Why Jim White Is Not Interested In Music Documenatries

White is talking from "a Starbucks on the edge of Columbus, Ohio," on tour with Kurt Vile, opening in Xylouris White. White met Giorgios Xylouris before Dirty Three were formed, when the Cretan musician had freshly arrived in Australia and barely spoke English. Their paths crossed often over time: Xylouris playing live with Dirty Three; Dirty Three inviting his father, Psarandonis, to their 2007 ATP Festival in England; Psarandonis asking White to play drums with him at the Nick Cave-curated 2009 Australia ATP.

"It's been a really long period of gestation," says White. "Over the years we talked about it, but we were always too busy. But then [in 2013], I'd finished playing with Cat Power, and Dirty Three weren't really doing anything, so I decided I was going to do all the things I'd always wanted to do. One of the first things I did was fly to Crete."

The duo started recording before they'd ever played a show, introducing themselves to the world with 2014's Goats. "When I was playing with Psarandonis, I was just trying not to fuck it up; with Xylouris White, we wanted something that felt more natural," White says. The live shows since have grown more "high energy", a quality they hoped to capture on their upcoming second LP, which White hopes will be out in August.

"There's a documentary about Dirty Three, and I've never watched it. I don't want to see it."

White speaks happily of his immersion in Cretan culture — the time he spends on Crete, the expat social nights he'll go to in New York and Montreal — and admits that Xylouris White are "more Cretan than anything else". But he's wary of those who've portrayed Xylouris White as continuation of tradition. "In Cretan music, there's definitely no drum kit. A lot of times there's not even a drum, it's the lute that's playing the percussion role, or the lyra. So, we're certainly not trying to be traditional."

White hasn't seen the film, Angeliki Aristemonopoulou's A Family Affair, made about the Xylouris lineage, but, then again, he's no fan of rockumentaries. "There's a documentary about Dirty Three, and I've never watched it. I don't want to see it. And I'd be very hesitant about entering into anything like that again."

He did, however, watch the Nick Cave film 20,000 Days On Earth, which he was "surprised" to enjoy. "Afterwards, people would come up to me and ask me about, say, the Nick Cave archive, asking me if it was real. I actually have no idea, and that's the great thing about that film: you don't know what's real and what's not. I find music really mysterious, and I don't really want to know everything about musicians; I was glad to find a documentary that respected that sense of mystery."