The Melvins: open to suggestions
By Alex Fulton
Entertainment Editor
LA CROSSE - My musical interests are pretty obscure by
the standards of
the majority of the population, so I've gotten very
used to people not
knowing what I'm talking about when I mention bands
that I like. The
same holds true for most of the interviews I do.
Sometimes I almost enjoy telling people that I'm doing
an interview so I
can relish the blank stare I get when they ask me who
I'm interviewing
only to discover that they've never even heard of the
band. However, I
was surprised to find that I got very few stupid looks
from people when
I told them I was interviewing the Melvins. Pretty
much everyone has
heard of and respects the Melvins, and with good
reason. The trio has
been together since 1984 (with a few different
bassists), and since
forming they've played a major role in the growth of
the music scene and
have worked with many amazing musicians. Melvins'
drummer Dale Crover
played on Nirvana's first album, “Bleach,” Kurt Cobain
produced half the
songs on the Melvins' album “Houdini,” and Kiss asked
the Melvins to open
for them on one of their tours. This is why when I
heard that the
Melvins were playing on the Fourth of July in my
hometown of La Crosse
to support their new record, “Honky,” I literally
jumped at the chance to
do an interview. So,on the, Fourth of July, I got to
sit and talk to
Melvins singer/guitarist King Buzzo (Buzz Osbome) and
bassist Mark
Deutrom in the lounge of the Warehouse, a club I've
been seeing shows at
since I was 15 years old. How cool is that?
Buzz: So what's the good word?
Badger Herald: Well... how's the tour going so far?
B: It's good. We're near the beginning of it, so...
BH: How was the show last night with Helmet?
B: It was good. It was fun. Sold out.
BH: Good. How did you end up playing here in La
Crosse?
B: I don't know.
Mark: We played here before, actually.
B: We did a show opening up for Nine Inch Nails.
M: We lost our La Crosse virginity with Nine Inch
Nails.
BH: I vaguely remember that, but I was pretty young.
B: Were you there?
BH: No.
M: You were outside waving one of those anti-Satanic
flags, weren't you?
BH: No. I'm from La Crosse so I remember the show, but
I wasn't here.
B: You're from La Crosse?
BH: Yeah.
M: Amazing. Born and bred, huh?
BH: Yep, but now I go to school in Madison so I don't
get back here too
often.
M: What are you going to school for?
BH: Journalism.
M: So you're getting credit for doing this?
BH: Nope.
M: So it's a labor of love, then?
BH: Yeah. So, how do you like the new album as
compared to your other
albums?
B: Well, there are a lot of things that have to be
considered.
BH: Such as?
B: I don't like it as much as our last one.
BH: Why is that?
B: Um... if I just look at it from a purely consumer
standpoint, you
get more bang for your buck with the “Stag” record
than you do with the
“Honky” record because we spent a lot more money
recording “Stag” and I
think it has a lot more tricks that I like better.
M: It's more refined, more deliberate.
B: Yeah. “Honky” is like a rougher version of “Stag”
to me. Six days top to
bottom to record it.
BH: Wow.
B: We spent $3,000 recording it, and actually some
songs... we had way
more songs than we needed for it. Some songs we had to
axe because we
thought we wouldn't be able to record them as well as
we wanted to.
Considering the fact that we did it very quickly and
very cheaply as far
as I'm concerned, I like it fine.
M: It's not bad for a week's worth of work.
B: Even less than a week.
BH: So what's the songwriting process like for you
guys? Does it vary
from album to album, song to song, or do you have a
set method?
B: Last time it was more of a team effort, on “Stag,”
because we had more
time to do it. This time we wanted to do it very
quickly, so we just
threw out the songs as fast as possible. So Crover
didn't write anything
on this one. That doesn't mean that he wouldn't
have... he had some
stuff, but nothing made it on the record. It's just
coincidental, it
really had nothing to do with what he had.
At this point in the interview, Buzz belched really
loudly. Everyone in
the room laughed, and I told him his belch was on
tape. His reply? "I
knew it would be." I laughed, and we continued with
the interview.
BH: What's your attitude toward major versus indie
labels, since you've
done both?
B: Well, the indie label that we're on now
[Amphetamine Reptile] is
fine. They do a good job. But I like the major labels
because they have
more money, and they make it possible for us to do
things the way that
we want to as far as economics go.
M: They also make it possible for kids that live in La
Crosse and London
and Tulsa to buy Melvins records.
BH: So distribution is a major issue?
B: It's an issue.
M: It's one issue, yes.
B: You know, I'm never worried about putting records
out. Never. I know
we can always find somebody to do our records,
regardless of where they
come out at or whatever. But I want things to be done
on a big, huge,
giant scale.
M: Something that accurately reflects our ego.
B: Yeah [laughs].
BH: Do you have more control on an independent label?
B: You know, that's something that never happened to
us.
BH: You never lost control?
B: No.
M: It's a fallacy. It's a complete fallacy. You
relinquish as much
control as you decide to. Nobody walks up to you and
says, "Well now
you're working for us. We're going to be making a few
changes." That's a
common misconception. Of course, people might offer a
lot of
suggestions, but...
BH: That doesn't mean you have to take them.
M: Exactly. We're always willing to hear suggestions.
B: What would happen is a lot of these people at
Atlantic [the label the
Melvins were on before AmRep] would just have no
interest in it because
they didn't have a foot in it, you know? We'd present
them with a record
that they are obviously too moronic to understand and
they'd just blow
it off because they're busy jerking off over Hootie
and the Blowfish
CDs.
