J Mascis has nothing better to do

Dinosaur Jr. frontman J Mascis is known as something of a slacker guitar god. He stands stoically onstage, barely moving, as he seemingly effortlessly works through deft guitar solos and lopsided riffs. Unfortunately, Mascis has developed a similar reputation as an interview subject, quietly sitting and offering deft nonanswers.

Dinosaur Jr. 的主唱 J Mascis 被视为一位“懒散的吉他之神”。他在舞台上站得笔直，几乎一动不动，却能看似毫不费力地演奏出精湛的吉他独奏和不规则的即兴重复段。遗憾的是，Mascis 在接受采访时也留下了类似的印象：他总是安静地坐着，给出一些巧妙但避重就轻的回答。

That’s not to say that Mascis can’t be funny or charming. As our interview was winding down and I was thanking him for his time, he started to loosen up a bit. He told me about his youth as a mini golf “enthusiast.” “I had a 3-foot putt for the win” at a mini-golf tournament, he said, but “that’s when I realized that I was a choker … When I was 11, I choked.” And that’s when he decided, “I should maybe not do sports.” So, instead of becoming a professional mini golfer, Mascis went on to form one of the most important bands in alternative rock.

这并不是说 Mascis 不幽默或没有魅力。当采访接近尾声，我向他致谢时，他开始放松了一些。他向我讲述了他年轻时作为迷你高尔夫“爱好者”的经历。他说，在一次迷你高尔夫锦标赛中，“我有一个 3 英尺的推杆机会来赢得比赛”，但“就在那时我意识到自己是个关键时刻掉链子的人……我 11 岁那年搞砸了。”于是他决定：“我或许不该搞体育。”就这样，Mascis 没有成为职业迷你高尔夫球手，而是组建了另类摇滚界最重要的乐队之一。

While most of his contemporaries have called it quits or are just going through the motions onstage for a paycheck, the original lineup of Mascis, bassist Lou Barlow, and drummer Patrick Murphy are still regularly putting out new LPs of reliable rockers. But Mascis says there isn’t any grand secret to the band’s longevity. Over 40 years deep, he says, “I guess we have nothing better to do.”

当大多数同辈音乐人要么选择解散，要么只是为了薪水在舞台上走过场时，由 Mascis、贝斯手 Lou Barlow 和鼓手 Patrick Murphy 组成的原始阵容依然定期推出高质量的新专辑。但 Mascis 表示，乐队长青并没有什么宏大的秘诀。在走过 40 年历程后，他说：“我想是因为我们没什么别的事可做。”

What, for an interviewer, can come off as frustrating indifference might actually be the key to Mascis’ staying power — for better or worse. Creatively and professionally, his modus operandi seems to be rolling with the punches and not overthinking things.

对于采访者来说，这种令人沮丧的冷漠态度，或许正是 Mascis 能够长久立足的关键——无论好坏。在创作和职业生涯中，他的行事准则似乎就是顺其自然，不去过度思考。

For the new record There Near, he said, the band “just didn’t push it.” There were no eight-hour marathon studio sessions. They weren’t meticulously fine-tuning basslines or trading Logic sessions back and forth remotely. Mascis would roll in with fully prepared demos and the band would immediately start recording, even as Barlow and Murph were still learning their parts, “on the off chance that it comes together quickly.”

谈到新专辑《There Near》，他说乐队“并没有刻意强求”。没有长达八小时的马拉松式录音室会议，他们也没有精雕细琢贝斯线条，或者远程反复交换 Logic 工程文件。Mascis 会带着准备好的小样直接进棚，乐队随即开始录音，即便当时 Barlow 和 Murph 还在学习各自的部分，只是为了“碰碰运气，看能不能快速搞定”。

The same sort of relaxed approach also informs Mascis’ gear choices. He said, “I am kind of a tube purist guy, but it’s just also kind of inconvenient sometimes,” so he uses whatever works. That means while he mixes and masters to tape, he’s also tracking in Pro Tools.

