Lou Barlow
The bands Lou Barlow have been involved with over the past 20 years read like a who’s who of the now wildly successful musical genre known as emo. Considered by many to be the godfather of indie rock, Barlow is somewhat confused by the title but is infinitely pleased with his new one: father of his brand new four week old daughter. In a recent phone interview, Barlow discusses the rigors of fatherhood, his new solo record, and the importance of making sure your signature doesn’t look like a penis.
“We didn’t do much for Valentine’s Day, we actually forgot about it,” said Barlow, politely ignoring the fact that my cat had just meowed loudly into the receiver. “My wife had just come home from the hospital with our new baby, but I think we did have some champagne.”
Barlow and his wife, Kathleen, have been together 17 years and have just recently taken their first foray into parenthood. “This is our first child so it’s pretty chaotic, but it’s also really, really cool. It’s weird to think that when I go on tour for this record I will be gone for half the time she’s been alive, and she’ll be a totally different creature when I get back,” he said.
Barlow himself has undergone a transformation of the musical variety in the last decade, going from the introspective, brooding patchwork of sounds that made up Sebadoh to more stripped down projects that have ultimately led to the release of Emoh, Barlow’s first official solo record.
“In the last couple of years there’s been a rise of this singer songwriter, folk influenced indie music that really sounds good to me., It’s inspired me to get my shit together,” said Barlow. “There’s a singer songwriter named M. Ward that I toured with in Australia, I loved his record. I also love the Microphonesâ The Glow, Part 2, the music just sounds good and familiar to me. Listening to it made me want to try a solo record to see if I could tap into some of that magic.”
Barlow spent about a year writing and recording the songs on Emoh, laying down tracks in multiple locations from Massachusetts to Los Angeles, at his home and at friends’ houses. The resulting record is a collection of 14 songs that are at once exposed and intimate, but exceedingly catchy.
“It’s a good, sweet record. It’s got good singing but no crazy guitar. I’d say it’s pretty chill, some of it is a little bit like Bread,” said Barlow.
The record’s title, the word “home” spelled backwards, was a suggestion from Barlow’s friend. “I was originally going to call it Holding Back the Year which is the name of one of the songs on the album, but after my friend listened to it he said, ‘why don’t you call it Emoh, home backwards.’ Home is another song on the record, but Emoh was so genius because for whatever reason when you mention Sebadoh people think ‘the forbearers of emo rockâ so it was kind of funny to make a nod to that.”
Barlow’s tour schedule for Emoh will take him from New York City westward, with stops in cities like Chicago, Atlanta and Austin before he heads up to Bellingham. “I don’t really have any stops I’m particularly looking forward to more than others, but I will enjoy the Pacific Northwest,” he said. “I’m just happy to be on tour in general.”
Barlow has toured extensively throughout his career and recalls one performance in Philadelphia that came back to haunt him later. “It wasn’t a particularly eventful show or anything, but when I got home I got an email from this kid that said, ‘Dear Lou, I came to your show in Philly and I approached you with a CD to sign afterwards. You took it and drew a penis on it. All my friends laughed at me and I feel like you shamed me in front of them. I sent him a few semi-hysterical emails begging him to send me a scan of the signature, I could not even imagine a scenario that would cause my to draw a penis on someone’s CD. I was starting to think maybe I was an alcoholic,” said Barlow. “Finally the kid sent me a scan of the CD and there was my special signature that I used to do – my name with the two O’s and the little guy I always drew playing guitar. It was kind of sloppy and I saw exactly what he was talking about. I thought this whole time I had a pretty cool signature sort of like John Lennon, but when I saw that I thought, ‘Yeah, the kid is right. I guess my signature really does look like a dick.’ So since then I’ve completely changed the way I sign my name so it won’t happen again.”
With a new signature, a new baby, new musical horizons and a new tour to venture out on, Barlow’s plans for the next stage in his career might include revisiting some old territory. “I don’t know, maybe I’ll make a rock record next. It could be another Sebadoh record but I don’t know if that’s possible logistically. But I imagine that when I’m done touring for this record that I’ll be bursting to be doing something aggressive.”
