Interviewed: J Mascis

http://narcmagazine.com/interview-j-mascis/

NARC. magazine December '14
The lead singer of Dinosaur Jr., renowned as being one of the most difficult interviewees in the music industry, speaks surprisingly openly to Olivia Swash about spiritual tourism, punk and embarking upon another solo album

He reunited The Stooges, turned down Kurt Cobain's offer to join Nirvana and has topped countless 'best guitarist of all time' lists - but J Mascis' notoriously indifferent interview etiquette had my expectations set low for any elaborate rock anecdotes. Hearing his signature passive drawl down the phone from Arizona describing the weather as he clinks a spoon in his teacup, I can't help but warm to him. With some of the most influential alternative output of the late 80s and early 90s, Dinosaur Jr.'s effortlessly melodic noise-rock is what J Mascis has been best known for throughout his three decades creating music. "We captured something at the right moment in time, when it was right for all of us," he says of the band's ability to stand the test of time. "We made a good record, which is the main thing." Why he's talking in the singular is a mystery, as this modestly indicated "good record" could be referring to any one of the band's ten studio albums.

Despite his prodigious regard as a guitarist, J's preferred instrument is the noble drum kit. Like Iggy Pop (J names The Stooges as one of the best bands of all time), he cut his teeth as a drummer and meandered over to guitar and vocals later in his musical career. "I used to play along to records I liked and wanted to try and sound like, but I started out in a jazz orchestra in high school," he says, explaining that it helps to learn different drumming styles aside from his beloved punk. "I saw Buddy Rich when I was 12. I know a lot of [drumming techniques] have been taken from jazz." His competitive side ekes out slightly when I ask him about whether he sees it as meditative or cathartic: "I guess it can be, but I've always thought of it as more like a sport - I always want to go faster!"

J grew up engrossed in the surge of hardcore punk bands thrashing their way out of Washington, D.C. in the 80s, with seminal independent labels giving rise to a generation of aggressive, chaotic punk with a DIY ethic. "That was my youth," he says of the roster of Dischord Records, co-founded by members of Minor Threat, as well as SST Records whom later released some of Dinosaur Jr.'s earlier albums and singles. As a voracious collector of hardcore records as well as having been label buddies with Black Flag, Sonic Youth and Husker Du on SST, J recently contributed to the new crowd-funded D.C.-orientated documentary 'Salad Days: The Birth of Punk in the Nation's Capital'. "It was cool," he says of his involvement, and sees crowd-funding as an inevitable direction for music and film-making. "It works pretty well. You're doing it with the help of other people - I think we'll have to get used to that."

J found inspiration to reunite Dinosaur Jr. in 2005 after observing the consistent post-punk triumphs of Mission of Burma: a band who've persisted with their sound and improved with age. After all, growing older doesn't necessarily mean getting rusty at the hinges. With his back-catalogue forays ranging from doom metal to psychedelic instrumental, I wondered whether J saw experimenting with sounds and styles as a vital way of evolving as a musician, or if it's fine to stick to your strengths. "Whatever seems to be good in the moment," he says, evoking Dinosaur Jr.'s 'Whatever's Cool With Me' bulldog EP cover in my head, "so either way, as long as it's not just playing something for the sake of sounding different," - something which he then admits he has, at times, been prone to doing. He puts this down to luck: his particular musical experimentations have worked well with what he was creating at the time. "Everything lined up right," he assures.

On the contrary, there seems to be a naturally-occurring mellowing process transforming leading figures from the 80s post-punk and noise scene into seasoned, sensitive artists in recent years compared to their respectively vigorous adolescent careers. Take Thurston Moore's haunting solo records, Henry Rollins' wizened spoken-word tours and Nick Cave's stunningly revealing 20,000 Days documentary as prime examples. With a softer, dulcet vibe on J Mascis' new solo album 'Tied to a Star' as well as on his 2011 effort 'Several Shades of Why', J sees himself heading the same way both in his music and otherwise. "Yeah I've definitely mellowed out," he tells me, epitomising his statement in his trademark chilled intonation. Does he prefer it that way? "Well other people like it better for sure - people I know!" With 9-year-old Rory back home in Amherst, Massachusetts, he also sees becoming a father as a contributing factor in changes he's gone through as a musician, "I'm not sure how exactly. It's probably just the sleep deprivation!"

