This is the interview I've wanted to do since I was 13 years old, so forgive me if there seems to be absolutely no journalistic quality. I read a lot of fanzines like Forced Exposure and MAXIMUMROCKNROLL. This is just going to be a fun interview.
All right. Let's do it.
You've mentioned in interviews over the years that you had a general idea of what you wanted Mudhoney to sound like when the band started. What was it?
Like the intent?
Yeah, that's it exactly.
Well, at the time there was a lot of focus on England, but it seemed to me the most vital stuff was coming out of the US and Australia. Maybe there were a couple of British bands I liked, like Spacemen 3, that stood out from all the pop and gothic-y stuff. But the stuff coming out hardcore in the mid-Eighties—like Black Flag—was changing; Butthole Surfers were emerging; Sonic Youth was emerging; Big Black—you know, that stuff seemed like the most vital stuff in the States. And in Australia, you had feedtime, the Scientists, the Celibate Rifles, and even the first Cosmic Psychos record. Back in the Northwest, there were some strong bands like the Wipers, probably being the biggest one, but still not well-known. These were my influences, the stuff I was really into. There was this trio of super-sloppy punk rock records that came out around the same time—Red Kross' Born Innocent, the Tales of Terror record, and Poison 13's first record—that had a huge influence on what I wanted to do with music, which was basically get drunk, roll around, and rock out.
And that changed over the years? Still want to get drunk and roll around?
Ha! Well, I don't roll around as much!
How would you say the band's sound has evolved?
We added horns, and we had been around for sixteen or seventeen years at that point. We had to keep doing things to avoid making the same record over and over. I think we have a strong enough musical identity with the ways Steve [Turner] plays guitar, the way Dan [Peters] drums, and my voice that allows us to do whatever we want and it'll still sound like us, ya know? And with the addition of Guy [Maddison] on bass, he allowed us to do more stuff than we were able to do with [former bassist] Matt [Lukin]. So with the new record, we decided to chuck all that out the window—and my guitar with it.
So you're not playing guitar at all on the new record?
Nope, just singing.
What are your most fond memories about your early years in your various bands?
Well, my fondest memory is with way back with Mr. Epp, my first band, and having our first single pressed. That's something that happened in the years between college, and I was living with my parents. I remember holding it and dancing around my suburban bedroom. I couldn't believe I had this thing. It was real. It was a big deal to go from a band that just played around to having this physical artifact. There were all kinds of great memories in there, and some fuzzy ones that I'm not sure are real anymore. After such a long period of time, the story gets told over and over and you don't know if you're remembering the real thing or the story that came out of the real thing. Does that make any sense?
Makes perfect sense.
Does it ever surprise you that Mudhoney is one of the few bands of the Northwest scene that's still active?
Well, the Melvins are older than us, you know.
Indeed they are.
A couple of years ago, we played with them up here in the Northwest. It was their 20th anniversary shows. But yeah, twenty years is a hell of a long time for a band that thought of themselves as being a scrappy punk rock band.
Yeah, and bands like the Flaming Lips, who are on twenty-five years, probably thought of themselves the same way—just a bunch of kids with no cares playing music together.
Oh man, I remember when their first EP came out and still had Wayne's brother singing.
I have that EP, and it's never coming out of the sleeve!
So it took only three-and-a-half days to record The Lucky Ones. What was the energy in the studio like?
It was actually pretty laid-back. It was kind surprising that way. I remember before recording Under A Billion Suns, Dan was talking weeks before about how he was really nervous going into the studio, but this time around there was none of that. Everything just came together really easily. We had been playing five of the songs already, and the rest of the songs we didn't have a good handle on them before recording, especially songs like "I'm Now." And that song took us by surprise on how good it sounded in the end. Not to toot our horns or anything.
Oh, of course not.
We were practically finished after a day-and-a-half. With the basic tracking, we were astounded by how quickly it went. It wasn't a deal where we had limited time and a limited budget. We had eleven songs, and we thought we would record six. Then we had another weekend reserved in the studio the next month where we could write more songs. It went so quickly and easily that we took as a sign from God or whatever that this was the record. We're not the kind of band that goes into a studio and obsesses over the little things and emerges six months later with a very expensive record that doesn't really sound different except maybe all the guts have been cleared out of it.
Politics, mainly a disgust for them, was the inspiration for Under A Billion Suns. Was there a theme or driving force behind The Lucky Ones?
Um, oh, I don't know. There are a couple of songs that touch on vaguely political themes, like the title track and "The Open Mind." That kind of stuff has been a part of Mudhoney almost since day one, even going back to Mr. Epp. Steve says all my lyrics are political, but that's only because I was into hardcore.
Yeah, those two go hand in hand.
Superfuzz Bigmuff just received a deluxe re-release. How did Mudhoney and Sub Pop arrive at that decision?
I guess the impetus for that decision was that I work here at Sub Pop, in the warehouse. At one point, I looked at the CD and thought, "Fucking hell! They put side two before side one [on Superfuzz]!" That had to be rectified somehow because it was totally wrong. It was like there was Superfuzz and then the singles. It almost flows better if things are in chronological order, with the singles first.
Then we started looking into what Sub Pop actually had in the vaults and discovered that live Berlin show that was recorded on a two-inch 24-track recorder. I totally forgot that existed, but I had this vague recollection of the event. It was this three-day festival where all the bands were being filmed and recorded. And also, I was talking to Jay Hinman, a friend of ours since our first trip to California in '88, and it turns out he actually had a cassette copy of a live set we did on KCSB in Santa Barbara.
So there's no concerns over Sub Pop milking you guys like Matador is doing with those Pavement re-releases?
Nah, I don't think so. They're talking about doing other stuff like re-releases for Red Red Meat, the Vaselines, and Tad. These are things I've heard of. So it's just not Mudhoney they're doing.
Are you and Steve still doing the Monkeywrench?
We haven't really done anything with the Monkeywrench in a number of years, but the record came out recently. I hope to do some new stuff, though. Right now, Steve and I are busy with Mudhoney and dusting off Green River.
Yes! Just in time for Sub Pop's 20th anniversary.
Hopefully later in the year we can start focusing our attentions to Monkeywrench. I know the other guys want to do something. It's a bummer because it rotates as to who is available at different times.
Speaking of side projects, is Wylde Ratttz ever going to see a proper release? Should I just give up on this idea?
Fuck, I couldn't tell you. That stuff belongs to London Records, and I don't even know if the label still exists. It was a lot of fun.
Thank you for taking time out from flooding the market with the Shins and the Postal Service to talk to me, Mark.
Ha ha! Hey, you're welcome.
Cheers. |