Sasquatch! droppings: J Mascis

Sasquatch! droppings is a semi-regular feature where Guerrilla Candy shares pieces of candid conversations with artists that performed at Sasquatch! 2011.

J Mascis is many things. He’s a rock icon, a guitar legend and a renowned gearhead. He’s also a pretty difficult interview (he clocks in at No. 9 on The Onion’s list of difficult interview subjects). I wish I would’ve known the latter more than a day in advance of my interview with the Dino Jr. frontman at Sasquatch!

You see, it’s not that J Mascis is a difficult person or that he isn’t a nice guy. Actually he’s quite the opposite. He was very polite and friendly during our five-minute conversation, but he really didn’t have a whole lot to say. He spoke in a whisper-quiet tone and most of his answers were very short and direct. He wasn’t  being rude and he wasn’t giving off the vibe that he didn’t want to be interviewed, he just didn’t have whole lot to say.

As a last resort I asked J Mascis about his favorite color, which is a move I normally wouldn’t ever pull (and definitely something John Roderick would frown upon), but Mascis has a thing for the color purple and I figured I had to ask since I had nothing to lose. So here’s the brief blurb I filed about my J Mascis interview for my day job:

Dinosaur Jr frontman J Mascis is supporting a solo album and he stopped by to chat with us prior to his Sasquatch! set.

Before our interview we got an inside tip that Masics is a big fan of the color purple. He has a custom model Fender Jazzmaster guitar that sparkles purple, there are customized Dinosaur Jr Nikes in the shade of purple and he arrived for our interview wearing a bright purple track jacket.

So why does Masics like purple so much?

“There’s no reason. I just like it better than all the other colors,” he said with a shrug.

About Travis Hay

Travis Hay is a music journalist who has spent the past 20 years documenting and enjoying Seattle's music scene. He's written for various outlets including MSN Music, the Seattle-Post Intelligencer, Seattle Weekly, Pearl Jam's Ten Club, Crosscut.com and others.

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