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‘Grief is giving me this beautiful, deepening understanding’: Phil Elverum on loss, new love and his landmarks of US indie

His wife died, he became a single parent and his next marriage swiftly ended. After these trials, the hugely acclaimed singer-songwriter explains why he’s turning outward to consider the world around him

Elverum left Anacortes for Evergreen State College in Olympia in 1997 – where riot grrrl had been forged at the turn of the 90s – but got his true education at Dub Narcotic Studio as apprentice to Calvin Johnson, leader of Beat Happening and founder of K Records, and immersed himself in the art of production. He had developed a songwriting voice influenced by the “underground soap-opera” storytelling of Eric’s Trip; the “grounded, small-scale autobiography” of independent comics creators Chester Brown, Julie Doucet and Joe Matt; and the radical honesty of Sebadoh’s Lou Barlow. His new vehicle, also called Mount Eerie, was experimental by design, its albums pursuing his every whim and concept – be that duetting with Julie Doiron from his beloved Eric’s Trip (Lost Wisdom), or embracing synthesisers (Clear Moon) or Auto-Tune (Pre-Human), or reimagining black metal (the thrillingly maximalist Wind’s Poem).

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