John Lucas

On this day 16 years ago, the Georgia Straight published my interview with Dinosaur Jr.’s Lou Barlow. I must have caught Barlow on a good day, because I found him to be quite gregarious. This is in marked contrast to the experience of fellow Straight contributor Shawn Conner, who had interviewed the bassist two years earlier and found him to be “cantankerous”. Barlow gave me some pretty funny quotes about what it’s like to be in a band with J Mascis and Murph.

Lou Barlow makes himself heard in Dinosaur Jr.

This article originally appeared in the Georgia Straight.

For most of its initial run, from 1984 to 1997, Dinosaur Jr. was essentially a one-man show, and that man was J Mascis. After giving founding bassist Lou Barlow the boot in ’89, Mascis took the creative reins, getting his unique combination of pained-slacker drawl and often jaw-dropping six-string pyrotechnics down to a science.

Since the original Dinosaur Jr. lineup—which also includes drummer Murph—reconvened in 2005, Barlow has steadily made inroads in the writing department, contributing two songs to both 2007’s Beyond and this year’s Farm. For the latter, the bassist wrote and sang both the psych-rock stomper “Your Weather” and the searing “Imagination Blind”. Each is a worthy addition to the Dinosaur Jr. catalogue, but neither came easily.

Reached at a tour stop in Houston, Texas, Barlow explains that his preferred way of making music, organically and collectively, is at odds with how his bandmates tend to operate. The meticulous Mascis usually presents his colleagues with demos of songs that are already fully composed, right down to the drum beats.

“I don’t think either of them are really that interested in collaborating, because Murph is so in the zone of having J tell him what to do, and J is difficult to engage,” says Barlow, who spent his non-Dinosaur years leading iconic indie acts such as Sebadoh and Folk Implosion. “It’s really funny. It’s just another set of personalities and another situation to juggle. I’ve done it with many people, and everybody’s different. Everybody has a different way of working, and J and Murph are no exception.”

The bassist will allow that working with the notoriously obstinate Mascis is considerably easier now than in the ’80s, when it was, he says, “a mind fuck, to say the least”. Dinosaur Jr.’s longhaired frontman might not be quite as passive-aggressive as he once was, but the creative process is still evidently a challenge. However, Barlow notes that when it comes to getting Mascis and Murph onboard for his own songs, the effort is invariably worth it. “I’m always really pleased with what I get out of them in the end. I’m just like, ‘Oh, cool.’

“That’s the kind of thing that keeps me interested in the band,” he continues. “For as much as we’ve done, and as much progress as we’ve made, I still think there’s a lot of potential. And I still feel like I have a lot to learn about how to communicate with them. I have a lot of room to grow, and a lot of confidence that I can acquire to be able to engage them.”

One key lesson Barlow has learned is that a bit of gentle—very gentle—insistence goes a long way where his delicate cohorts are concerned.

“They both are very sensitive,” he remarks. “You can’t really push them at all or they just retreat. There’s this very careful balance. They’re like cats, they really are. Seriously—you can’t make sudden movements or they’ll just run under the bed.”