Of all the musicians that came out of the Pacific Northwest in the decade that straddled the ‘Seattle years’ there are few that continue to push themselves creatively as much as MARK LANEGAN does.
As lead singer for the volatile Screaming Trees, Lanegan made his mark remaining stoic amongst the chaos that engulfed his band and friends as drugs and major label money swept through town. But that’s ancient history, as Lanegan explains. “I’m not someone who does a lot of ruminating on the past. My mind never really drifts back to those days ever – if at all. They’re not good or bad memories. It’s just a time that I lived through.”
Lanegan’s reticence to dredge the past slightly downplays one of the most critically acclaimed careers of the last quarter century. Taking time out from his main band in 1990, Lanegan started work on a series of solo albums that to this day remain largely unknown gems outside his dedicated fan base. Take 1994’s Whisky For The Holy Ghost for example; a swirling mostly acoustic album soaked in despair, alcohol and tobacco. The Lanegan cliché writ large. For the man himself it was an offer too good to refuse. “To be honest the amount of money they offered me to make it was quite a bit more than I had been paid for any other record.”
Soon after Lanegan returned to his main band for one final album (1995’s Dust) and a tour that drafted a recently unemployed young guitarist from California called Josh Homme, who had just left Kyuss. Lanegan returned the favour by adding a serene menace to Queens of the Stone Age, on and off for the next decade or so.
In between, Lanegan kept himself busy with collaborations with Greg Dulli (Afghan Whigs) in the Twilight Singers and Gutter Twins, Isobel Campbell (ex-Belle and Sebastian) and Soulsavers amongst many others.
It’s a dizzying and eclectic range of co-conspirators but for Lanegan it’s a simple equation. “I do numerous one-off things for people, but the longer lasting ones like my relationship with Greg or my relationship with Queens or Isobel – they’ve lasted many years because they’re my friends.” Asking if there have been any rebuffs, Lanegan drops one of many throaty, bone-rattling and frankly surprising laughs. “I’ll let you know if I run across them but it hasn’t happened yet.”
Preparing for the upcoming tour has been a re-education of sorts. “I went back to find songs that would be fun or interesting. And I surprised myself. There were a bunch of songs I thought ‘okay, that’s not bad.’ But there were plenty more where I cringed and thought ‘God, I can’t believe I did that.’ I jut pretend somebody else did it.” Here comes that laugh again.
Catch Mark Lanegan live at the Metro Theatre in Sydney on Thursday July 8. Tickets through the Theatre and Ticketek.
