Lou Barlow has dismissed his early Sebadoh and Folk Implosion work as “fucking crap”, declaring that he is disillusioned with his previous performances.
Speaking while he was in Glasgow recently for a three-night stand at Nice N Sleazy, he admitted that he became depressed a few months ago when he decided that his music had left no lasting impression on the world.
He said: “I’m not very happy with it. I guess that maybe five or six years back, I felt like I was laying down a legacy – it’s gonna stand the test of time. But now I look back at all that stuff, and it’s all fuckin’ crap, it’s just shit.
“No matter how many good songs I’ve written, or great lyrics or whatever, if I died tomorrow, my obituary would be, ‘This guy played in Dinosaur Jr and released a couple of indie-rock records.’ That would be it. I’ve got nothing that’s even comparable to the success that a lot of bands have achieved. I’ve done jack-shit, as far as I can tell.”
He is currently working on new Folk Implosion material with drummer Russ Pollard from Sebadoh, following the departure of his partner John Davis, with whom he remains friends.
He revealed that one of his new songs, about his belief that Jesus Christ had an earthly father, was written in a hotel room in San Francisco while he and his wife Kathleen sat with Bibles in their hands: “I really believe that he had a natural father, and I believe that the natural father was either actually Joseph or someone else. I also like the thought of Mary being this very charismatic woman who was able to convince people that she was impregnated by the Holy Spirit. I have an immense amount of respect for that; like, this woman changed the face of the earth, she changed the way people think – which is just as miraculous as the concept of Jesus Christ.”