The New Cue #530 September 22: Cass McCombs
"An honest person doesn't need to speak."
Good morning,
About a fortnight ago, I got on the phone with the great Cass McCombs. I’ve posted a (now slightly updated) playlist of some of my favourite songs of his before, but here it is again. Use it, if you wish, to choose which of his dozen albums you’d like to listen to in full first. You will not be disappointed. There are few American singer-songwriters over the last couple of decades who’ve written richer, more moreish guitar melodies nor smarter, more playfully original lyrics.
His latest album, Interior Live Oak, came out earlier this month and Cass was in Paris promoting it when we spoke. “It’s raining cats and dogs,” he said. “So I have nothing better to do right this second than answer your questions, Ted.” We had exactly thirty minutes allocated to tackle The New Cue Life & Times questionnaire before his next appointment: quite a bit of that was eaten up by Cass’s bemused, amused pauses as he rolled the questions around his head, repeating them back as if to extract their true meaning. A total pleasure to transcribe.
Enjoy the edition and see you on Friday,
Ted and Niall
The Life & Times Of… Cass McCombs
Cass McCombs, 47, is a singer-songwriter born and raised in Northern California who has lived subsequently across the United States. He released his first album, A, in 2003, and his most recent, Interior Oak Live, in August 2025.
What was the first record that you loved?
Well, my memory isn't very good after a lifetime of brain damage. I think I separate the pre-learning how to play guitar records to those I heard once I started playing guitar. Music just meant something different to me before the guitar. I listened to a lot of rap, and so Ice T’s Colours was amazing. Power was too.
Run DMC and the Beastie Boys, all that was really important to me. But once I started playing guitar, my brain shifted.
What was the first guitar record that really that you loved?
Appetite For Destruction blew my mind.
Then, The Velvet Underground in 1969, that really changed a lot for me. It's also not just a single record. It's being aware of Velvet Underground. Then it's all Velvet Underground and all Lou Reed and all John Cale and all Nico. It's a whole world is opened up at that point.
And what was the last record you loved?
It’s funny, I was just talking about this with Mike who plays guitar in my band. We were saying that we still listen to those records, the first records that we loved. We still go back to the genesis of what got us interested. Somehow, it's still generative, it's a lifetime of inspiration. So I don't really seek out that much new music. Recently, I've been listening to the guitar player, Joseph Spence.
And an Irish guitar player named Arty McGlynn. They were doing something interesting. Both are dead, so not exactly new music.
What is your earliest memory?
Well, you know, I have to go back to the brain damage defence. I thought about this before, and I think my earliest memory is probably a dream. I had a dream when I was a child of a dinosaur. The moon turned into a dinosaur, and that's probably my first memory.
Who or what is the love of your life?
Wow, these aren't easy questions. They're not easy questions. Jesus. Oh… Jesus! Yeah, he just popped right in there. Well, beyond Jesus, it’s got to be music. Yeah, music. I'm totally devoted.
What is your worst habit?
Worst habit, that’s a good one. I have a lot, lot, lot of bad habits, but maybe one is, I'm angry. I'm often angry. It's compulsive, and it's not good. Music is how I get out of it. I get confused, I get frustrated, I get angry. And music is the opposite of that. I can create a new world, a new space, a new feeling to exit my frustrations.
Tell us the story of your latest album.
The story of my album - oh, I like that. It makes it seem like a fairy tale. Well, it's pretty simple. There's not really much to it. We were reissuing my first three records, which was a few years in the making, and we were digging up a bunch of unreleased music. Domino ended up releasing that, it’s called Seed Cake on Leap Year. Working closely with Jason Quever, who recorded my first two records, and the Seed Cake stuff, we realised we just always had a really great connection musically, and everything. Just a lot of similar interests and similar family bullshit. Anyway, we started recording together again, it's great - and that's kind of the story, I guess.
Has anyone you've ever met made you feel starstruck?
Starstruck. Well, I'm a nervous person. So almost anyone can make me feel starstruck. A bartender, the bus driver, both can make me starstruck. But in terms of people whose reputations precede them like musicians or athletes, when I was kid I met Willie Mays.
I was with my uncle and aunt, who were returning from their honeymoon, and we were greeting them at San Francisco Airport. My uncle gets off the plane and he's like, ‘You won't believe who's also on the plane: Willie Mays. Wait here, you'll see, he'll come out’. And sure enough, he came out, and me and my cousin ran up to him. We asked for his autograph, and he was very gracious and cool. I still treasure that autograph. I have it framed.
What would people be surprised to learn about you?
