Bob Mould – On Touring Solo, Steve Albini, Aerosmith and uh…Politics: 13th Floor MusicTalk

Bob Mould, he of Hüsker Dü and Sugar fame, is returning to New Zealand after a long absence to play a solo show at Auckland’s Powerstation. 

Bob’s last show in Auckland was at The Gluepot, so the 13th Floor’s Marty Duda thought it might be time to give Bob a call and find out what he has in store for us this time around.

Click here to listen to the interview:

 

Or read a transcription of the conversation here:

MD: I see you’ve you’ve been working on…you’ve been inspired to write something, called Someone’s Throwing Ketchup At A Clear Blue Sky. What’s that all about?

BM: The name game is still ongoing. People online are going crazy coming up with names. It just sort of happened, like, all of a sudden, I got, you know, woke up and saw that, you know, Vice President Harris had named Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota to be her vice presidential running mate. And then I was informed that Beto O’Rourke, who is a Texas Democrat politician and a known fan of my work, apparently, used to go jogging in the winter in DC, my old hometown, for seven years. And he and Tim Walz would talk about, you know, Prince and The Replacements and Soul Asylum and Hüsker Dü. And then people started calling, you know, like Rolling Stone and different people like, what’s up with this? And then I just sort of looked at my husband while we were having a moment…a cup of coffee in the dining room, and I just said, I better come up with a clever line for the guy from The New York Times, and then I thought, maybe I should just write, like, a quick song and see what happens. So I just wrote that quick, you know, that’s hardly a song that’s, you know, eight, 16, bars, 30 seconds of pithy commentary, and then, yeah, just sort of threw it out there. And now everybody in the world’s got a name for it, except me.

MD: Well, you’ve got to start somewhere. So, obviously from a distance here we’re following the American political thing, as we we’ve done the British thing. We’re kind of in the middle of all of that, but standing off to the side a little bit, and it feels like things have changed dramatically over the last two weeks, ever since Biden stepped down and Kamala took over. So it does it feel that way in the States? I gotta believe it does.

BM: Absolutely! You know, Joe Biden, a lifetime of service to the country…just an amazing, amazing person. What a tough thing to do, right? You know, in the middle of all of this war, in the middle of all of this misinformation, disinformation, technology overload that we’ve gotten ourselves into, willingly, of course. We all checked the end user license agreement without reading it. So to see President Biden, current President Biden, let’s not forget, he’s still the president. He still can do executive orders all day and night. Look out. Here they come. And he’s he has full immunity, Fancy that.

MD: That’s nice to know. But all of a sudden, thank you, Mr. Trump.

BM: Thank you. Yeah, he did one thing right. Too bad you’ll never get to use it. Yeah, it’s amazing. I mean, Kamala Harris, you know, I have voted for Kamala Harris many times because her career started right down the road, about two miles from my house at city hall in San Francisco, you know. So, you know, home of everything that drives the far right crazy. I mean how much do you think it bugs them that we live in their pocket and they can’t get rid of us? It’s just, you can’t believe this stuff sometimes. So, yes, there has been a sea change. The sea is clear and blue once again. You know, God willing, the creek don’t rise, we’re gonna probably, you know, do great things in November, and, you know, keep all of the work that President Biden has done to get us back on track after a global pandemic and, you know, trillions in extra deficit that nobody can really seem to find. Yeah, I think things are really great right now. Things are good. I think common sense, is beginning to prevail once again in America, and hopefully we can export that to the other problem areas in the world.

MD: Yeah, because it was looking pretty bleak there and, and, like it says, pretty bleak…it was in the UK and all over the, you know, Germany and France and all these places seem to be going through a similar thing. Here in New Zealand, we have it on a much smaller scale, thank God, but it’s still a thing.

BM: Yeah, it’s tough, you know that kind of mentality, it’s like, insidious, you know, and you’re like, it’s like a low lying, you know, like a, like a, like a ground miasma or something, and then something happens, and it sort of takes hold in the imagination of people with hyperactive imaginations, and then it just gets out of control, and then, you know, then, you know, we sort of have to tamp it back down. And that’s what we’re doing right now. So that’s the work at hand, is we gotta put it back from whence it came and, you know, sort of put a new coat of asphalt over the road

MD: Exactly. So let’s get back to the music here for a little bit. Your last album was Blue Hearts, which came out in 2020 and it’s good to hear that you’re being inspired to write some songs. Are you writing? 2020 was several years ago. What have you done…have you been writing consistently? Do you take time off? How does your creative thing work?

