The Jazzmaster icon goes beyond offsets and shreds on fresh, sparkly Teles and a Vox-Fender mashup. Plus, he encounters his first Floyd Rose.
Dinosaur Jr.ās J Mascis is rock ānā rollās loudest low talker. Onstage, the reserved frontman is overshadowed by his three full stacks, summoning up President Teddy Rooseveltās quote: āspeak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.ā
Fellow volume-dealing stalwarts Emmett Jefferson Murphy III (drums)ābetter known as āMurphāāand Lou Barlow (bass/vocals) helped J form the band in 1984 after their first group, Deep Wound, dissolved. Both left Dinosaur Jr., and then rejoined in 2005. This core group has released eight studio albums of dynamically rich rock that teeters between a runaway locomotive fueled on feedback and buzzing riffs, and hooky, melodic, pop-soaked nimble rhythms that carry more than they crush. While never reaching the mainstream stratosphere like some of their contemporaries (including Nirvana, who opened for Dino Jr. in 1991), this consummate power trio have remained popular in the American underground by continually selling out theaters, splashing into the Billboard 200 (climbing even higher in the Independent and Rock charts), and headlining alternative-music festivals. All along the way, their soft-spoken shredder has ascended as a guitar-hero among musical outcasts.
Before Dinosaur Jr.ās sold-out show at Nashvilleās Brooklyn Bowl, Mascis reconnected with PGās Chris Kies to talk Teles (yes, you read that right; heās touring with more Telecasters than ever), including the development of his new signature T thatās based on his studio-perfect ā58 model. We also witness two firsts for J: a Phantom-Tele-Jazzmaster Frankenstein and a Floyd Rose-equipped guitar.
Brought to you by DāAddario XPND Pedalboard.
The Phantom of the Bowl
J Mascis has been linked to the Jazzmaster for decades. In 2021, he broke his offset mold, releasing a signature FenderĀ Telecaster based on a beloved 1958 Tele that has long been his go-to instrument for tracking solos. But during our November 2021 chat at Nashvilleās Brooklyn Bowl, Mascis mentioned that the ā60s Vox Phantom was his favorite silhouette. He could never get along with them onstage, so heās cobbled together various parts and made his own dream machine. This guitar features a modern copy of a Phantom body, a Fender Deluxe Series Telecaster maple neck and fretboard (with jumbo frets), and a Mastery JM-style bridge.
The project was entrusted to and executed by Trevor Healy of Healy Guitars out of Easthampton, Massachusetts. Healy recounts: āMy favorite thing about it was cutting around the Mastery bridge to fit snug inside the pickguard. Thereās also a Seymour Duncan custom shop pickup under the bridge pickup cover, if Iām not mistaken.ā Regarding the pickups we can see, Mascis tried several setsāincluding Fender Eric Johnson signature single-coils (middle and neck) matched with a Seymour Duncan Stra-Bro 90 (bridge)ābefore landing on a trio of Fender Noiseless single-coils. The guitar rides in open-G tuning and is used on āI Ainātā from their new album Sweep It Into Space.
All of Jās guitars take Ernie Ball Regular Slinkys (.010ā.046) and he shreds with Dunlop Tortex 1.14 mm picks.
Full-On Phantom
Hereās a head-to-toe shot of the marvelous mash-up.
Déjà Blue
āIāve started seeing it in guitar shops, and itās weird because itās like, āwhy is my guitar up on the wall?ā,ā jokes Mascis. āItās not a guitar I designed, like with my signature Jazzmasters, so seeing a copy of a guitar Iāve had for decades is weird.ā Mascis sort of fell into the Telecaster world by way of Fort Apache Studios owner Joe Harvard, who sold J the 1958 top-loading Tele that his new signature is based on.
Mascis played that ā58 while producing Buffalo Tomās 1990 album Birdbrain at Fort Apache. Mascis let Harvard know that if he ever wanted to part ways with the Tele, he should call him first. Harvard swore heād never break ties with the guitar, but only a few months later Mascis got the fateful call. In the Rundown, he mentions that since owning the ā58 it has appeared on almost every solo heās recorded, because he tends to like what he plays on that Tele more than anything else he owns.
