Curt Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets chats to John Goodridge about their thirty-year musical history including backing Nirvana on the MTV Unplugged special, and looking forward to their first Australian tour in some twenty years…
Hey Curt, it’s John here calling from the AU Review. Good to hear you’re heading to Australia in a couple of weeks or so.
Yeah a little more than a month.
How long has it been since you’ve been to Australia?
Since the early nineties. At least twenty years.
Wow that’s a big time in between. And I believe Cris is bringing his art exhibition with him.
Yeah, he’s gonna bring some stuff down.
What sort of art does he do?
Ah he draws little panels, little cartoon guys, watercolours.
That sounds interesting. Can you tell me about the line up that you’re bringing to Australia?
Well, it will be my brother Cris, my son Elmo and the drummer is Shandon Sahn, son of Doug.
Is that the same line-up that was on Ratfarm?
Yeah, minus Elmo. He didn’t play on the record, but he’s been playing live with us for a number of years.
I mean, you’ve recorded something like fourteen albums over your thirty-year career. Where do you get your inspiration and creativity from?
Oh, I wish I knew. If I could put my finger on it, it would be easier to do. I’ve never really got the discipline for it. If stuff comes up, I get the idea down and flesh it out. I don’t know, music’s pretty interesting and there’s never been a gap there – except the obvious one – but there’s always something new. It’s been that way since I was a kid – there’s so much to do – so much you could do and it kinda keeps coming.
I was reading a few excerpts out of Greg Prato’s book and there was some quotes about using different drugs for creativity – and I mean that’s a controversial subject, but how do you find it?
Well, you know, the more drugs you do the more editing you need to do. It’s one of those things I don’t know honestly if it’s ever been an asset or not. I guess it has. You get good vibes. You get ideas.
In my mind, it puts you in a different headspace and changes the tensions that are happening around you.
Yeah sure, the juxtapositions of the different mindsets, looking at what you really are – even when you have a beer you know. Beer’s always a good one. But at the same time, I’ve never really done that at the time of composition. I have, but then listened to it later and gone “Oh, that’s a little too messed up.” It doesn’t work. At the same time I can hardly remember how I came up with something. It’s one of those weird things. I remember the circumstances now and then and I definitely came up with some good ones when I was pretty licked, but it’s a real thing, I wish I knew.
I read that you wrote the song Plateau in a really short time like an hour or so. I mean when you write a song like that, how does it feel when it comes to you? Is it sort of like a lightning bolt?
That one – I don’t remember how I wrote that one. I remember a couple of others. I remember writing “Lake of Fire” which is kinda odd because I hardly ever remember the circumstances, but I remember that one really well because it was a night when everyone went to a Halloween party and I thought it was kinda gimpy that adults wanted to get dressed up and go to a Halloween party – I had fun when I was a kid but not as an adult – so they left me home alone so I got good licked and I wrote that one and “Magic Toy Missing” and possibly “Plateau” by myself, it was kind of a joke.
When the book was being written and when it was released, how does it feel reading about someone else’s interpretation of your career?
Well I know a lot of those people and I found it was a good way to do the book because I do know those people and having them be candid about what they thought about us – it was pretty good as a straight-up biographical account. I really appreciate a lot of the people in the book – people I admire and that’s what compelled me to read it because I already know my life, I know what my history is.
I haven’t read it, I’ve only read excerpts, but from what I’ve seen it’s an interesting read.
Yeah from my point of view, reading about yourself is kinda strange. I mean even notes on your report card when you’re a student and the teacher adds a little comment for your parents to read.
That leads into my next question about how much attention you pay to things like Youtube comments for example. For me it must be strange that so many strangers would have an opinion about your work.
Yeah, it’s different. It definitely is. What’s strange on Youtube is people who don’t even speak English doing versions of your work. Can be pretty badass.
Really? I mean having written so many songs over the years, you must have had so many people covering different songs.
Yeah, I have an appreciation for all of it. I’m not much of a critic. I like all kinds of music. Lots of people have covered the songs that Nirvana did. You can find a whole bunch of those from a whole lot of different countries.
Last night I was looking at the MTV Unplugged sessions and I was struck by how fresh it all seemed – the photography was really crisp and the songs were really clean. Being as it’s been twenty years since Kurt Cobain has left us, there must have been a lot of interest in that lately.
