John Darnielle is a singer and songwriter and author of several books. He's probably best known as the front man of the indie rock band The Mountain Goats, a band he's led for 35 years.
Over the three and a half decades it's been a band, the Mountain Goats have undergone countless lineup changes and their records have shifted in sound, too: from lo-fi bedroom folk recorded on a boom box, to stripped down chamber-pop, to real, earnestly sung, professionally produced rock records. Their songs are incisive, and tell stories of addiction, of loss, of love, of music, and even of professional wrestling.
The Mountain Goats newest album, Days, dropped this past August. Darnielle joined us to talk about the new record, and even brought his guitar by the studio for a live performance.