Father John Misty is the nom de soft rock of one Joshua Tillman, a.k.a. J. Tillman, ex-drummer for Fleet Foxes and author of eight largely ignored and invariably joyless solo albums of pious folk rectitude. Those LPs remain a well-kept secret. And then one day in 2010, he blew up his life. Killed off J. Tillman, quit the Fleet Foxes, let his raging id off the short leash it had been kept on since his tormented childhood trapped in a fundamentalist Christian house of pain. Instead of muting his wicked sense of humor and bottomless appetite for the absurd, he turned it up to 11. He changed his stage name to Father John Misty. Threw his guitar and a family-size sack of magic mushrooms into the van, and set the controls for the heart of Babylon. Fear Fun (Sub Pop), Father John Misty’s debut, came out a year ago, and after 12 months of trippin’-balls touring, inclusion on innumerable year-end best-of lists and a lot of swooning word of mouth on social media, the album has become the sleeper hit of the year. Tillman will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our recent print cover story on him.
Tillman: This morning, after throwing my instant organic oatmeal cup into the compost, I got into my Prius and headed off for another day of work at my social network start-up. The “inspiration-space” that I share with four anti-procreation friends from college is a dog-friendly “fun-vironment” where the world’s most cutting-edge innovations can sprout naturally in any one of the ergonomic yoga womb-balls that we keep scattered around our cubicle-free work/share space. Digital integration is huge part of what we do. Since the free exchange of ideas and access to a wide diversity of worldviews is integral to the healthy function of a humane, though industrialized, democracy, we here at Trimble believe that we can provide 21st-century solutions to our shrinking world. Our direct involvement in supplying alkaline water to non-profits building recycling zones for the Arab Spring led to OH MY GOD, WHAT IT THAT? IT’S A FUCKING METEOR NO NO NO NO FUCK ME OH GOD NO!!!
Video after the jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dJLSRcnruM
