A.V. Club interviews Mark Kozelek: “Though the San Francisco-based leader of Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon is one of America’s finest songwriters, he’s also a magician with covers, turning Kiss and AC/DC rockers into haunting ballads, getting indie kids to swoon to John Denver, and taking all the cringe out of Paul McCartney’s “Silly Love Songs.”"

AVC: Are you worried that you’re going to start getting pigeonholed as “the covers guy”?

MK: Well, you know, on my tombstone, I’d rather it said, “He was a great songwriter” than “He was a great song interpreter.” [Laughs.] Mark KozelekBut I’m fine if people say that. There’s a certain element of truth to it. Like many musicians, it’s my roots in music, playing cover songs. Red House Painters were doing cover songs before our first record deal. I remember live shows where we did an AC/DC song; I think we did “Send In The Clowns” by Judy Collins. We did “The Star Spangled Banner,” which came out on our third record. I’ve done probably a lot more covers than the average person who does what I do, but I’m very proud of it, and I do feel like I really bring a lot artistically to these covers. I mean, I sent this record out to a dozen labels, all of which didn’t know that these songs were Modest Mouse covers.
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