MJ Lenderman is a musician from Asheville, North Carolina, who got obsessed with music and music-making after discovering My Morning Jacket in his parents’ music collection when he was fifth grader. After founding and playing in bands including Wednesday, Lenderman released Manning Fireworks in September this year under his own name (or at least under his initials; friends call him Jake).

After playing a show in the First Avenue Mainroom the night before, MJ Lenderman brought his band The Wind into The Current studio to play songs from Manning Fireworks. Afterwards, Lenderman stuck around to chat with host Mac Wilson. Find a full transcript of that interview beneath the interview video.

Interview Transcript

Mac Wilson: Hello, friends. I'm Mac Wilson. I'm joined in The Current studio by MJ Lenderman. Jake, thanks for stopping in today.

MJ Lenderman: Thanks for having me.

Mac Wilson: So you came in with your entire band, The Wind, today, and you played some songs. It was good to get everybody corralled in here. What's the last time that you were in Minnesota?

MJ Lenderman: That's a good question. I believe it was maybe April or May last year, with Wednesday, we played at First Ave. So it's been maybe about a year, almost.

Mac Wilson: In retrospect, it's got to be one of those things where people will look back one day, and they'll be like, "Not only did we get a full set from Wednesday and we got to Lenderman to do a solo set at the same time." Do you think? Like, oh my gosh! Like, that's, I know that that's one of your bands, too, but do you still look back on it? Like, "You know, it's pretty cool that we were able to do that all together in one place."

MJ Lenderman: Well, it wasn't all together. It was like a Wednesday show, but my band wasn't there.

Mac Wilson: OK, gotcha.

MJ Lenderman: But we have toured, the two of us, and it is really fun to be all together, because there's so much overlap. And you know, it's only like two extra people.

Mac Wilson: So Jake, during the COVID-19 pandemic especially, we would usually open up conversations with artists by asking something along the lines of, "How are you doing?" And I know that you have a lot on your mind lately with the recovery in your hometown of Asheville right now from Hurricane Helene, which has swept through, and I'm sure that there's lots to go into, but I'm curious, where's your head at today? Is it compartmentalizing, or is it always there for you? 

MJ Lenderman: Yeah. I mean, definitely all of our minds are on Asheville, and our hearts are heavy. But, you know, we're doing what we can to raise some money on the road. And I just put a song out on this compilation called Cardinals at the Window, with like 135 other artists. They've raised like over $300,000 already. So doing what we can. It's nice to all be together, and, you know, because we're going through this together. But our minds are at home, too.

Mac Wilson: I'm sort of curious, because in what I've been reading about the new compilation that's out, it's billed as there's 134 songs on it, led by MJ Lenderman. You're at the top of the list for it. So were you one of the the brainchilds behind it, or are you just one of the many folks who contributed?

MJ Lenderman: No, I don't know why it said that. I think that was just whatever publication posted about it, but there are some friends from North Carolina that put it together. I just made a song [“Pianos”] for it. 

Mac Wilson: And am I reading right that you did the live debut or something close to it last night at First Ave?

MJ Lenderman: Yeah, we played it for the first time last night.

Mac Wilson: And what was the reception of it? I'm sorry I wasn't able to make it out to the show, but I'm curious how it went over.

MJ Lenderman: I think it went over well. It's kind of a jam, so we got lost in it. But I think the crowd was pleased. It was an awesome audience last night.

Mac Wilson: It got me thinking about those compilations that came out — did you have any of the Red Hot compilations for charity, like Dark Was The Night, which came out, like, circa 2009?

MJ Lenderman: No, I would have been 10 years old.

Mac Wilson: Well, right! You were born in 1999, which, when I found that out, it shocked me, because I'm 40, and the first time I heard your music, Jake, I thought, "Well, this is a guy who's clearly very seasoned. He's been out on the road for a long time," and I expected even to be closer in age to me. And I'm like, "Wait — MJ Lenderman was born in 1999??" Like, it's astonishing the level of maturity that you have in your songwriting and your performing that I've gotten just over the last couple of years. So that's a compliment just straight to you. 

