Sections * News * Books & Culture * Fiction & Poetry * Humor & Cartoons * Magazine * Crossword * Video * Podcasts * Archive * Goings On More * Customer Care * Shop The New Yorker * Buy Covers and Cartoons * Conde Nast Store * Digital Access * Newsletters * Jigsaw Puzzle * RSS * Site Map * About * Careers * Contact * F.A.Q. * Media Kit * Press * Accessibility Help * Conde Nast Spotlight (c) 2022 Conde Nast. All rights reserved. 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