Mascis and his trademark triple-stack array—in this case, a Marshall JCM 2000 TSL 100 head and two
Hiwatt Custom 100 DR103 heads—playing live with
Dinosaur Jr. at the Bukta Festival in Tromsø,
Norway, July 16, 2010. The amps are mic'd with Sennheiser e609s. Photo by Simon McKenzie
How did Several Shades of
Why come about?
I used to play a lot of acoustic solo
shows, and a friend of mine—Megan Jasper, who works at Sub
Pop records—had always wanted
me to do a record like that, because
she was into the shows. It just took
a long time before it seemed like
the right time. It was recorded at
my house, although some guests on
the album recorded at other places.
Who are some of the guests?
A longtime friend of mine
named Kurt Fedora, Kurt
Vile, Matt Valentine, Sophie
Trudeau from Godspeed You!
Black Emperor and Silver
Mount Zion, Ben Bridwell
from Band of Horses, Kevin
Drew from Broken Social
Scene, Paul Jenkins from Black
Heart Procession, and Suzanne
Thorpe from Mercury Rev and
Wounded Knees.
What was the writing process
like for this album—and did
you have to make any stylistic
adjustments to accommodate
the acoustic?
No. It was probably the same as
usual—I just kind of write on
the guitar, and then write lyrics
more toward the end, before
I have to sing them. I use my
iPhone to record ideas and then
send it to my email.
I heard that you also write
songs while watching TV.
Yeah, it just passes the time.
Maybe it helps that I’m not
thinking too much about what
I’m playing. I just hope that
something might come through.
Did you write all the parts—including the string melodies—
yourself, or was it a
collaborative effort?
For the strings, I wrote one section
and Sophie did the other
parts. A lot of the guitar people
on the album are just playing
whatever—they’d play a lot of
stuff and I’d just pick out things
that I liked. So, yeah, we were
just jamming.
What changes—lyrically and
musically—do you notice in
your songwriting since the
inception of Dinosaur Jr.?
At the beginning, I put a lot
more parts in the songs—we
just had tons of different parts
all the time. That’s the main
difference, I guess. Now, I feel
comfortable to just sometimes
have two parts, instead of, like,
20 parts to the song.
In the past, you’ve cited
some classic-rock influences,
although your music doesn’t
always reflect that. What
influences have remained with
you throughout our career?
The Stones, the Stooges, the
Wipers . . . they all still influence
me. I collect new ones, but the
old ones are still there. I always
bought a lot of records. What do
I have that’s new? Let’s see . . . I
just heard this band Soft Moon
that I liked. They sounded pretty
cool, kind of like a Joy Division
and Cabaret Voltaire kind of vibe.