David Lindquist

david.lindquist@indystar.com

Richard Edwards, professional singer-songwriter and amateur cinephile, is praising 2014 film “Inherent Vice” before appetizers arrive at an Asian restaurant in Fletcher Place.

He knows the world didn’t fall in love with “Inherent Vice." The tangled detective story starring Joaquin Phoenix has its detractors, but Edwards contends director Paul Thomas Anderson made “one of the best things of the last 50 years.”

Wearing a denim jacket accented by a “Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers” pin — an homage to a 1960s comic that influenced the look of Phoenix’s character Larry "Doc" Sportello — Edwards said there’s more to “Inherent Vice” than a long and confusing plot.

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Director Anderson created a feeling that washes over “Vice’s” viewers, Edwards said.

“I’ve never seen a movie with a tone like that,” he said. “It feels like a breakup, a missing girlfriend or wife.”

It couldn't have been easy to reduce Doc Sportello’s adventures into a screenplay pitch.

Edwards, to the contrary, has a succinct storyline for his new album, “Lemon Cotton Candy Sunset:” Musician struggles with debilitating illness; musician reels from divorce; musician salvages all-but-doomed recording project.

Looking for a hit, Hollywood? Check out Edwards’ back-from-the-brink biography.

The Indianapolis native made rock band Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s a cult favorite from 2005 to 2014, when a diagnosis of C. Diff, or clostridium difficile colitis, made Edwards consider artistic retirement at age 30.

Described by Edwards as “an infection of the lower intestines generally visited upon the elderly,” C. Diff triggered 40 pounds of weight loss in a matter of days. When he wasn't "siphoning weight off real quick," he struggled to catch his breath and battled relentless nausea.

Stomach problems weren’t anything new for Edwards. Margot’s 2012 album was titled “Rot Gut, Domestic.”

“I’ve been tested for everything,” Edwards said. “I went years probably with this illness. Doctors said, ‘You’re young; eat yogurt.’ ”

With no answers for his mysterious rotting gut, Edwards canceled a 2014 tour to promote Margot album “Sling Shot to Heaven.” It was painful even to stand up.

The correct diagnosis of C. Diff may have been lifesaving. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from 2011, approximately 29,000 patients died within 30 days of C. Diff diagnosis.

Dream haze

Few lyrics on “Lemon Cotton Candy Sunset” address illness. One example is a line Edwards wrote in the song "Moonwrapped" as an encouraging nod to his 7-year-old daughter who's been a close-range witness to his health struggles: "There ain't no stomachs in the next life."

Mostly, "Lemon Cotton Candy Sunset" is a breakup album. After recording one version of the project in Los Angeles, where his esophagus, stomach and small intestine conspired against efforts to sing, Edwards returned to Indianapolis and he and his wife divorced.

Edwards wrote new songs fit for a man set adrift. The album would require more sessions in L.A.

"Where is my mountain? Where is my sea? And what the hell am I supposed to be if you don't need me," he sings on a tune titled "Disappeared Planets."

"In the next life I hardly ever miss you," he sings on "Postcard." "You're just a shadow that vanished in the fog."

Overall, Edwards sidesteps a vicious tone about the breakup. "Sunset" isn't, for instance, a 21st-century version of "Blood on the Tracks," the barbed and definitive divorce album by one of Edwards' musical heroes, Bob Dylan.

"I’m really angry, and have been," Edwards said. "But it was very important for (the album) not to be that. It was really important to be the more pure thing: Absence, missing this person, not focusing on the parts of it that are otherworldly (messed) up."

An ability to harness despair in songs earned Edwards a major-label recording contract as the leader of Margot & the Nuclear So and So's. Epic Records issued two versions of a Margot album, "Animal!" and "Not Animal" in 2008. The eight-member band promoted "Animal!" single "As Tall As Cliffs" on NBC's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien."

O'Brien no longer works for NBC, and Edwards ditched the Margot band name after “Sling Shot to Heaven."

But the TV host and the singer-songwriter haven't forgotten each other. O'Brien's website TeamCoco.com streamed a preview of "Lemon Cotton Candy Sunset" before the album's March 31 release.

And Edwards' fans made "Lemon" the No. 4 album on Billboard magazine's vinyl chart.

Buzz surrounding Edwards' first solo album rivals the attention paid to "The Dust of Retreat," the 2005 debut Margot album initially released by Indiana label Standard Recording and subsequently by New York-based Artemis Records.

Edwards will tell you he's a long way from the 21-year-old who made "The Dust of Retreat."

"I hadn’t learned how to shade being blue in any color other than blue," he said. "I know how to do that now. I don’t have to say feelings. I know a little bit better how to express them with my voice, sonically and lyrically."

Edwards looked to "Inherent Vice" when putting together "Lemon Cotton Candy Sunset." The album's first track, a 30-second instrumental titled "(Beware the Golden Fang)," is a reference to a drug cartel in the movie and the Thomas Pynchon book that inspired it.

