<\/p>\n
Isaac Brock doesn\u2019t care to reminisce. As fans celebrate the arrival of Modest Mouse\u2019s eighth studio album, \u201cAn Eraser and a Maze,\u201d as well as the 30th anniversary of the band\u2019s 1996 debut album, \u201cThis Is a Long Drive for Someone With Nothing to Think About,\u201d the mercurial frontman hits a mental wall when asked to consider what three-plus decades of Modest Mouse has meant to him. \u201cI don\u2019t have an answer,\u201d he admits with a sense of finality. \u201cSorry.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI barely have a memory,\u201d he jokes. \u201cThat\u2019s actually one of the things that my friends and family compliment me on, which is I don\u2019t f\u2014ing do a lot of looking back in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brock isn\u2019t being rude \u2014 far from it. He\u2019s just bracingly honest and notoriously wobbly when asked to verbalize the significance of everything and anything \u2014 from his poetically dense lyricism to the whole of his revered music career.<\/p>\n
Having just wrapped sound check before a show at the College Street Music Hall in New Haven, Conn., Brock is sitting behind the venue as the sun sets behind him, creating a kind of halo effect, which is fitting, since we spend much of our conversation talking about life and death. Taking drags of cigarettes and sipping on a can of cider seems to clarify his thought process as he works to focus his answers. His speaking cadence mirrors his singing style, going in fits and starts, spilling out a series of thought fragments that somehow end up magically fitting together.<\/p>\n
Almost everything about Brock and Modest Mouse as an entity defies convention and embodies contradiction: lyrics can be sardonic and<\/i> upbeat; Brock has toiled in the DIY trenches and shot to the top of the charts; Modest Mouse is among the era-defining indie-rock bands of the early aughts and, until recently, spent decades on a major label.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn Eraser and a Maze\u201d marks the first Modest Mouse project released outside the major-label system (on Brock\u2019s own Glacial Pace Recordings) since the group signed to Epic in 2000. \u201cI didn\u2019t have a bad time on Epic,\u201d Brock says, arguing with himself a little as he considers the pros and cons of indie versus major. \u201cI like the people I worked with throughout the years. I didn\u2019t feel like a captive until later in the game. I didn\u2019t feel like I was necessarily held hostage by the deal, but I mean, all the money went to them…. If someone\u2019s making a lot of money off you\u2026. Putting something out that actually is ours, that feels nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brock also oscillates as he debates the so what<\/i> behind \u201cAn Eraser and a Maze,\u201d which the album bio decides must be thinking about the block universe theory, a philosophy that states all time is running simultaneously. \u201cI had to ask ChatGPT to explain block theory to me,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m not sure about time and space. I\u2019ve had plenty of moments where I felt like I could travel through time or space, but I\u2019m just not qualified to talk about it. But I did like that [interpretation]. It made me sound smarter … <\/p>\n