Is David Vandervelde the new Ziggy Stardust?

Chicago has been known to keep musical secrets, but last week’s release of David Vandervelde’s The Moonstation House Band on Secretly Canadian may turn the blush of online acclaim for his elaborate glam-folk into a full-on deluge. Are the early comparisons to Ziggy-era David Bowie and T. Rex’s Marc Bolan bold? Yes. Are they also accurate? Close. This 22-year-old songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist is an easy mix of self-effacing good humor and swagger that’s less brash arrogance and more precocious devotion to rock ’n’ roll. Just before Moonstation’s release, Vandervelde spoke to The A.V. Club about blogs, MySpace, and prairie-fire shots.
The A.V. Club: How did you end up with Secretly Canadian?
David Vandervelde: I did things the old-fashioned way: I just sent 20 or 30 burned demos with a little bio and my email address to labels, even ones I hadn’t heard of. I got an email from Secretly saying they liked the demo. What I like about them is that they have a lot of artists who don’t fit into conventional niches that are out there, like Richard Swift, Antony & The Johnsons, Catfish Haven, and maybe me. They’re able to look at something and say, “This is good music. We don’t know exactly where it fits, but it should be out there.”
AVC: You were recently an “Artist To Watch” on Stereogum. Do you pay attention to blogs?
DV: I don’t think I’ve ever read a blog in my life. My manager or label rep will call me and say, “You were featured on this or that!” and I’ve never even heard of it. It seems like that kind of thing is more influential these days than, say, Rolling Stone as far as making people decide if they’re gonna get into the record or not. It’s all been pretty positive so far, so I’m not looking forward to the day when I read something really awful.
AVC: You do have a MySpace page, though.
DV: [Laughs.] I’m just not an e-mail and computer kind of guy. Me, my manager, and my booking guy had a meeting with Secretly Canadian, and they all basically said, “Dave, you need to get on the Internet and promote.” I guess one hour a week at the coffeehouse wasn’t cutting it! So I got the Internet, but MySpace is kind of weird. Every time I’m on there, I just end up looking at girls.