By way of tribute to Mark Lanegan, whose death was confirmed last night, hereโs our Album By Album feature from Uncut Take 179. Rest in peace, Mark.
His reputation precedes him. Over a 25-year recording career that began with grunge godfathers Screaming Trees and has included collaborations with Kurt Cobain, Greg Dulli (ex-Afghan Whigs) and Queens Of The Stone Age, Mark Lanegan has established himself as an artist who prefers to walk on the shady side of the street. The pain he sings about isnโt an act: heโs wrestled with addiction, and tried the patience of several producers during an erratically brilliant solo career that continues with the release of the (relatively) upbeat Blues Funeral. On his solo recordings, heโs moved from confessional folk to โ80s-influenced gothic rock. So itโs a welcome surprise to find this tattooed giant in cheerful mood. โIโm very happy these days,โ Lanegan says with a dry chuckle. โIโm a little less dark. Though I still hold a daily sรฉance!โ
SCREAMING TREES
Buzz Factory
SST, 1989
PRODUCED BY JACK ENDINO
The Trees journey from Ellensberg to Seattle, hone hard rock/psychedelic influences and tap into energy of grunge
Before we did that, we did an entire double album and nobody was happy with the way it sounded. I know that sounds expensive, but back then we made records for a thousand dollars, so it was two thousand to make that record. We made it in a week. But we didnโt like it. Right about then I also heard the first Mudhoney EP, โSuperfuzz Bigmuffโ. Hearing Mudhoney made me feel like we were total pussies, because when you hear the bass and the drums, everythingโs out there. I said, โWe gotta get the guy who did this to do our record.โ It was Jack Endino. So we went to Seattle โ I slept on the floor at my sisterโs โ and made it in four or five days. We used maybe one of the songs from the double album; they were all new songs. [Lead guitarist] Gary Lee Conner wrote excessively, heโd write two, three or four a day sometimes: fully formed songs. He was just a machine. And the one song that came from the double album we ended up leaving off the record! It still didnโt have the power of the Mudhoney EP but it was a lot closer to being representative of what we sounded like live. And that was our first experience of working with Jack โ it was great.
MARK LANEGAN
The Winding Sheet
SUB POP, 1990
PRODUCED BY JACK ENDINO, MIKE JOHNSON, MARK LANEGAN
Abortive Kurt Cobain collaboration leads to stark first solo outing
Me and Kurt Cobain were both listening to a bunch of Lead Belly and digginโ it. We thought: letโs do an EP of all Lead Belly songs. We did a couple, and both of us were like, โNah, this is a bad concept.โ We set it aside. [Sub Pop label boss] Jon Poneman came in and said, โShame you guys didnโt finish that record, why donโt you make a solo record?โ I couldnโt play guitar, and had only written some words for the Trees โ which consisted of taking words that were already written and changing some to make them have some semblance of personality. Jon told me what they would give me for making the record. I was working in a warehouse, and I thought, โYou know what,I could fuckinโ quit that job and live high on the hog!โ I got a Mel Bay chord book, and at the end of the day when I was lowering my last conveyor belt of boxes I would come up with a melody. I would have it in my mind on the bus all the way home. I would get home and find the chords. I did it the first day that I tried, and I did it 10, 12 more times, and I also took one of the songs from Kurt and Iโs session, โWhere Did You Sleep Last Night?โ. I mainly saw it through because of the financial inducements, but Iโm glad I did.