With minimal percussion and twinkly acoustic guitars, 'Tied to a Star' is a doe-eyed baby Diplodocus to the ferocious T-Rex of Dinosaur Jr.'s early output. 'Every Morning' is a fresh-faced ditty comparable to Karen O and The Kids' soundtrack to Where The Wild Things Are. Chan Marshall of Cat Power appears on 'Wide Awake', which has lullaby-gentle melodies with a tinge of J's trademark guitar feedback. "I looked at the songs and the parts separately and thought about who specifically would be good to get on board," J says on choosing album collaborators - but was there anyone he approached who turned him down? "Um, Sharon Van Etten... She was just busy."

J is an avid TV aficionado, having popped up on screen in weird and wonderful roles with bit-parts in a 'Battle of the Gentle Bands' sketch in hipster-mocking comedy Portlandia and as a janitor in Richard Ayoade's film The Double. I wondered if he had any more cameos on the cards. "Nothing's certain but I'm always happy to do TV, so maybe," he says. On tips for boxsets to watch on chilly winter evenings, he tells me, "I watch so much TV! At the moment I'm into Nashville, Sons of Anarchy, and Veronica Mars - which I'd never seen until recently."

As a practising Hindu, meditation and spirituality have long been a part of J Mascis' life. "It's not that easy to choose and I didn't know from the start," he says on deciding upon a faith to follow. "Some people know right away, and some like to try out everything. I guess it's a matter of settling on whatever you choose rather than shopping around and being a spiritual tourist!" His integrity is endearing, and he seems to have a staunch sense of identity despite his life choices not necessarily being considered very rock n roll. Having been heavily inspired by the straight edge ethos of hardcore bands such as Minor Threat in the 80s, J Mascis chose a drug-and-drink-free lifestyle from a young age. "Peer pressure is always around," he tells me, "I wasn't gonna succumb to it... I think just do whatever you want." Pure wisdom.

'Tied to a Star' is out now on Sub Pop Records
J Mascis plays The Cluny, Newcastle on 18th January 2015

Interviewed: Television

Tom Verlaine, frontman of 70s New York punk heroes Television speaks to Olivia Swash in a rare interview speaking about Marquee Moon, the CBGB days and their long-awaited new album

In the mid seventies, the UK's punk scene was brimming with leather-clad three-chord punk bands: boys with PVA'd mohicans grasping the opportunity to vent their teen angst. What resulted was the unrefined, stripped-back sound of Sex Pistols, X-Ray Spex and The Clash. Meanwhile, across the pond in New York City, the DIY ethic was trickling into the underground clubs and Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads and the Patti Smith Group were establishing a punk scene circulating around the then-little-known CBGB club in Lower Manhattan.

A fresh-faced Tom Verlaine, having changed his name to echo his love of French symbolist poetry, along with teen friend and bassist Richard Hell, drummer Billy Ficca and guitarist/co-songwriter Richard Lloyd, was giving rise to an altogether more grown-up breed of punk. Despite the perceived golden age of the New York punk scene, with various homage-paying souvenir shop spin-offs, photographic exhibitions and emotive documentaries about all things CBGB, Tom doesn't recall it with the same rose-tinted nostalgia. "To be honest there's not a lot of memories about that spot," he says of the club. "I don't run into any of the people that played there, but I do still see Patti Smith now and then." Verlaine and Smith dated in the seventies, and have collaborated on many singles, albums and performances since. "A few weeks ago I did a mostly poetry show with her. No drums, just guitar and her daughter on keyboards. Very fun!"

Television used their vast musical proficiency to create one of the most universally critically acclaimed New Wave records of all time. Since its release in 1977, Marquee Moon has seemed to teeter in the shadow of the "mainstream" punk albums, if that isn't too much of an oxymoron. Television linger in an ever-so-slightly subterranean pocket of bands that don't make it onto anarchistic TV montages and market stall T-shirt stands alongside their safety-pinned peers. Dee Dee Ramone famously failed in an audition for Television, and whilst the punk scene was oozing with fast-paced and simplistic rock, Television were set apart with their accomplished interweaving guitars. The lingering and convoluted yet incredibly catchy ditties of 'See No Evil', 'Venus' and 'Marquee Moon' set against Verlaine's distinctive warble almost seem to occupy countless 'Best Album of All Time' lists, including my own. "It seems to get rediscovered by a new generation every ten years or so," Tom tells me. "That's kinda cool."

