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Three-man rock bands are, by their very nature, self-destructive. Battling egos kept in tight quarters, power struggles, constant competition for the spotlight: it’s a recipe for a short lifespan as a collective unit. And not many bands know this more than Dinosaur Jr., the power trio from Massachusetts that has seen more than its share of stress fractures since forming in 1984.

In 1997, after a few personnel changes, Dinosaur Jr. officially disbanded. But the original players in the group were pursuing their own paths long before then, and for longtime fans, the breakup seemed inevitable. Since the band’s inception, personality conflicts between the founding members — J Mascis (guitar, songwriter), Lou Barlow (bass, songwriter) and Emmett Patrick “Murph” Murphy (drums) — had been well documented. So, for Murphy, the reunion and current tour in support of their ninth studio album, 2009’s terrific Farm, is a bittersweet occasion.

“All three of us have pretty strong egos,” Murphy admits. “J, at that time [i.e., the band’s shaky ’80s years] didn’t want to do any sharing of the co-writing responsibilities. He just wanted it to be him, and Lou was feeling like his voice was being squashed out. J just made it clear that it wasn’t a democracy. I guess I could deal with it more than [Lou] could because I was never a singer/songwriter — I was just approaching it from a drummer’s point of view.”

That point of view, Murphy believes, required a certain degree of passivity — after all, when you’re caught in the crossfire, the smartest thing to do is simply keep your head down. While Mascis and Barlow were battling it out from 1984-1989, Murphy’s strategy was to sit back and observe. “There were times when I was forced into being passive, just by being cancelled out,” he remembers. “When you have two people feuding and there’s gunfire, you tend to just duck and hide while the shots are overhead. There were times like that, when it was just too much and I didn’t want to deal with it.”

These days, Murphy recognizes that as Dino Jr. was exploring the limits of its sound, Mascis was also testing his boundaries as an artist. As he adapted to taking a frontman role in the band, Mascis began edging out the other two members. He continuously took control of Barlow and Murphy’s responsibilities, often arranging songs specifically to his own tastes. Though he felt left out at the time, Murphy now understands what was happening to Mascis and accepts the pressures he brought to the group as being necessary.

When Barlow was booted from the band in 1989 (leaving Mascis and Murphy to tour Australia with replacement bassist Donna Dresch), Murphy began noticing Mascis’ controlling ways even more. “J had to go through this thing, like on [the 1991 album] Green Mind, where he started recording all the instruments himself,” Murphy says. “I think he needed to make that happen for himself; that was his own growth spurt. It might have coincided with us going to the major labels, but it could have also just been natural songwriter’s evolution.”

In 1993, Murphy split from Dinosaur Jr. Alongside his solo projects, he joined The Lemonheads and released Car Button Cloth with the band in 1996. Though he says he loved the freedom he felt in his new surroundings, there was a certain energy that was missing — something he’d only felt with Dinosaur Jr.

Murphy took a full hiatus from music in the early part of the decade — no writing, no arranging, no playing. He moved to Maine and completely separated himself from his former rock star life. “Interestingly enough, in 2004, I started missing the drums,” he says. “In 2005, I got the call for the reunion, which I had no idea was coming. It was a really interesting twist of fate, because it was right at the moment when I jumped back into playing and was practicing four hours a day.”

Now, two albums after the band’s reunion, Dinosaur Jr. is touring again as a newly-formed (yet familiar) band. The three original members are reacquainting themselves with each other and discovering that, even with the old conflicts behind them, fresh challenges are constantly looming.

“There are new tensions now, with people being away from their families and how people deal with touring,” Murphy says. “I, as I’ve gotten older, find I don’t like touring as much. I love playing live, but my tolerance of travelling has gone down. Also, J and Lou have kids now, so there are mouths to feed. That’s the realistic stuff that we didn’t have when we were younger.”

Also, Barlow is expecting his second baby in December, which will undoubtedly influence the band’s touring schedule in the new year. Of course, looking too far into the future has never been part of Dinosaur Jr.’s game plan. “We’ve always been a band that takes things as they come,” Murphy says. “We put out a record and tour, and when it’s done, it’s done. J has always said that music is like a snapshot of what’s happening at the time; you put it out there and it’s like a piece of art — some people are going to like it and some aren’t, but you just do what you do.”