In our November 2021 cover story, J elaborated on what makes the blue-sparkle T so special: āOn that Tele, I find my solos are more interesting. If I play the same solo on a Strat, it just sounds like a Strat to me. Itās slightly more boring somehow? I donāt know where my brain or fingers go or why that happens, but I usually find that if I play solos on different guitars for the same song, the stuff I play on that Tele is always more interesting. The top-loader was the first Tele I really bonded with, and it was about the feel. When I pick up Teles with string-through-body bridges, the strings are a little harder to bend. People say the top-loaders donāt have as much sustain, but I never thought of a Tele as a sustain guitar anyway, and when you hit a Big Muff, every guitar has sustain. So that argument doesn't really work for me.ā
Notable ingredients for the production model include an alder body covered with a dashing bottle-rocket blue-flake finish (offset with a mirrored pickguard), a custom J Mascis C-profile maple neck thatās paired with a maple fretboard pocketing 21 jumbo frets, and J Mascis Custom ā58 Tele Single-Coil pickups. However, in the signature guitar he showed us, he swapped out the stock Fender pickups for a Seymour Duncan BG1400 Lead Stack Telecaster (bridge) and McNelly A2 or A5 T-style (neck). (The neck and hardware feature Fenderās āroad-wornā treatment, too.) So far, heās been using it on āFeel the Painā and āStart Choppinā.ā
Sparkle Spank
Prior to getting his signature Tele, this Fender Custom Shop Deluxe Telecaster Thinline was his favorite live T. The purple-sparkle axe features many of Jās go-to specs, like jumbo frets on a worn-down, C-profile maple neck and a top-loader bridge. (Although Fender delivered the guitar with a string-through setup, forgetting his request for a top-loading bridge, J quickly swapped one onto it.) As of filming, it had a Seymour Duncan BG1400 Lead Stack Telecaster (bridge) and TV Jones Starwood (neck).
JM Thinline for J
To match his Custom Shop Tele Thinline, Mascis requested a Jazzmaster Thinline semi-hollow in the hopes itād be a lightweight option for extended practice jams, but the finished product came out heavier than J imagined. The Custom Shop JM-style pickups were spray painted by his tech.
A St. Vincent Jazzmaster?
While recording Sweep It Into Space, J experimented with different sounds and tunings. One pairing that yielded a raucous result was using an Ernie Ball Music Man St. Vincent guitar in C#-tuning, which delivered the gnarly āI Met the Stones.ā The foundation of the beefy track is the St. Vincentās DiMarzio mini humbuckers into a Fender tweed. J shared this with PG in November 2021: āIt [EBMM St. Vincent] seemed to play in tune well at that pitch. A lot of those rhythm parts are on that guitar through a tweed Fender Bandmaster. I think the sound on that song is mostly from the amp and the mini-humbuckers in that guitar.ā So, his road-take on that instrument is a Jazzmaster with the neck pickup disconnected, blasting through the same DiMarzio bridge mini-humbucker thatās in the St. Vincent.
Tuxedo Tele
āI asked Fender if they had any guitars that would stay in tune in C#, and they sent this to me,ā says Mascis. The Fender American Ultra Luxe Telecaster Floyd Rose HH is Jās first 6-string with a Floyd Rose trem and, noted in the Rundown, he eyed āMountain Manā (from 1985ās Dinosaur) for its maiden voyage.
The snazzy Telecaster is constructed with an alder body, Fenderās augmented-D-shaped maple neck, a maple fretboard and 22 jumbo frets, Ultra Double Tap humbuckers (splitable via Fenderās S-1 switch), and a Floyd Rose Original Double-Locking 2-Point Tremolo bridge.
J For Jazzmaster
Weād be remised if we didnāt feature Jās longtime live No. 1āa sunburst ā63 Fender Jazzmaster with its original neck and pickups. He replaced the pickup covers and knobs, put in jumbo frets, subbed in a Tune-o-matic-style bridge, and since our 2017 episode, he upgraded the stock Fender vibrato to a Mastery.
Tone ⦠Deaf
Anyone who has witnessed Dinosaur Jr. live recognizes these towers of tone. For years, Mascis has been flanked by the same three stacks and sidestage combo. Here we see three-fourths of Jās jumbo setup: two late-ā60s Marshall Super Bass full-stacks and a vintage Hiwatt DR-103 head driving two Marshall 4x12s.
Close Ups
Vintage Hiwatt DR-103
1960s Marshall Super Bass
Another 1960s Marshall Super Bass
Fender Makes Four
In the 2012 episode, Mascis was using a Victoria 80212 tweed Twin clone, but in 2017, and again in late 2021, he was using the same vintage Fender Twin Reverb.
