The Universe Vibrates: Modest Mouse Interviewed
Isaac Brock talks brain waves, optimism, and their new album...
Isaac Brock, leader of the Pacific North-West indie stalwarts *Modest Mouse*, is having a difficult time concentrating. “You've heard about people getting microwaved and then they lose their thought process, right?” he asks earnestly, pulling out a huge pair of headphones that apparently transmit a binaural white noise blocker in order to drown out what he describes as “certain gamma frequencies” used to derail his train of thought. There is a moment’s silence as he presses them to his ears, shuts his eyes and relaxes his face, and then he is back in the room.
“I use these because, for some time now, I've been subject to some sort of directed attacks,” he explains, as though claiming to be subject to brainwave attacks from anonymous gamma ray-wielding agents requires any explanation. “'Targeted individuals' is what they call people in my situation, and somewhere in a fucking room with some screens is some asshole, probably in the private sector, fucking with me.”
- - -
- - -
Now, we all know someone who has taken that plunge into the deep, dark well of conspiracy theories. Maybe it’s a friend from your school days who’s taken to posting non-stop anti-lockdown memes (over pictures of Minions for some reason?), maybe it’s a colleague at the job you used to work at who wouldn’t stop wanging on about chemtrails, maybe it’s your uncle who simply likes to imagine that Tupac and Elvis are sharing a few cold beers in the Australian outback.
Obsessing over conspiracy theories can be incredibly damaging to individuals and their loved ones, especially in an age of q-Anon and anti-vaxxers; but an large number of conspiracy theorists are docile, peaceful and, despite living in a reality where shady government agencies control everything and watch them constantly, oddly optimistic in their outlook on life and dreams for the future (because, after all, if all the world’s ills are caused by a small group of elites, then everything can be solved by overthrowing them).
Brock seems, for the moment at least, to fit into the latter category, and his somewhat warped approach to reality has allowed him to capture and release a peculiarly positive energy that resonates through Modest Mouse’s new album ‘The Golden Casket’, so named both because it’s simultaneously happy and glum, and because, in Brock’s words, “It’s a symbol of the life’s pitfalls. Like, whaddaya going to do with a golden casket, you know?”
“Everything is transmitting and everything is receiving, that's one of my wild takes!” Brock laughs when asked about new song ‘Transmitting Receiving’. Apparently his stream-of-consciousness rambling about random subjects (‘flocks of birds, forest fires, crispy chicken and Bengal tigers’) isn’t so random after all, but more of a sincere account of how he views the world: as a kaleidoscopic fireworks display of different energy patterns, all interacting and bouncing around the atmosphere. “Everything in the universe has some reverberation it's giving off as well as... I won't say that there's life, but there's some kind of spark inside everything.”
This vision of connectedness also underpins the universal sentiment of lead single ‘We Are Between’ (with the instantly memorable chorus line ‘We are between, Yeah we are somewhere between dust and the stars’). “We're fortunate to have this time in this fucking… I love this phrase, I think there was a band called it, in this mortal coil,” he explains when describing his feelings when writing the song, “Even the shitty days, as long as our lives aren't atrocious it's still worth it. It's as simple as that, it really is.”
On the surface ‘The Golden Casket’ is a stirring, triumphant listen, a record with its head in the stars and its feet hovering gently above the ground. However, there is an anxiousness hidden just beneath this optimistic front, a marker of its creator’s struggle to live up to the levels of hope and happiness that exit in songs like ‘We’re Lucky’ and ‘Leave A Light On’.
According to Brock this record doesn’t really reflect where he was at during its writing, but rather it represented where he wanted to be. “I think I felt better than most people around me , but I was also pretty aware that I didn't need to... what my friends and family needed to hear from me was...” he struggles for the right words, self-admittedly far less comfortable with them in conversation than in song.
“In general, I don't think it's a good idea to put sugar in sand,” he continues, “Bad times can be bad times and should maybe just be taken as such. However, I did go into this feeling like, as a man with two young daughters and a kid just going into college, if I couldn't find reasons to make life and the bad times feel OK, then why am I bringing people into this planet? If I can’t try to make things better, then what's the point?”
- - -
- - -
Nowhere is that singular type of anxiety that fatherhood brings more audible than on ‘Lace Your Shoes’, another song with a beautiful sentiment on the surface (‘'Cause the sunshine spills out of your mouth and eyes and out onto the floor, And I can't see nothing anymore’) but a dark unease about what the future might hold lurking just beneath. “One of the beauties of being a parent is it makes you responsible for a world outside of your own bullshit,” Brock notes, “Without kids I could have… you could just party yourself into the grave if you wanted. You don't have to worry too much, depending on what kind of person you are, about what's left for other people after you're gone and shit. But you do if you have kids! Unless you're an asshole,” he adds with a chuckle.
Despite its heartfelt subject matter, however, ‘Lace Your Shoes’ didn’t go down well with Brock’s harshest critic: his three-year old daughter. “I was informed pretty flatly that 'Daddy, that is boring!'” he laughs, “And I was like 'alright'!” But apparently she enjoyed “We Are Between”, and that was one of the reasons the band decided to release it first. As Brock argued, “Toddlers like this, and they're vicious little critics!”
With the six year wait for new material since ‘Strangers To Ourselves’, and the eight-year period between that record and it’s predecessor, it comes as little surprise that Brock is fed up with being asked why it takes so long for Modest Mouse to release an album these days. “My reasons are actually pretty good. But half of them I can't say to anyone. Or choose not to... I could, and it would make for a more interesting interview… But I'm not goooonna tell ya!” he cackles.
The good news (for people who love good news) is that the endless nagging from fans and interviewers alike has encouraged him to get creating again as soon as possible. When we talk, he is actually staying with Jacknife Lee, who co-produced the album with David Sardy, working on some songs in Tuponga Canyon (a good place to escape from gamma frequency brain hacking, apparently).
This getaway/recording session has also, for the first time in years, forced him to listen to some actual new music that isn’t from a Disney film. “The way Jackknife's studio is set up is there are just record players and records everywhere,” he explains, “And the second we're not physically holding an instrument, a record goes on. And it's fucking great! There's this band KOKOKO!, or there might even be more KOs… Fuck yeah, right? That shit is so good! I really like that artist Tirzah, and he played me a soundtrack by the lady who produces her (Micah Levi). It was fucking really cool shit.”
By Brock’s own admission, 2020 was a good time for him not to be on tour and able to focus on things at home. Now, however, he’s looking forward to getting Modest Mouse back on the road, especially since he will be able to bring his home with him. “I'm going to have the little people with me for part of it,” he says, grinning from ear to ear, “Which means I'm going to spend less time at venues and more time at parks. I'm looking forward to fucking walking in parks and there being a chance my kids get to go out without a mask maybe sometime this year. My toddler actually has a ring from wearing her mask at preschool, because they run around with it over their mouths and end up with this weird clown rash. It's sad but cute!”
He might have some funny opinions about brainwave disruption, but at least it seems that Isaac Brock’s penchant for conspiracy theories hasn’t devolved into anything so serious as rabid anti-mask rhetoric. Yes, these days he’s a little older and a little odder, but, as ‘The Golden Casket’ attests, he hasn’t yet forgotten how to write a great tune.
- - -
- - -
'The Golden Casket' is out now.
Words: *Josh Gray*
Photo Credit:* James Joiner*