Blake Nelson has a good short interview with Gus Van Sant today in the New York Times. Here's an excerpt:Does the gray climate of Portland affect you in any way? I think of Elliott Smith or Raymond Carver; many artists that come out of that area seem to have a built-in gloom factor.More of the interview here. Van Sant's adaptation of Nelson's novel Paranoid Park opens this Friday.I think a person’s darkness or lightness factor is their own point of view. I don’t think Elliott Smith thought of his songs as dark. Kurt Cobain, his songs were pretty dark. Angst-ridden. And booming. And loud. Later, while working on the movie [“Last Days”], I realized that their songs really sounded like falling trees and chain saws. I don’t know if it was an accident or what. They lived in a lumber town. They were using a sound that was relevant to them.
Film still from paranoidpark.co.uk