Bob Mould

by Jon Bains

December 1st, 1991, most of the rest of the staff of Convulsion have gone to the Glasgow QM to see Curve (elsewhere in this issue). I however had a somewhat more important goal, also in Glasgow, to find the elusive Subclub where the king of melancholy would be playing. I heard that Bob Mould was going to be playing about a week before in the List. I went along, paid my seven quid and tried desperately to petition Bob for an interview. Having been told by the bouncers that far more important people than I had been on the phone all day asking for interviews and being rejected I wasn't overlie hopeful. Bob has always had a special place in my heart, when most of my peers were going through the teenage angst period and getting into goth, I found Workbook, one of my top five albums of all time. When you are sitting there at four o'clock in the morning wondering `Why am I sitting here at four o'clock in the morning - get a life' there is nothing better, apart from a bit of company perhaps.

Anyway the gig was amazing with Bob playing some old Husker Du, a fair amount of his two albums and several new tracks. As he came off stage before the encore I thrust a copy of Convulsion issue 1 in his hand and begged. So much for professionalism on the job. He mumbled something at me then went into his dressing room. Came back a minute later to play the only non acoustic track of the night, Whichever way the wind blows, before returning to his dressing room panting, dripping with sweat and saying `OK, give me ten minutes'.

That was good enough for me.

As I entered the `Changing room' which was literally about five foot square I found Bob sitting on a chair, towel around his head with a pizza box at his feet, so much for super stardom. `So what lies do you want to hear today?' asked he.An obvious opening question considering that there was no new album and no press was why tour now?

A couple of different reasons, last August I went out with the band, it was going well but I didn't feel that anything was being elaborated on. What I mean is Black sheets is such a live sounding record and when we went out on the road it wasn't really changing that much so I thought, why not do something else with it. So last February I had an offer to play some acoustic around Los Angeles and I had done like one before and I wasn't really that comfortable with it. What happened was I thought, this is sort of fun maybe I'll do a few more, and few more has turned into ten months of it solid. Something different, I have found that it has made me a much better player and a much better singer because there are often times with the band I feel I can get away with anything because its so loud and all the lights are going, but with this, I have to be spot on with everything, it gets back down to what the core of the song is really. It's been a really learning process, I am really looking forward to these next two shows because they are the last two shows of the year then I'm gonna head home and rest after that but it's been fun this year.

So when can we expect another album?

We start rehearsing any day, we'll be going into the studio in January, just trying to get it done as quickly as possible. Try and get it out by August at the latest, I would say late July so I can get out here and tour this summer, then tour the states next fall.

There was talk of a new lineup for your band...

I put together a new band, we have the rhythm section in place and actually we're going to use a second guitarist this time. They are younger guys who just want to play. This will be their life,their only thing, they are free to do other stuff but there will be less conflict.

How will your sound evolve?

Ideally with the next record we are going to have the best qualities from both of the albums. I think the rhythm section is going to change it a lot. This stuff sounds more like seventies hard rock, I write more from the sixties with an eighties style.

Many bands have cited Husker Du as being a primary influence on their music, do you feel that they are in fact ripping off that sound?

I think that there has been some things which have influenced me over the years, I would never say that I was ripping off the Buzzcocks. It's nice that that sound influenced a lot of people, it was maybe ahead of it's time and maybe a lot of the music has caught up with it a little later, but that's cool, it's never bothered me.

The gig tonight was in a rather small venue, why, when you could certainly pack out somewhat larger places?

This is intentional. We tried not to make a big fuss about this trip, this was just for the real fans to come and see something because I don't want people who might have heard of me to say `I'll go and see the show' because it's not really representative of what I do. It's just something different for the real fans. Next year I'm going to be touring with all the usual hype etc. For example in America this last year I have been playing the same venues if not bigger ones with the new band.

There have been Rumours about Grant Hart and yourself being at at each others throats, any foundation in reality?

We don't talk at all so I don't see how we can be at each others throats. I guess other people in the band have bitter feelings about certain things. I haven't lived in Minneapolis for three years and so I don't really keep up with what is going on there. I only really keep up with Soul Asylum and Babes in Toyland and that is about it. I hear that Nova Mob have a record out and that they tour a little bit.

I read somewhere that last year you were going to try and rearrange your life, has it turned out that way?

I thought I was going to but ended up being on the road all year. A lot of things have changed this year like getting rid of the chains, taking it back down to zero and building it up as close to the way I want it to be. I saw the whole collapse of the music business impending, I saw this coming last year and I tried to tell people I was working with, but nobody would listen and I had to fire them. This year has just been playing catch up. Try to catch up on playing for people getting back to the music. It's been a busy year.

In the press you stated that Black Sheets of Rain's sound came from living in New York. Is that where you want to be?

It is, I think so yeah, just the general level of craziness. I don't think I am going to stay there forever, but right now it's the right place to be.

Unfortunately at this point the roadies and support (Heather Frith) began to get a bit agitated about Bob's tardiness and so we had to cut the interview short. However, when he is next in town we will be doing a somewhat more in depth interview about the life and times of the most depressed man on the planet, so watch out.