John Darnielle (; born March 16, 1967) is an American musician and novelist best known as the primary, and originally sole, member of the American band the Mountain Goats, for which he is the writer, composer, guitarist, pianist, and vocalist.

Early life

Born in

Bloomington, Indiana Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the central region of the U.S. state of Indiana. It is the seventh-largest city in Indiana and the fourth-largest outside the Indianapolis metropolitan area. According to the Mo ...

, Darnielle grew up in

San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo (; Spanish for " St. Louis the Bishop", ; Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, in the U.S. state of California. Located on the Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly hal ...

and then Claremont, California with an abusive stepfather (as referenced frequently in '' The Sunset Tree''). Darnielle often attended

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

matches with his stepfather at the

Grand Olympic Auditorium The Grand Olympic Auditorium is a former sports venue in southern Downtown Los Angeles, California. The venue was built in 1924 at 1801 South Grand Avenue, now just south of the Santa Monica Freeway. The grand opening of the Olympic Auditorium ...

. There, he developed a passion for the sport and local wrestlers like Chavo Guerrero Sr. His childhood love of wrestling would go on to inspire the Mountain Goats' album '' Beat the Champ''. Darnielle attended Claremont High School, located in the Pomona Valley region of

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...

. For a short time after high school, he lived in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

, where he developed an addiction to intravenous methamphetamine and other hard drugs (as referenced in '' We Shall All Be Healed''). Darnielle worked in the psychiatric ward at the Metropolitan State Hospital in

Norwalk, California Norwalk is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 105,549 at the 2010 census and an estimated 103,949 in 2019. It is the 58th most densely-populated city in California. Founded in the late 19th century, Nor ...

. Darnielle attended Pitzer College from 1991 to 1995, earning a degree in English. Throughout his college education, he continued to record music. In 1992, Dennis Callaci, a friend of Darnielle's and owner of Shrimper Records, released a tape of Darnielle's songs called '' Taboo VI: The Homecoming''. Around that time, the Mountain Goats were born and began touring with just Darnielle on guitar and a bassist, first Rachel Ware and then Peter Hughes.

Musical career

Darnielle is best known for his role in the band the Mountain Goats. Since starting the band in 1991, he has gained a cult following. Despite being dubbed a low fidelity artist, Darnielle has always dubbed his work "bi-fi", pointing out that recordings such as his couldn't be made without modern technology. He is known for his prolific output and literary lyrics.

Sasha Frere-Jones Alexander Roger Wallace "Sasha" Frere-Jones (né Jones; born 1967) is an American writer, music critic, and musician. He has written for ''Pretty Decorating'', '' ego trip'', ''Hit It And Quit It'', ''Mean'', '' Slant'', ''The New York Post'', '' ...

, writing in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', referred to him as "America’s best non-hip-hop lyricist". In its June 2006 issue, '' Paste'' magazine named Darnielle one of the "100 Best Living Songwriters". Darnielle has several series of songs with similar titles or storylines. A series entitled "Going To..." features small stories about various places and includes songs such as "Going to Cleveland", "Going to Maryland", "Going to Georgia", and "Going to Queens". This series explores the futility of running away from one's problems in stark and cryptic detail. There is no reoccurring main character or strong thematic subject linking these similarly titled tracks, and in a 1997 interview with KJHK-Lawrence, Darnielle has described the series as "real loose, though. it's real loose". His "Alpha" series predates his musical career and began as a collection of poems called 'Songs from Alpha Primitive'. It is about a distressed couple's marriage and history, with such song titles as "Alpha Incipiens", "Alphabetizing", and "Alpha Rats Nest". The band's 2002 album ''

Tallahassee Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the population ...

'' was exclusively about the couple. "Their broader story", Darnielle writes, "involved an alcohol-soaked trek from California through Nevada and then bottom-crawling across the country until they wound up in northern Florida". Unless otherwise specified in the lyrics, the songs are intended to be sung by either member of the couple. There are a number of songs, not all containing the word 'alpha', that are generally considered to be part of the series, and are explored in more detail on Kyle Barbour's site 'The Annotated Mountain Goats. Darnielle has stated that all songs written up to and including those on ''

'' are fictional, but that '' We Shall All Be Healed'', '' The Sunset Tree'', and other more recent works are partially autobiographical.

