MJ Lenderman on guitar influences, Bob Dylan, and the downside of social media: “It’s hard to get people to pay attention”
In the modern day, it is a rare privilege to sit face-to-face with an interviewee. As I boarded the train from Brighton to London for my meeting with North Carolina singer-songwriter MJ Lenderman—Jake, to his friends—I realised that it had been nine months since my previous in-person interview. Last time, I had the pleasure of meeting Pete Townshend in the West End. So, from Soho to Shoreditch and guitar veteran to emerging hero, I welcome readers to meet one of the most exciting contemporary rock artists.
After arriving a tad early, I stretched my legs across Shoreditch to find that very little had changed since my last visit to the area several years ago. The place was still ablaze with bohemia, yet I wager the quirky bartenders now blush as they ask upwards of eight quid for a craft frothy. Alas, I didn’t have time to sample the beverages with just a few minutes to kill before my engagement at Strongroom Studios.
When I arrived at the studio, facing me on the external wall was a plaque proudly proclaiming that within these rooms, the Spice Girls recorded their debut single, ‘Wannabe’. This intriguing factette provided a sumptuous slice of small talk as I finally exchanged pleasantries with Lenderman in studio three, but was very unlikely to deliver a foundation for our ensuing conversation.
Spice Girls to one side, we first embraced the topic of guitar. Lenderman first fell in love with the instrument through the video game Guitar Hero. After hitting buttons in time to some classic rock anthems, he decided to put his skills to better use on the fretboard. “Like everybody, first was Jimi Hendrix when I was a kid,” Lenderman told me of his first musical idol. “I really loved him.”
Hendrix’s material may be adored by all, but for beginners, it’s somewhat impenetrable. Still, the late psychedelic rock star inspired Lenderman to pursue his passion as he began to welcome more styles into his repertoire. “Eventually, I got into J Mascis,” he mused. “Derek Trucks was a big one, too; I stopped using a pick when I was really young because I loved him.”
Lenderman continued to list some of his favourite guitarists, honing closer to his associated style with a shout-out for “the guys from Sonic Youth” and Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus, whom he described as a “really good guitarist”. The influence of Sonic Youth and Pavement, especially the latter, is easy to discern in Lenderman’s solo style, a nuanced approach to indie rock which incorporates breezy country motifs.
Reminiscent of Pavement’s Wowee Zowee and Neil Young’s work with Crazy Horse, Lenderman’s forthcoming solo album, Manning Fireworks, introduces the rural tones of the pedal steel guitar to a chaotic and distorted grunge-adjacent sound. Lenderman recalled listening to Drive-By Truckers as a bread-and-butter country-rock influence while creating Manning Fireworks.
“I also got into Tom Petty for the first time while making the album,” he pursued. “I had read Shakey, the Neil Young biography, so I was really deep into Neil before recording the record. And also the Lemmonheads; I’d never really listened to them before.”
Lenderman described music theory as a “useful tool” that has aided his understanding of the guitar. However, much of his knowledge has come through imitation and collaboration. Just as he once strummed along to The Smashing Pumpkins, Lenderman continues to broaden his vocabulary by listening to and jamming with his allied contemporaries. After describing Nate Amos’s guitar work with Water From Your Eyes as “amazing” and “tasteful”, Lenderman recalled seeing Friendship perform recently. “They’re friends of mine, but I just saw them the other day,” he said. “Pete Gill was blowing my mind on the guitar.”
As Lenderman’s generation-defying musical diet demonstrates, though his sonic identity is constantly evolving, he isn’t hugely preoccupied with contemporary trends. With references to Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton in his solo catalogue, he celebrates classic rock in a refreshing guise that appeals to both younger and older generations.
While touching upon these old-school references, however, Lenderman hastened to add that the line, “Believe that Clapton was the second coming,” from the blinding new single ‘She’s Leaving You’ was “kind of a diss”. For many years, Clapton has been a divisive figure outside of music, yet there is very little dispute about his instrumental talent. “I don’t really care about his music,” Lendernam added, bucking the trend. “I never clicked with it, to be honest. I always skip his song in The Last Waltz.”
Mentioning Martin Scorsese’s landmark concert film, Lenderman reminded himself of The Band, another of his critical influences. “Robbie Robertson is one of my favourite guitar players. But he’s one of those people too…” Lenderman began, comparing Robertson’s reputation to that of Clapton before pausing to remember the musician’s 2023 death. “Rest in peace,” he corrected.
