The guitarist who could make indie rock big again
Next month, MJ Lenderman will perform three back-to-back, sold-out shows at Brooklyn’s 650-capacity Music Hall of Williamsburg, an unusual feat for a young, up-and-coming indie-rock artist. What’s even rarer: There was enough demand for a fourth show, according to concert promoter the Bowery Presents—a sign that Lenderman is headed for bigger and better things in the music industry. There’s just one thing: He kinda likes where he’s at.
“I want to be financially stable, and I want to be able to make music—but I’m not really interested in getting bigger," the 25-year-old singer and guitarist says, tucked in a booth of the Manhattan restaurant Lafayette one evening this summer, nursing a Kronenbourg and wondering where he’ll watch the N.B.A. finals later that night. In the world of indie rock, this is the year of MJ Lenderman: The Asheville, North Carolina singer-songwriter has helped propel two of indie rock’s recent success stories, Wednesday (of which he’s a member) and Waxahatchee.
Now he’s causing a stir with his solo work, including his heavily anticipated fourth studio album “Manning Fireworks," which is out Sept. 6. A guitar hero for a post-guitar-hero age, Lenderman has a loose, countrified sound that filters Gen-X touchstones like Neil Young, Sonic Youth and Drive-By Truckers through the brain of a Gen-Z kid who salvaged the greatest hits of his dad’s CD collection.
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