I don't want to say too much. I don’t want to incriminate myself. Gosh. This one's stumping me. What would surprise people? It's hard to know. People are so jaded these days, they’d probably go, ‘Oh, yeah, of course. That makes sense. Just look at him.’ Everyone thinks they know everything. So I actually would say nothing would surprise people these days. That's my answer. Nothing.
If you could go back in time, where would you go?
You know that the theory of relativity says you can go back, but you can't go forward. So, I don't know if I would go back. I'd be trapped. You’d lose all your friends, all your stuff, your favourite guitar, because you can't bring that stuff. But if I were willing to abandon everything to go to another time and place… do I speak the language? If I go to a different time, would I be able to communicate with these people? If I went to ancient Greece, would I be able to talk to Socrates? Or do I have to go to somewhere in the 20th century in the United States of America? The stakes are getting higher and higher. Where would I go…Jesus. Maybe the 1920s. So much great literature came out of the twenties, but not that going back to that time and place ensures that you're going to be able to talk with TS Eliot. It’s a big risk to do this. Maybe too great for me.
What do you wish the 18-year-old you knew?
Yeah, well, I didn't know anything. I was lost. When I was 18, that was hard times. I guess you have to find these things out for yourself, but you don't have to smoke as many cigarettes. You don't have to smoke cigarettes because you're nervous. That's a bad bargain. Or drink, or just generally fuck yourself up because you're nervous. You don't have to do that.
What one book would you recommend that we read?
One?!
Let's imagine we've read no books.
Ulysses? You're saying no one's read any books? This is a very difficult place for me to be. Maybe I do need to risk going to the 1920s. I’m the only person who’s read books… I want to change that answer and say Dubliners, because if you haven't read any books yet, why don't you start with Dubliners.
What was the home that you grew up in?
… shifting.
What's the best advice you've ever been given?
I'm just cycling through my mind, thinking about the people that I love and trust the most, and what they may have told me to keep me going. I mean nothing, nothing specifically comes to mind, but when people have told me when I was young - and I needed to hear it - that I should pursue my music… Actually, you know what, an aunt of mine told me one time that everyone's different. And that's a special thing, you know.
What's the secret to a happy relationship?
Oh my goodness. I’m the last person…What?! What’s the secret to a happy relationship? I'm really not authorised to answer that question.
What is the worst thing that anyone has ever said to you?
To stop pursuing music. Someone did say that, and I never forgot it. It's not a good feeling to be specifically discouraged from pursuing whatever you want most to do creatively. Mine was music, but whatever creative thing you're trying to do, to have that judgement is very cruel.
What's your favourite film and why?
I don't really have one favourite film. I love the films of Sam Peckinpah. The Ballad of Cable Hogue or The Wild Bunch, Ride The High Country. Just like music, I look at the entirety of the person’s art. It's a body of work. I guess The Wild Bunch: it is an incredible movie. You really feel the brutality and violence of war, how disgusting It is.
What is your pet peeve?
My main pet peeve is that I'm not good at sleeping. I've always been a troubled sleeper. I don't sleep very long. I wake up very early, go to bed late. I just can't stop my mind sometimes, and that makes matters worse because I just want some rest. It's frustrating.
What is the favourite song of your own?
It's changed over the years. Today, well, I like this song on Interior Live Oak called Lola Montez Danced The Spider Dance. I love playing it. I loved writing it. It was just an act of love.
Have you ever been arrested?
I have not. Exactly! ‘How is that possible?!’
Well, the next question is: on what occasion do you lie?
I think talking is lying. That’s what people nowadays call a hot take. I think talking is lying. Ancient people say that if you talk too much, you're either crazy or drunk or trying to enact some form of trickery. An honest person doesn't need to speak. So I think I lie when I’m talking.
Do you have any phobias?
Phobias? Which one? There are people that I don't want to see. I would be afraid to see them. It would probably be fine if I did, but that's why it's a phobia. It means nothing, it's made up. It's dumb. Fears are stupid. When you meet your fears, I think you can overcome them quite easily. You build them up in your mind.
What's the closest you've ever come to death?
Some drug experiences, I suppose. Some bad car accidents. One time I almost bit the dust jumping off this cliff. What else? There’s a few, for sure.
Can you cook and if so, what's your signature dish?
I've always been an horrendous cook. Really, really bad. I’ve been learning how to make a chilli and I've been trying it with a cornbread. It's not very good. It's, like, it gets the job done.
What was your first job?
I worked at my grandfather's café. There was just me and him, and we made sandwiches. He was a very, very funny guy, he told lots of jokes. I was 15 I think. It was a good job.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
My music. I have really lovely friends, too, people that I treasure, so I have to say making my music and my friends.