The band's sporadic worldwide comebacks are perhaps one of the factors that keep new audiences educated: this year's tour is one of a few for Television since their split in 1978. Most notably the band reunited in 1992, sticking to a pact they made upon their initial disbandment to do just that. With it came their self-titled third album, the first since Adventure in 1978. This time around is set to be perhaps the most exciting resurgence yet, with the band performing Marquee Moon in full at the last ever ATP weekender. The Sage in Gateshead is one of just three other of their UK tour dates, where Verlaine and co. are set to perform a career-spanning set along with new guitarist Jimmy Rip. "He's the same fellow who did all my solo tours since 1981, so it was real easy to get Television shows going," says Tom. "We'd done quite a few [Television songs] on the solo tours." Television may not have been a constant presence in the industry, but the members of the band have, in between the resurgences, devoted their careers to music. "I also did a duet tour with Jimmy of Japan in 2011. Small seated venues - very non-'rock' you might say," Tom says modestly. "I could actually hear my voice on stage! Shocking!" Having played Japan with the full band already this year, he tells me that it's one of his favourite places to play. "No one videos the shows on their phones. They just like listening so it is a very good audience to play to, to improvise to."

Perhaps we can expect to hear a rare preview of their anticipated new album, which has been suspended in an enigmatic state of "in the pipeline" for years, almost on the scale of Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy. So what's the latest? "We've got about 12 tracks recorded for the new release. I'm not sure when they will be finished..." Tom tells me uncertainly. Although it seems their upcoming album and previously released material is just the tip of their surprisingly prolific iceberg. "Over the years a great many songs got rehearsed and maybe played twice, but never recorded," he says. "Once in a while we pull one out and play it live - that's fun." He assures me, unnecessarily, that "they sound better now!"

Although Verlaine's memories of the New York New Wave don't evoke the emotive, closely-knit heyday that punk fans, documentary makers and music journalists idealise, this perhaps reflects the music of Television. They weren't preoccupied with looking the part or stirring up mainstream culture with anti-establishment stunts, instead they had plenty of substance: accessible yet encompassing the DIY values of punk. Even if it was onlyMarquee Moon that filtered through to the (almost) mainstream, that's one almighty stamp on one of the biggest genres of the 20th century.

DIY Fashion: Schwurlie

As her blog approaches its first birthday, Kate of schwurlie.blogspot.co.uk speaks to Olivia Swash about her DIY fashion approach to writing.

Originally from Sydney, 20 year old Kate has witnessed her fair share of diverse fashion having lived in Brighton before moving to Durham to study Law. Perhaps it is this that lends itself to her own personal style, blending 60s feminine formality with collared and casual indie. Her Schwurlie blog posts are brimming with envy-inducing hand made or altered dresses, capes and even fur-collared coats. But the best thing is, her step by step tutorials mean that you can make them too.

Before the birth of Schwurlie, Kate blogged semi-privately and posted eclectic outfits on her popular Lookbook page, which she says is how she gains the vast majority of her followers. “I pretty much just decided to get a 'proper' blog because I wanted to show people how I made various things, and now it just is what it is,” she tells me. “Usually I only update if I actually have something to post, if I've remembered to take outfit photos or I've made something.”

Kate finds inspiration for her own outfits and DIY pieces through a range of street style blogs, and when I ask how she gets around the “lazy” conventionally studenty attitude to dressing, she replies- “I'm not sure I can say that I 'get around' it as such, in the sense that I don't really feel any pressure to dress in a different style.” She continues: “I try to dress smartly most of the time first and foremost because I like the way it looks. Also because slovenly dressing tends to me feel slovenly in all other aspects of my life. Dressing smartly doesn't even require me to feel like I look pretty, looking simply well turned out is good enough for me!” ...Perhaps a lesson to us all over the impending exam season.

Kate gives lessons on gorgeous pieces ranging from a cute 80s vintage-inspired wrap dress to a lined tote bag, and the easiest of all: the simple yet oh-so effective shift dress.

Her tutorials are accompanied with photographs and simple diagrams of steps, so all you need is an ounce of creativity, some fabric or an old dress and a sewing machine. Prices start at £54.99 from Argos, but I almost guarantee a relative will already own an old Singer that you can hop on over Easter. If you're new to the DIY fashion game, a little patience may also be required!

“I can't tell you where I'll be in five years,” Kate tells me, “but it's unlikely to be concerned with blogging. It's only a hobby. A blog is a fun thing to have but I try not to take it too seriously.”

http://schwurlie.blogspot.co.uk/

Everything Everything: Not just another indie band

Palatinate Issue #727

indigo chats to the lead singer and guitarist of the genre-defying four-piece at the Newcastle leg of the NME Awards Tour

       Art rock? Convoluted indie? Math pop? You decide. This toe-tappingly jittery and anti-conventional four piece became sick of recycled and stagnant indie, so decided to do something about it.


        After being scouted by Radio 1’s Zane Lowe in their unsigned beginnings, the Manchester-based band site being tipped on BBC’s Sound of 2010 list as their biggest boost to success, despite at the the time having only a handful of singles in their blossoming discography.


