This month will see MJ LENDERMAN at a venue near you, bearing the crafty, heartfelt songs of his Manning Fireworks breakthrough. But while the future’s bright for indie-Americana’s handsome new hero, his musical path is largely unmapped. “I think I’ll always end up sounding ‘me’,” he assures ANDY FYFE.

Photography by GRIFFIN LOTZ

WITH RELIGIOUS CONSERVATISM ON THE RISE IN THE US, WE’RE growing more accustomed to musicians thanking God at awards ceremonies than dishing out criticism of the church. For American indie rock’s man of the hour, MJ Lenderman, the church looms large in both his life and his recent breakthrough album, Manning Fireworks, but seldom in a positive light.

“My whole childhood was church,” the 26-year-old North Carolinian says. “I was brought up Catholic, went to Catholic school, our family went to church every week.”

With his 6’2” frame folded onto a tourbus banquette, the midday Denver sun backlighting his dark, tousled hair, Lenderman begins dismantling his church days. As tourbuses go, he notes, this is the nicest he’s travelled on. Such is his star’s current trajectory, even this relative luxury should soon be eclipsed. But back to the church…

“As I got older I started asking questions, then, at my confirmation, the bishop’s sermon pretty much only talked about how it was up us to make sure gay marriage doesn’t happen,” he relates. “It was weird and wrong to me. I just didn’t want anything to do with it.”

He wasn’t alone in feeling that way, and eventually even his parents turned away from the church.

“Some other more messed-up things happened within the church around the same time and my parents… well,

I probably shouldn’t talk about that,” he decides with a kind of Paddington hard stare that means ‘topic closed’.

It turns out to be a typical exchange with Lenderman – Jake to friends and family. He’s not a garrulous talker, but not because he’s shy or dull or boring. His chat is in fact peppered with quiet humour and deep thoughtfulness. It’s just that recent exposure has taught him discretion and distance – tactics at odds with his open-hearted songs,