by Adam Hacker
photo by Emma Tillman
Josh Tillman spent eight years making earnest solo material before morphing into the mythic presence that is Father John Misty. Even though his stint with Fleet Foxes should have elevated his profile, he still felt like he needed a change. As he noted on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, he noticed that the audience enjoyed his inter-song banter more than his actual music and finally after taking mushrooms in the woods by himself, he found the new direction he was looking for. With the new semi-psychedelic persona of Father John Misty, Tillman was still able to dress like a preacher from the 1850s while writing confessional songs about romance. However, this time his music ranges with a sharpness that blew apart the self-consciousness of his earlier work. Father John Misty is inarguably one of the greatest examples of an artist reinventing themselves this decade, and reminds us all that sometimes you just need to let loose.
