Although Barlow has played on six of the band’s ten albums, he had an extended period of exile from the group after being fired in 1989. It would take 16 years to get the original trio back together again – comprising Barlow, frontman J Mascis and drummer Murph.
“I entered it with an open mind,” Barlow says. “I didn’t know where it would go, but I accepted it in as neutral a fashion as I could. I was just hoping for the best – and now, ten years and four albums in, I think it’s worked out the best way that it could. The shows we just played were really incredible. It was a lot of work to put in for them, and we were really busy in the weeks leading up to it. The payoff was really, really nice.”
The last few years have seen Barlow on one of his most creative streaks to date. 2012 saw the release of Dinosaur Jr.’s tenth LP, I Bet on Sky; in 2013 came Defend Yourself from another Barlow-related project, Sebadoh, which was the band’s first in 14 years; and last year brought Brace the Wave, Barlow’s third album to bare only his name. It’s a warm, stripped-back folk record far removed from the mane-thrashing fuzz of his other bands. It’s an intentional move on Barlow’s behalf, who says that a return to performing solo was an inevitability. “I tend to work in cycles,” he says.
“Naturally, if I’ve done a Sebadoh and a Dinosaur Jr. record, I’m inclined to do a solo record. I think it helps ground me, and it helps me approach the other bands with an open mind and a clean spirit. I’ve always tried to work on a few things at any time. Dinosaur and Sebadoh are electric bands, but I’ve always played acoustic music. Many of the better known songs that I’ve written have started out acoustically. I’ve always liked the idea of folk music taking different shapes – folk music informed by punk rock, being an alternative to what’s generally accepted as folk music. I think that’s the kind of music that I’ve come to make as a solo artist.”
Brace the Wave was recorded over a period of just six days with long-time friend, producer and engineer Justin Pizzoferrato. The album features heavy use of a baritone ukulele, which Barlow converts into various custom tunings and plays in his own unique manner. Having originally received the instrument as a gift from his mother in his early teens, the now 49-year-old has spent most of his life approaching it from a left-field perspective.
“I started writing songs on the ukulele back in the 80s,” says Barlow. “That was when I was first really starting to write songs on my own. For instance, the Sebadoh song Brand New Love began as a song that was just on the ukulele. I’ve never approached it in the same way that most people tend to think of the instrument – I always put on heavier strings and use my own tunings for it. I incorporate a few different strumming styles that tend to work best purely for the ukulele, and I’ve always been drawn to the size and the sound of it. There’s something about playing with four strings that I’ve always been drawn to – bass, ukulele, and I’ve got a customised guitar that I use in Sebadoh that takes out the D and the G strings where I modify the tunings to reflect the ones on the uke.”
BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG
