Melvins

Sometimes a strong performance requires more than one encore. When Melvins were asked to bring their 1993 underground classic Houdini to the stage in its entirety by the U.K.’s All Tomorrows Parties, the band got so invested in resurrecting the tracks they decided to document the results with A Live History of Gluttony and Lust: Houdini Live 2005. Featuring founding vocalist/guitarist Buzz “King Buzzo” Osborne alongside longtime drummer Dale Crover and fill-in bassist Trevor Dunn (Osborne’s bandmate in Mike Patton-fronted side-project Fantomas), the live release was to launch the band’s upcoming fall tour. Or it would have if Osborne could sit still for that long. Not one to let any of his creative energy go to waste (Melvins have released an average of one album per year in their 20-year career), Osborne drafted bassist Jared Warren and drummer Coady Willis of the band Big Business to create a rarely seen Melvins four-piece lineup. The new members brought life to 10 new songs, recorded this past July for the upcoming album (A) Senile Animal, due out Oct. 10. Not too fond of the twilight years of a certain metal icon who shares his last name (although spelled differently), Osborne explained to Recoil just how unexplainable rock has become.

Did any of the songs off Houdini take on a second life through re-recording the album as a live set? Buzz Osborne: The ones we’re going to do [on this tour] are not going to be a whole lot different than they are on the live record. Some of them took on a different light and some didn’t. It was really interesting when I saw a lot of the reviews of that record just how crazy people who review that stuff really are. Some of them said we had changed the songs too much and some of them had said that their problem with it was that they weren’t changed enough. [Laughs] You can’t win. No matter what you do.

Do you think you might resurrect any of your other past records in a live setting, maybe without a live record? BO: I don’t know. Generally, if we go to that much trouble to do something we’ll put it out. Maybe some bands don’t look at it that way, but I’m not afraid of putting out records. Which is an interesting thing. There’s a school of thought out there that we put out too many records. I don’t know, though. It’s weird. It’s hard to figure that one out.

Why do you think you’ve been as prolific as you’ve been? Has that lack of fear of putting out as much material as you can contributed to that? BO: The thing about that is you just don’t worry about those sorts of things. It’s not that hard to put out records. It’s hard to put out interesting records. There’re lots of things bands can do, most of them just don’t do them. I don’t know why, I’m not a hundred percent sure. I often wonder what it is bands think it is that they’re supposed to be doing. [Laughs.]

Do you think label politics generate some of those concerns? BO: We were on Atlantic, which is one of the biggest labels in the world, and we had no problem putting out more than one record a year, so I don’t know. I think I would place that concern squarely on the band. It’s not that hard to do. There’re all kinds of things you can dream up to put out. It’s not that difficult.

For the new record you have another new Melvins lineup. Where did the idea for trying double drummers come from? BO: When we got rid of [previous bassist] Kevin [Rutmanis], me and Dale were just sitting there going, ‘I want to do something different.’ We had thought of the idea of using two drummers a long time ago on a variety of things. Like when we did the tour for the Maggot record we would have guest drummers come up and play with us sometimes and a couple of different things. So it was always burning in the back of our minds, and we needed somebody to play bass. We liked Big Business a whole lot, so it just seemed like an obvious thing to do. Once again, we’re not afraid of doing something different and it worked out really good, I think.

