When our publisher told us that he got us an interview with Josh Tilman, also known as “Father John Misty,” our first reaction was “what did we do to deserve such punishment?” We’ve interviewed a lot of conceited, self-righteous artists throughout our career, but really, this guy?
After complaining about the assignment with a friend over drinks, she told us that she knew Father John Misty, and would be happy to go with us. Hoping that she could kind of carry the interview and that we could just zone out the entire time, we gladly obliged.
On the day of the interview, we pulled up to a church, which we thought was weird, but figured it was just one of his bizarre, insufferable acts. Our friend walked us in but then told us that, much to our dismay, we had to go into the room alone.
There was a single chair, and Tilman was nowhere in sight. Then a voice came from this box-type thing and said “have a seat, my son.” Again, weird, but when dealing with this guy you’ve just gotta roll your eyes and go with the flow, right?
We figured we’d ask about his time in Fleet Foxes because that sounded way more interesting than hearing him drone on about the inspiration behind his latest release “Chloe and the 20th Century.” But he completely dodged the question and asked us what’s been troubling us.
We had been feeling pretty guilty about the other day when we spilled beer all over our roommate’s record collection and just hoped he wouldn’t notice, so we told him about that. He told us that we should come clean about what we did and that our roommate, like God, would forgive. Honestly, we felt a lot better. He then told us to say 10 Hail Marys and sent us on our way.
All in all, it was a positive experience. We left the church feeling like a massive weight had been lifted off our shoulders and relieved that he cut the interview so short.
It was only when our publisher called us to say that the actual Mr. Tilman was on the other line, and was furious that we’d kept him waiting for two hours, that we realized we had interviewed the wrong Father John Misty. Thankfully, he made it very clear he didn’t want to reschedule. Maybe God is real.