The last time grunge heroesDinosaur Jr. were in Australia was in March 2013, when they performed as part of Golden Plains Festival and did a handful of headlining shows around their appearance.
After the Sydney show, the other two members of the band – bassist Lou Barlow and drummer Emmett ‘Murph’ Murphy – hung out with fans around the back, bumming cigarettes and signing records. As for the band’s founder and sole constant throughout its 32-year lifespan, J Mascis? He made a beeline for the van and was promptly whisked away. If that doesn’t give you an idea of the introverted, selective-mute personality of the silver-haired shredder, try watching his appearance on ABC’s Spicks And Specks from a few years ago – or, better yet, try speaking to him for ten minutes.
Our interview begins by mentioning Barlow, who was previously in Australia this past January for Sydney Festival. As someone else within the band who has delved into the solo world – Mascis’ most recent LP was 2014’s Tied To A Star – it feels pertinent to ask after Mascis’ personal approach to songwriting, especially in comparison to Barlow’s.
“I primarily tend to write with the task at hand in mind,” he says, his voice barely rising above a drone. “There are times where I have delved into the past a little bit, to see if there are any little ideas floating about – any bits and pieces that I think are worth resurrecting. For the most part, though, I’m usually just writing toward the thing that I’m doing next.”
The line goes silent. A distant croak indicates Mascis is still on the line. The questioning continues, asking about where the writing process began for Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not, the band’s 11th studio album. “We started last winter,” replies Mascis, “so around November, into December.” Silence. We’re not getting much more than that.
A different tact bears at least a little more fruit: a question about Henry Rollins, a long-time Dinosaur Jr. fan who was brought in to do an infomercial-style video teasing the release of the album. “I didn’t really know him all that well until recently,” says Mascis. “I used to go and see him in Black Flag, and later on with the Rollins Band. We hadn’t really talked all that much, though. That came a lot later. We like a lot of the same bands, and we like a lot of the same records – even though he’s got a lot more records than me. We connected on a lot of the more obscure stuff that not many other people have – The Birthday Party and music like that.”
For the latest promotional material for Give A Glimpse, Dinosaur Jr. put out a music video for the ripping ‘Tiny’, which features a skateboarding bulldog as its main character. It’s not the first time the band has incorporated skating into a clip, either – see ‘Over It’, a single from 2009’s Farm – which leads one to ask about how skating culture has coincided with the music of Dinosaur Jr.
“When I was a kid, skateboarding music was like Ted Nugent or Black Sabbath,” says Mascis. “When punk and skating started to cross over more, I met a lot of skaters. I started to have a real ‘in’ with that whole world, and I felt like our music fit in a lot with it.” Not long after that, he’s gone again. Mascis gives a glimpse, but that’s about all.
Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not is out now through Jagjaguwar/Inertia.