BM: You know, during, 2020, and 2021, there was no opportunity for work. You know. All venues were closed. Everything. You know, the world stood still, especially if you were a musician. So, you know, after decades of the same sort of cycle of life, where I write, I record, I put out a record, I tour, I take a moment, and then I start over…to have that cycle broken for so long, it took me, personally, a while to get back on track. And, you know, I’ve been writing a lot, writing towards the next album, which hopefully will be sometime next year. And, yeah, I mean, I’ve been, you know, getting it back on track. You know, 2022, 2023 and 24 has been a lot of solo touring. You know both…there’s a number of reasons, one is, you know, my bandmates, Jason Narducy and John Worster, are, you know, super busy, and it’s always a gift when we can find time to get together and play music for other people on the road. You know, I think the practicality of getting back to touring while covid was still a concern…you know, the economy of one person tour, if something happens like it did to me in April of 22 you know, I it’s only one person that loses work. You know, it’s not five, six people a record company, booking agents and all that kind of stuff. So, you know, I have the foresight to scale things down, to meet the, you know, the Dane human of the pandemic, or. I guess the endemic nature of whatever covid is now. So, yeah, it was a conscious, you know, it’s conscious. It was also financial, also scheduling, you know, just sort of like all roads pointed to, just put the guitar in the car and go play and see what happens for these three years, 22, three and four. I’ve really been enjoying it. You know, it’s a good way for me to get to places that I normally can’t take the band. You know, for financial reasons, touring is so expensive these days. It’s a good way to work in smaller venues and, you know, get up close with people. It’s great for trying out new material. You know, people love the merch table and just get to hang out after. You know, it’s been really productive. It’s been, you know, profitable enough, and I’m getting a lot of good new songs out of this.

MD: Now you do solo electric. A lot of folks, when they go solo, they pull out the old acoustic guitar and do it that way. And being electric solo is a very different animal than strumming away on acoustic. So you’ve chosen to do that for years, and like I said, it’s a different thing to be doing. Why and how and do you have thoughts about why you’re doing it that way?

BM: Well, I mean, I started doing solo shows in ’89 around Workbook. And in 1991 I spent a whole year doing solo shows. And at that time, I was doing 90% of the shows on a 12 string acoustic while seated. And then, you know, I do a couple songs on an electric for an encore. And every night I would get up there and sort of try to channel, you know, Richie Havens as best I could.

MD: Freedom, freedom (sings)

BM: Yeah, just that intensity with the 12 string is just…I was aspiring to that for years. And then, you know, over the last decade, between album cycles, I started taking new material out and playing it solo electric. And it’s a bit of a challenge for the audience, because it’s more distorted, it’s less…the rhythms aren’t quite as distinct, but after a few songs, people can dial it in, and they can see what I’m trying to get across. And, you know, it’s just fun. It’s energetic and sort of noisy and loose. And you know, it’s fun, you know, just I try to imagine a rhythm section behind me, and I encourage the audience do the same.

MD: Now you also put out a 24-CD career retrospective box set, and I’m wondering, once that was released, did that mentally affect the way you look at your career? Was that like, Okay, we’ve put a period on the thing here, and something else. is different post the retrospective?

BM: It’s not the first time that you know that I paused. I’ll try to describe it this way. In my youth, I was never much of a sentimental guy. I wasn’t big on nostalgia, didn’t really like looking back, always looking forward as fast and far as I could, you know, trying almost as if I’m running away from whatever I had just done, whether it was good or great. You know, it’s just always, keep going, keep going, keep going. Um, you know, I spent a couple years, you know, at the end, I guess, 2009, 2010 working on my autobiography that came out in the summer of 2011. That was the first time in my life where I actually, you know, had to stop and take inventory of what I was doing with my life. So that was, you know, that was a that was a big moment for me, because I never looked back until then. Now we talk about, you know, Demon Records and the Distortion box sets, you know, the 24 CD or the, you know, I think they did four, you know, different segments of vinyl box set, you know, I think it was like eight in each box. So, yeah, that was the, I guess, the second pause. You know, where I sort of had to take stock and, you know, assess all that I had done so far. And I think the second time was pretty great, pretty fun. It was more recent. It was just sort of reimagining the album covers and remastering the audio and, you know, revisiting the story through a different lens, with, you know, new liner notes and stuff like that. So it was it was a lot of work, but it was more familiar feeling. And I wasn’t creating a new story from strands of fabric, like I did with the book. You know the book was just weaving all these different parts of my life together to make this one heavy rope that I could climb. The box set was more just like, oh, this a cool suitcase, you know, I pack it up in here, done.

MD: And, of course, the music business is a very different animal now than it was when you were starting out in the early 80s there. What would your 20 year old self think of the way things are now? And would you have done the same thing, do you think?

BM: I’m not sure what you’re asking.

MD: For instance, selling actual music is almost impossible, making a living doing that, because streaming these days, whereas, you know, back in ’85 you could expect to sell CDs or records and stuff and make a few bucks touring, whereas that’s, it’s much more difficult now.

