ND: The David Lynch thing.
Jack: Yeah. I mean, it’s difficult. You’ve gotta be kind of brave, to just write something that’s a bare love song, and nothing else. And to make something good, that’s not maudlin. It’s hard to do.
Vic: Jack writes the best love songs. It’s insane. He writes amazing love songs.
Jack (pretending to be moved to tears): Thanks.
ND: You got any particular song in mind?
Vic: There’s millions of them.
Jack: But he can’t name one!
Vic: No, no, I don’t want to start.
ND: Wait, I’m curious. Do you ever write anything with specific people in mind?
Vic: “Love, Not Lunch”?
Jack: Yeah, but that’s more of a rowdy, nasty song.
ND: “Chloroform”.
Vic: Yeah, that’s a love song.
Jack: Gee, I don’t know. I’m starting to get scared, now. I think [Vic and I] are totally different in our approaches. But at the same time, I think he does stuff way better than — I think he could do what I do easier than I could learn to do what he does.
Vic: I couldn’t do what you do. I tried. Half my fucking adult life was spent trying to do what Jack does.
Jack: I’m just not as – I stick with the same themes, pretty much. It’s all the same song, really. But I do think we’re both kind of storyteller fans.
ND: Do you ever write while drinking, while under the influence? A lot of writers say they can’t write — can’t put words on paper — while they’re drinking.
Jack: I’d rather sing than actually write the words, but, you know…
ND: But you have?
Jack: Oh, yeah. I still do.
ND: Vic?
Vic: Oh, gosh. Geez. Every song before 1992, I guess, was written when I was stinking drunk, pretty much. Probably every song I wrote from 1980 to 1992.
ND: Lyric-wise, too?
Vic: Every which-wise. Performed, written…absolutely.
Jack: I guess other people take it more as a job, or something. But for me, to have a few drinks is the most…I’m not an alcoholic, so it’s easy for me to say, I guess. Once you reach that point where you gotta be drunk…Vic?
(laughter)
ND: That would be a scary thought, if you felt like you had to have it to create.
(Vic whistles into his beer bottle.)
Jack (laughing): Well, you obviously don’t. You’ve pretty much been on the wagon for a while.
ND: Maybe that’s why the new album sounds different.
(Vic chugs the rest of his beer.)
ND: The new album sounds less drenched in alcohol.
Vic: A little bit was recorded [while I was] pretty wasted. A little bit. But most of it was pretty sober.
Jack: You’re just trying to get out there, I think. Even if it’s not on alcohol. You want to be in another state of mind, or at least I do. Because if you’re just sitting there thinking “I’ll do this and this and this,” it just doesn’t happen. That’s true for me, anyway.
ND: I’m sure we all know people who did great stuff when they were drinking, and then they sobered up and now the stuff is not so good.