        “It was so early on when we got it, it felt like we were the youngest there. Everyone else had albums ready to go!” guitarist Alex Robertshaw tells me as I make myself at home amongst the PS3 controllers and coffee cups in their haven of a tour bus. “Although I think in the UK you can still succeed if you’re not on that list. It’s important abroad, people seem to look at it first to see what’s new over here,” lead singer Jonathan Higgs explains. His suprisingly low-pitched speaking voice only highlights his extensive vocal range, a talent which plays a prominent part in the band’s sound.


        Having been described as ‘genre-defying’ and similar terms in the media since they formed in 2007, their jaunty sound seems fresh and new in comparison with a lot of recent indie bands due to their irregular song structures and fusion of diverse influences. But how do they go about maintaining this different approach? “You gotta keep writing and listening to a lot of music and trying to find new things. If something we write or a demo doesn’t excite us then we change it, and that’s the way we’ve always worked. It’s hard to define how you try and make things “new”... It’s not really as conscious as you might think!” Jonathan tells me modestly.


        Could this be the beginning of some sort of post-indie movement in NME’s history? The magazine itself had refreshingly branched out from the expectations of a line-up awash with guitar bands on this year’s Awards Tour, with Magnetic Man and Crystal Castles unusually starring on the same bill as The Vaccines and Everything Everything for the tour.


        “It’s really good that it’s this diverse. I was in two minds when I first saw the line-up!” Alex admits. “It certainly divides crowds, there’ll be people who will come to see The Vaccines who just will never ‘get’ Magnetic Man. But I think we’re quite lucky as we straddle quite a lot of audiences. But those same people who came along thinking “I want guitars!” may come away thinking “that was actually really good... I never would’ve gone to that!"


        “Indie’s had to develop, it’s not really holding the torch anymore which is good. It means there’ll be more of a variety of music from now on,” says Jonathan. “When indie decides to become fashionable again it’ll have to change itself a little bit which is always good. Stagnation is just so boring. No one enjoys that.

Photo: Dan Jeffries

        Whilst being helped along their way by Chew Lips and Bat For Lashes producer David Kosten, the band take pride in the amount of artistic freedom they have had on their debut album Man Alive. On the transition from their few 7” releases in their emerging days to being signed by Universal-owned record label Geffen, Alex explains “You can create a story as you’re going from standalone singles to creating a whole album. It’s a good cross-section of what we sound like.”


        The availability of technology is a key aspect of their chirpy and at times Nintendo-reminiscent tunes (see Photoshop Handsome and Qwerty Finger) “The way we write, it tends to start on a laptop, which for a so-called indie band might not be that normal. But there’s nothing to hold you back, you don’t have to think “oh I can’t make that sound on a guitar”. With a laptop you have free reign, you can even have an oboe!” Jonathan optimistically desribes. “To be defined by what your musical abilities are is sad."


        So with their quirky lyrics and upbeat ditties, will Everything Everything ever turn into a serious band? “A misconception that we’re trying to avoid is that we are this chipper band. There is a lot of serious stuff on the album and the next single will be much more serious. Although it won’t get half as much airtime because it’s not as radio friendly.” Jonathan tells me, somewhat wisened to the ways of mass media. Although with their catchy songs still having an edge with harmonising and perfectly unexpected breaks, this band is anything but a take two of The Hoosiers.


        “Funnily enough both of the re-releases are the most politically-minded on the album,” says Jonathan, “I like that some teenager could listen to MY KZ UR BF and be all “oh your boyfriend, what’s all that about?” and then think about the lyrics and realise that something interesting’s going on... Sneaking in there..."


        His theory seemed to prove true, as the general ‘first-time drunk’ swarm at the O2 Academy that evening showed, exciteably moshing to even Leave The Engine Room- by far the slowest song of the album.


Man Alive is out now on Geffen.

Photo: Dan Jeffries

Interviewed: Mumford & Sons

          After being deemed as 'leading a folk revolution' by press recently, the hype surrounding Mumford & Sons is perhaps surprisingly something they're very defensive against. “Folk music has been going on for ages... It's not a revolution, it's just the press catching onto what already existed, which in a way is a bit annoying for the people who have been doing it all along” frontman Marcus Mumford tells me as we chat pre-soundcheck on the plush sofa area in their tardis of a tour bus. “We don't like overhype. People's expectations are raised through all the exaggeration.” Understandably it would be a slight travesty if this time next year, as part of the emerging London folk scene along with Laura Marling and Johnny Flynn, they were compared with Klaxons' short-lived new-rave fad of a few summers gone.

