Meat Puppets Interviewed By Most Beautiful Losers
07 Nov 2011
Posted ByChris Bentley
Thirty-one years, 13 albums and a million miles of road traveled and there seems to be no end in sight for The Meat Puppets. From their humble beginning in Phoenix in 1980 playing parties and punk bars to flirting with commercial success in the early ’90s grunge boom, the “brothers meat” have put together one of the most interesting catalogs in alternative music. We interviewed frontman Curt Kirkwood to find out some more about them. BB: Tell me about the new album, “Lollipop.” CK: Well, it’s the third record since we reunited in 2006. We’ve been on tour pretty much non-stop since 2007 and only take a few weeks off here and there to chill out at home. In those periods of down time I write songs when the feeling hits me and “Lollipop” is just another album that came together from that. What is your writing process like? Does it differ from how you wrote albums/songs in the past? It has always been pretty much the same. I’m not one of those guys who’s always writing songs. I have to wait for it to hit me. Creative inspiration for me usually just comes out of nowhere. Last year was the 30th anniversary of the band. Did you expect to still be around after all of this time? Well, it’s a great excuse to waste time. No, really, I had no expectations of the future. It was just something cool and fun that we did and we were lucky that people dug it. We loved playing shows with all our friends and the band was an extension of that. It became a career sort of out of proxy. Even when we had time off or we were on “hiatus,” the band was never dead for me. How long have you guys been on tour this time out? Pretty much since last spring when the album was released. We enjoy being on the road as much as possible. I know you guys are from Phoenix. I always felt like there was a sort of “desert” feeling in your songs. Do you hear this as well or is it my imagination? I definitely think it’s there. The imagery of the southwest can be very powerful and giving in to that influence has always been something we have done, even if it might be subconsciously. Cris (Meat Puppets’ bassist and Curt’s brother) and I grew up there in a rural area and spent a lot of our time riding dirt bikes and immersing ourselves in the desert life. It’s such a vast environment and even though it is absolutely beautiful it can be very sinister and brutal as well. I live in Austin, Texas, now but Cris still lives there. What do you guys listen to? Influences? I don’t listen to nearly as much music as I used to. But I have been revisiting stuff from when I was younger a lot lately. I also listen to a lot of music on YouTube. Friends send me stuff from there all the time and I check it out. Just this morning I was on there checking out Rick James. He put out some great songs. Some of the artists we were most influenced by would be Gong, Can, David Allen Coe, Mahavishnu Orchestra and I really love Disney movie soundtracks like “Bambi” and “Dumbo.” Those have just such an amazing warm and full sound. What has it been like spending all of these years in a band with your brother? It’s been cool. This has always been such an easy band to be in. Cris is his own person and despite his problems with drugs and whatever I still “get” and always have “got” him. Same way with our original drummer Derrick Bostrom. We all grew up together so there was never any of that awkward shit where you might not want to let them know you’re mad or whatever. After such a long and fruitful career do you have plans for the future? Any goals left? No, man, goals are for delusional people. I have always made it a point to not have any goals. I just want to make fun music and enjoy my time here. The Meat Puppets are playing at Akron’s Musica on November 8. Buzzbin favorites The Most Beautiful Losers are also playing on the bill.
Accessed: 1/17/13
http://www.buzzbinmagazine.com/home/2011/11/07/meat-puppets-interviewed-by-most-beautiful-losers/
07 Nov 2011
Posted ByChris Bentley
Thirty-one years, 13 albums and a million miles of road traveled and there seems to be no end in sight for The Meat Puppets. From their humble beginning in Phoenix in 1980 playing parties and punk bars to flirting with commercial success in the early ’90s grunge boom, the “brothers meat” have put together one of the most interesting catalogs in alternative music. We interviewed frontman Curt Kirkwood to find out some more about them. BB: Tell me about the new album, “Lollipop.” CK: Well, it’s the third record since we reunited in 2006. We’ve been on tour pretty much non-stop since 2007 and only take a few weeks off here and there to chill out at home. In those periods of down time I write songs when the feeling hits me and “Lollipop” is just another album that came together from that. What is your writing process like? Does it differ from how you wrote albums/songs in the past? It has always been pretty much the same. I’m not one of those guys who’s always writing songs. I have to wait for it to hit me. Creative inspiration for me usually just comes out of nowhere. Last year was the 30th anniversary of the band. Did you expect to still be around after all of this time? Well, it’s a great excuse to waste time. No, really, I had no expectations of the future. It was just something cool and fun that we did and we were lucky that people dug it. We loved playing shows with all our friends and the band was an extension of that. It became a career sort of out of proxy. Even when we had time off or we were on “hiatus,” the band was never dead for me. How long have you guys been on tour this time out? Pretty much since last spring when the album was released. We enjoy being on the road as much as possible. I know you guys are from Phoenix. I always felt like there was a sort of “desert” feeling in your songs. Do you hear this as well or is it my imagination? I definitely think it’s there. The imagery of the southwest can be very powerful and giving in to that influence has always been something we have done, even if it might be subconsciously. Cris (Meat Puppets’ bassist and Curt’s brother) and I grew up there in a rural area and spent a lot of our time riding dirt bikes and immersing ourselves in the desert life. It’s such a vast environment and even though it is absolutely beautiful it can be very sinister and brutal as well. I live in Austin, Texas, now but Cris still lives there. What do you guys listen to? Influences? I don’t listen to nearly as much music as I used to. But I have been revisiting stuff from when I was younger a lot lately. I also listen to a lot of music on YouTube. Friends send me stuff from there all the time and I check it out. Just this morning I was on there checking out Rick James. He put out some great songs. Some of the artists we were most influenced by would be Gong, Can, David Allen Coe, Mahavishnu Orchestra and I really love Disney movie soundtracks like “Bambi” and “Dumbo.” Those have just such an amazing warm and full sound. What has it been like spending all of these years in a band with your brother? It’s been cool. This has always been such an easy band to be in. Cris is his own person and despite his problems with drugs and whatever I still “get” and always have “got” him. Same way with our original drummer Derrick Bostrom. We all grew up together so there was never any of that awkward shit where you might not want to let them know you’re mad or whatever. After such a long and fruitful career do you have plans for the future? Any goals left? No, man, goals are for delusional people. I have always made it a point to not have any goals. I just want to make fun music and enjoy my time here. The Meat Puppets are playing at Akron’s Musica on November 8. Buzzbin favorites The Most Beautiful Losers are also playing on the bill.
Accessed: 1/17/13
http://www.buzzbinmagazine.com/home/2011/11/07/meat-puppets-interviewed-by-most-beautiful-losers/