MARK LANEGAN
Whiskey For The Holy Ghost
SUB POP, 1994
PRODUCED BY MIKE JOHNSON, MARK LANEGAN
Modest attempt to write Astral Weeks turns into Fitzcarraldo
I had heard Astral Weeks, and heard how it was made. I thought, โIโm going to make a record like that: really fast.โ So I found a jazz bass player and went to do some songs. What I wanted to do in three days ended up taking almost three years, in many different studios with many different guys. Basically, I lost my mind. I would have it in my grasp, and then would see another possibility. That was the form of my illness. I couldnโt be nailed down. I continued to generate more material. I would mix stuff four or five times. And Iโm taking about intricate sessions. I had started this other record with Terry Date, who did the first Trees record on a major, then moved on to several other guys and finally got around to Jack Endino again. We were trying to mix a song that I thought would be easy โ but on the second day I was trying to figure out why it wouldnโt move forward and be the way I wanted to hear it โ this is two, three years into the making of that recordโฆ I was like, you know, โFuck this!โ There was a creek out back, I grabbed the tapes, I was actually walking through the yard and he grabbed a hold of me and said: โNo fucking way am I going to let you do that.โ I was like, โDude, Iโm over this, I need to get rid of it.โ I realised it was making me crazier, and I wanted to be clear of it. I was deep in addiction for the entire thing. I travelled the world that way. I went to my sisterโs house for Christmas dinner that way. I thought about music this way: itโs something that I have to do. But it was really a means to an end. It facilitated my lifestyle. Which included a need for a lot of money on a daily basis. It was like Fitzcarraldo โ it was like dragging a boat over a mountain. But that was something I was compelled to keep doing. Only because I love music. I could have, at any point, put that record out, and it would have been fine. But I was compelled: despite all the extraneous bullshit I was putting myself through, I wanted it to be great. And I couldnโt be satisfied that it was great even when it was finished. Or even today. Iโm surprised it ever got finished really. But it came as a relief, to finally let it go.
SCREAMING TREES
Dust
EPIC, 1996
PRODUCED BY GEORGE DRAKOULIAS
Trees reluctantly embrace big rock sound on their final studio album
That was the last real record we made. It wasnโt an easy time, mainly because of band relations. Also my personal problems made it difficult to get anything done. We had already done the basics for a record [with Don Fleming] that couldnโt be finished. It was another year before we started this one. George Drakoulias had been one of the guys weโd talked about when we first started with Epic, and we were like โNo!โ We were paranoid about sounding good. Although I did want an update on the sound, I was wary of sounding like Black Crowes, for instance, who George produced. So we went with Terry Date, who we knew. That was a good choice. But later, we were like, โAch, you know, I wonder if that guy George is still available?โ And he was. In that regard, it was a great experience. Benmont [Tench] from the Heartbreakers played on some of that stuff โ he played two Mellotrons, one with each hand, at the same time. George was, still is, a great guy to be around. But my perception is that my personal stuff overruled everything, and Iโm sure those guys would agree โ it made everything difficult. Although I was trying to do my best, it was not to be!
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE
Songs For The Deaf
INTERSCOPE, 2002
PRODUCED BY JOSH HOMME, ADAM KASPER, ERIC VALENTINE
Collaboration with Josh Homme on Desert Sessions leads to full membership of QOTSA on album simulating a drive from Los Angeles to Joshua Tree
Josh had toured as guitarist with the Trees on Dust, so we knew each other really well. He actually asked me to be on the first Queens record, but that was not to be, because of my problems. I did some singing on the second one, and then started touring with those guys. In between that, I did the Desert Sessions [Volumes 7 & 8] which I only worked on for a day because I was working on a solo record at the same time. And the best thing about that was meeting Alain [Johannes] โ and the song that I did for that record, which Al and Josh wrote, โHanginโ Treeโ, ended up on the next one [Songs For The Death], so I just joined. My circle of friends, musician-wise, wasnโt huge. I only knew these certain guys. Working with Josh has always been so much fun. The result is serious, but the process is a lot of comedy. Writing lyrics with him is one of the funnest things that I do. I canโt really describe it but heโs a really funny guy, and when we work together, itโs a comedy, basically. You either laugh or cry, almost!