The song that stood out the most to me on the new album is “Civilized Worm,” mostly for how mellow it is, particularly how almost warm-sounding the main riff is. BO: I’d had that song laying around for about a year and I just finished it up and brought it in and we started playing it in practice and Matt finished the ending of it. But that worked out great. That’s probably my favorite one. A lot of times with people I’ve worked with people in the past, if I’m playing with somebody else, they don’t really want you to do what you do. They want you to do what they want you to do. And I’m very much not interested in that. If I’m playing with a bass player, I want them to go, ‘Show me what you can do.’ Or if I’m working with a singer, I want them to go, ‘Oh, you’re a singer, let’s utilize that as much as we can.’ So I’d rather step from it a little bit and let people own the stuff a little more than they normally would otherwise, and then just take it from there. It’s natural to me to expand on the strengths of whoever you’re playing with more so than you would under normal circumstances. I don’t know where people get this idea that I’m some sort of dictator. I write all the songs, almost. A lot of times people are putting stuff in there and I’m letting people branch out as much as they’d like. Like with the Houdini live record, we were like, ‘Trevor, play these songs to the best of your ability. Whatever you want to add to them and let’s see. If we hate it, we’ll take it from there.’ And he did a great job. We were letting him breathe and he said it was one of the first times where he’s been allowed to do that. So with ‘Civilized Worm,’ I wrote that whole song and then finished the ending and then we had the last part of the vocals and I was just like, ‘Jared, what would you come up with on this?’ And he added his part to the last part of the vocals and it worked out great. It’s not something I would have thought of and it’s perfect. As far as the music goes, though, I would say ninety-eight percent of it is mine, or my idea.

Has having an infusion of different people into the Melvins lineup over the years helped you maintain your own creative spark? BO: I’ve always wanted the people to have more creative input and it never happened. I don’t know. People, they get weird. Lots of people get really strange about that kind of stuff. One of the things I told Big Business from the beginning is that they have to keep Big Business going or they can’t play with us. I was like, ‘You guys have to have your own creative output, your own focus, and then you also play with us.’ We really like Big Business and we wouldn’t want them to stop doing what they’re doing. I wouldn’t even think of it. And then I think it makes it a little healthier, for one. We’ll see. I’m trying to not make the same mistakes again, whatever they may be.

Do you think your perseverance has helped other bands who try to make music that’s genuinely different? Do you think Melvins inspired bands in the underground or impacted them in some way? BO: I don’t think it’s impacted them enough. Most bands have a whole lot of rules they’re following and I find that to be maddening and stressful. I mean, Jesus Christ, do whatever you want to. Especially underground bands, I mean, what’s going to happen? What do you think, your fans are going to abandon you? They had to work to find you! It’s not going to happen. I honestly don’t have any idea what motivates people or how they get to the point where they are at. At some point when bands get some recognition, everything seems to change, I don’t know why. It’s very strange. So I know if you’re going to do things like the way we do, you have to expect some backlash, no doubt about it. But, if you don’t do it, people are going to hate you anyway. I mean, look at Helmet. As much as I like those guys, I just think they need to branch out a little more, whatever way it may be, and let the chips fall where they may. And they never should have stopped.

You’ve found some likeminded collaborators in Mike Patton and Jello Biafra, though. BO: Yeah, to some degree. They’ve done things differently than I would’ve done, but yeah.

But they’ve stuck to what they like, despite recognition, and especially Patton, haven’t been afraid to branch out in new directions all the time? BO: Well, he’s got a pretty hardcore dedicated fanbase that will pretty much accept everything he does. So he’s not afraid, not like that at all. I don’t know, I guess that’s all just part of life’s rich tapestry. [Laughs] Over twenty years of playing you watch how people operate and it’s a head-scratcher most of the time. Like, ‘What the hell are you talking about? What are you doing? Why would you think this is good?’ I’m not even going to try. If I think it’s good, then that’s good enough. People should like what we do, because we have good taste. I don’t have any problem saying that. We have a really good idea of what we like and a really good idea of what we like in other bands and you just try to do the things that you would like as a band. We’ve done it all ourselves, whatever that means, whether people really understand it or not.

Do you ever see there being an end to Melvins or will the band follow you to your grave? BO: I have no idea. I might be dead tomorrow. I can’t imagine I would quit. You can always change things, whatever those things may be. Hopefully things mutate and change. Somebody should tell Ozzy Osbourne that. But, oh well. [Laughs] Unfortunately for him, he’s not going to change. He hasn’t changed in quite some time. I mean, every time the Rolling Stones do a tour, it makes it okay for people like us to tour. [Laughs] If those sixty-year-old men can get up there and do it then it makes it okay for guys like me in their early forties to be able to play rock music.