here<\/a>.<\/p>\nMark Mothersbaugh interview<\/h2>\n
We spoke with Mothersbaugh at length about the tour, \u201cSNL 50,\u201d missed opportunities, his prolific composing career, run-ins with John Lennon and Rolling Stones and his bucket list aspirations among other topics.<\/p>\n
Enjoy.<\/p>\n
You mentioned that DEVO and The B-52s concocted the co-headlining tour at \u201cSNL50.\u201d Where there any other interesting stories from that one-of-a-kind Radio City show?<\/strong><\/p>\nI liked seeing DEVO get introduced by Backstreet Boys but my favorite moment was finding out we were in the ancient category. Early on, some young girl walks into our dressing room with a clipboard and goes \u201cokay, the Devo\u2019s go over there and the B-five two\u2019s go over there\u201d and I thought \u201cshe never even saw the early episodes of SNL. She doesn\u2019t know how it started off.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nYou\u2019ve joked in past interviews about the farewell tour going forever. How long do you guys think you\u2019ll keep going? <\/strong><\/p>\nThe welfare tour?<\/em><\/p>\nThe farewell tour. <\/strong><\/p>\nIt\u2019s already turned into a welfare tour (chuckles).<\/em> <\/p>\nThis could be the last year. Next year we go into phase two, which is us saying \u201chey, everybody, humans might be the unnatural species on the planet\u201d to \u201cnext year, here we are. Don\u2019t get frozen by technology and everything that\u2019s on a dark path.\u201d The younger generation needs to mutate, not stagnate. That\u2019s our message for them.<\/em><\/p>\nIs there a a favorite song of yours that DEVO has been playing recently on the road?<\/strong><\/p>\nI like doing \u201cJocko Homo\u201d because we added something to it that we\u2019ve never included that is the source of of a lot of our inspiration for DEVO. And it\u2019s from a couple films, one\u2019s called \u201cIsle of Lost Souls.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nIt has this mad scientist that gets his subhuman creations to chant \u201care we not men?\u201d <\/strong>So, you\u2019ll see footage during the middle of the song while we\u2019re changing outfits. Also, there\u2019s footage from a movie called \u201cInherit the Wind,\u201d which was based on the Scopes Monkey trial.<\/em><\/p>\nThat one shows a carnival atmosphere in front of a courthouse where there\u2019s a chimpanzee playing with a cigarette and a barker going \u201cis this your grandparents, people?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nWhen they come in for a close-up, the monkey is blocking part of the word \u201cde-evolution.\u201d So, on one side of the chimp, you see \u201cDevo.\u201d And, on the other side, you see, \u201cman.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nI love all the subliminal messages that you\u2019ve worked into your incredible body of work over the past 60 years. Do you have anything hidden planned at these upcoming shows?<\/strong><\/p>\nThey\u2019re probably over the top because everybody knows who we are. If you\u2019re there, you\u2019re going to get what you\u2019re looking for.<\/em><\/p>\nWould you say DEVO\u2019s message is more relevant today than when the band formed?<\/strong><\/p>\nI was hoping back in the early seventies that what we were talking about and pointing out was a little bit on the cynical and paranoid side.<\/em><\/p>\nIn the last 50 years, unfortunately, we\u2019ve been proven that humans are a species that is out of touch with nature. I remember reading a book back in \u201969 called \u201cThe Population Bomb\u201d and sociologists said \u201cthere\u2019s going to be so many humans on the planet that by the year 2050, nature will create a virus that will kill off humans and save planet Earth.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nHe said if that doesn\u2019t happen, it\u2019ll end up being a nuclear war and then nature dies, too.<\/em><\/p>\nThat\u2019s heavy.<\/strong><\/p>\nYeah.<\/em><\/p>\nChanging subjects, my favorite part of an AV Club interview of yours from 1997 was when writer Joe Garden realized he was mispronouncing DEVO and you explained how different pronunciations of the band\u2019s name mean different things.<\/strong><\/p>\nWe were saying \u201cDevo\u201d at first when we first were trying to figure out what we were and what we were doing. That had a lot of influence from art movements from the 1920s in Europe. If I could have lived in another time it would have been somewhere in Europe between the twenties and thirties with Bauhaus, the Futurists, the Dadaist and the Surrealists.