Recoil: I’ve read that ska is drawing a younger crowd than it used to. Do you find this to be true?
Dave K: When we started in 1991, we were playing mostly to college kids. It seems like over the course of the last 10 years our audience has gradually gotten younger. We see a lot of high school kids, and play a lot of all-ages shows, with kids as young as 12 in attendance. It’s kind of funny because when we write music, we’ve always written for ourselves, so now that we’re in our 30s I’m not sure what it means that we’ve got younger kids for an audience. Maybe we’re getting more immature! Actually, I think kids these days are just a lot more sophisticated.

R: Mustard Plug’s web site bio mentioned that you had Timothy Leary as a guest at one of your performances a few years back. That’s pretty cool.
DK: That was a pretty bizarre experience. We had a lot more of those strange experiences when we first started out. It seems like not a lot of people knew what ska music was, not like they do now, so we’d get added to some pretty strange bills. With that particular experience, we were in town to play a big college concert, and Leary was in town to speak at that college the next day. We played a house party the night before the concert, and he was there.

R: And he liked your music.
DK: Yeah, he said he loved it and insisted on introducing us at the concert the next day.

R: Are you still based in Grand Rapids?
DK: Grand Rapids is still home base. When we started out, we found that our big goal was to tour, you know, basically to get out of here! And we’ve done that. We’ve toured the United States a countless number of times now, and Europe a few times, and Japan a few times too. Being in Grand Rapids, we realized early that we had to tour, so we just hit the road. Grand Rapids is a good home base; it’s cheap to live here and it’s a good place to center out of. Bands that call the West Coast home are lucky because that’s where the music industry is based out of, but then again, those bands sometimes have less motivation to get out, so they don’t get the touring experience that we have gotten.

R: Your last album, Pray for Mojo, came out in 1999. Are you working on a new one?
DK: Right now we’re taking time out to write music. We’ve only done like 60 or 70 shows this year. Our peak touring years, in 1995, 1996 and 1997, we did around 150 shows a year. Ska wasn’t as well known then, and it was a crucial time for us to tour and gain exposure. We probably have about half of our next album written. We never write on the road, so we plan to take the rest of the year off to write. It takes a really long time to actually get the album out because then we go to the studio, and then it goes to the label’s marketing team. It’ll probably be out sometime in the middle of 2002. We really have to force ourselves not to do shows, so that we can get the writing done.

R: Why don’t you write on the road?
DK: It’s hard to write on the road because there are so many distractions. It’s hard to find time to do it.

R: When you write ska music does it require input from every member?
DK: Not all ska bands write that way. Some just have one member who writes everything, but with us it’s a collaborative effort. Different people bring different parts to practice, and the rest sort of flesh out their parts. I write most of the lyrics. Ska writing isn’t that different from writing other music. It sort of has a pop base or structure, then you add the rest.

R: It seems like it would be more complicated because of having so many instruments.
DK: Yeah, every time you add an instrument it gets more complicated. You have to find the right places for each instrument to play.

R: So you write the lyrics. Did you write “Lolita” then?
DK: Yes.

R: Is it from the Nabokov novel?
DK: Yes it is. I sort of had a crush on a younger girl when I wrote that. Not that young, of course, just a little younger than me. And it seemed like a relationship probably wouldn’t work out because of that, and I was reading the Nabokov novel at the same time, so it was kind of funny. This goes back to that younger audience thing. I don’t know how much our audience actually gets some of the songs, or understands what they’re about on that deeper level - I mean, I hope these 12-year-olds haven’t been reading Nabokov yet! I think that the songs can be taken on more than one level. There’s the serious level where one meaning is, and another more immature level as well. Compared to a lot of other art forms, music is a lot easier to take and interpret in your own way. I think one of the problems with MTV is that the videos provide an interpretation for the viewer, and it usually isn’t even the artist’s interpretation, it’s the director’s. And then that one interpretation is burned into the viewer’s brain, and doesn’t allow the person to develop their own. It might be best to let listeners have their own interpretation.

R: Do you read a lot?
DK: I read a lot on the road. Reading is a great way to keep your sanity on the road, when you’ve got like a seven-hour stretch to drive. It kills time and I don’t feel like I’m killing brain cells.

R: Your show is very high energy. In all of the reviews and stories I’ve read about Mustard Plug, I see descriptions of charisma and connecting with the crowd, and you running around while you sing. Do you think you’ll ever run out of energy?
DK: I don’t know. Will I be doing this stuff when I’m 40? My first answer would probably be no, but then, if you’d asked me back in 1991 if I thought I’d be doing this when I was 33, I probably would have said no then, too. I may have to project energy in a different way; I may not be able to jump as high someday. You know, we’ve played with this group called the Skatalites, and they were around in the 1960s doing ska. It’s a different kind of ska, but still, here are these guys that are 72 years old now, and they’re still on stage performing. I think that’s a great thing. The challenge would be finding ways to reinterpret and bring out that energy.

R: Tell me about the Mustard Plug tenth anniversary shows at the Intersection.
DK: You know, the Intersection is kind of like our home base if we have one. We’ve probably played there 6 or 7 times a year over the past ten years. We’ve played there more than anywhere else. We’ll be bringing back a bunch of the old members - there’ll be people flying in from California and all around Michigan. We’ll also be playing a bunch of the old stuff, and playing a longer set. We’ll be giving away some door prizes and stuff too. It’s going to be a big event.

Mustard Plug shows are scheduled on Nov. 24 and 25 at the Intersection, 1520 Wealthy SE. Saturday, Nov. 24, is an 18 and up show. Sunday, Nov. 25, is for all ages. Call the Intersection concert line for details: 616.459.0931. Check out Mustard Plug’s delightfully amusing history at their website: www.mustardplug.com