Ask a Band: Dinosaur Jr.

Looking for a little help on pressing matters? Who better to ask than your favourite band? We ask them your questions, and they give you honest to goodness advice. This week Dinosaur Jr.’s Murph is helping out some kiddos survive high school, understand art, resurrect young love, listen to music for the first time and identify sunburns.

So, Jeremy, you’re lucky, because Amherst Regional High School is pretty open and I think we all felt pretty similar at your age when we went there. And the teachers were all pretty cool—I don’t think it’ll really be a problem… We had different factions, I was part of the art room scene and we’d hang around the art room and play Beatles records. We had Blanche, this art teacher who was really cool. And we would all meet there and hang out, make plans for the weekend, study. It was a great environment… I knew J. in high school, and we actually started the band right after high school. The year after.

I think her way of coming out of her shell is through her art, so you should just encourage her. Maybe ask if she can help with a project or there’s anything fun they can do, like shop for supplies or something. [Our band] formed our own way of communicating, so we have a way that’s different than other people. It’s kind of an internal language we just developed between ourselves.

I dunno, it’s hard, because guys are less mature at that age, so you’d probably have to find someone not older, definitely not older, but just more mature. Someone who wants more of what you want. Or, just give this guy some time, because maybe he’ll come back around and decide that he wants something more. [The foundations of a good relationship] is letting people do their own thing and explore their own creativity and their own strengths and weaknesses. And not trying to define them, just letting them figure it out themselves, because then you can come back together and be strong.

I think you should get three different types of music. You should get some old classic rock, like Zeppelin, Deep Purple, or Hendrix from 60s, 70s. Then you should get some of our stuff and maybe some other punk stuff. And then you should get some new music that’s super current. Then listen to all three and decide which you like the best out of all of those… On the road, we tend to do so much music that we don’t listen to much [other] music. And if I do it’s friends’ projects who have demos or they’re forming bands, so I’m more curious as to what they’re doing. Lou is the one in the band who tries to read a lot of press and really keep up with what’s happening. Keep his eye on the pulse… At home, I kind of listen to a lot of talk radio. I listen to a lot of NPR and this American life. That’s probably what I mostly listen to. It’s kind of boring.