What a day to be a dad-rockin' indie guy: MJ Lenderman has been profiled in GQ! The Himbo Dome is alive and well, folks.
Written by Grayson Haver Currin, the in-depth profile — which boasts to tell the MJ Lenderman story "you haven't heard before" — revealed many things, chief among them being the fact that the singer-songwriter/guitarist will no longer be touring with his band, Wednesday.
Lenderman does, however, plan to continue recording with the band, and appears on the yet-to-be-announced Rat Saw God follow-up that is reportedly due out later this year. He played his last show as the band's guitarist in January at Tokyo's rockin'on sonic festival, after which he told GQ, "Oh, that was my last show in Wednesday. The guy that's replacing me? His name is Jake too."
After six years together, Lenderman and Wednesday's Karly Hartzman broke up in March of 2024 — also in Tokyo, at the end of a tour. The following month, they still moved together to Hartzman's hometown of Greensboro, and opted not to tell their bandmates about the break-up while recording their fourth full-length back in Asheville. With the band and Lenderman's respective stars on the rise, it eventually became a matter of public scrutiny they felt the need to address publicly.
Lenderman has since found a place on his own in Greensboro, but he's been so busy on the road behind his critically beloved solo album Manning Fireworks with his touring band the Wind that he's barely spent any time there. As of this writing, he'll be navigating a jam-packed tour schedule through until late September.
"It brings me a little comfort to know where the horizon is, to know when tour is over," Lenderman told Currin. "Before I decided to step back from Wednesday, that was up in the air forever. That made me really nervous."