<\/em><\/p>\nWe were thinking, well, it\u2019s not art nouveau. It\u2019s not art deco. It\u2019s \u201cart de-vo.\u201d So we were calling it \u201cart de-vo\u201d at first. Then \u201cJocko Homo\u201d changed that because it became \u201care we not men, we are Devo\u201d (pronounced Dee-vo).<\/em><\/p>\nAnother one of my favorite parts of the doc and the band\u2019s lore is how you guys antagonize audiences intentionally. It\u2019s incredibly funny. But that\u2019s common knowledge. Is there a favorite lesser-known story from the road that you have?<\/strong><\/p>\nI\u2019ve seen guys in the band take off their yellow Hazmat suits and throw their plastic pants into the audience. A couple times their shorts and underwear and go into the audience along with it.<\/em><\/p>\nOne of the most incredible parts of the doc was DEVO\u2019s connection to Bowie and Neil Young. But the fact that John Lennon sang \u201cUncontrollable Urge\u201d in your face rocked my world. How did he end up at your show?<\/strong><\/p>\nThat was our second show in New York City. We were playing Max\u2019s Kansas City. Back in those days, the stage was way at the back of the building and you had to wait for everybody that was in the bar, restaurant and Max\u2019s Kansas City to leave before you could go in and get your equipment.<\/em><\/p>\nSo, we were sitting in an Econoline van out front and, all of a sudden, John Lennon comes out of the building with his arm around Ian Hunter from Mott the Hoople. John looked over at us and I\u2019m sitting in the passenger seat going \u201coh, my gosh, that\u2019s John Lennon.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nHe walks right up to my face and gets two inches away. And he went, \u201cyeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!\u201d<\/strong> Blowing spit on me. I pulled back, Ian was laughing. Then, they both wobbled down the street. I was like \u201cwell, that\u2019s as good as it gets on planet Earth.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nWhat\u2019s the average DEVO fan like these days?<\/strong><\/p>\nThere\u2019s no average DEVO fan anymore. For all the things that you moan about like wishing the record business is like it was in the seventies, the reality is that kids have more information in their phone than ever before. They\u2019re smarter than us. I remember in high school when I was trying to find something out, I\u2019d go to the library\u2019s Encyclopedia Britannica and that was already dated since it was sitting in the library on a shelf.<\/em><\/p>\nNow, they can pull out a phone and find out who their favorite bands were into. \u201cOh, Nirvana? Who was Nirvana into? Oh, they cover DEVO.\u201d So, they come to shows, already knowing what they\u2019re going to see.<\/em><\/p>\nWe played Soldier Field a couple weeks ago. There were people my age, which is old, we\u2019re septuagenarians now. The next show could always be the last. One of these shows is going to be a farewell tour, but we don\u2019t know which one.<\/em><\/p>\nThere are also people that are of the age of where they go \u201cI grew up on Rugrats,\u201d or \u201cPee wee\u2019s Playhouse\u201d and now \u201cYo Gabba Gabba.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nAnd they all knew the lyrics! There were between 35 and 45,000 fans singing along with me.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat is your favorite score of yours?<\/strong> <\/p>\nDepends on what day you\u2019re asking me. I love the scores I did with Wes Anderson.<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cRugrats\u201d was important to me because that\u2019s how I got into scoring with an orchestra. I was learning on the job because I didn\u2019t go to school for music. I always thought I was going to be in a band and when you\u2019re in a band, you don\u2019t read music.<\/em><\/p>\nYou never see pictures of the Beatles or Rolling Stones reading music.<\/em><\/p>\nI like some of the lighter weight things I\u2019ve done like \u201cCocaine Bear.\u201d Right now I\u2019m working on a Pixar movie that I\u2019m enjoying. I was writing it while on the road. It gave me something to do during the day. When you\u2019re touring, you\u2019re on stage for 90 minutes. Most of the time, you\u2019re waiting to get to the next place with a bunch of crabby, old men.<\/em><\/p>\nHow did the music come to you for the \u201cRugrats\u201d theme?