Lanegan's Call

Although he’d likely balk at the phrase, Mark Lanegan is part of one of modern rock music’s most exciting fraternities. A key player in the Josh Homme/Nick Oliveri-led Queens Of The Stone Age/Desert Sessions assembly, his current occupation as part-time vocalist with QOTSA has lead to a bolstered interest in the one time Screaming Trees frontman – a fact any one of the sardines in The Village tonight would undoubtedly endorse.

However, tonight’s gig will centre on Lanegan’s solo back catalogue. The release this month of his sixth album will add to a wealth of material, including the incredible Field Songs from which a vast portion of this set is gleaned.
The music is a far cry from the ego-pandering frontman-gone-solo blueprint, a fact the washed out-looking Lanegan duly notes, and owes as much to the collaborative spirit in which it was nurtured as to the musical instincts of the man himself. Adding further props to this theory at our pre-gig interview, Lanegan bemoans his discomfort with the ‘Mark Lanegan’ tag, insisting that his solo status is more an enforced technicality than an artistic statement.
“The only reason I have my name on it in the first place is because the record company insisted on it when I started,” he days. “They are all collaborative efforts. If I’m writing by myself, I’ll just go grab a guitar and sit outside and when I’m done, I hand it over to the guys who can really play instruments and they’ll make it into a real song. On the EP (Here Comes That Weird Chill (Methamphetamine Blues, Extras & Oddities), 2003), a lot of the material is co-writes, where the guys just had music. Josh (Homme) and Nick (Oliveri) had music for the song ‘Skeletal History’ which is on the EP and another friend of mine had piano music that he’d written, and I made up the singing part for it.”
The recording of the EP (and forthcoming album Bubblegum) largely took place at Rancho De La Luna, a studio located in America’s Joshua Tree, an area of sprawling savannah and cacti. The location has undoubtedly had an effect on his music’s imagery; Lanegan’s tales of writing songs outside with an acoustic guitar and a blank horizon seem entirely apt, while the music’s dark lullabies and charged outbursts form the soundtrack.
“I just do what feels correct when I start singing,” says Lanegan, of his writing technique. “First I make a sound and then the words come along, really, just a couple of words, then they tell me what the next couple are; like that.”
Vocally, Lanegan’s tone is hypnotic, deep and powerful despite his at-least-40-a-day-non-filtered-Camels habit, while his lyrics smack of the tortured poet – although he claims he can’t write poetry.
“No, I’m not a poetry fan. I tried a couple of times when I was young and I just found it really difficult to do. I actually got in trouble when I was really young, in grade school, maybe eight years old, the teacher was sick and the substitute teacher asked us to write a get well card or a poem, and so I wrote a poem,” he explains.
“Next thing I knew, I was in the principal’s office and my dad was there and they were wondering if there was something wrong with me. I’d written a kind of black little poem that was really inappropriate.” He laughs, then recites “‘Roses are red, violets are black, you’d look a lot better with a knife in your back’. I think I thought the teacher would think it was funny, but they were going to send me to a psychiatrist or something.”
Such early backfirings have thankfully not deterred Lanegan – his lyrics (and indeed music) are now more likely to incite rapturous applause than shrink recommendations.
As the night’s two extended encores happily confirm.

Mark Lanegan’s Bubblegum will be released later this month