Now, when I have a four-string that I take on the road with me, it's a regular Martin. I bought a decent Martin with a pickup in it, and then I just take off the strings and have four strings on it.
— Lou Barlow
I had a very strong 'revertigo' for becoming the kid that I was when I was in Dinosaur Jr. That's a pretty insecure place that I was in.
I hear people telling me a lot that the production of that particular record - 'One Part Lullaby' - really influenced them. I'm like, 'What? We were dropped from the label after that!'
I've always tried to make music for someone who's never heard anything I've ever done.
For me, it's hard to enter any situation with people where we're considering everyone equals, because I bring all of this massive baggage into anything that I do, preconceptions of my work. That's a lot for the people that I might be bringing along with me to bear.
Coming back to Dinosaur Jr. and actually writing songs for the band was really intense for me.
I like to collaborate with other people for studio recordings because I believe collaboration, in any form, makes music better.
It's kind of crazy how music helped me overcome the anxieties that I have.
I was cripplingly shy. When I was in high school, my teachers thought I was mentally disabled because I wouldn't be able to say anything or do anything. They thought I didn't speak.
My family is the epicenter of my life.
I don't focus on one thing. I play guitar and bass and keyboards and drums, but I never stay on anything long enough to become a specialist at it.
I think all food except for maybe pizza and Mexican food is better in Japan.
From when I young, a lot of the things I grappled with, with instruments, was how large they were. When someone places a large guitar in your lap, it's hard - I'd learned how to play a guitar when I was a kid, but I never really felt like I was in control.
Los Angeles was really beautiful, and California in general is a great place to live.
That's what I've figured out over the years - the way I write makes people feel uncomfortable.
I wrote a song for my sister's wedding.
I can finish a show and walk through the audience without being recognized.
When I first started writing songs, I did play with my fingers, and I had these kind of weird strums. There's, like, three or four strumming patterns that seemed kind of unique to me.
People in the Midwest, there's a lot of regional pride and a lot more, like, fake positivity - 'That's great - you're awesome!'
Early on, I really liked the idea of being confrontational. I loved the idea of making songs that made people really uncomfortable.
It's cool to think about nursing, because a lot of people decide to go into it later in their lives. I could slip into school to be an LPN or an RN as a middle-aged man, and it wouldn't be unusual.
Young bands are so angry. There are young bands that are so incredibly successful, getting incredible reviews, and they are totally angry.
Most of the times that I've written break-up songs, it's been different because I was always trying to get back to something: get back to a situation or talk my way or sing my way back into the relationship.
I'm the haphazard engineer of my own music.
I always felt that when people found things that they didn't like about me, it seemed to distance them from me.
J. makes me laugh. He's incredibly dry and has a pretty harsh sense of humor that I enjoy.
I don't really have friends in general. I never have. I didn't go to college and didn't have friends in high school.
Every show I play is like a little celebration of something in my life that has gone really well.
I look forward to so many things about going to Japan. The shows are early. It's great! They're really early, so it helps make dealing with jetlag a little easier.
Someone who's a really good engineer is someone who's a little bit smarter than you but who also listens to you and doesn't impose agendas.
If you put heavy, regular classic guitar strings on a baritone ukulele, it gets pretty low. It has a really nice, low, warm feel to it.
To be doing interviews in 2006 for a band I was kicked out of in 1989 - a band that I never thought I would play for again - in a way, it's weird.
I'm the Folk Implosion's biggest fan.
Some people play steel string beautifully, but I'm not exactly a world-class picker.
'One Part Lullaby.' It was our big major-label record. People reference it quite a bit, but it did absolutely nothing. It's like the 'Kids' soundtrack. It did nothing. It didn't start anything for me.
Harmony Korine, the screenwriter, was really into my early work. I did a lot of stuff under the name Sentridoh and a lot of 4-track cassette stuff that he was into.
I've managed to alienate most of what would be considered the core audience that I'm supposed to have had.
I've learned by experience that, if I get too clever with lyrics, or if I'm not totally embodying my own wants and needs in the songs, I can't remember them.
I really don't have a method. I gravitate towards the organic/acoustic, but I still often complete songs musically before attempting to find the lyric.
I don't know if i have a 'take' on L.A. The music community is enormous, from the studio musicians to the bands trying to 'make it' to the indie bands... so many bands... it can be overwhelming. But it seems healthy.
I always felt weird. I don't feel particularly likeable.
Literally everything I do is either write songs and play music, or I'm immersed in my domestic life.
My voice is not very dynamic.
With every performance I just feel more energized somehow. Like, this is how I exercise! This is how I feed my ego, by playing this loud rock music.
When I was a teenager, my mom got me a really nice baritone ukulele.
I prefer to read into other people's songs what I want to hear in them.
The first songs I ever wrote - my first, like, serious offerings - were all written on ukulele. It's always been a part of the way I write for a really long time.
At 12 or 13, I picked up a guitar because my mother made me learn how to play.
I wrote 'Healthy Sick,' from our first LP, when I was 19. I'll happily play it till I'm 91 because it always feels good and truthful.
