How did the tour go?
It was good, real good. It's been tiring because we've been touring pretty constantly since the record came out, with little breaks. And then going to Europe, and then a little break, and then we went to Australia and Japan, and then we had a week off before this tour. So we're all really, really fried.
Do you consider yourself and/or the band to be successful?
Yeah, I mean artistically, certainly. Commercially less so on this album, but that seems to be the record company's fault, I would say. I mean, they didn't release a video or a single.
Most of J Mascis' lyrics are extremely sad. Is he ever an extremely happy guy?
Oh yeah, he has good times and bad times, same as anybody else. He's like most people, or at least a lot of people I know, in that the things that tend to inspire people to write songs a lot of times — or at least songs of any depth — are often times not the happy things.
Outside of music, what inspires you most?
All the other arts pretty much, like film and literature.
Who's your favorite writer?
Raymond Carver, probably.
Yeah, he's great.
Yeah, I love Raymond Carver. The short story is my favorite form of art, because I think it's the most pure somehow. It's like the song of literature.
If for some reason you couldn't be involved in music anymore, what do you think you'd do?
Shoot myself (laughs). Like if my arms were cut off or something?
Yeah.
Then I don't know what the hell I'd do. No matter what, I'd be involved with music, aside from a crippling injury. But uh, I don't know what I'd do. I'd probably be a bartender somewhere or something, drive a cab (laughs). I don't know, something completely lame. Or try to pursue some other artistic endeavor that I would fail at (laughs).
Do you dance at weddings?
Do I dance at weddings? I have, I have danced at weddings.
Do you enjoy dancing at weddings?
I've only done it once, out of four or five weddings I've been to. I've done it once, and I did enjoy it. I danced with the bride's sisters, so that was kind of fun.
What do you have planned or the next months? What are some things that you haven't accomplished yet that you'd like to accomplish, musically or otherwise?
Personally, I'm gonna make another solo album within the next month or two. The band doesn't really have any plans at all, we're really up in the air after this. We might do some more shows, who knows, but it seems really up in the air. For the next two months I'm just gonna be working on my own stuff. Other than that, I don't know. Probably bowling a lot and drinking too much (laughs).
