Legendary songwriter and composer Van Dyke Parks has talked in-depth about his new vinyl singles project.

Discussing the project – which comprises six solo 7″ releases – with Mojo, Parks claims to “despise the CD. It’s ugly. It’s impossible to catalogue easily on a shelf. It is, as Ry Cooder would say, “taking up too much space, man.” So I got the irreducible minimum in the highest fidelity that we can bring, in a stereo 45rpm vinyl disc. There will be two songs on each single and each will be beautifully sleeved. With vinyl you’re taking a sharp picture of a sharp object. You can only take a fuzzy picture of a sharp object if you have a CD!

“My dad once told me he didn’t care which church I went to”, Park continues. “Just put your hand on a stone somewhere.” To me, that’s like holding a record. But to avoid being precious, I decided to make a big career decision. I’m going to make sure that the songs are downloadable and convenient for the casual observer.”

He goes on to discuss Ed Ruscha, Art Spiegelman, Charles Ray and Frank Holmes (of the original artwork for Brian Wilson’s Smile fame) – all artists who have contributed to the project – as well as his modern work with Joanna Newsom and more. The whole interview can be found here.