Phantom In The Night

The bulk of Mark Lanegan’s 30-odd year back catalogue feels like watching Charles Grodin in Beethoven. This is because above all of the anger, sorrow, heartache and malaise running through it, the material is so overwhelmed by a sense of grumpiness you can practically hear him sigh resignedly on his ‘90s-era solo albums.

That’s the Mark Lanegan The Music encounters today. He doesn’t really wanna say a whole lot. Sure, he’s about to put another album out with the Mark Lanegan Band, Phantom Radio, but he’s not so fussed about explaining how it came to be. “I started recording a song and then I just let the first one tell me what the second one was supposed to be like and so on and so forth.”

He is happy with the record though. Or at least he’s satisfied with it creatively. Happiness really isn’t in his wheelhouse. Oh, and Lanegan also doesn’t care what you think of his new record.

“I don’t really seek out people’s interpretations of music. For no other reason than it’s just like, y’know, there’s no reason to. I’m going to do it the way I do it regardless of how it’s received or perceived. Because that’s really none of my business. I don’t really expect my interpretation of the music to fit with the listeners’ reaction to it. My interpretation of it is not the important part for me. Once I make it, it belongs to whoever connects to it and what it means for them. That doesn’t involve me. In other words, I never really cared about what Neil Young meant by After The Gold Rush, I just know what it meant to me…

“Sorry… that was sort of a long-winded response.”

So… moving on, the interview turns to Lanegan’s upcoming performances at Meredith – which he says will be a stripped-down acoustic affair – and he says he’s looking forward to them… Which prompts a somewhat incredulous guffaw before our man elaborates. 

“I had a hard time enjoying playing live when I was younger… It was uncomfortable… often times. But, for the last fifteen years I’ve really enjoyed it.”

Really Mark? You still have the capacity to enjoy things? 

“Yeah man. I do enjoy it…” Lanegan busts out a highly out-of-character laugh at this. “I probably never appear to be outwardly enjoying myself… that makes me laugh… But really it has more to do with sort of focusing – and for some reason that’s not too easy for me to be able to do – but I really try to stay in the moment and focus on the song itself. So that’s why I’m not generally interacting with the audience too often… or dancing around.”