Magic and loss

>> Elvis Perkins processes joy and
pain on Ash Wednesday

WARY OF WEEDS: Elvis Perkins in Dearland

by LORRAINE CARPENTER

As they say about books and their covers, don’t judge an artist by his name. He’s not a novelty rockabilly act, for one thing. This American singer-songwriter was born Elvis Perkins, the son of Hollywood actor Tony Perkins. Strange assumptions and expectations are elicited by a name shared with “the King” and the man who played Norman Bates, but Elvis Perkins pays them no mind.

For the past 10 months, his only address has been the bus he shares with his band, known as Elvis Perkins in Dearland, featuring bassist Brigham Brough, keyboardist/guitarist Wyndham Boylan-Garnett and drummer Nicholas Kinsey. They’ve been through Europe and North America with Cold War Kids and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, in support of Perkins’s debut album, Ash Wednesday, a collection of folk songs that have drawn comparisons to Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen.

The Mirror contacted Perkins to discuss what his father taught him about showbiz, and how his album deals with the loss of his mother, photographer and actress Berry Berenson, who was aboard one of the planes that hit the World Trade Center on September 11.

Mirror: Your lyrics are fairly abstract, but I gather that many of the songs on this album deal with grief.

Elvis Perkins: Yeah, I think it’s true. I didn’t consciously approach it that way but everything one does is a means of coping with whatever their experience is, so I guess it’s a lucky coincidence, or just how my destiny is laid out, that I deal with being alive by writing songs and singing them. So sure, in the grieving process or in a state of joy, that’ll all be filtered through what I do.

M: Your father made some damning statements about Hollywood. Did you get the impression that his experience in the business was negative?

EP: I’ve never really felt like I was part of a Hollywood family that really defined itself that way and I got the sense from him that, like probably any business, there’s a lot of stuff and a lot of people who aren’t worth your while. I remember him saying that you’ve gotta weed your garden, you’ve gotta use what’s good and keep the good people around and block out a lot of the crap.

M: Is that something you’ve had to do?

EP: I’m still pretty much a newcomer to the industry, so I’m still figuring it out, but so far I’ve had the good fortune to be surrounded by the best people there are. I feel like things are going pretty well so far.

M: I assume it was your choice to work with indie labels and distributors.

EP: Yeah, I had some friends on a major label who got majorly screwed over, and apparently it’s not an uncommon story. I felt like the record wasn’t something that would be pushed by a major label or that I would want pushed in that sort of way and I just felt like it would be easy to be ignored or to not be given the sort of support and guidance and attention that one can get from an independent.

With Clap Your Hands Say Yeah at
Metropolis on Friday, April 13, 9 p.m., $25