这种轻松的态度也体现在 Mascis 对器材的选择上。他说：“我算是个电子管纯粹主义者，但有时候这确实不太方便，”所以他会使用任何好用的东西。这意味着虽然他在混音和母带处理时使用磁带，但他也会在 Pro Tools 中进行录音。

When it comes to designing signature instruments with Fender, he’s just as easygoing. “I try to, you know, do the important things that I want, but not make it too complicated … I think it’s better to keep it kind of cheap … just so people can do what they want with it.” The neck is his biggest concern, he said. “I’m a sucker for jumbo frets and, you know, if the neck is good and the frets and stuff, that’s the main thing. Most of the other stuff, you know, you can swap out if you want.”

在与 Fender 设计签名款乐器时，他也同样随性。“我试着做一些我想要的重点设计，但不会让它变得太复杂……我觉得保持价格亲民一点更好……这样人们就可以随心所欲地改造它。”他说，琴颈是他最关心的部分。“我特别喜欢大号品丝，只要琴颈和品丝这些基础部分好，这就足够了。其他大部分东西，如果你想的话，都可以自行更换。”

But that somewhat lackadaisical attitude has also caught him some heat. Two years ago, Mascis released a video for his solo track “Old Friends” that was made using generative AI. Speaking with The Verge, he finally publicly addressed the controversy. “Yeah, just some kid did it,” he said. “I thought it looked cool, so… Yeah, that’s dipping my toes into the… I don’t do much with videos.” He trailed off repeatedly while answering before finally admitting, “But yeah, I guess that’s a slippery slope.”

但这种略显散漫的态度也让他招致了一些非议。两年前，Mascis 为他的个人单曲《Old Friends》发布了一支由生成式 AI 制作的视频。在接受《The Verge》采访时，他终于公开回应了这一争议。“是的，只是有个小孩做的，”他说。“我觉得看起来很酷，所以……是的，那算是浅尝辄止吧……我平时不太管视频的事。”他在回答时多次语塞，最后承认道：“但确实，我想那是一条危险的斜坡。”

Similarly, he said that while he doesn’t believe there is a place for AI in music making, we have to acknowledge that it’s here whether we like it or not, and “I guess we’re learning how to deal with it. And hopefully it won’t kill us all.”

同样，他表示虽然他不认为 AI 在音乐创作中有一席之地，但我们必须承认，无论我们是否喜欢，它都已经存在了，“我想我们正在学习如何应对它。希望它不会毁了我们所有人。”

About the only thing that Mascis could muster strong feelings about was the band’s infamously loud live shows. (Dinosaur Jr.’s recent performance at the tiny Baby’s All Right is what finally convinced me to start packing earplugs.) “I noticed the audience too seems more desperate for something kind of reality-based,” he said, letting a touch of his purist heart show. “We don’t have in-ear monitors or click tracks. We have amps and you know, just, I think some people are responding to the reality of it. Like they really need something that’s not, you know, computer-generated or something.”

Mascis 唯一能表现出强烈情感的事情，大概就是乐队那出了名的大音量现场演出。（Dinosaur Jr. 最近在小型场地 Baby’s All Right 的演出，最终让我下定决心开始随身携带耳塞。）“我注意到观众似乎也更渴望一些基于现实的东西，”他说，流露出他作为纯粹主义者的一面。“我们没有入耳式监听，也没有节拍器。我们只有音箱，你知道，我认为有些人是在回应这种真实感。他们真的很需要一些不是由电脑生成的东西。”

He bemoaned the lack of amps onstage (Mascis plays in front of three full stacks, even in a 280-person-capacity club) and the reliance on high-tech front-of-house setups. “It’s very weird. Now, soundmen create the sound instead of capture the sound,” he said. Of course, his recognition of the visceral power of live music and directly connecting with an audience makes his indifference to AI all the more baffling.

他感叹舞台上音箱的缺失（即使在仅能容纳 280 人的俱乐部里，Mascis 依然在三组全栈音箱前演奏），以及对高科技前场音响系统的依赖。“这很奇怪。现在，音响师是在‘创造’声音，而不是‘捕捉’声音，”他说。当然，他对于现场音乐那种直击人心的力量以及与观众直接交流的认可，使得他对 AI 的那种漠不关心显得更加令人费解。