Much more reverent are Lenderman’s nods to Bob Dylan. In the 2023 single ‘Knockin”, he meditates on ‘Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door’ from Dylan’s soundtrack for Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, and in the Manning Fireworks cut ‘Rudolph’, he asks, “How many roads must a man walk down?” With such tasteful nods to the Nobel laureate, one can understand why I assumed an obsession with Dylan could account for Lenderman’s lyrical genius.
Au contraire, Lenderman informed me that, while Dylan is one of many songwriting influences, he has yet to fully embrace the artist’s vast oeuvre. “I know a good bit about him, but I honestly haven’t gotten that deep into the music,” he admitted. “I’ve listened to Planet Waves probably more than any other album. That CD was in the car one day, and I found out it was The Band playing with Dylan on that record.”
While the reverse is true for most music fans, Lenderman fell in love with The Band first and then Dylan. Alongside The Basement Tapes, Planet Waves is one of The Band’s most cherished collaborations with Dylan. To the surprise of many, the latter, released in 1974, was Dylan’s first number-one album in the US. Though it was soon eclipsed by Blood on the Tracks, Planet Waves remains a dark horse in the discography. Lenderman is particularly moved by ‘Going, Going, Gone’, his favourite Dylan track so far. “I think the melody is just so emotional,” he explained. “It always gets me.”
Over the past five years, Lenderman has worked tirelessly as the guitarist of the esteemed band Wednesday and as a multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter in his solo exploits. When Lenderman released his eponymous debut album in 2019, he worked a day job at an ice cream parlour to support himself financially. But cone by cone, track by track and gig by gig, he has managed to shirk the day job and become a full-time musician.
Rising from obscurity has always been a game of labour and luck, but in the modern day, the slope is steeper, and the odds are stacked. “The cost of living in a lot of places is making it really difficult for young people,” Lenderman mused. “So just even having the time to create something and having to stress about that, I think, gets in the way of a lot of people’s wants.”
Before becoming successful enough to buy time, artists must eat into their sleep and dig deep with dicey sacrifices. In short, it takes a shedload of commitment and focus in an age where technology is failing us. “Attention spans aren’t great… including myself,” he admitted. “So it’s hard to get people to pay attention.” Lenderman and I agreed that the narrowing of attention spans is likely a symptom of social media. “I noticed my attention span just getting really bad, and my ability to read a book. It’s like a muscle you have to exercise.”
“It’s just too much information,” Lenderman said of social media’s stranglehold on modern life. “Most of it’s pretty useless. I felt like it was kind of distracting from my writing. So I stopped running my Instagram account a while ago and all socials, I guess, but I lurk a bit on Twitter and Reddit and stuff.”
Currently 25 years of age, Lenderman looks to the future with cautious optimism. His music brings refreshing lyrical and compositional ideas to an inspired marriage of classic styles. In an age saturated by stagnant bilge in the pop charts, he provides us with a healthy alternative that will surely have a steady audience for decades to come.
Comfortable in his shoes, Lenderman told me that he has no plans to modernise his sound with synthesisers and drum machines. “It would take me a lot of time to give into that,” he said. “My brain doesn’t necessarily go there. I think I’ll probably continue making guitar music, and I think it’d be fun eventually to make a record with a band instead of just mostly by myself. I think I’d like to try that.”
Over the coming years, artificial intelligence will dramatically change our way of life, leaving very few stones unturned in the arts. Although the bots may be able to reproduce ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ as sung by Dean Martin, surely nothing can get in the way of guitarists and their connection to live audiences. “I don’t feel super threatened by it, like taking my job,” Lenderman offered on the topic. “But, I think it’s good to be cautious of it because we have no idea what’s going to come out of it. I’ve also heard people say that it can be a tool if you’re not using it to fully create something. But then, I don’t even know what they mean by that.”
Having discussed several insidious impacts of modern technology, Lenderman and I left one another with a firm handshake and much to ponder. On my train back down to Brighton, I shuffled through Lenderman’s latest singles, reassured that, while rock music is no longer at the forefront of cultural development, its spirit will endure in the toil of couch-surfing troubadours like Lenderman. On the road before him lies a mortgage, a full-scale infatuation with Bob Dylan and, if we’re lucky, a prolific ongoing recording career.
MJ Lenderman’s fourth solo album, Manning Fireworks, arrives on September 6th via ANTI-Records.
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