M: I think some of these people actually suffer from
the misconception
that somehow, because they are in an artist-related
business, that they
are somehow artistically inclined also. So they like
to make comments
and suggestions when the actual fact of it is, in the
words of Geddy
Lee, that "they were just salesmen!" [laughs].
B: Also it's like they suffer from this other thing,
which is like "if it
sold a million copies then it's good."
BH: Did Atlantic find that they didn't know what to do
with you guys?
B: I think a lot of it had to do with us refusing to
kiss ass in a lot
of the departments in Atlantic. Some of them were fine
- the publicity
department we always had a very good relationship with
- but the rest of
them... you're dealing with a bunch of morons in a lot
of ways. It's
literally on the level of if you go down and party
with these people,
you know, if you kiss their asses, then they're gonna
act like you mean
more or something like that.
M: It's some kind of false camaraderie or something.
B: Yeah. I don't party with people that I know, let
alone a bunch of
moronic dipshits from the record label.
M: They're just business acquaintances, and I use the
term "business"
extremely loosely.
B: With all that said, I still want to work with a
major label because
they have the capabilities to make things very big.
And I don't trust
independent labels.
BH: Why not?
B: They're almost always a rip-off. Almost always. You
don't get paid.
You know, it's a one man show generally speaking, and
I don't like that.
I don't like that at all. I mean, people can sit
around and do whatever
they want. A lot of people say all this stuff about
corporate,
corporate, corporate. I've said this a million times,
but if anybody can
sit down and point out to me what actually changed in
our records as far
as what we did that was different other than make
better records on a
major label as opposed to an indie, if they can point
that out to me,
fine. But that is just utter bullshit. It's complete
and total bullshit.
People that think like that, that are on that level,
are obviously on
some sort of soapbox as opposed to actually caring
about the bands and
music. They have some other kind of ulterior motive
that is political.
That has nothing to do with what I do, you know.
M: It's just the continuation of the popularizing of
the myth that
somehow it's better because it's not some
multi-national corporation.
B: Nine out of ten indie labels are slime, absolute
slime.
BH: Do you have a good relationship with AmRep,
though?
B: Absolutely. AmRep is great, I like those guys...
but we're looking
for something bigger.
BH: What do you think it is about you as a band that
has kept you around
for so long?
B: I don't know... maybe it's because we're not
junkies. You know, we've
put out a lot of records, done a lot of work.
BH: So you're dedicated?
B: Relatively [laughs]. I mean, there are a lot of
shitty bands out
there. If you don't like them, don't worry, because
they'll be gone soon
enough.
BH: Yeah. The one-hit wonders.
B: Or two-hit wonders, it doesn't matter.
BH: What bands do you think are really overrated right
now?
B: Most.
M: We don't have enough time to answer that question
[laughs].
B: Us included, you know?
BH: You think you're overrated?
B: Yeah. I think that on a bad night we can be one of
the worst bands in
the world.
M: Even on a good night we can be bad.
BH: Everybody has bad nights, but that doesn't mean
you're overrated.
M: You're only as good as your last gig. If your last
gig sucked, well,
you're in trouble.
BH: What's your favorite gig you've ever played?
B: Well, looking back on shows, the only ones I ever
remember are the
really bad ones.
BH: What about the shows where you opened for Kiss?
What was that like?
M: Fairly uninteresting.
B: Yeah, the audiences are a very polite group of
thirty year olds, you
know? People who are past the point of really wanting
to worry about
heckling a band they don't like. They're just relaxing
with a brewsky.
Those days are over for them, and that's fine. That's
the way I am, too.
When I go to a show and there's a band I really don't
like, the idea of
heckling would never cross my mind because I would
just leave.
BH: Did Kiss approach you to do that leg of the tour?
B: Yeah, they did, and it was good. Kiss was very nice
to us. It was
cool, they were very cool. Being people that I
consider to be rock stars
in the classic sense of the word, they were a lot
nicer than people that
we've worked with in the past that consider themselves
rock stars but
that have nowhere near the history or out and out
respectability and act
like complete amateurs and dickheads.
BH: Like who?
B: White Zombie, for instance. One guy, the lead
singer, was the biggest
megalomaniac I've ever been around. That fuckin' guy
is one of the
biggest morons I've ever worked with, on the worst
tour I've ever done.
The other people in the band were very nice, but
they're not running the
show. That guy's a jerk, that's all there is to it.
And there's no
reason for it. We've worked with enough bands that are
real rock stars,
and I know enough people.
BH: What bands have you worked with that you really
liked working with?
B: Nine Inch Nails were really good all the way
around. Who else, Mark?
M: Tool.
B : Tool were really cool.
M: Rush.
B: Rush were nice. Who else? Well, that's enough.
Trent Reznor was
really nice; the guys in Rush and the guys in Kiss
were, too. Those are
people that are big, big rock stars that you'd expect
to be total
assholes who just aren't. So having to deal with
someone like Rob Zombie
and crew makes me even more mad because you realize
how uncalled for it
really is. Fuck that guy.
BH: Yeah... right on. Something that I've really been
wanting to know
is how you guys decide what songs you're going to
cover, because you
guys have covered Pussy Galore songs, and I think
that's so cool.
B: Yeah... we should start playing that again.
BH: You should play it tonight.
B: No, we've never played it with this band line-up.
BH: Oh well. Anyway, how do you decide what you're
going to cover?
B: I don't know. For some reason I'll just think, "Oh,
maybe we should
do this."
BH: I see. So what are the future plans for the band?
Do you have any?
B: Yeah. We want to finish this tour, we're going to
Australia and then
we're going to probably do some sort of new thing. And
then sign a new
deal and go do a new album.
BH: With the same label?
B: I don't know... I don't know what's going to
happen. But I don't
really want to talk about that...