Bob Mould

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of maximumfun.org and is distributed by NPR.

Jesse Thorn (0:21)

It's Bullseye, I'm Jesse Thorn. Bob Mould has been a professional musician since 1979 So, that is almost 50 years now. And with half a century in music, some folks become, you know, insane virtuosos. Some folks tour the country playing a couple of signature hits. Some folks quit the road and just teach middle school band. Bob Mould doesn't really have a signature hit, though he's got some medium hits. He isn't known as an insane virtuoso, though I think pretty much everybody in his world respects him. But Bob Mould has changed music, and especially rock music, over and over and over. His first band was Who's Could Do, a fierce and massively influential three-piece from St. Paul that veered from hardcore punk to alternative and even power pop. They helped create the sounds that became grunge, pop punk and indie rock. Husker Dew broke up in 1988, ending things on pretty bad terms. Mould went solo a year later. He got to a studio and recorded basically a folk rock album. 1989's Workbook. It was a turn of the decade college radio hit.

Then, in the early 90's, Mould formed Sugar.

Like Husker do, Sugar was a three piece. That's about where the similarities begin and end. Sugar's sound wasn't as mellow and plaintive as Mould's solo work. You hear guitar solos and an appropriate amount of snarling. But Sugar was a product of the 90's. At once, goofy and sincere, pretty and punishing, and really, really catchy.

One other crucial distinction that sets Sugar apart from Skrdue, that band still gets along really well. Sugar, in fact, reunited last year, played a few shows and released new music. This is Keep Looping.

Bob Mould, welcome back to Bullseye. It's so nice to see you, even if it's not with Dave Holmes in my house in Mount Washington.

Bob Mould (4:07)

There we go.

Jesse Thorn (4:09)

17 years ago or something like that.

Bob Mould (4:11)

Indeed, indeed.

Jesse Thorn (4:12)

Thank you for making the time. What is it like to be in a band 30 years after you were in a band?

Bob Mould (4:18)

It's sort of crazy. A lot has changed. I mean, speaking for myself, just, I mean, my body, my mind, things I've learned, things I've tried to be better at, and wishing I still had that 33-year-old body to do those things on stage with.

Jesse Thorn (4:39)

I mean, you do a lot of things on stage for a man in his 60s.

Bob Mould (4:42)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I try to stay healthy. I try to take care of myself. I don't have any great secrets other than just, I guess I keep doing what I'm doing. So that's the muscle memory that never goes away. But it's been great to come back to Sugar. I mean, when we got together, you know, theoretically in late 91, and then actually got together in a room in early 92, with all these songs and, you know, David Barbie, bass player in Sugar, Malcolm Travis, the drummer in Sugar, those guys never met. So it was like this, you know, sort of leap into this thing with this container of 30 songs and make a band, and then, you know, for it to be done in three years.

And, you know, to come back to it 31 years later is, it's pretty great. I just have a different, you know, it feels familiar, but I think I have a different view of it, like a different appreciation for all of it now.

Jesse Thorn (5:44)

You had been in Husker Dew, which was a very important, moderately successful, really intense band. You had put out two records of your own, which were moderately successful and from what I understand, very difficult for you music industry wise.

Did you have goals for Sugar when you started the band?

Bob Mould (6:08)

No, actually. So I left Husker Dew in January of 88, and I moved up to Northern Minnesota, and I lived on a farm up there, and that's where I wrote workbook. That's where I made demos. I spent a year and a half up there. My relationship with my partner at that time was dissolving and fully dissolved. I moved to Hoboken and started working with Tony Maimon and the late Anton Feer. Made a record called Workbook that was a surprise to me and I think to my whatever fans may have come with after Husker Dew.

And then did a second record, Black Sheets of Rain, that was a good record, much louder, heavier, didn't do as well critically or commercially. So at the beginning of 91, I was broke. I let go of management and the accountants and severed my relationship with Virgin Records, said goodbye to Tony and Anton, and I just started writing songs.