Mudhoney Articles
The Spectator
7 June '03
Seattle Legend Reflects on Music Scene
Mark Arm portrays all the splendor of a rock star as he leans his Iggy Pop-esque
figure into the purple couch that offsets his squall of burgundy hair. His angular
visage, including an acutely ridged nose, exhibits the features of a musician who
has experienced a solid 25 years in the business. He has few wrinkles on his face,
yet there are visible creases where his dimples show because of the high amount of
smiles he grants between sentences. He appears perfectly casual and at ease with
discussing the somewhat tumultuous past of the band that he has lead since [1988],
Mudhoney...
Spectator: Why do you think Mudhoney has survived so long?
Mark Arm: Because we don't care. We never had a plan to "make it big." It
was all just about having fun. As luck would have it, for some reason in the late
80's and early 90's, what we were doing just happened to kind of... I don't know if
it was luck but it was good for us financially that there was this thing that was
happening the same time we were. And we were a part of that. But that was totally
a fluke and totally unexpected and that was just a bizarre thing to be a part of
and luckily I think we ducked a lot of the attention just by being as gnarly as we
are compared to some of the other bands that got big. But it's because we don't care.
Spectator: What set Mudhoney apart from Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden?
MA: We definitely gave less of a damn than those guys.
Spectator: Again, you didn't care?
MA: All those bands actively pursued something and made conscious efforts
to court major labels and we didn't at all until things started getting hairy with
Sub Pop. I mean that's an old story and Jonathan will probably hate me for bringing
it up again, but it just looked like they might be going under; and we wanted to
separate as friends instead of business enemies. So we decided to just go business
with our record labels, and that worked for a while.
Spectator: And now you're back on Sub Pop, why?
MA: Yes, now we're back on Sub Pop because they're our friends. And also,
they've got their whole business thing together. When they started and we started
no one had any idea what they were doing. We were all just kind of making it up as
we went along, "How do you run a record label?" "I don't know." "How do you be in
a band?" "Who cares?" No one had any idea of some day wanting to leave the label;
we didn't have a contract with Sub Pop. There was no such thing, and everything
was just kind of made up on the spot.
Spectator: So what happened with Matt Lukin and how did you find Guy Maddison?
MA: Well Matt... the easiest thing to say is that he put down the bottle and
picked up the bong. Somewhere in there he became less of an outgoing person and didn't
enjoy leaving his house as much and going on tour and putting effort into things. He
couldn't be bothered anymore. He really didn't care! We cared about the music but he
stopped caring about the music. I had played with Guy in a band called Bloodloss in
the mid 90's, so when Matt left it was kind of a no brainier. Here's this guy, Guy,
who's a friend and someone I played with so I kind of know how he works. Last thing
we wanted to do was put an ad in the back of some weekly looking for a bass player.
Spectator: Which do you prefer, being a young musician, always on tour, or being
a more mature, adult musician?
MA: I like going on tour. I'm kind of bummed that we don't do that. In terms
of a mature musician, I would hardly say I'm mature. I am older. I don't know if I've
gained perspective or if I've just confused the issue by knowing more over time.
Spectator: How has the Seattle music scene changed from back then?
MA: Well from before the Grunge Era, what I really loved about this town is that
the audiences were insane. Of course there were a lot less people who would go to shows,
but people would just be rolling around on the floor, really getting into the bands. It
wasn't moshing or any kind of violent thing or macho, people elbowing people out of the
way. Everyone was just smiling and loose. I guess you can't do that for 20 years, it's
going to affect your liver and your brain. Now, I wish people in Seattle were more
outward in their appreciation towards the music they're listening to.
Spectator: Why do you think they aren't anymore?
MA: I think one of the things that happened with the onset of Grunge and then the
rise of underground speed metal type things and with MTV catching onto it, they kind of
collaborated the whole slam pit, mosh pit thing. If you're a kid coming up after that
and you're seeing these macho jocks doing this stuff, the last thing you want to do is
be like them. Especially if you're sort of a sensitive, smart kid who isn't into all
this stuff being fed to you by MTV so you look for an opposite sort of reaction to get
into whatever band you're listening to. You're going to put yourself apart from the
morons, I guess. I mean, I can't tell you exactly what these kids are thinking, but I
would assume that might have something to do with it.
Spectator: What are you listening to these days that's not from the Grunge era?
MA: I think the Blood Brothers are great. They're an insane, crazy band. I like
The Catheters an awful lot.
Spectator: What's next for the band? Do you plan on touring at all? How about
putting out another album?
MA: We can't tour at this point because Dan's a stay-at-home dad and his wife
has another kid on the way. Also, Guy just got this nursing degree and he's working
at Harbor View and he gets two vacation weeks a year, he can't do a tour like that.
Which is unfortunate, I need to start playing with some young kids who are ready to
leave!
Spectator: Would you be willing to?
MA: At this point, I like playing with people I can communicate with and trust.
You know, Steve and I have been playing together since 1983, so we can communicate an
idea without even saying anything. I can say half a word in reference to a riff and
he'll know where I'm coming from with that. That's something that comes with time and
I think it might also be a generational thing. I just don't want to have to deal with
someone who's going to say, "Hey why don't we do," what's the name of some emo band
that I don't give a shit about, "let's cover that song!" You know, throwing out these
references and having to retrain this kid to play actual, good music. Or you know, to
have a clear understanding of rock 'n' roll. For a long time, I think we used to be
afraid of the term rock 'n' roll because it had some bad connotations in the 70's. You
know, that punk rock was meant to destroy. There are aspects of rock 'n' roll that are
absolutely stupid and retarded that keep getting drudged up over and over again so it's
kind of a hard description or title to trust. But we definitely play this sort of rock
'n' roll with an underground lineage that goes back to before rockabilly, if that makes
any sense.