<\/strong><\/p>\nWith DEVO, we had picked up a Fairlight, which was an early sampling and sequencing device that nowadays would look like an antique World War II piece of gear. Gabor Csupo, who was one of the creators of the show, came to me and he collected eccentric and esoteric music and found an album I had recorded for Tokyo Radical Artists because I used to fly to Japan, write songs and produce Japanese art bands in the \u201980s.<\/em><\/p>\nGabor saw this album and asked \u201ccan I use one of those songs from that record for the theme song?\u201d It was called \u201cMusic for Insomniacs.\u201d It was all electronic music.<\/em><\/p>\nI told him \u201cI score films and TV now. Why don\u2019t you let me write you a song using that same instrumentation?\u201d Then, we ended up getting along really well. For bass and a lot of different instruments within the songs I recorded for the show, I used my voice through the sampler.<\/em><\/p>\nThese days, my brother Bob has written more \u201cRugrats\u201d music than me. He took over the TV series and must have written \u201cabout a million episodes\u201d according to him. They finished this year.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat was a project you almost worked on but didn\u2019t pan out?<\/strong><\/p>\nKlaus Nomi got sick after he asked me to do an album with him, and I would have loved to have scored a film with him. Then, he died. He was one of the first people I knew that had AIDS.<\/em><\/p>\nProbably the most embarrassing was when the Rolling Stones were recording at the same time as us at the Power Station. We were upstairs in the inexpensive room, they were downstairs in the fancy room and some little, old guy came up.<\/em><\/p>\nThis old man goes \u201cwould one of you guys play synths on my song?\u201d Turns out that was Charlie Watts. So, I went downstairs and I\u2019m thinking, \u201cthey love the way we did \u2018Satisfaction.’\u201d They told us that.<\/em><\/p>\nSo, I thought, \u201cwell, it\u2019s got to be something like that. They\u2019re going to want something wild.\u201d And they weren\u2019t looking for something wild. They were looking for something more like the synth part of \u201cMuskrat Love.\u201d I\u2019m exaggerating now, but I played a few things with Mick, Charlie<\/em> and their engineer but didn\u2019t make it onto the record.<\/em><\/p>\nI never told anybody that because I was always a little bit embarrassed.<\/em><\/p>\nDo you catch any live shows these days?<\/strong><\/p>\nI get out a lot less than you\u2019d think in the last year or so because I\u2019ve been working so much. I\u2019m always juggling two things.<\/em><\/p>\nBut I want to go see Sphere<\/a>. From what I\u2019ve heard, it doesn\u2019t sound like they\u2019ve figured out the full potential for it yet. My wife went and she took a picture of the venue from her hotel room looking down, and it changes the whole landscape of Las Vegas.<\/em> It looks so beautiful sitting out there. This crazy alien shape sitting on a street.<\/em><\/p>\nMy new dream is a DEVO residency at Sphere. <\/strong><\/p>\nWell, put that as a subliminal message in all your articles from now on and we\u2019ll see if we can talk anybody into it.<\/em><\/p>\nThis interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\u201cSNL50\u201d performances<\/h2>\n
As noted above, both DEVO and The B-52s participated in the \u201cSNL50: Homecoming Concert\u2019 at Radio City Music Hall this past February. Mothersbaugh\u2019s boys took \u201cUncontrollable Urge\u201d to the stage with an assist from Fred Armisen on drums while Pierson, Schneider and co. rocked out to \u201cLove Shack\u201d (also with Armisen as well as The Roots and cast members Sarah Sherman and Bowen Yang).<\/p>\n
If you\u2019d like to see the whole star-studded affair \u2014\u00a0including a rousing performance of Robyn\u2019s \u201cDancing On My Own\u201d with David Byrne \u2014\u00a0you can catch the whole bloody affair on Peacock<\/a>.<\/p>\nUnique acts on tour in 2025<\/h2>\n
Hoping to catch a few one-of-a-kind concerts featuring groundbreaking iconoclastic artists these next few months?<\/p>\n
Here are just five huge acts with singular sensibilities \u2014\u00a0and street cred \u2014 hitting the road in the near future.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0David Byrne<\/a><\/p>\n\u2022\u00a0Tame Impala<\/a><\/p>\n\u2022\u00a0Patti Smith<\/a><\/p>\n\u2022\u00a0Pixies<\/a><\/p>\n\u2022\u00a0Oingo Boingo Former Members<\/a><\/p>\n
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