A fair amount. I’ve done a lot of interviews and stuff. I mean all I really knew about the guy was what everyone else knows from when we opened for him and then I did the Unplugged thing and that was pretty quintessential for those guys.
How do you see how the music industry has changed? Do you think that MTV Unplugged session would happen today?
I haven’t seen them in a really long time, I’ve only seen a couple of them ever, I think they must have changed. I think it was almost like a coffee house set. I never saw much that was like that, really stripped down and straight up. Most were a little more elaborate than that.
I’m thinking of the musical landscape as a whole and how much it’s changed over the last thirty years. These days we have music streaming and downloads for example. How do you fit in amongst all of that?
You got me. Too much of it is a notion. I wonder and scratch my head.
I mean back when you started out everyone went to the record store to listen to the latest releases whereas now there are so many more options to choose from. It makes me wonder how a band survives these days.
Me too. It’s unfathomable. I’ve had a little of that feeling because even when we started there’s still a lot of people and once you leave a place like Phoenix it’s still fairly isolated, it’s a big city but you got a whole lot going on, especially show business and stuff like that and even getting out of there especially early on it was a kinda overload of networking going on but now I have no idea and I’m sure there’s people who access stuff on the internet but I never really look at it too much. Who knows who’s buying your stuff. We can put a number on it for sales but what does it mean?
The expectations of the fans – do you take that into account when you’re writing? Do you write songs for yourself or write songs for the fans?
Well it would end up being for myself even if I wrote for the fans because that’s a very oblique concept to ask ten people what they would like to hear. Am I imagining this is what they would like to hear? Kind of compiling and editing critiques, it’s all pretty hazy so I just get in and do what I want to do.
Well it seems to have worked in the longevity that you’ve had. I mean the line-up has changed over the years. You’ve had your brother come and gone and other people in the band. How does it work with other performers – does it add something or does it take work to get to the point that you want in a performance?
Well in the time of my brother’s hiatus, which was about ten years, I had a whole bunch of new guys in the band and we had to work for it and it wasn’t the same but we got something cool out of it but when my brother’s been around it’s pretty much the same thing. I only have so much that I can put into then it has to reach a level. You know, water levels out but I always end up playing with friends and just hired random people. There really hasn’t been that many – it hasn’t been overwhelming ever.
So do you do much touring in between albums or do you prefer recording and releasing music via albums?
We mostly tour. We’re pretty quick with the recording every one or two years. I don’t spend a huge amount of time in the studio.
One thing that struck me watching the MTV show was the guitar with stripes. Do you have an arsenal of guitars and do you grow attached to a certain guitar?
I’ve had one guitar that I’ve had for more than thirty years that I play a lot and there is one or two others that I play every now and then but mostly it’s been one.
So do you get almost a relationship with the guitar?
Oh yeah, it’s just a unique instrument, for me anyway, you get used to it, it works good and kinda rises above the other ones in it’s function and the area I’m trying to use it in. I can break out a bit and change things – kinda imperceptible but it’s a feeling thing.
Is there anything in particular you’re looking forward to in Australia? Do you have any expectations?
No expectations. Looking forward to it. I’ve only been there once and I had a really good time and what I saw was you know beautiful and I’ve been looking forward to coming back. It’s too short – one of my favorite places I’ve ever been.
Hopefully you get good support and have a good time while you’re here.
Oh yeah, we’ll have a good time one-way or the other.
Looking forward to it. Thanks for chatting today.
No worries, thanks for calling.
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Don’t miss Meat Puppets when they return to Australia next month.
Thursday 29th May 2014: ADELAIDE, Fowlers Live – SA
Friday 30th May 2014: BRISBANE, The Zoo – QLD
Monday 2nd June 2014
“ASTOR ROCKS” – 2 STAGES OF LIVE MUSIC
PERTH, The Astor Theatre – WA! Doors 5PM – 11PM
w/ Meat Puppets, Brant Bjork, The Love Junkies, The Shakies, Axe Girl and more.
LIMITED ART SHOW & CONCERT TIX
ONLY FROM: www.nightmaremusic.com.au
(Ltd to 70 Tickets Only in each city)
