The full Q&A

What did you feel when bands like Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth and Nirvana crossed over into the mainstream in the early 1990s? Were you bewildered by the attention or did you enjoy it? Was it exciting or scary?
Definitely both. Ultimately, it felt sort of bad, like something about it was off, or something. Nirvana got huge, and that was cool for that moment, but pretty quickly you saw how that was going round. That moment was pretty awesome, though, as it seemed like they should get huge, and they did get huge, so something made sense in the universe for once. But then it all got horrible somehow. I only know what I experienced, so I don't know if it's better or worse [not to have had that exposure]. We got a lot bigger than I would have ever considered we might at the start.

Did you ever get sick of music-press people putting labels on your music? Did you like being lumped in as part of a movement?
I figured you couldn’t do anything about it, so I was never that bothered. The whole grunge thing, I can understand: a lot of bands had the same kinda influences, and had come up with similar sounds. All “grunge” means to me is Mudhoney. They’re the one and only grunge band. Everything else is part grunge. The initial concept behind our band was “ear-bleeding country”, like country, played really loud. That was just at the beginning. But we’d throw some [Black] Sabbath in, so “country Sabbath”, maybe.

When Dinosaur Jr became more popular, did you ever think about credibility or did you not care? Did you ever have to fight with people to retain the band’s ethic?
I never really thought about it. That seemed to come up later, when bands got self-conscious, like Pavement. I never even considered being on a major label, so when it was offered, it wasn’t like it was a taboo. It was more, like, from outta space. Later, bands had a consciousness about “selling out”, but I didn’t.

After Nirvana, it felt like a lot of bands got more jaded or emotionally shut down or something. I could feel that. I didn’t get much pressure to do anything [commercial], but the one thing I regretted doing was Lollapalooza [the multi-band tour of America, started by Perry Farrell of Jane’s Addiction] in 1993. It turned out to be horrible. I didn’t want to do it, and I should have listened to myself. Murph [the Dinosaur Jr drummer] got totally fried and quit because of it [the band’s internal ructions led to the departures of both the original drummer, Murph, and the original bassist, Lou Barlow, who later formed Sebadoh, although they are in the re-formed line-up].

What was the inspiration for your new solo album, and what kind of music are you listening to nowadays?
I used to play a lot of acoustic shows, and Megan from [the label] Sub Pop wanted me to make an acoustic record ages ago, but then the Dino reunion came up. Now that’s slowed down [the re-formed Dinosaur Jr made two albums, 2007’s Beyond and 2009’s Farm, and toured extensively last year], it seems like a good time.

I just listen to whatever people tell me about, and a lot of old stuff. I still buy a lot of vinyl records, but it's hard to pinpoint anything. Somebody told me about Thee Oh Sees — they’re pretty good — and the band Soft Moon.

Do you think playing drums has made you a better songwriter?
Er... yes? [He laughs.] I guess just to make it rhythmically more interesting. I really don’t like songs where the drums are an afterthought, just a boring beat: doomp, doomp, tssh. That drives me crazy. But there aren’t any drums on [the new solo album] Several Shades of Why, just a tambourine on one song. I didn’t want it to sound like everything else. It’s a lot more empty, when most of the Dinosaur Jr stuff sounds really thick and sludgy.

What are your three favourite Neil Young songs?
Will to Love is my favourite one [from the 1977 album American Stars ’n Bars], then maybe Powderfinger [from 1979’s Rust Never Sleeps] and, say, I’ve Been Waiting for You [from Young’s self-titled 1968 solo debut]. I like [the album] Harvest, sure, but it’s so overplayed.

Who are your favourite three producers?
I like [the British producer] John Leckie. He’s got a recognisable and great sound that all comes back to Magazine for me, the Real Life album. When I heard [Radiohead’s] The Bends, I could tell he did it, and the Stone Roses. My favourite-sounding record is Smokin’, by Humble Pie, and it’s produced by the Pie [or the band’s Steve Marriott, to be precise], and a third? Let’s see... Jimmy Page? I’ve always liked that [John] Bonham drum sound.

