This past fall, I reached out to New Zealand-based indie rock icon David Kilgourof the Clean and the Heavy 8’s for an interview. I’ve been a megafan of the man’s work for quite some time and you can hear his influence in a variety of bands, from Guided by Voices to Pavement to Parquet Courts.

It has been a busy year for the singer. In August, Kilgour and the Heavy 8’s released their latest album End Times Undone on Merge Records. Merge also revisited his illustrious backcatalog by reissuing the Clean’s comprehensive boxset, Anthology.

Both bands toured the States throughout the summer but there were rumblings of this last batch of shows being the final ones for the Clean (in the States atleast).

In our brief e-mail chat, I asked David about writing, painting, the recent shows, and the unfortunate passing of his former bandmate Peter Gutteridge.

When you are writing and recording songs, do your musical influences clearly push the direction of the songs at all or is it more of a stream of conciousness kind of approach?

DK: More and more it’s a stream of consciousness approach and what follows is quite often the thought. First idea-best idea / first rule-no rule. I try not to overthink music. It often helps if there’s a vague seed of an idea but that’s not always needed. Songs still come to me semi-completed but I never “complete” them until recording.