" An Interview with Lou Barlow of Sebadoh 
"
Sebadoh – Alive MMIII An interview with Lou Barlow from the Sebadoh Resurrection in Rotterdam, by stevenmc.
" An Interview with Lou Barlow of Sebadoh "
Sebadoh – Alive MMIII An interview with Lou Barlow from the Sebadoh Resurrection in Rotterdam, by stevenmc.
Photo by Mark Scheffer
The name Sebadoh feels like it like it evolved from the stone age of indie-rock. For me, it became a reality in late 1993 when I bought a ticket for Nirvana, and printed underneath their name on the ticket was the Sebadoh logo. Of course, this is a peek back into youth, when a concert ticket was a sacred thing, committed to memory through pre-concert stares, as well as being eventually placed on the wall, or a poster, or something never quite grand, yet still sacred. Other memories come into play too because history demonstrated its own twist of fate. The concert never happened and the ticket was never even torn, let alone kept.
So the name Sebadoh once again drifted back into the nothingness of my subconscious, until it was finally reawakened in 2000. Sometimes it just happens that way in music. You carry on in complete ignorance before a band, and the musicians that are their core suddenly catch up with you and change your world. If you’re lucky, the band are still existing and touring in good health. When it happens with poor timing, all you can do is eat up everything you can get a hold of as quickly as possible. In this case it was the latter, and I fell in love with their back catalogue just as Sebadoh had drifted into a period of hibernation.
That four-year dormant period is moot, though, because from the late ’80s to the late ’90s, Sebadoh could have been the dictionary definition of "indie-rock", and over that time span they left a trail of albums and projects in their wake. Sure, their style could flip violently between angst-driven Garage Rock to their fragile tales of love and losses, but that was Sebadoh – a split personality which couldn’t survive any other way.
Slipping back to the present, 2003 added a new twist to the tale, reviving the name almost 10 years after that original ticket had been printed. The 10th Anniversary celebrations of Domino were the necessary excuse to reintroduce Lou Barlow to Jason Lowenstein. One small party became one small tour, and the opportunity to finally live out the past was real. It was also my chance to talk to Lou briefly before he went onstage. How could I say no?
So this is your first Sebadoh tour in four years. How does it feel to be back on the road with Jason again?
It feels nice. We’ve been good to each other over the years, you know? We have good memories of each other, I think, and we even have good memories from most of the songs, which was a surprise. They kind of came back fairly easily.
Had you ever played acoustic shows as Sebadoh in the past?
No, not really. I would play acoustic after shows when I could, for encores and stuff, but I had never played Jason’s songs on acoustic guitar before.
He’s playing bass tonight, while you’re back onto guitar?
Yeah, I’m doing guitar and he’s doing bass, and until now I’ve never been able to convince him to play his songs with acoustic guitar. The setup we have just now is a good in-between, though. It has drums on it, which makes him happy, and I’m playing acoustic guitar which makes me happy. We’ve really compromised for each other.
And you’re playing a lot of very old songs?
Really old, yeah. We’ve played some songs that we haven’t done before, or at least not for a very long time. We had a very limited time to get together and rehearse though, so we can’t do everything.
Have you been recording these shows from the sound desk for future use?
Yeah, our sound man has been recording them. I hate live recordings, so I generally never listen to them.
No plans for a live album then?
Live stuff just depresses me. It’s terrible. It always bursts my bubble. When I’m on tour I manage to convince myself that I’m really good. In order to have the confidence to step onstage, I have to tell myself that I’m doing a good thing, I have a good voice, I can play well, and stuff like that. Then I hear a live tape and all of those illusions are shattered brutally. For me, the way I hear it is brutal.
Are you interested in giving away free MP3s of the concerts online like you used to on the old Sebadoh website?
Oh yeah, sure. I just don’t have the patience to listen to my own voice droning on. I could listen to some of Jason’s probably. I like to sing, but I hate to hear is all. It’s just so depressing.
You’re back together because of the Domino Records 10th Anniversary. In today’s climate it’s much more difficult for new labels to start up and remain successful. Did you always feel that Domino had a strong future from the beginning?
Sure. Laurence Bell has good taste and he has a sense of loyalty about things. He really had an obsession with North American bands for a while, but recently he’s started to sign more British bands that are doing really well. He’s always looked out youthful bands, and with a band like Clinic, his loyalty to them really paid off.
In terms of younger bands, do you ever realize how many musicians that Sebadoh and yourself have influenced over the years?