BM: Absolutely, I guess I could say I am so grateful that I was in music and in the business when I, you know, I got in when I did, because that was like peak of the business, you know, the commercial business was printing money. You know independent music, we were starving, but we were succeeding, and did eventually win, you know, I mean, I think Teen Spirit did actually win the whole thing. So that was good. Now, I mean…there’s always going to be great music. There’s always going to be people who, you know, it’s their life work, it’s their calling in life. It’s, it’s how they express themselves, it’s how they tell stories. That will never go away, and there’s great music being made every day. Having said all of that, I feel for young musicians that will never know the beauty of the hardship. If that makes any sense. It’s just, you know, it’s very, very easy to navigate the world in literal terms, you know, like GPS, cell service, you know, all of these things are wonderful. And you know, we can’t go backward unless somebody shuts the light off….wink, wink. You know that energy and that desperation and you know that wanting to change the world, you know, I don’t see as much of it in music these days. You know, there’s the cynical part of me says, Oh, we all have to learn to get along. And who we’re gonna sit next to in the in the streaming cafeteria, you know. That’s a little tough, because it does, sort of, it does burnish off the edges of purity with the work, but it is what it is, you know. I mean, we, you gotta, we all have to stay current. We all have to make adjustments. You know, we all have to make provisions for ourselves and find ways to survive. And you know there’s opportunities for all of us. You got to be clever. You got to be quick, you know, you got to have good work always, first and foremost. But I’m not discouraged by it, other than you know, I miss the old days, but they’re gone.

MD: Now speaking the old days, I see you paid a little tribute to Aerosmith on your Instagram page because they announced that they can no longer tour because Steve Tyler has lost his voice. I think that took some people by surprise. Tell me about your relationship with Aerosmith and their music.

BM: I mean, I was born in 1960 so, you know, mid 70s, you know, that kind of big guitar rock, you know, Aerosmith, Kiss, you know, the guy from Michigan who has become a complete weirdo in this old age…Nugent. I mean, all of that mid 70s hard rock as politically incorrect as some of the lyrics are these days. I mean, that was some great music. And, you know, thank goodness The Pistols and The Ramones and everybody came along and. I sort of, you know, updated the sound and the sentiment. But, you know, I grew up on that stuff. You know, the first arena show that I went to on a school bus, you know, from Malone, New York to the Montreal Forum, was Rush opening for Aerosmith on the Rocks Tour. I threw up in the parking lot. I got stoned, I fell asleep for a little bit, then I got home. So, yeah!

MD: You did it right!

BM: Achieved!

MD: Well, I’m a similar vintage to you. I’m a few years older, and when people ask me what my favorite concert ever was. My favorite band was Mott The Hoople, who I saw in 1973 and the the middle band…there were three bands…Mott was headlining, the New York Dolls were in the middle, and Aerosmith was the opener.

BM: Jesus Christ! You try to tell people things like this, and they don’t believe you. And I know you’re telling the truth, because I know of that tour. I mean, how ridiculous is that tour? Can you imagine what it looked like, if there was such a thing as catering back then, like, how many lead singers are fighting f or the one mint?

MD: One thing I wanted to touch on, Steve Albini died a little while ago, and I think you had kind of a relationship on and off, you know, professionally with him, that kind of went several ways. Do you have anything that you care to share about him with us now?

BM: Steve was a wonderful guy. Steve was incredibly gifted and such sharp insight through the music business, not about it, but straight through it. He saw through it. He took it apart. He showed young musicians what the game looked like, and gave everyone that option, do you want to play the game, or do you want to make music, or do you want to try to find a balance? He downplayed the notion of record producer and looked at himself as a Recordist and an engineer, which is unique in a field that is filled with ego. Steve built a monument to the Recording Arts in Chicago, a studio named Electrical Audio that I have had the good fortune of making many records at Steve’s studio. It’s a great loss. You know, Steve’s passing was completely unexpected. It’s a terrible loss for you know, his wife, Heather, you know, and for Todd and for Bob, and for all the people at Electrical and for all the people who will read this interview, who were touched by Big Black or the work he did with PJ Harvey or Nirvana, or 1000s of people. There are very few people that have had that great an impact on modern Western music.

MD: Exactly, yeah, yeah.

BM: I always think of Steve. He will always be missed. And you know, it’s up to…we just got to keep it alive.

MD: Well there’s a lot of music out there that he helped make, so that’s good, yeah. Alrighty. Well, on that note, maybe we’ll wrap things up. You’re going to be here in November. We’re looking forward to seeing you at Powerstation. It’s been a long time, I think, like 20 plus years since you’ve been in New Zealand. So…

BM: I think it was Gluepot in 91.

US indie legend Bob Mould has announced his first New Zealand shows in 22 years, with a three-date concert tour confirmed for November 2024.

The singer / guitarist will perform material from across his entire career, including tracks from Hüsker Dü, Sugar, and his considerable solo catalogue.

Plus1 with UnderTheRadar and 95bFM proudly present Bob Mould:

• Thursday 21 November – Loons, Christchurch
• Friday 22 November – San Fran, Wellington
• Saturday 23 November – Powerstation, Auckland

Tickets on general sale now. All details and tickets are at Plus1.co.nz