More For Mascis
For at least 10-plus years, J Mascis has used a Bob Bradshaw-built Custom Audio Electronics switcher as his mission control. The standout stomps that were seen in the 2012 and 2017 editions include a Tone Bender MkI/Rangemaster-clone combo pedal made by Built to Spillās Jim Roth (bottom right cornerāin a third new enclosure since the 2012 and 2017 videos, each showing a different box), Mascisā first Electro-Harmonix āRamās Headā Big Muff (top right), a vintage EHX Electric Mistress, an MC-FX clone of a Univox Super-Fuzz (lower right, blue box), a pair of ZVEX pedalsāa Double Rock (two Box of Rock stomps in one) and a Lo-Fi Loop Junky (both bottom left), a Tube Works Real Tube Overdrive, a Moog MF Delay, and a Boss TU-3S Tuner. The new pedals not featured in the last two videos are a Homebrew Electronics Germania 44 treble booster (lower right), a JAM Pedals RetroVibe MkII, an Xotic SL Drive, a Suhr Jack Rabbit tremolo, a Dr. Scientist Frazz Dazzler fuzz, an EHX Oceans 11, and a (Dunlop) Jimi Hendrix ā69 Psych Series Uni-Vibe chorus/vibrato. Everything receives juice from either an MXR MC403 Power System or an MXR M237 DC Brick.
- What Happened to J Mascis' Jazzmaster Addiction? - Premier Guitar āŗ
- J Mascis Keeps It Loud! - Premier Guitar āŗ
- Rig Rundown: Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis and Lou Barlow [2017 ... āŗ
- Electro-Harmonix J Mascis Ram's Head Big Muff Pi Pedal - Premier Guitar āŗ
- Electro-Harmonix J Mascis Ram's Head Big Muff Pi Pedal - Premier Guitar āŗ
- MJ Lenderman: Wind Rig Rundown Revealed - Premier Guitar āŗ
Versatile guitarist Nathaniel Murphy can be seen and heard on YouTube and Instagram, where he has over 450,000 followers, and demos for Chicago Music Exchange.
Nathaniel Murphy and Steve Eisenberg join the PG staff to wax poetically on what their signature pedal might sound like.
Question: What would your signature pedal sound like?
Guest Picker - Nathaniel Murphy
A: My signature pedal wouldnāt even really be my sound. It would have all of The Edgeās exact sounds and settings in one pedal as presets. No messing with switches or dialing in tones, just cycle through presets and it sounds exactly like āPride (In the Name of Love),ā āMysterious Ways,ā or āWhere the Streets Have no Name.ā It would be purely just for fun to jam at home. My own pedal would probably just be a reverb!
While recovering from a hand injury, Nathaniel Murphy āreally got into picado technique and would watch Paco De Lucia and in particular Matteo Mancuso (above) vids and lessons.
Obsession: Well, Iāve just spent six weeks in a cast after a wrist fractureāvery scary. During that time I couldnāt use my fretting hand so I worked on my picking hand. I really got into picado technique and would watch Paco De Lucia and in particular Matteo Mancuso vids and lessons. Itās been really refreshing and also fun working on a new technique for me, even though itās incredibly tricky and progress is slow. But I love the challenge of it.
Reader of the Month - Steve Eisenberg
A: My signature pedal would be simple to use, have the capability of being shaped with iPhone-app based effects, and expand features as my guitar adventure grows in scope. Iām very much in the experimentation stage with my pedal work, and having direction and guidance available on an iPhone has helped me navigate in a way that ensures Iām meeting some of my guitar-adventure goals.
Obsession: Through the guidance of my instructor, I am exploring fingerstyle guitar, as it has motivated me away from just chord shapes and scale work. I was feeling a little stuck, and using the fingers of the right hand has allowed me to increase my dexterity and coordination, and motivated me to practice more often.
Gear Editor - Charles Saufley
Mr. Saufley, represented by a mallard.
A: The foundation of my signature pedal is the guts of a 1968 Vox Starstream guitar, which is made up of a Vox Distortion Booster fuzz, a Vox Repeat Percussion tremolo, and Vox Treble Booster. Sonically speaking, this is like donning a psych-punk freakbeat cape. Just before the Distortion Booster there is a Grampian 636 reverb preamp circuit to fatten up and color the works. After the freakbeat section, there will be a de- and re-constructed Roland RE-201 Space Echo. Most of the pedal enclosure will be made up of clear Lucite (illuminated by alternating-color lamps), so I can observe the tape swirling within. The RE-201ās spring reverb, meanwhile, will be suspended in its own flip-up Lucite case which will sit on dampers to insulate it from floor vibration. Hopefully, it will sound like Lee āScratchā Perry producing Loveās ā7 and 7 Isā.
