October, 2017 RollingStoneAus.com | Rolling Stone | 27How Judd Apatow
Went Deep With
the Avett Brothers
Inside the director’s powerful new
fly-on-the-wall documentaryIn 2012, when Judd Apatow used the
Avett Brothers’ buoyant, love-drunk
ballad “Live and Die” in his coming-
of-middle-age comedyThis Is 40,it
was a choice that reflected a passion
for the band’s heartfelt folk pop.
“Their music is about reaching out
and trying to connect with other
people, as well as the obstacles of
love,” says Apatow. “And I try to ex-
press some of the same things in the
realm of comedy.”
So when he heard that his friend
Rick Rubin was producing the Avetts’
ninth album,True Sadness,which came
out last year, Apatow asked the band
if he could document its creation. The
resulting film isMay It Last: A Portrait
of the Avett Brothers, which Apatow
made with co-director Michael Bonfi-
glio. In addition to telling the band’s
story, it presents a fly-on-the-wall look
at their process, and the emotion that
goes into it; in one scene, frontman
Scott Avett is shown having what he
later describes as a “tantrum” while
singing the softly wrenching “No Hard
Feelings”. Apatow was also on hand
for intimate personal moments – from
bassist Bob Crawford’s daughtersurviving brain surgery to Seth Avett
receiving the happy news that his
then-girlfriend, actress Jennifer Car-
penter, was pregnant.
How did Apatow sell the Avetts on
letting him into their world? “He said,
‘I just want to be involved in some-
thing that is about something I love’,”
says Scott, “and that helped us open
the door.” KORY GROW FROM TOP: TOM ROSS; GETTYK
urt vile was in philadelphia,
posing for a photo shoot, but his
mind was miles away: 10,300 miles,
to be exact, the distance from his
hometown to Melbourne, Australia, where
one of his favourite songwriters, Courtney
Barnett, lives. “I started spacing out and
writing a song for Courtney,” Vile recalls. “I
had a fantasy that she would sing it with me.”
The song he began writing that day in
2015, “Over Everything” – a sneakily deep
riff on life as a creative loner – provided the
spark for Vile and Barnett’s excellent new
album, Lotta Sea Lice, due out in October.
The two were only casual acquaintances,
but they had a lot in common: Both are
among indie rock’s finest storytellers, with
a shared sense of deadpan humour running
through Vile’s existential blues jams and
Barnett’s concise tales of everyday weird-
ness. And Barnett, who says she was “strug-
gling” with writing a follow-up to her suc-
cessful debut LP, loved the idea of a fun side
project. A few months later, she invited him
to a Melbourne studio to work on “Over Ev-
erything” and another song she’d dreamed
up for him in return.
“It’s a scary process, taking a half-written
song to someone,” Barnett says. “I didn’t
want him to be like, ‘God, this sucks. What
have I gotten myself into?’ ” But they hit it
off immediately. “The vibes were strong,”
says Vile. “We discovered we could finishthings on the quick, like an outlaw country
singer, or Neil Young.” Adds Barnett, “We
were mucking around, eating pizza, and we
had all these songs all of a sudden.”
The pair continued working throughout- Vile was on vacation with his family
in Hawaii when he penned “Continental
Breakfast”, an ambling ballad about his and
Barnett’s blossoming long-distance friend-
ship. They reconvened in Melbourne to fin-
ish the album with session players.
They found room on the track list for
choice covers – there’s a lovely duet on Bel-
ly’s 1993 song “Untogether”, and a blazing
version of “Fear Is Like a Forest”, originally
recorded by Barnett’s partner, Jen Cloher.
They also recorded reinterpretations of each
other’s songs (Barnett’s rueful take on Vile’s
“Peeping Tomboy” is a standout). The collab-
oration generated more material than could
fit on the album: They hope to release a cover
of Fats Domino’s “Blueberry Hill” that Vile
calls “ridiculous and awesome”.
Vile and Barnett have since returned to
working on their respective upcoming solo
albums, neither of which has a release date.
In the meantime, they’re getting ready to
tour the U.S. together this northern autumn
with an all-star band (including Sleater-
Kinney’s Janet Weiss on drums for several
dates). “We’re just gonna get onstage and see
what happens,” Barnett jokes. Vile chuckles
and adds, “It’ll be sick.” SIMON VOZICK-LEVINSON
Kurt and Courtney:
Indie Rock’s Superduo
How Kurt Vile and Courtney Barnett got together
for an excellent LP of shared deadpan geniusVile and
Barnett at
work in
Melbourne
last yearScott (left)
and Seth
Avett