How do you record your songs when you’re just doing rough demos at home? Do you see any benefits in doing home recordings, rather than in a studio?
I usually just use an iPhone. I used to use a cassette player. The benefits? I’m not sure. You can somehow get lost in minute details in the studio, when you need to step back for a bit. It saves you just sittin’ around, waitin’ to come up with some riff.

When you’re recording your guitar parts, do you ever get into a really obsessive frame of mind and do excessive takes until it’s right?
Not so much any more... there was a time. Now I maybe try it four times, and if it’s not any good, I’ll come back to it later.

Do you think Dinosaur Jr will make a new album and do more shows in the future?
We’ve got a few shows this summer [one in London, playing the album Bug in its entirety at Alexandra Palace on July 1]. That’s about it. I’m doing a solo tour in April. I’m a little scared about that.

Pavement

J Mascis asks Yuck (their guitarist, Max Bloom, replies):

Is Hiroshima the most punk-rock place to be from?
Ah, I’ve already got Mariko’s answer. In her words: “No, because I'm not there.” And the funny thing is, she wasn’t joking. She's 100% serious. Mariko’s style is fierce, and nobody knows what she’s really like, although she's been in England for ages. [Mind you, she does appear to like knitting on the tour bus, judging from the band’s blog]. She was in a two-piece punk band before, so there.

Who do you prefer, Silver Jews or Pavement?
On behalf of the band, I’ll say I like them both equally. Daniel is more into Silver Jews, Jonny is more into Pavement. I guess Mariko is more into Pavement. Daniel loves David Berman, the singer in Silver Jews. He's Daniel’s idol, lyrically. He got to meet him when we played in Nashville, which definitely meant a lot to Daniel. Mark Nevers, who produced Daniel’s [unreleased solo] album before this, knew Berman and invited him along to the show. It was a really meaningful meeting for Daniel.

If you break a string during a show, do you a) break the guitar, b) hit someone in your band with the guitar or c) quit the band?
Er, I’d probably break the guitar and then feel really bad... No, I don’t think I’d do any of those things, I’d probably try to restring the guitar and apologise loads to the crowd, then be really embarrassed and carry on. Forget about those other options. If you think about it, carrying on is the most rock’n’roll thing you can do. I mean, what’s the point of breaking your guitar if a string breaks? J definitely wouldn’t do that, by the way.

Are any of you inclined to break into some sort of dance or ritual on stage?
I’m trying to think of, like, the weirdest thing... nnngghhh, no. Look, with regard to how we were in Cajun [Dance Party — a distinctly frenetic group on stage], I look back at a video of us playing live and it feels like I’m looking at a different person. Obviously, I was younger then [blimey, he’s only 20 now!], but I had a completely different attitude. I hadn’t found what I liked musically, and I wasn’t really part of Cajun enough to feel I could be as comfortable on stage as I am now. I was playing bass in Cajun, and I play guitar now, which is what I was meant to be doing the whole time. It’s less like playing live is a sort of exhibition. I would never say Cajun wasn’t fun, but it wasn’t the band that I wanted to be in for the rest of my life.

Any near-death experiences?
In the band or for me personally? I nearly died choking on a sweet when I was six years old. It was like a really big yellow hard sweet, and I thought you were meant to swallow it whole. You can’t expect a six-year-old to know what to do with a hard sweet. It was, like, in an airport, and everyone was looking, and my dad had to hold me upside down and was, like, punching my back. I don’t remember any of it.

Any alien-abduction stories?
Er, no? I’d like to answer this question by saying that the human race is going to have to expand onto other planets in order to survive because we’re using up all earth’s resources. Is that too serious? Oh, I know — Jonny has lots of weird, American, crackpot theories about alien stuff. I really like it when he tells me stories because he tells them with such conviction. There’s one about this rudimentary battery that was found near the pyramids, which suggests that the ancient Egyptians had artificial light to help them build in the dark. Jonny’s theory is that aliens gave them batteries.