Du What You Du Du Well

Rip It Up, Issue 110, 1 September 1986, Page 2

Du What You Du Du Well

Husker Du's Bob Mould

Picking over the crumbs of the last few months it’s plain to see that 1986 hasn’t exactly been a rock and roll feast. Only bands like the Go Betweens, That Petrol Emotion, Shop Assistants, the Orange, Sneaky Feelings, the Saints and particularly Husker Du — whose Candy Apple Grey was their fourth consecutive mandatory album in just over two years — have provided the sort of protein the scene needs to stay healthy.

Ultracore “We saw what was going on in 1976-77 and we just thought that we could do better. We were bored 16 and 17 year-olds. We liked the Buzzcocks and the Ramones but we were fed up with everything else so we got together in late 78 in Minneapolis and we started playing out in 79 doing all original material.” Bob Mould’s description of the band’s beginnings would have applied to most British bands post-1977, but Husker Du came from America’s mid-west, hardly a hot-bed of subversive chic. As it was, their Land Speed Record — 17

songs fused into a single white blur — defined Hardcore USA at the time when British punk had long since waned:

“A number of years ago we were a lot faster and more abrasive than we are now and I think some people believe we’ve sold out,” continues Mould from the band’s Minneapolis office. “Unfortunately there’s a lotta bands in popular music that make the kind of music they know people wanna hear. Husker Du is one of those bands that makes the kinda music we wanna hear. Although considering the kind of music we played five years ago

anybody would be justified in saying we sold out because nobody could be that abrasive for that many years. That’s probably why we’re not as popular here as we are in Australia, New Zealand and Europe. Over here they don’t know what to make of us yet, even though we’ve been touring the States so much for the last five years.” Perhaps Husker Du’s success in Europe and elsewhere is due to the fact that there’s an established punk tradition in those countries and they see the band as a continuation of that bloodline:

“Yeah, I think some of the people

who like the band see that in us and I think that’s justified. Maybe we’re one of the few bands who believe that there aren’t any roles and maybe that's why we’ve alienated a number of people who’ve liked us. Husker Du likes to do things the way they do it and anyone who likes to come along for the ride is welcome."

Generating excitement seems to have been an early priority? “Yeah, one way or another we were trying to do that but we were hoping it would happen naturally. It’s interesting that the people who do like Husker Du in the States are really rabid fans, they know every song and they have every record, which is nice.”

The crucial change from the hardcore frenzy of Land Speed Record through to this year’s carefully prescribed bitter pill, Candy Apple Grey, occured on Zen Arcade, a truly justifiable double album of amazing ideas. You want manic power-drive then bend your head to ‘Re-occuring Dreams’; if acoustic’s your thing then ‘Never Talking To You Again’ fits the bill; ‘Turn on the News’ is as close to conventional heavy rock as they’ve ever been; ‘Pink Turns to Blue’ was budding, peeling pop and ‘Something I Learned Today’ was just one of many great punk thrashes: “It’s hard for me to judge albums as being the worst or the best but Zen Arcade is my all-time favourite, although Candy Apple Grey is technically the best record we’ve made as far as being an album from beginning to end. But there’s a lot of stuff on Zen Arcade, a lot of ideas to try and grab hold of. It would be nice to try and do something like that in the future when we’ve got a lot of time to concentrate on doing something real special.”

At the same time that Zen Arcade was released the band did a brilliant incoherent blubbering climactic version of ‘Eight Miles High’: “That was one of those songs that we’d all heard in separate places around the same time and we just thought that it would be neat to try and do. We messed around with it at practice and it fell into place real quickly, so when we recorded Zen Arcade we did ‘Eight Miles High’ as a single. And it was a real interesting version. It’s a pretty classic song. ‘Ticket to Ride’ was the same. A lot of closed-minded people have criticised us for makingfun of the Byrds and the Beatles and that nobody should ever do a Beatles’ cover but we like both of those bands a lot and ‘Ticket to Ride’ is a pretty cool riff and that’s why we wanted to do those songs.” New Day Rising, for my money, was last year’s best album thanks to a first side that rose in intensity to ‘Celebrated Summer’s’ fierce but beautiful climax:

“It was a straighter ahead album than Zen Arcade but there were still a lot of different ideas on it and some worked better than others. We work better by ourselves for some reason.”

Was that why you got rid of Spot? “He never really added that much to the band or what I thought a producer should do like adding ideas or elaborating on things in the songs that the band doesn’t hear. And as an engineer ... well, the sound wasn’t getting any better from record to record, it just kept getting muddier and we felt we could do better ourselves. So we decided to part as friends before we killed him.” An Apple a Day With the departure of Spot, Husker Du produced themselves on Flip Your Wig, a move which resulted in a fatter, cleaner and more orthodox texture. The band, it

seemed, were ready for a major break-out. It came this year when they signed to Warners and released Candy Apple Grey:

“Warners was the first offer we got. They started calling us about two years ago and at that time we were very sceptical thinking that they wanted to change everything that we were doing and make us dress funny and things like that. “Eventually almost every major label called and once we started talking to them we found that Warners were serious about giving us a free hand and that is pretty implicit in the deal we struck with them. So we have complete freedom. Although the record company, like anyone would do, even those people who say we’ve sold out, looks for the most commercial aspect of the band, like saying, ‘Oh ‘Sorry Somehow’ kinda sounds like a pop single so maybe that’s the one we have a chance with on the radio.’ We put the songs on the record though so we shouldn’t object if they try to get the radio to play the song.” As a title Candy Apple Grey alludes to the two facets of the band that have developed over the last three albums; namely the sweeter accessiblity of Hart's songs contrasting with Mould’s own unfailing realism:

“Whether it’s sweet or grey is ultimately up to the listener. If you look at the lyrics we’re not very didactic, we’re not the sort of band who says, ‘You should do this or you should be this and that.’ We would rather ask a lot of good questions than give people a lot of bad answers.