If these raviator-wearing fluorescent adolescents of yore were asked what one of 2010's rising genres would be, folk would probably be in the dark depths alongside Gregorian chant and acid jazz. “It wasn't really a conscious decision (to go into folk), we all grew up playing our instruments and listening to loads of different genres... It was pretty natural. We all met at school and we were fired in our first gig for not taking our clothes off at the end of a song!” says double bass player Ted Dwane.

Nakedness aside, considering the biological impossibility of the rest of the band actually being (Marcus) Mumford's sons, the question which they must have encountered over and over arose... "The idea is it's like an old family business. If there was a tailor called Smith & Sons it wouldn't mean Smith was the boss, it just means it was founded in a certain way- lots of people run it and own it. Band names are strange... It's weird that you almost get known by your name before you get known by your music."

The four-piece of multi-instrumentalists (I've never appreciated banjos, dobros and mandolins more) have rocketed to success in not just the UK. They have gone twice platinum in Australia and also bagged a number one with their debut album Sigh No More. So is being big in Australia the new 'big in Japan'? “We don't even know how it happened! They just seem to love us over there, we're really excited to go back” says Marcus. Seems it's a similar situation here in Blighty, with their amazingly diverse fan base. Ted tells me “it makes for a really nice atmosphere at gigs. It's like a village fete, everyone's all together!”

This definitely rang true whilst watching their show later in the claustrophobic and dingy underground Newcastle University venue, which had clearly been organised before Mumford & Sons' surge of mainstream popularity. So okay, there were no apple-bobbing contests or tombolas, but the inevitably cheery fluctuations between excitable ditties and smooth-flowing four-part harmonies seemed to regress the whole audience back to some sort of long-forgotten joyous summery roots. If you want proof: I actually witnessed people doing the jig.

Maybe it goes to show folk never should have been "out", and we innately do love the traditional side of modern music.

Interview with Bombay Bicycle Club

Palatinate Issue # 716 - NME Awards Tour Special

Walking through the breeze-blocked corridors backstage at the O2 Academy with slight apprehension after last minute YouTubeing of past slightly awkward and unresponsive Bombay Bicycle Club interviews, I turned the corner to see a rather chilled scene of four rather mismatched-looking guys sitting around eating takeaways and strumming banjos. Hailing from north London, the NME-acclaimed foursome formed in secondary school and after winning Channel 4 and Virgin Mobile's 'Road to V' competition in 2006, have clambered to international commendation. They are currently working on their follow-up to first album I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose as well as commencing on a tour which is sure to hoist them further up the indie ladder. I had a chat with them pre-gig on the first date of their current tour alongside The Maccabees, The Drums and The Big Pink...

Bombay Bicycle Club, you started out young and your first album was influenced by teenage experiences. What will your second album be influenced by?
Jack: Well it's hard to write songs about being on tour... When we were teenagers we went out and did loads of stuff. Now there's nothing to write about apart from being in a band! (woe is me)

How is it touring with three other bands?
Jack: It's only our first date, but it's the first time we've been on a tour of this size... You can't walk around backstage without any clothes on!

You're young to be successful, do you plan on carry on being musicians for the foreseeable future?
Jack: Yeah. Well Jamie has a place at Cambridge to do Classics.
Jamie: Not sure if I'm gonna go though. But I don't want to do one thing my whole life.

You're releasing 400 limited edition vinyl singles of Evening/Morning as a re-release with hand-painted covers. What made you want to do something so different?
Jack: Our record company said we had to do a re-release, and we hate when bands do re-releases, so said we'd do it under the one condition that we could make it special. I don't think at the time we thought about how much work it was gonna be!
Ed: It took 12 hours!

Are you still releasing an EP of folk songs?
Jack: Yeah, it's turned into an album now though. It's also good cos it kinda buy us more time to write the second album.

Do you think you'll follow the folk route or is it more of a side project?
Jack: Alongside really, but we kinda don't like doing it, we think people think 'oh they've listened to Mumford and Sons on Radio 1 and it's so kooky, I wanna do that!'

So The Big Pink, The Drums, The Maccabees... Kill, marry, shag?
Jamie: I'd definitely shag the Maccabees!
Jack: The Big Pink is the only band with a girl in so maybe them... Shag The Drums, marry The Maccabees, kill The Big Pink, but that's only because we've never met them and we've been in a bit of competition with them.

Are The Maccabees good marriage material then? 
Jamie: Yeah I think they'd cook for you and stuff....

What do you have in store for the rest of the NME Awards Tour? Any suprises?
Jack: Suren has a new do-rag he might wear.
Jamie: We've been so rushed, we haven't really thought about it.
Jack: We could do the whole set unplugged on the banjo. Or our guitar tech might come onstage and do a shit.

Fortunately the latter didn't happen.