{"id":717463,"date":"2026-06-05T18:44:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T18:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/717463\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T18:44:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T18:44:12","slug":"modest-mouse-on-gnarly-new-album-an-eraser-and-a-maze-and-the-incredibly-shocking-death-of-drummer-jeremiah-green","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/717463\/","title":{"rendered":"Modest Mouse on gnarly new album \u2018An Eraser and a Maze\u2019 and the \u201cincredibly shocking\u201d death of drummer Jeremiah Green"},"content":{"rendered":"

Modest Mouse<\/a> frontman Isaac Brock has spoken to NME about the Portland indie heroes\u2019 new album \u2018An Eraser and a Maze\u2019, as well as the tragic death of founding drummer Jeremiah Green.<\/p>\n

The album is the group\u2019s first since 2021\u2019s \u2018The Golden Casket<\/a>\u2019 and a radical departure from that record\u2019s psychedelic pop sound. Instead, it leans heavily into the abrasive guitar style that will be familiar to long-time fans, though there are plenty of new directions too.<\/p>\n

\u2018Absolutely Necessary Never\u2019, for example, sounds like it could have been on the synth-laden Drive soundtrack. More than 30 years since the band\u2019s inception, said Brock, \u201cI never walk into a project with a truly clear intention \u2013 I kind of let the record shape itself. I\u2019ll know if I don\u2019t like something, but I\u2019m not going, \u2018This is gonna be Modest Mouse\u2019s prog-rock record.\u2019 I just kinda let the chips land where they do and read the tea leaves, if you will.\u201d<\/p>\n

The melancholic \u2018An Eraser and a Maze\u2019 is also the first Modest Mouse album since Green died from cancer in December 2022<\/a>, with the group\u2019s ever-shifting line-up now featuring Ben Massarella (percussion), Russell Higbee (bass and guitar) and Simon O\u2019Connor (guitar). Three producers worked on the record: Jacknife Lee, Justin Raisen and Suzy Shinn.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Brock initially postponed his latest audience with NME, citing illness. As ever with the mercurial frontman, there was more to this than met the eye\u2026<\/p>\n

NME: Hi Isaac! Sorry you were ill the other night \u2013 glad you\u2019re feeling better\u2026<\/p>\n

Isaac Brock:\u00a0\u201cOh, no, I had been up working on a video until one and then I decided, \u2018I should take mushrooms\u2019. And then the next day was fucking worthless, so I was just like, \u2018I\u2019m not doing this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

And there we were feeling sorry for you! How were the mushrooms?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, bad trips are good trips too. It was partly good. I think I tried hiding in my bed for a while and then I woke up and was like, \u2018You\u2019re not going to bed\u2026\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

When we spoke about \u2018The Golden Casket\u2019 in 2021<\/a>, you said you were already working on new material. Was that a particularly inspired time for you?<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was during the pandemic, so I went with a \u2018When life gives you lemons, fuckin\u2019 go and get something other than lemons\u2019 approach and made the most of it. Right after we recorded \u2018The Golden Casket\u2019, I decided I didn\u2019t wanna do my usual thing of waiting to fill my head up for a year or two just to make sure I didn\u2019t accidentally make the same record again. So I just dove back in with Jacknife, which was great. He was recording as soon as I walked in the room and I started banging on whatever [I could find]. I was like a cat checking out a new space, giving it a little sniff.\u201d<\/p>\n

You certainly haven\u2019t made the same record again. This one is a lot less poppy than \u2018The Golden Casket\u2019\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cDave Sardy [co-producer of \u2018The Golden Casket\u2019], who I enjoy working with, is a great producer but he has a very pop lean. He had a lot of influence on the record, so I\u2019d have something that was too heavy and he\u2019d introduce the idea of something really poppy and I just went for it. I wonder what the record would have turned out like had I [resisted]. Say nothing but nice things, Isaac\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the first new Modest Mouse album released via your own label, Glacial Pace. Why the break from Epic Records after more than two decades?<\/p>\n

\u201cI turned in six songs \u2013 I think four of \u2018em ended up on the record \u2013 and they were like, \u2018We don\u2019t see where you\u2019re going with this.\u2019 They\u2019d never chimed in before. I always just turned in whatever I had been working on and that was A-OK. They told me, as nicely as anyone can tell you, that they weren\u2019t into it. They didn\u2019t know what to do with it. I thought, \u2018This is pointless because I\u2019m just going to keep making this type of music.\u2019 So I politely asked if I could weasel out of my contract, which I\u2019d been in for far too long anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

