Daniel Johnston

4:45pm, Austin Ventures stage

As evidenced by the autograph line to greet Daniel Johnston last year at ACL, the 2005 documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston has brought general intrigue surrounding Austin’s beloved prodigal son to unprecedented levels. His endearing battles of precocious optimism and unrequited love have transcended every possible medium: visual art (2006 Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial), rock opera (Speeding Motorcycle), and even an iTunes video game (Hi, How Are You).

In preparation for his Jason Falkner-produced new album, Is and Always Was, the 48-year-old songwriter agreed to a quick game of interview hot potato.

On his new album: “It sounds very Beatles-ish.”

On Danny & the Nightmares’ Death of Satan: “We’ve been working on it for about a year. It was basically a lot of jams and songs that we made up on the spot. It’s pretty spooky. Some titles are ‘Death of Satan,’ ‘Satanic Church,’ ‘I Feel Like Lucifer Tonight.’ I love monster movies. That’s what we like and the kind of music we play – scary music with a sense of humor.”

Favorite horror films: “My favorite movie is King Kong. I like The Bride of Frankenstein, Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Planet of the Apes.”

Favorite musicians to work with: “I’m good friends with the Butthole Surfers. Me and Paul [Leary] are planning to get together to do another record. My friends the Rhythm Rats and I did a lot of recordings and made videos [that] I plan to include on my new movie I’m working on, Untitled Motion Picture.”

Life in Waller: “I have my own house now and sleep most of the day. Things are going well. That’s about it. I’d like to say hi to everybody, and thanks for calling.”

This article appears in October 2 • 2009.

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