MARK LANEGAN BAND
Bubblegum
BEGGARS BANQUET, 2004
PRODUCED BY MARK LANEGAN, CHRIS GOSS, ALAIN JOHANNES
Confessional album, with a more rounded sound and collaborations with the likes of PJ Harvey
I always start from some personal place. Some are more fictional, some are more based on reality, but they all do start from something real. So in that way, it is confessional, but no more so than the rest of them. When we first convened I went MIA for the first month, which caused Chris Goss โ who was trying to produce it โ dismay. Then I came back and was so over-the-top involved that it caused him further dismay. I burnt him out and moved on to somebody else. There were a lot of the same behaviours as on Whiskeyโฆ, but in a more condensed time period. I distilled the qualities that had made me so much fun to work with before! The guy who mixed the stuff that Chris produced said I was like Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind. But it got done. Actually I enjoyed it. I just donโt know if the guys who were forced to work with me enjoyed it โ I know some of them did not. But at the end I was pleased, because I didnโt want to make another dusty strings record. I wanted to make something that I might listen to, like Can or Kraftwerk.
ISOBEL CAMPBELL & MARK LANEGAN
Ballad Of The Broken Seas
V2, 2006
PRODUCED BY ISOBEL CAMPBELL, DAVE PATERSON
Cast as Isobel Campbellโs bit-of-rough, Lanegan embraces his inner Lee Hazlewood
All the records Iโve made with Isobel are really special to me. That one in particular. I was a fan of Belle & Sebastian, but I was also a bigger fan of the Gentle Waves records she made. When she contacted me, I was thrilled. I guess she didnโt really know who I was, but she had heard my voice and thought I would do for something she was doing. But after we did this EP, โRamblinโ Manโ, we met in Glasgow and got along really well. I said, โI want to make a record together,โ and she was like, โYeah.โ She immediately started sending me all these great songs. I was like: โAre you kidding? This is fantastic!โ Basically I sang them in Los Angeles and sent them back to her. I had no idea it would last three records and six years or whatever. It was really cool, because thatโs something thatโs really unique to my personal experience: singing songs written by a woman, and just letting it go. Isobelโs a huge talent. Those were records I did not lose my mind on! I was able to just put myself in her hands.
THE GUTTER TWINS
Saturnalia
SUB POP, 2008
PRODUCED BY MATHIAS SCHNEEBERGER, GREG DULLI, MARK LANEGAN
Lanegan and Greg Dulli explore the dark corners of their psyches
Working with Greg is a constant comedy. If youโve seen Ishtar, the songwriting process is very similar to that. Itโs two guys in a room making up the most inane stuff to make themselves laugh, then weโll go, โOh, thatโs not bad,โ but it probably is. That record was started six, seven years before it was finished. I had guested with The Twilight Singers, and Greg had played in my band. At Christmas time at the end of one of those tours we made up a couple of songs. For years people were going, โWhatโs going on with you and Dulli?โ We got together at Christmas a couple of years later and did more. Years went by, and I had even said what the name of the band was, joking around, so we had to finish it. This project is light relief, even though the result sounds pretty heavy. When I heard it I was like, โOh man, this is pretty dark stuff.โ It reminded me of the Sly Stone record, Thereโs A Riot Goinโ On: itโs a party, but not a fun one. The record ended up with us in a better state than when we started it. It started on a very dark Christmas and ended on a lighter one. We started on drugs, we finished not.
MARK LANEGAN BAND
Blues Funeral
4AD, 2012
PRODUCED BY ALAIN JOHANNES
Some โ80s-influenced sounds lend a poppy edge to typically chastening lyrics, but thereโs no disguising Laneganโs good humour
Usually I write on guitar. This time I bought a couple of drum machines and a synthesiser, an old Casio keyboard. When we started we sort of had the same thoughts as when we did Bubblegum. I did some things with Alain Johannes: the process dictated what the songs sounded like. I didnโt mind that we used drum machine, synthesiser, on Bubblegum, so it just seemed natural. I rarely play anything for anybody, but I played โGray Goes Blackโ to my girlfriend, and she said, โI canโt believe youโre making something so happy sounding.โ I said, โHappy sounding? [What about] the words?โ She says, โNo, itโs happy sounding.โ Thatโs cool. Iโve always done whatever I felt reflected what was happening. In other words, I never really give it much thought, though in the past I may have been given over to morbid introspection. I listened back to the record in the car, and I thought it was great driving music. Greg Dulli was the first person I played it to; he said it sounded like Echo & The Bunnymen and Peter Gabriel. He thought it was more representative of where Iโm at now. I agree.