Obsession: The first sounds and green and gold flashes of early springāand the wakeful energy, ideas, and inspiration it brings.
Giving some love to Love!
Art Director - Naomi Rose
A: The enclosure would be hex color #00b4c1ābranded as NAOMI blueācheckerboarded with alternating boxes of NAOMI blue glitter flock and matte NAOMI blue. The footswitch would be a bulbous orange rubber material so itād feel squishy when stepping on it whilst playing barefoot. It would have a kick-out stand in the back like a picture frame, so when it's not in use, it could stand angled on a shelf to be admired. It would be called Ruckus because that's my middle name. What would it DO? That's a secret I will not be sharing at this time.
Our graphic designerās dream pedal brought to life.
Obsession: Silence. I hardly listen to music or podcasts these days. When I donāt have outside noise, I tend to self-narrate in my head, which leads to making ridiculous little made-up songs throughout the day. These will oftentimes spark cool ideas and manifest into actual songs that I end up recording and producing. Even in the mundane, inspiration is everywhere. Sometimes getting rid of distractions helps you notice it more.
Small spring, big splashāa pedal reverb that oozes surfy ambience and authenticity.
A vintage-cool sonic alternative to bigger tube-driven tanks and digital springs that emulate them.
Susceptible to vibration.
$199
Danelectro Spring King Junior
danelectro.com
Few pedal effects were transformed, enhanced, and reimagined by fast digital processors quite like reverb. This humble effectāreadily available in your local parking garage or empty basketball gymnasium for freeāevolved from organic sound phenomena to a very unnatural one. But while digital processing yields excellent reverb sounds of every type and style, Iād argue that the humble spring reverb still rules in its mechanical form.
Danelectroās Spring King Junior, an evolution of the companyās Spring King from the āaughts, is as mechanical as they come. It doesnāt feature a dwell control or the huge, haunted personality of a Fender Reverb unit. But the Spring King Junior has a vintage accent and personality and doesnāt cost as much as a whole amplifier like a Fender Reverb or reverb-equipped combo does. But itās easy to imagine making awesome records and setting deep stage moods with this unit, especially if 1950s and 1960s atmospheres are the aim.
Looking Past Little
Size factors significantly into the way a spring reverb sounds. And while certain small spring tanks sound coolāthe Roland RE-201 Space Echoās small spring reverb for oneāitās plain hard to reproduce the clank and splash from a 17" Fender tank with springs a fraction of that length. Using three springs less than 3 1/2" long, the Accutronics/Belton BMN3AB3E module that powers the Spring King Junior is probably not what you want in a knife fight with Dick Dale. Even so, it imparts real character that splits the difference between lo-fi and garage-y and long-tank expansiveness.
In very practical and objective terms, the Danelectro canāt approach a Fender Reverbās size and cavernousness. Matching the intensity of the Spring King Juniorās maximum reverb and tone settings to my own Fender Reverbās means keeping dwell, mix, and tone controls between 25 to 30 percent of their max. Depending on your tastes, that might be a useful limitation. If youāve used a Fender Reverb unit before, you know they can sound fantastically extreme. Itās overkill for a lot of folks, and the Spring King Junior inhabits spaces that donāt overpower a guitar or amplifierās essence. Many players will find the Spring King Junior simply easier to manage and control.
There are ways to add size to the Spring King Juniorās output. An upstream, edgy clean boost will do much to puff up the Danelectroās profile next to a Fender. The approach comes with risk: Too much drive excites certain frequencies to the point of feedback. But the Juniorās mellower sounds are abundant and interesting. Darker reverb tones sound awesome, and combined with modest reverb mixes they add a spooky aura to melancholy soul and spartan semi-hollow jazz phrasingsāall in shades mostly distinct from Fender units.
Watch Your Step!
Spring reverbs come with operational challenges that you wonāt experience in a digital emulation. And though the Spring King Junior is well built, its relative slightness compounds some of those challenges. The spring module, for instance, is affixed to the Spring King Juniorās back panel with two pieces of foam tape. And while kicking a spring reverb to punctuate a dub mix or surf epic is a gas, the Spring King Junior can be susceptible to less intentional applications of this effect. At extra-loud volumes, the unit picks up vibrations from the amplifierās output when amp and effect are in tight proximity. And sometimes, merely clicking the bypass switch elicits an echo-y āclankā. This doesnāt happen in every performance setting. But itās worth considering settings where youāll use the Spring King Junior and how loud and vibration-resistant those spaces will be.
