Mudhoney Articles
Faster And Louder
22 December '04
A Long Distance [Mark] Arm Wrestle With Mudhoney
I first saw Mudhoney in 1990 at the Byron Arts factory, I had no idea who they were but as a 15 year old my parents were willing to let me go see them and that was good enough for me. At the show, I quickly realised, I had never really heard or seen anything like them - they were loud, raw and going off - Touch Me I'm Sick literally blew me away.
Trundle on a few years now, grunge has come and gone, the band have released a bunch of albums and, most importantly, they are heading for our shores again, in February. After a bit of a hiatus and Matt Lukin leaving the band, the remaining band members got back together to record "Since We've Become Translucent". I recently had the chance to catch up with singer, Mark Arm where we chatted about the past couple of years and their impending tour to Australia.
FL: It has been almost five years since Mudhoney has graced our shores, are you looking forward to getting back here?
Mark:Yeah we are really looking forward to get out there.
FL: Seeing it has been more than a few years since you guys have toured, do we get a taste all the work you have been doing? I think you have had two albums released since you last toured here.
Mark:We will be playing a little bit off everything, we also have a bunch of brand new songs that we have not even recorded yet. We will probably bore everyone with those as well (laughs).
FL: I know the band has had a bit of a line up change with Matt leaving [bass guitarist], how have you found the change since you have played together for so many years?
Mark: Matt was very unhappy for a number of years. It was really obvious so it was kind of a relief when he decided to leave. I think he stayed with it for a long as he did as he did not want to break up the band. He felt this obligation to us but really did not want to be in the band. He got more and more, unhappy as time went on. It is always great to him (Matt) and we get on better than ever now. It was as a burden had been lifted from him. The heavy burden of Mudhoney (laughs), the heavy burden that it is.
He was tired of touring and he was not into playing music anymore, which is something I cannot comprehend myself but Matt is a lot happier now.
FL: I also noticed you are still touring on occasion?
Mark: We are not touring much, we almost cannot tour these days, so it is surprising that we are touring and coming to Australia. The last time we did anything of any length was shortly after the last record came out. We went to Europe for about two weeks - that was in 2002.
Dan is a stay at home dad, Steve just had a kid weeks ago, and Guy is a nurse at the cardiac unit at the main trauma hospital in town. So touring for us now is a really, really rare thing.
FL: As a band, you have been around playing music for a fair while now, what do you attribute your longevity when so many other bands from the Seattle have fallen apart
Mark: Well, I think one thing that has kept us going is that we have not really cared (laughs). We never had our hearts set on being rock stars, famous or rich. I think the whole idea seemed just kind of ludicrous to us. It is just as easy for us to dribble along now like we are now, as to go play full time as we did 10-15 years ago.
The whole thing started out as a hobby and it is hobby and has always remained a hobby. It is not that we don't care about what we are doing, we do. We just don't care about the trappings of being a rock start of being fabulously wealthy.
You knew from the outset that the kind of music we were playing was not going to bring us fame and wealth. We were not going to bend our music to find a commercial audience.
FL: Over time a lot has been written about Mudhoney being one of the founders of grunge music, did you ever realise you were in the middle of this movement in music?
Mark:I don't think we were really in the middle of it, I guess we had front row seats to it.
We were well aware of the other bands in town and we were friends and stuff of bands who became big. I don't think we had much of an influence on most of them, I think the only band who sort of looked to us for any sort of inspiration at was maybe Nirvana and they were much more adept at the pop thing than we were.
Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains and the rest of them, we are friends but I don't think we are musically alike at all.
FL: I know on this last album you are back on the Subpop label where you started out, what is like to come full circle back to label?
Mark: It is not really full circle as there are really only two people there who were there, at the beginning. It is really a whole new group of kids down there. Sometimes I will call down there and ask the receptionist down there for someone and she will be like "who is that and you're from where" (laughs) - "I am from Seattle -- let me through!"
FL: After you left Reprise, it seems that the band did not seem to be doing much.
Mark: Well, we really did not know what to do, after we left Reprise and it was about the same time that Matt quit. We really did not know what to do with the rest of us, it was like do we quit or do we carry on? So Steve and I did a Monkeywrench record and toured on that for about a year, just not thinking about Mudhoney. Dan was like "let's do it", yet he was really reluctant to keep going without Matt, because him and Matt were super tight.
Dan likes playing and likes playing with us, I mean he could play with anyone as he is a great drummer but he likes playing with us for some unknown reason (laughs).
FL: A few years ago, you brought out an album of greatest hits and rarities, was it strange to put it together, seemingly as a reflection of your work over all the years of playing?
Mark: It was not that strange, the weirdest thing was it was around the time that Matt quit so it was like is this our tombstone. At the time we did not know if that would be it or not.
Mudhoney will be touring in February, if you want to see and hear some great music, you won't regret it. Catch you down the front!
Thursday February 24, 2005: Arena, Brisbane
Friday February 25, 2005: Metro Theatre, Sydney
Saturday February 26, 2005: The Corner Hotel, Melbourne
Wednesday March 2, 2005: Enigma, Adelaide
Thursday March 3, 2005: 3 Bears Bar, Dunsborough
Friday March 4, 2005: Rosemount Hotel, Perth