Collaborations

Darnielle is featured on

Aesop Rock Ian Matthias Bavitz (born June 5, 1976), better known by his stage name Aesop Rock, is an American rapper and producer from Long Island, New York. He was at the forefront of the new wave of underground and alternative hip hop acts that emer ...

's song "Coffee" (from the hip-hop artist's 2007 album '' None Shall Pass'') and appears in the corresponding music video. Additionally, Aesop Rock remixed the Mountain Goats' " Lovecraft in Brooklyn". He collaborated with

John Vanderslice John Vanderslice (born May 22, 1967 in Gainesville, Florida) is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, and recording engineer. He is the owner and founder of Tiny Telephone, an analog recording studio with locations in San Francisco M ...

on lyrics for the 2005 album '' Pixel Revolt'', and in 2009, Darnielle released a collaborative recording titled '' Moon Colony Bloodbath'', after a shared tour with Vanderslice. They toured under the collective name The Comedians, though their recording is attributed to "the Mountain Goats and John Vanderslice". In 2008, Darnielle released a tour-exclusive EP entitled '' Black Pear Tree EP'', the result of a collaboration with tourmate

Kaki King Kaki King (born Katherine Elizabeth King, August 24, 1979) is an American guitarist and composer. King is known for her percussive and jazz-tinged melodies, energetic live shows, use of multiple tunings on acoustic and lap steel guitar, and he ...

. On September 20, 2010, Darnielle appeared on '' Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'' with the band Superchunk (whose drummer, Jon Wurster, is also in the Mountain Goats). They performed the song " Digging for Something" with a positive reception. Darnielle appeared on

Kimya Dawson Kimya Dawson (born November 17, 1972) is an American folk singer-songwriter, one half of the anti-folk duo the Moldy Peaches. Dawson's work with the Moldy Peaches earned them a cult following and critical acclaim, with their 2001 song "Anyone El ...

's 2011 album '' Thunder Thighs'', featured on the song "Walk Like Thunder."

Writing

Darnielle's first book, ''Black Sabbath: Master of Reality'', was published in April 2008 as part of the 33⅓ series. Unlike other entries in the series, which are non-fiction books that focus on an album's production or legacy, Darnielle's book on '' Master of Reality'' was instead a fictional narrative in the form of a novella, centering around a young man held in a psychiatric facility in the mid-1980s who is attempting to retrieve his confiscated Walkman and tape of the album. Darnielle's first novel, titled ''

Wolf in White Van ''Wolf in White Van'' is the first novel by the American author and singer-songwriter John Darnielle. ''Wolf in White Van'' tells the story of Sean Phillips, a reclusive game designer whose face has been severely disfigured. One reviewer charac ...

'', was published on September 16, 2014, and was nominated for the National Book Award for Fiction two days later. His second novel, ''

Universal Harvester ''Universal Harvester'' is a novel by the American novelist and singer-songwriter John Darnielle. It is the second novel written by Darnielle, after '' Wolf in White Van''. It tells the story of a video store clerk in Iowa who finds strange and ...

'', was published on February 7, 2017. Darnielle's third novel, '' Devil House'', was published on January 25, 2022. From 2004 to 2011 Darnielle created and wrote the

webzine An online magazine is a magazine published on the Internet, through bulletin board systems and other forms of public computer networks. One of the first magazines to convert from a print magazine format to being online only was the computer maga ...

''Last Plane To Jakarta'', citing other projects as the reason for its abandonment. He writes the "South Pole Dispatch" feature in ''

Decibel Magazine ''Decibel'' is a monthly heavy metal magazine published by the Philadelphia-based Red Flag Media since October 2004. Its sections include Upfront, Features, Reviews, Guest Columns and the Decibel Hall of Fame. The magazine's tag-line is currentl ...

'' every month. Darnielle also guest edited the poetry section of The Mays, an anthology of the best creative work coming out of

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

. Darnielle wrote the introduction to the June 2016 book ''

The Empty Bottle The Empty Bottle is a bar and music venue located at 1035 N. Western Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. Located on the west side of Chicago's Ukrainian Village neighborhood, the venue primarily hosts local, regional, and touring alternative music act ...

Chicago: 21+ Years of Music / Friendly / Dancing'', about the eponymous nightclub.