I was so sorry and shocked to read about Jeremiah\u2019s death\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cEven the doctors treating him really thought he was going to make it through. It was incredibly shocking. It really did look like he was going to make it out. It was New Year\u2019s Eve that his mom called me. I won\u2019t be forgetting that any time soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve said, \u2018I don\u2019t grieve much\u2026 But then, you know, I\u2019ll sing stuff. And then I\u2019m like, Oh, there it is.\u2019 Were there any moments where you listened back to this record and realised you were talking about Jeremiah?<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, there\u2019s a couple points. One\u2019s pretty obvious: it\u2019s \u2018Third Side of the Moon\u2019. Him and a couple other people got in there. It\u2019s going over loss in different ways, I guess, because not every portion of that song is about someone dying.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next batch of songs is kind of a companion piece to this record, which I have tentatively called \u2018Shadows in the Shade\u2019. There\u2019s a cover of \u2018Soul\u2019 by Songs: Ohia [AKA Jason Molina] that I think I started nine years ago. I have just been fucking with it for so long to get it right. Jeremiah plays on that. Another friend who passed away from cancer, Rob Laakso, who used to be in Kurt Vile<\/a> And The Violators, also plays on it. It\u2019s a fucking bizarre song because it\u2019s about passing on and [Molina] passed away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like it\u2019s a cursed song, but also just so beautiful. So that\u2019s gonna be weird when I put that out. That was a really hard song not to put on the record. I kind of decided: \u2018Too soon.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a rotating cast of drummers on the album, including Janet Weiss, formerly of Sleater-Kinney<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI kinda wanted to keep that not as one person since Jeremy left. Everyone has a different feel, so on some of the songs, I had three of them play the drums and chose whichever one felt right. I am technically maybe the worst drummer you will ever fucking meet. I\u2019m not a drummer and I\u2019m also not good at pretending to be a drummer or being near drums. It\u2019s the first instrument that I learned how to play. I went to the Crass<\/a> school of drumming and was trying to figure out how to play \u2018Do They Owe Us A Living?\u2019. People talk you out of being a drummer pretty quick when you can\u2019t even play that!\u201d<\/p>\n

You teamed up with pop and rap producer Justin Raisen (Charli XCX<\/a>, Lil Yachty<\/a>) on this album\u2019s \u2018Rotten Fruit\u2019. People might be surprised by that, but you did work with Big Boi<\/a> from Outkast<\/a> on some aborted tracks around 2011\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I gave that a try [with Big Boi]. I should have tried harder! There\u2019s a version of \u2018Lampshades on Fire\u2019 where Big Boi raps. At the time, I was like, \u2018I don\u2019t know where we\u2019re going with this. It feels like two different songs.\u2019 I listened to it sometime last year and I was like, \u2018You\u2019re a fucking idiot. You should definitely have put that out!\u2019 We\u2019re still talking about trying to find time to get together and do it again and actually follow through this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next year it\u2019ll be two decades since the release of \u2018We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank\u2019, which featured Johnny Marr<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cThat seems like a very long time ago considering it doesn\u2019t seem like a very long time ago. I have clearer memories of that whole record than I do of almost any of the other records!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JoeJoe Plummer, Johnny Marr, Isaac Brock, Tom Peloso, Eric Judy and Jeremiah Green of Modest Mouse in 2007 (Photo by Wendy Redfern\/Redferns)<\/p>\n

Would you consider doing a 20th anniversary tour of that album?<\/p>\n

\u201cI just accidentally did those other tours. We did the \u2018Lonesome Crowded West\u2019 ones and that felt good because Jeremy got to do half of it (although in hindsight I would probably have suggested he spent time with his son since he already knew his diagnosis). I was pretty resistant to ever playing a record tour because it seemed too predictable and I was worried I\u2019d get bored halfway through. I\u2019ve never held much respect for bands that just play their record.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it turns out I really enjoy it! You get really good at it and that, actually, is more fun than running scared the whole time because I just introduced four new songs in the soundcheck and we have to see if we can pull any of them off, which is what I do to everyone all the fucking time. It starts wearing you down.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you did \u2018We Were Dead\u2026\u2019, would you need Johnny Marr onboard?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d think, wouldn\u2019t you? Johnny manages to keep himself very busy so we\u2019d have to probably plan well in advance. And then it gets complicated because it starts getting hurtful for the guy who\u2019s in your band as the guitarist who also has rent to pay and shit.\u201d<\/p>\n

You mentioned brand new material. When can we expect to hear that?<\/p>\n

\u201cThat will be much easier to [release quickly] because I already have the record. We\u2019re not gonna put it out for a year. I imagine that we\u2019ll hopefully write a few songs that I like more than a few that I was gonna put on it. I\u2019ll just keep kicking those off records until they never end up on a record. Which probably means they\u2019re not good songs!\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s \u2018Shadows in the Shade\u2019 currently sounding like?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little darker [than \u2018An Eraser and a Maze\u2019]. There\u2019s less fun moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Modest Mouse. CREDIT: PRESS<\/p>\n

We were excited to hear you\u2019re working on new material with your side project Ugly Casanova. What can you tell us about it?<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and Tim Rutilli [who appeared on 2004\u2019s folky \u2018Sharpen Your Teeth\u2019, Ugly Casanova\u2019s only studio album to date] started writing about two months ago. We got together for about five days. One song sounds like me trying to do Motown \u2013 I wouldn\u2019t think that would work, but it actually is pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blimey! So it\u2019s not going to sound like the first Ugly Casanova record?<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I\u2019m not good at repeating myself, man. I\u2019m not skilled enough to do the same thing twice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018An Eraser And A Maze\u2019 is out now. Modest Mouse are currently touring North America with dates running through to October. Visit here<\/a> for tickets and more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock has spoken to NME about the Portland indie heroes\u2019 new album \u2018An Eraser…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":["post-717463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}