MJ Lenderman: Thank you.

Mac Wilson: So one thing I noticed too is that you've got the new record Manning Fireworks out on cassette tape, among other things, to be sold at your venues. So I'm thinking, if you were born in 1999, did cassette tapes, did you ever have any?

MJ Lenderman: I actually did, because in high school I drove a — I think it was a '94 or '96 Honda Accord, and it had a tape player in it. So I actually developed a pretty decent cassette collection for that.

Mac Wilson: Did you inherit any of them? Or did you like go thrifting to get these?

MJ Lenderman: I bought some of them, and then I did inherit a few. There was, I think, a Prince one, speaking of Minneapolis. I think that was my mom's.

Mac Wilson: You didn't cover "Purple Rain" last night, did you?

MJ Lenderman: No, no, no.

Mac Wilson: Everybody does that in the Mainroom. So it's fun when somebody stretches out a little bit or just doesn't bother to do it. So that's cool. Do you remember which Prince one it was? 

MJ Lenderman: I believe it was Purple Rain.

Mac Wilson: Yeah, OK. There's a Craig Finn solo song [“God in Chicago”] where he talks about putting the 1999 [album] into a cassette player. I just remembered that.

We're here in The Current studio with MJ Lenderman. Jake, to bring things into a little bit more of the levity sense, I was going to ask you about some memes that I had seen online. So I typed it in, and, of course, there's a whole article about how you share memes with your family and your group chat about your music and your life.

MJ Lenderman: Well, yeah, I try to not see those if possible. But if my sisters see something funny enough, they'll send it.

Mac Wilson: So here's one on Twitter that I saw, and it was like formatted like one of those YouTube movie reviews. It says, "MJ Lenderman 'Manning Fireworks' album closer EXPLAINED," in all caps, like somebody did an entire explainer behind the closer on the record. So if anybody — spoiler alert! — if you've listened to Manning Fireworks, you'll know that probably about the last seven or eight minutes of that song is guitar feedback, as I even saw over here; you've got a microphone pointed directly at your speaker. I didn't know if you were trying to emulate that. So can you give any explainer to that?

MJ Lenderman: No.

Mac Wilson: OK, that's fair enough. Some things are best left unexplained, and that's a good thing.

Here with MJ Lenderman, and I don't really have a question around this one, but the song "She's Leaving You," it's one of the best things that I've heard all year because of its, ostensibly, its straightforwardness, and its simplicity, and yet it's something that you can just keep playing over and over again. And I think that that's the hallmark of a great song, is that it sounded like it took you five minutes to write, and it lasts a lifetime. So how long did it take you to write "She's Leaving You"?

MJ Lenderman: About five minutes.

Mac Wilson: Great! This is all — it is all adding up exactly the way that I thought it would. Well, we are in the studio with MJ Lenderman, and judging by how your career has gone, we'll welcome you back soon.

MJ Lenderman: Thanks for having me.

Mac Wilson: Thank you again for stopping in. It's great to have you.

Gallery: MJ Lenderman in studio

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Songs Performed

00:00:00 You Don’t Know The Shape I’m In
00:04:20 Joker Lips
00:07:32 Rip Torn
All songs from MJ Lenderman’s 2024 album, Manning Fireworks, available on Anti- Records.

Musicians

Jake Lenderman – vocals, guitar
Jon Samuels – guitar
Landon George – bass
Collin Miller – drums
Xandy Chelmis – pedal steel, vocals, fiddle
Ethan Baechtold – keys

Credits

Guest – MJ Lenderman
Host – Mac Wilson
Producer – Derrick Stevens
Video – Evan Clark, Megan Lundberg
Audio – Derek Ramirez
Graphics – Natalia Toledo
Digital Producer – Luke Taylor

External Link

MJ Lenderman – official site