THE RUMPLED, WRY-SMILING, impossibly relaxed MJ Lenderman may be the future of indie rock, could have possibly the driest wit in indie rock, and is definitely the first person called Jake by his friends and Mark Jacob by the passport office but MJ by the rest of us, to be a rising star of indie rock since barely out of his teens.
A songwriter from North Carolina who immerses listeners in whole environments and character-filled stories that may or may not have a direct correlation in his life, he is also a multi-instrumentalist, an occasional member of the band Wednesday (with whom he toured Australia in February), a former slinger of ice-creams brought up Catholic, and was a vocal and instrumental contributor to one of this year’s best albums – conveniently for you, reviewed right here – Waxahatchee’s Tigers Blood .
He is furthermore, a man who particularly dislikes being asked for motivations and explanations behind his songs. And that’s whether they’re his old songs – which is a relative term of course, given his first album was released in mid-2019 and his breakthrough, Boat Songs, came out in 2022 – or in the batch of new material being released this Friday, on his album, Manning Fireworks.
So to satisfy his needs and ours he has been invited to participate in the Reverse Marie Kondo, which regular visitors to this page will know is an exercise in joy. That is, instead of removing things from a cluttered life, as recommended by Ms Kondo, I ask what would you add to your life to bring joy. Or more joy. In five categories: four chosen by me; one by them.
It's a hot day in NC so let’s not waste anymore of Lenderman’s time and energy. What, sir, would bring you joy?
A PLACE
I’ve been thinking about the beach a lot. I love to go to the beach: I find that to be the most, the purest form of vacation, the most relaxing. Nobody seems to feel that they need to do much and you can go swimming. [North Carolina’s popular beaches] are on the opposite side of the state. When I grew up we would go to the beach basically every year, though it would be closer to go to the ones in South Carolina from where I was living. It’s been a while since I’ve been and I’ve been thinking about it all summer. But I’m a busy guy.
Is he dependent on place to write? Could he write at the beach?
I think I write pretty much anywhere, I’m more sensitive to whether or not there are people around. Even if there’s somebody in the same house as me I struggle to open up my thoughts or whatever.
That would make collaborating a difficult thing.
It depends on the person. I have certain friends that I do that with, and I’m sure there are more people out there that I be able to do that with. But I guess the majority of the time I spend creating is a solitary thing. But really it can be anywhere: the living room, porch, just as long as I know nobody can hear me.
A SONG
Lately I’ve been listening a lot to the most recent Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy release, two covers of the band Lungfish. Both of the songs are like 20 minutes long and it’s the same riff over and over again: it’s really hypnotic and I love that. I love to be able to do something that repetitive and still be interesting somehow. They did it so … I think it’s meditation or something. After 10 minutes it’s like – once you realise oh my God they are still going, they’re still doing this – you just want it more and more.
There’s another song by the band Lambchop, In Care Of 8675309, a similar thing: this amazing chord progression and every time it comes back around it gets better. It goes on for 13 minutes or something.
Both Kurt Wagner of Lambchop and Will Oldham, a.k.a. Bonnie ‘Prince’, have voices and singing styles not a million miles from Lenderman’s: relaxed, almost conversational, worn in. Is that the most comfortable way for him to sing?
I think so, yeah. I guess the other two guys, especially Will Oldham, over the course of his career, and now he is an actor, he is able to inhabit different characters just by using his voice. I feel, I guess, more comfortable more laid-back. I’m a pretty slow talker, so I guess that comes through in the singing too. I don’t think my mouth can move any faster.
A PERSON
I guess my family. My immediate family, including me, is six total, I get to see them less and less. I have three sisters and I was spending some time with my younger sister. I feel pretty close to her: we grew up being the youngest two [she is the youngest] and I feel especially bonded to her in that way. So maybe her.
As not the oldest, not the youngest, nor even the middle child, he almost doesn’t have a definition/assumption. How was it being in that spot in the family?
I like that spot in the lineup because my parents had two tests before me [he smiles]. It’s cool having older siblings to learn from so I think I got it pretty good. I have avoided the burden of being one of the older kids but as far as career goes, being a musician isn’t the first thing your parents really want to hear but it’s going okay now so it’s not really a problem. Luckily. Other than that I don’t feel much of a pressure to keep the family name going or anything like that [he smiles again].
It’s funny, I was just at my parents’ house and [his youngest sister] was picking up guitar for the first time so I was showing her a couple of things. It must be strange to see me choose this path, and even weirder to see it work out a little bit.
A BOOK/FILM/ART
I’ve gone through times I have read a lot though I’ve been pretty slow reading over the last year or so. I’ve been really on a kick watching movies lately, trying to build back some sort of attention span. I’ve been especially watching horror movies for some reason, had a lot of fun doing that. I saw Longlegs a couple of days ago, I enjoyed that a lot. Nothing too crazy. I watched Poor Things last night, I thought that was good: that was a weird one.
I feel like I get a lot of ideas [from other art], like books and movies especially are good for more conceptual things. I feel like good writers and good filmmakers are good at articulating complex human emotions or experiences, make you ask questions, so I really draw from film and books.
Does he find it difficult to contain the complexities of his stories in much shorter forms than novelists and filmmakers he admires do? Or is that one of the disciplines he enjoys?
I kinda see it as may be a benefit because we also have the sonic side of the music to carry some of the emotional weight and energy. There is no one way to write a song: it doesn’t have to be linear or anything like that. I think this record has got a lot of pop structure, just like verse, chorus. Not many bridges on the album. And She’s Leaving You is maybe one of the only songs I have with a chorus. I think that’s fun.
I think as far as structure goes for songs, I’ve always kept it pretty simple. The music is pretty lyrically driven and so to let that come through in the clean way, keeping the song structure simple, to not distract from that, is something I think about.
HIS CHOICE OF SOMETHING TO BRING INTO HIS LIFE
I think about feeling settled somewhere. I’ve been on the move so long I’m not really living anywhere right now. So that’s kinda at the top of my mind, having somewhere to settle in and have some time to collect and be writing again.
It was kind of circumstance [rather than choice] but the choice is that I chose to be a musician who tours. I feel happiest when I’m creating stuff and having a space to do that where nobody else is around, where I dedicate time to collecting ideas and thoughts and stuff, and then getting them out.
MJ Lenderman’s Manning Fireworks is out September 6.
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