Modest Mouse opening for The Black Keys at Bridgestone Arena, 10/1/2019
Pacific Northwest rockers Modest Mouse were quietly influential on the evolving sound of rock music even before 2004’s Good News for People Who Love Bad News, the breakthrough album that came about a decade into their career. The band returns to Nashville Thursday, Oct. 9, headlining The Pinnacle with support from fellow influential indie rockers Built to Spill. We caught up with frontman Isaac Brock ahead of the show to talk about process, personal growth, new music in the works and more. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Is there anything specific about this tour that's making it special?
Well, I don't know how to answer that, you know, like it's, we just do what we do. But we've been doing so much with it, rather than being bored with it. I feel really confident about how well the band's connecting. Yeah, we're really good right now. It feels great.
When we started our tour in June, we did a month with Doug Martsch from Built to Spill playing acoustically, and he was living on the bus and things, and that was great. I love Doug. I've known Doug a very long time. He's one of my favorite people, and honestly, he's such a goddamn natural. Like, he's just seemingly effortless. I'm sure it's not. But getting to play with him is phenomenal. Then we did a tour with The Flaming Lips, and that was a very different thing. And it was really cool.
How do you keep that magic alive after 30 years?
Don't know. Man, I really don't know. I mean, I should be bored, but I'm having a blast.
What did you get up to on your break from touring?
My entire intention for the eight days I had off was to just kind of be as routine as I can with my kids. You know, getting ready for school and stuff, and play chess with them. As best I can get my head out of music for a minute, just to, you know, be well-rounded. Be a good, good, good dad and be available.
Good News for People Who Love Bad News — not the first Modest Mouse album, but a lot of fans’ first Modest Mouse album — came out more than 20 years ago. What have you learned about yourself since then?
I don't think I look at it in that way, where I'm linearly looking at a stream of events that I can pick out — like, what's been learned along the way in a straight line. I get dumber, I get smarter. So it's not a straight line.
Songwriting is your work. So are touring and recording. Do you still write songs in your free time?
We've been working on trying to wrap up 24 songs we've been working on over the last four years, and I'm trying to get them all mixed and fixed. I thought I would have it done before I started this next tour, but it doesn't look like it's happening.
I think this winter I'll have the time to write a song, you know, to start getting back into it. But currently, the songs have [already] been written; they just need to be worked on. And then I'm raising a 6 and 8-year-old.
What do you want Modest Mouse’s legacy to be?
I don't think I'm in charge of that.
Who is?
Everyone else. Like, I just keep doing what I do, and then at the end of that, you know, the voting public decides what our legacy is. You never want to be known for just one song, and we've done a pretty good job of that, [but] still not a good enough job. We will always be the band that wrote “Float On.” And that's all right.
Is there anything you want people to know ahead of your show at the Pinnacle?
As you know, we've been doing so much touring this summer, and I'm feeling really confident. So I think that on this next trip, we're just gonna kind of deep-dive some of our stray songs — you know, stuff that we don't often pull out. We're gonna be kind of brave with that shit.