The film version of "Inherent Vice" features Joanna Newsom as the story's mystical hippie narrator. "Lemon Cotton Candy Sunset" includes chakra readings by backing vocalist Genevieve Schatz.

Edwards' thoughts on the dreamy atmosphere of "Inherent Vice" line up with what he told backing musicians during the making of "Sunset:" Make it sound like the "June gloom" clouds that cling to the coast on Southern California mornings.

"It’s this idea of having it be kind of a sunny California record, but feeling sort of lost in this dream haze, which is how I feel when I’m there," Edwards said.

Back in Indiana

Three years have passed since Edwards played an official show for an Indianapolis audience. In the grips of C. Diff symptoms on April 19, 2014, he calls it one of the worst days of his life.

Edwards managed to sing and play new songs from "Sling Shot to Heaven" on a Record Store Day bill presented by Luna Music, 5202 N. College Ave.

He didn't cancel. His relationship with Luna owner Todd Robinson made sure of that.

"Todd did more for me during this whole ordeal than just about anybody in town," Edwards said. "I owe him a lot."

In addition to dropping off groceries at Edwards' door, Robinson arranged for the singer-songwriter to meet with an acupuncture specialist.

"I think with having those chronic health problems, that would just chip away at your resolve if you couldn’t get any answers and figure out truly what was going on," Robinson said.

The accurate C. Diff diagnosis was made by a doctor affiliated with MusiCares, a charity for musicians overseen by the organization that gives out Grammy Awards.

"This person did a $50 test, just because they were being thorough," Edwards said.

On Saturday, Edwards will perform at Luna as part of this year's Record Store Day festivities.

Indianapolis-based label Joyful Noise released "Lemon Cotton Candy Sunset," continuing an association with Edwards that began with 2015 Margot boxed set "The Bride on the Boxcar."

"We became friends with Richard through (the boxed set)," Joyful Noise founder Karl Hofstetter said. "As his life started falling apart and he was writing (‘Sunset’), I knew it was going to be a really authentic, heartfelt and deep record I wanted to support."

Luna owner Robinson said Edwards' work with new collaborators makes "Sunset" special. The album's producer is Rob Schnapf, whose credits include albums by Elliott Smith. Pete Thomas, known for his work with Elvis Costello dating to 1977, plays drums.

"We have a slightly different sound than what’s been associated with Richard in the past," Robinson said. "That’s exciting, because it all points toward growth and all points toward change."

Of the original Margot musicians, bass player Tyler Watkins is the lone member who appears on "Sunset."

"I’m resigned to be musically promiscuous," Edwards said. "That’s how I like to be."

On the beach

When asked about his current health, Edwards answered, "It’s not great, but it’s better."

Even after his C. Diff diagnosis and treatment that allowed him to make daily 20-mile bicycle rides, Edwards suffered a relapse accompanied by rapid, severe weight loss in October 2015.

"When I have periods when it’s calmer, I scramble to work more," he said. "I find ways to work within the confines of this thing."

An extensive concert tour, however, isn't a realistic goal for now.

"The hardest part is planning around an unpredictable flare-up," he said. "If you put stuff on the books three months down the road, it’s always kind of roulette."

On April 1, Edwards played a sold-out show at the Rough Trade venue in New York City.

“The record had been out for 24 hours, and people were already singing lyrics from the new songs,” said Hofstetter. “It was pretty inspiring to see that.”

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Edwards said he's prepared 10 songs for a "Sunset" follow-up.

The lyrics for that album, which may arrive this fall, aren't influenced by divorce or its fallout.

"Nothing really helps except for time," he said. "That’s the unfortunate thing. You can go to therapy, you can talk to friends. The most depressing part of it all is that you do forget, because time goes on and it washes it out. I didn’t find any solution other than get up every day and wait for time to pass."

Edwards has fallen hard for Los Angeles, where he finds the "ghost of all that cinema stuff" to be romantic and sad. Reading books about Hollywood ranks as the No. 1 pastime for the former Indiana University film student.

The cover art for "Lemon Cotton Candy Sunset" shows Edwards on a Malibu beach. A warm, inviting sky matches the album's title.

Across six Margot studio albums, no band member appeared on cover artwork. A new man is seen on "Sunset."

"I never really had an ambition to have just my name on a record, or even a picture of myself," Edwards said. "I try to avoid that kind of stuff. But it just felt stupid to avoid it anymore."

Richard Edwards

WHEN: 2 p.m. April 22.

WHERE: Luna Music, 5202 N. College Ave.

ADMISSION: Free.

INFO: Visit LunaMusic.net or call (317) 283-5862.

Call IndyStar reporter David Lindquist at (317) 444-6404. Follow him on Twitter: @317Lindquist.

David Lindquist covers the music and pop culture scene for IndyStar — exclusive profiles, trends and the latest buzz that only he brings to Central Indiana. If you appreciate David’s work, please help support it with a subscription.