“In a lot of songs we try to tell personal stories objectively and let people decide how those add up in their own lives. We’re pretty normal people, we’re not too affected by anything, and I think people appreciate that there’s a band like us that just likes to make music.” Like their previous album, Candy Apple Grey isn’t a bundle of laughs in the lyric department. Depression (‘Don’t Want to Know if You are Lonely’ and ‘Too Far Down’), death (’Hardly Getting Over It’) confusion ‘All This I’ve Done For You’) and doubt (‘I Don’t Know for Sure’) are honest not escapist: “We try not to mince words. A lot of it comes off the top of your head and I think everybody has it. Some people have to cloud them with flowery pictures or clothing. We just try to shoot straight, we don’t try to bullshit anyone and I think it makes people feel good that they’re not the only ones who feel that way.” Both ‘Too Far Down’ and ‘Hardly Getting Over It’ saw the band going acoustic, a far cry from Land Speed Record:

“We take our work very seriously and going acoustic is something that takes a long time to get confident with. You take away all the abrasion, the cymbals, guitars, hollering and stuff and when it comes down to drums and acoustic guitar there’s not a whole lotta room to hide. It was something we had to grow into but now we’re comfortable with that side of the band as well.” Your nasal vocal on ‘Too Far Down’ sounded like the Strawbs’ Dave Cousins: (Laughs) “I’ve heard someone say Richard Thompson and someone say Neil Young, but not the Strawbs, that’s interesting. The nasal thing is

the way I am, I can’t get rid of that.” It’s been reported that the songs on Candy Apple Grey took a lot out of you: “They weren’t easy songs to write. A song like ‘Too Far Down’ is hardly the thing I slap on the turntable every morning when I get up. That song was something I had to get out of my system and Grant’s ‘Sorry Somehow’ was the same, not an easy thing to deal with or ‘Hardly Getting Over It’ which is a fairly true story — it’s a strange thing watching your grandparents die. I don’t like to keep those things inside for too long as they eat away at you.

“Both Grant and I had a lot of songs for the album, but the main difficulty was delivering the songs in the right style. ‘Hardly Getting Over It’ could have been loud and electric but we decided to go the other way. The decisions were harder this time as it wasn’t as onedimensional as the other records.”

And the number of songs was cut to only five a side...

“One the first three on side two the codas are a lot longer than usual. One of the ideas that came to us was keeping the listener involved a little longer.” Candy Apple Grey is Husker Du’s third album in about 18 months, a prolific output in anybody’s language: “We’re just writing all the time. I’m constantly writing stuff down and coming up with melodies and we work pretty hard at what we do, it’s all we do besides work on the house." The Sound of Minneapolis Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dunedin,’ Brisbane, Minneapolis — cities that are producing, if that’s the right word, the truest and surest rock and roll currently available. Minneapolis has the emerging Soul Asylum, Hunker Du, and of course the Replacements: "Yeah, things are real good. Soul Asylum are a real good guitar band along the lines of ourselves or the Replacements, although they’re probably a little more country and hard rock than we are.” The Replacements have been

kicking up a bit of dust with albums that hint at the god-like genius of leader Paul Westerberg but his tastes are so weird that there’s a lot of tripe on their records that only undermines them:

“Yeah, I know what you mean because there’s songs on their records I don’t know why they’re there. Live, sometimes they’re really focussed and on target, and some nights they like to play with.the crowd a little bit, but I think most of the people who go to see them like that and their choice of covers. Paul is a really great songwriter and they’re a very good band, I like them a lot."

Publicity on Husker Du over the last year has tended to emphasise the distinction between your songwriting style and Grant Hart’s: “Yeah, Grant tends to be a little more romantic in his lyrics where I tend to be more of a journalist, someone who sees from the outside. Musically Grant is probably a little more simplistic in the way he approaches songs whereas I like to challenge people by putting weird chords into songs. But the differences make for a good balance, I don’t think one is better than the other.”

You’d obviously like Husker Du to be more accepted in the States? “Yeah, but I think that will happen in time and being with WEA the records will be more available than they ever have been.” ■ In the States though, there’s always the danger that you will be accepted when your, best stuff’s behind you: “I’m not sure what people, in America like anymore and I’m not sure where we’re at. We’ve been doing so much work lately, hiding away and coming up with new ideas. Creatively the band’s stronger than it’s ever been so maybe everyone will hate this next record which should be out early next year. Over the last six months we’ve been writing and we’re just working the stuff out now to see what will work.”

Visually Husker Du are hardly Solid Gold material — press reports tend to emphasise Mould’s bulky frame, Grant Hart’s hippie hair-do

and Greg Norton’s handlebar moustache:

“The press do that because we don’t wear high heels so they had to find the most nondescript things about our personalities to talk about. We’re just people. I can’t stop it, it’s not malicious so it doesn’t bother me."

You’ve been quoted as describing yourself as egotistical and possessive. Were you serious? “Maybe too serious to elaborate on now. Everybody is possessive and egotistical to a degree, it’s just a matter as to whether you can admit it or not. I take a lot of pride in what I do and I’m very protective of my work and things that I cherish. Everybody should be possessive about the things they care about, there’s nothing wrong with that.” You’re a wrestling fan, do you wrestle?

(Laughs) “No, no, I like to watch it. I think a lot of people get a good laugh out of it and identify with it. Everybody wishes they could punch their boss. I’m not a wrestler, I’m a musician." Husker Du should be here next year after their next album.

George Kay