Podcasting

In 2012, Darnielle guest starred in John Hodgman's

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

Judge John Hodgman ''Judge John Hodgman'' is a weekly, comedic court show podcast hosted by John Hodgman and Jesse Thorn. The show is distributed online by Maximum Fun. The program features host John Hodgman acting as a judge (with Jesse Thorn as bailiff) adjud ...

'' serving as an expert witness and musical guest. Since 2017 he has co-hosted the podcast "I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats" with Joseph Fink. Each episode of the podcast explores one Mountain Goats song in great detail. In 2022, August 22nd and 24th Darnielle appeared as a guest on Margaret Killjoy's podcast "Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff". Darnielle appeared on the episodes " The Diggers, the Levelers, the Ranters and John Darnielle" part one and two.

Personal life

Darnielle has lived in

Grinnell, Iowa Grinnell is a city in Poweshiek County, Iowa, United States. The population was 9,564 at the time of the 2020 census. It is best known for being the home of Grinnell College. History Grinnell was founded by settlers from New England who we ...

; Colo, Iowa; Ames, Iowa;

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

;

; and

Milpitas, California Milpitas ( Spanish for "little milpas") is a city in Santa Clara County, California, in Silicon Valley. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 80,273. The city's origins lie in Rancho Milpitas, granted to Californio ranchero José Mar� ...

. He currently resides in Durham, North Carolina with his wife Lalitree Darnielle, a botanist and photographer (who was featured playing the banjo in the band's 1998 EP '' New Asian Cinema''), and sons Roman and Moses. Darnielle prays regularly and identifies as a Christian. His music often includes religious themes, including ''

The Life of the World to Come ''The Life of the World to Come'' (2004) is a science fiction novel by American writer Kage Baker, the fifth installment in the time travel series concerning the exploits of The Company. Plot introduction This novel is another chapter in the di ...

'', on which each song is named after a Bible verse. He is a fan of Christian singers

Amy Grant Amy Lee Grant (born November 25, 1960) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. She began in contemporary Christian music (CCM) before crossing over to pop music in the 1980s and 1990s. She has been referred to as "The Queen of Christia ...

and Rich Mullins.

Activism

Darnielle became a

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetariani ...

in 1996 and by 2007 identified as a vegan. In the same year, he performed at a benefit for the animal welfare organization

Farm Sanctuary Farm Sanctuary is an American animal protection organization, founded in 1986 as an advocate for farmed animals. It was America's first shelter for farmed animals. It promotes laws and policies that support animal welfare, animal protection, a ...

in Watkins Glen, New York. He performed again at Farm Sanctuary in 2009. In 2011, Darnielle performed solo in support of Planned Parenthood, at the Stand Up for Women's Health Rally in New York City. In an interview with BuzzFeed, Darnielle identified himself as a feminist, and was described as a "frequent Twitter commentator on women's issues,

social justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, Equal opportunity, opportunities, and Social privilege, privileges within a society. In Western Civilization, Western and Culture of Asia, Asian cultures, the concept of social ...

, and heavy metal."

Bands in which Darnielle has played

Darnielle is also a member or former member of the following bands: * The Extra Lens formerly known as The Extra Glenns (along with Franklin Bruno) **Releases: two full-lengths titled '' Martial Arts Weekend'' & '' Undercard'', as well as a double sided 7" EP titled ''Infidelity'' *The Comedians (along with

). The band's only studio recording was credited to "the Mountain Goats and John Vanderslice" **Releases: '' Moon Colony Bloodbath'' * The Bloody Hawaiians (along with Joel Huschle (Furniture Huschle), Mark Givens ( Wckr Spgt), Caroline) **Releases: ''The Magnificent Bloody Hawaiians'', ''Bastard Son'', '' The Threegos'', "Lemon" on ''Cool Beans #4'')

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Darnielle, John 1967 births Living people Pitzer College alumni Writers from Bloomington, Indiana Musicians from Bloomington, Indiana American male singer-songwriters American folk rock musicians 20th-century American singers 21st-century American singers People from San Luis Obispo, California 20th-century American male singers 21st-century American male singers The Mountain Goats members Musicians from Durham, North Carolina Christians from California Christians from Indiana People from Claremont, California Singer-songwriters from Indiana Singer-songwriters from North Carolina Singer-songwriters from California