I guess I have.
When I saw you in Scotland a few years ago, you played a trio of gigs in a tiny club supported by bands like Idlewild, Mogwai, Snow Patrol, and Astrid etc…
Yeah, all of them were bigger than I was at the time. That was really nice. It surprises me, I guess, because I’ve never really… That’s just the situation in Scotland I guess, the way that people seem to respect what I do. In a general way it was just incredibly flattering. When I was back in Glasgow on the last Folk Implosion tour, I hung out with some of those guys. Snow Patrol have a new album out I guess, and he’s [Gary Lightbody] got a beautiful voice. He’s very effusive with me, though, praise-wise.
And you don’t like that?
It’s not that I don’t like it. I really just don’t know what to do with praise. It can be heartwarming from time to time, but then I start to pressure myself. I start to assume that I will never do anything people will like again, and assuming the best is behind me. I don’t handle praise very well, as my wife likes to tell me all the time. I suppose there are times when I really need it, and it does help me, then other times I transform it into my own worst nightmare.
Apart from when I come over to Europe, I tend to forget that people want to hear anything I do. Living in Los Angeles especially, it’s extremely discouraging. It’s a great place to live, but it’s the worst place to be a musician. So many bands and everybody wants to be famous. It’s just not very organic, as they all latch onto the newest sounds and haircuts.
When you last toured Europe, it was really just an extended friends escapade, with Alaska and Mia Doi Todd, but are there any newer bands that you would champion that you don’t know personally?
I guess I really don’t need to because they’re all really popular now. They don’t need me. I do buy a lot of records, but I would say that all of the bands I listen to are already more successful than me. With Alaska and Mia, they were just my friends and we’ve always tried to help each other out, so that was just nice. Alaska are having a really hard time just now, though, as they can’t get a record label. I thought people would just flip out over them and they’d get a record deal when they came over so I could set them free.
Next stop off for you is Iceland, albeit briefly. Been there before? It seems like a random jump from the Netherlands to there.
Yeah. We’ve never been to Reykjavik, but we have a connection there now. My friend, who tour manages and does sound for us, also does the band Múm, so he just called them up and said we want to visit. I think some of those kids were into Sebadoh when they were little, so it’s worked out pretty well.
Does the tour end there though? There’s no plans to take the Sebadoh acoustic experience to North America?
For us to do it in America is tough. It could be okay I guess, but we can only do it in two or three cities. When it comes to touring America, anything I’m associated with tends to be disastrous.
So what will be the next Lou Barlow project?
I’m going to do a solo project, I think. I’ve got a lot of songs, all finished pretty much, so I just have to record them. I want to do it the right way though, so I think I’m going to try to record with a few different people and just collect a solo record. No Sebadoh. No Folk Implosion. Just me.
Photo by Mark Scheffer
A matter of minutes later it was time for Lou and Jason to hit the stage, armed with their (un)trustyworthy 4-track, and flanked by two large vases of Rotown’s scariest flowers. Having never had a chance to see Sebadoh in person before, there was a lot of anticipation about the gig. The area in front of the stage was crammed with fans old and new, and Jake and Lou took up their roles as unassuming heroes, playing through their old favourites the only way they knew how; clumsily.
Looking back on the gig, I really can see the funny side of what happened that night. Maybe it was the same every night of the tour, but the heart of these Sebadoh events was the opportunity for two old friends to be together again on stage, get drunk, and have a good time. It was also a chance for the fans to relive some of the songs, and for those who had been there for the long haul to laugh along with the private joke that is some of the really old numbers.
Lou sang out his sad songs, and Jason shouted out his angry songs. From the legendary ‘Soul and Fire’ and ‘License to Confuse’, to the insanity of ‘Oven is my Friend’, it was such a reminder of the generation those songs were born from, when it was okay to be ramshackle or even shambolic in execution provided the emotional intent was there; a generation which turned Nirvana into icons. Lou and Jason may have been left as commercial blips in comparison, but their legacy has lived on longer than they ever expected.
When it comes down to it, Sebadoh is just Sebadoh. They will always walk a thin line between genius and disaster, but as their history has shown, they are always capable of coming up with the goods somehow. The same can be said for their concerts. Any farcical moment or technological breakdown can be turned around into something wonderful, and it’s for this reason that the music and careers of these two humble guys is going to live on and continue to inspire others in the strangest ways. They are living proof D.I.Y. works.
stevenmc
For anyone wishing to see more nice photographic evidence of the tour, check here.