Though the Spring King Juniorās size makes it susceptible to vibration, many related ghost tonesātaken in the right measureāare a cool and essential part of its voice. Itās an idiosyncratic effect, so evaluating its compatibility with specific instruments, amps, studio environments, and performance settings is a good idea. But for those that do find a place for the Spring King Junior, its combination of tone color, compact size, and hazy 1960s ambience could be a deep well of inspiration.
Featuring studio-grade Class A circuit and versatile resonance switch, this pedal is designed to deliver the perfect boost and multiple tonal options.
Introducing the Pickup Booster Mini ā our classic boost now in a space-saving package! Featuring the same studio-grade Class A circuit and versatile resonance switch that guitarists have trusted for over two decades, this compact pedal provides the perfect boost, while the resonance switch can access multiple tonal characteristics when you want it.
Meet the Pickup Booster Mini, our classic Pickup Booster in a pedalboard space-saving size. It delivers that extra push when you need it, along with our unique resonance switch that adds extra versatility! Think of it as your tone's best friend, now in a compact package that won't hog precious board space. Inside this mini powerhouse, you'll find our studio-grade class A circuit and true-bypass switching, ready to boost your signal while keeping your guitar's personality intact. Whether you're after a subtle boost or need to really push your amp, the discrete push-pull design has you covered. And here's a bonus: even at zero gain, it'll clean up your signal chain and make those tone-degrading long cable runs behave.
Need to pull a humbucker sound from your StratĀ®? The resonance switch makes the pedal interact directly with your pickups, letting your single coils emulate either a chunky humbucker sound perfect for classic rock and blues, or a high-output tone for soaring leads. Running humbuckers? Position 1 adds some teeth to your sound, while Position 2 can give you a hint of that 'cocked-wah' filter sound that'll make your solos cut. Bring one guitar to the gig and cover all that tonal territory with one simple switch!
This mini pedal delivers the exact same boosting and tone-shaping power of the iconic Pickup Booster that players have sworn by for two decades ā we just made it easier to find room for it on your board.
For more information, please visit seymourduncan.com.
Pickup Booster Mini | Classic Boost Plus a Secret Weapon w/ Ryan Plewacki from Demos in the Dark - YouTube
After eight years, New Orleans artist Benjamin Booker returns with a new album and a redefined relationship to the guitar.
Itās been eight years since the New Orleans-based artist released his last album. Heās back with a record that redefines his relationship to the guitar.
It is January 24, and Benjamin Bookerās third full-length album, LOWER, has just been released to the world. Itās been nearly eight years since his last record, 2017ās Witness, but Booker is unmoved by the new milestone. āI donāt really feel anything, I guess,ā he says. āMaybe Iām in shock.ā
That evening, Booker played a release celebration show at Euclid Records in New Orleans, which has become the musicianās adopted hometown. He spent a few years in Los Angeles, and then in Australia, where his partner gave birth to their child, but when he moved back to the U.S. in December 2023, it was the only place he could imagine coming back to. āI just like that the city has kind of a magic quality to it,ā he says. āIt just feels kind of like youāre walking around a movie set all the time.ā
Witness was a ruminative, lonesome record, an interpretation of the writer James Baldwinās concept of bearing witness to atrocity and injustice in the United States. Mavis Staples sang on the title track, which addressed the centuries-old crisis of police killings and brutality carried out against black Americans. It was a significant change from the twitchy, bluesy garage-rock of Bookerās self-titled 2014 debut, the sort of tunes that put him on the map as a scrappy guitar-slinging hero. But Booker never planned on heroism; he had no interest in becoming some neatly packaged industry archetype. After Witness, and years of touring, including supporting the likes of Jack White and Neil Young, Booker withdrew.
He was searching for a sound. āI was just trying to find the things that I liked,ā he explains. L.A. was a good place for his hunt. He went cratedigging at Stellaremnant for electronic records, and at Artform Studio in Highland Park for obscure jazz releases. It took a long time to put together the music he was chasing. āFor a while, I left guitar, and was just trying to figure out what I was going to do,ā says Booker. āI just wasnāt interested in it anymore. I hadnāt heard really that much guitar stuff that had really spoke to me.ā
āFor a while, I left guitar, and was just trying to figure out what I was going to do. I just wasnāt interested in it anymore.ā
LOWER is Bookerās most sensitive and challenging record yet.
Among the few exceptions were Tortoiseās Jeff Parker and Dave Harrington from Darkside, players who moved Booker to focus more on creating ambient and abstract textures instead of riffs. Other sources of inspiration came from Nicolas Jaar, Loveliescrushing, Kevin Shields, Sophie, and JPEGMAFIA. When it came to make LOWER (which released on Bookerās own Fire Next Time Records, another nod to Baldwin), he took the influences that he picked up and put them onto guitarāmore atmosphere, less ānoodly stuffā: āThis album, I was working a lot more with images, trying to get images that could get to the emotion that I was trying to get to.ā
The result is a scraping, aching, exploratory album that demonstrates that Bookerās creative analysis of the world is sharper and more potent than ever. Opener āBlack Oppsā is a throbbing, metallic, garage-electronic thrill, running back decades of state surveillance, murder, and sabotage against Black community organizing. āLWA in the Trailer Parkā is brighter by a slim margin, but just as simultaneously discordant and groovy. The looped fingerpicking of āPompeii Statuesā sets a grounding for Booker to narrate scenes of the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles. Even the acoustic strums of āHeavy on the Mindā are warped and stretched into something deeply affecting; ditto the sunny, garbage-smeared ā60s pop of āShow and Tell.ā But LOWER is also breathtakingly beautiful and moving. āSlow Dance in a Gay Barā and āHope for the Night Timeā intermingle moments of joy and lightness amid desperation and loneliness.
Booker worked with L.A.-based hip-hop and electronic producer Kenny Segal, trading stems endlessly over email to build the record. While he was surrounded by vintage guitars and amps to create Witness, Booker didnāt use a single amplifier in the process of making LOWER: He recorded all his guitars direct through an interface to his DAW. āItās just me plugging my old Epiphone Olympic into the computer and then using software plugins to manipulate the sounds,ā says Booker. For him, working digitally and āin the boxā is the new frontier of guitar music, no different than how Hendrix and Clapton used never-heard-before fuzz pedals to blow peopleās minds. āWhen I look at guitar players who are my favorites, a lot of [their playing] is related to the technology at the time,ā he adds.
āWhen I look at guitar players who are my favorites, a lot of [their playing] is related to the technology at the time.ā
Benjamin Booker's Gear
Booker didnāt use any amps on LOWER. He recorded his old Epiphone Olympic direct into his DAW.
Photo by Trenity Thomas
Guitars
- 1960s Epiphone Olympic
Effects
- Soundtoys Little AlterBoy
- Soundtoys Decapitator
- Soundtoys Devil-Loc Deluxe
- Soundtoys Little Plate
āI guess I have a problem with anything being too sugary. I wanted a little bit of ugliness.ā
Inspired by a black metal documentary in which an artist asks for the cheapest mic possible, Booker used only basic plugins by Soundtoys, like the Decapitator, Little AlterBoy, and Little Plate, but the Devil-Loc Deluxe was the key for he and Segal to unlock the distorted, āthree-dimensional worldā they were seeking. āBecause I was listening to more electronic music where thereās more of a focus on mixing than I would say in rock music, I think that I felt more inspired to go in and be surgical about it,ā says Booker.
Part of that precision meant capturing the chaos of our world in all its terror and splendor. When he was younger, Booker spent a lot of time going to the Library of Congress and listening to archival interviews. On LOWER, he carries out his own archival sound research. āI like the idea of being able to put things like that in the music, for people to just hear it,ā says Booker. āEven if they donāt know what it is, theyāre catching a glimpse of life that happened at that time.ā
On āSlow Dance in a Gay Bar,ā there are birds chirping that he captured while living in Australia. Closer āHope for the Night Timeā features sounds from Los Angelesā Grand Central Market. āSame Kind of Lonelyā features audio of Bookerās baby laughing just after a clip from a school shooting. āI guess I have a problem with anything being too sugary,ā says Booker. āI wanted a little bit of ugliness. We all have our regular lives that are just kind of interrupted constantly by insane acts of violence.ā
That dichotomy is often difficult to compute, but Booker has made peace with it. āYou hear people talking about, āI donāt want to have kids because the world is falling apart,āā he says. āBut I mean, I feel like itās always falling apart and building itself back up. Nothing lasts forever, even bad times.ā
YouTube It
To go along with the record, Booker produced a string of music videos influenced by the work of director Paul Schrader and his fascination with āa troubled character on the edge, reaching for transcendence.ā That vision is present in the video for lead single āLWA in the Trailer Park.ā