ClashMusic spoke to Iceland’s Mugison as his new album ‘Mugiboogie’ was released this week. ‘Mugiboogie’ witnesses a change in direction for Mugison, seeing him take up with a full band and delving into the rich heritage of Rock’n’Roll.
Q: You’ve been reborn as a rock & roller? Do you feel too much has been made of it?
M: Too much has been made of it?
Q: yeah about your new image of rock & roll
M: Oh yeah, I don’t know. Well, I guess if people have really listened to my previous albums and this one, it shouldn’t be a surprise. ‘Cuz I’ve always been a really schizophrenic musician and music maker. You know; if there is a general rule to my music you shouldn’t expect anything, you know, don’t get your high hopes up. I guess they are making maybe a little too much out of it. I understand why, cuz my previous albums were focused on more acoustic stuff, and more electronic stuff, and the people who like that, some of them, at least among my friends they consider rock & roll to be the past, you know, like black death of music, but I’ve always loved rock & roll. Really I thought before I turn too old I should try to do the best rock & roll album I can possibly make, while there’s still some rock & roll energy left in the body. I’ve got plenty of time to make Hulian Glacier songs.
I really wanted to have that quality of a best of album
Q: Talking about the album being put together over the last 3 years – is that because it was a difficult process or because you’re a perfectionist?
M: Um, I think a mix of the two; I make few rooms for myself doing that album, cuz I get really into the birth of rock & rock and the Memphis era, John DeHooker and Screaming Tehawkins, that kind of Memphis stuff, and I was really surprised by the amount of energy they put into the performance, so I kind of made a rule that songs had to have at least an attempt at that energy and I also wanted to sound like a ‘best of’ album, even though it’s only got songs you’ve never heard before. And the quality of best of albums, and I’m a great fan of best of albums cuz their so schizophrenic you know, it doesn’t matter if you listen to Beatles best of or David Bowie or whatever compilation, they’re always so schizophrenic, you know, people change. That’s why this one is extra schizophrenic; you’ve got a really slow song like Joes Hatters and then there’s like a sample turo square pusher song called ‘I’m Alright’. And, I really wanted to have that quality of a best of album, and I know it can be really hard to digest cuz best of albums are really hard to play in dinner parties or have in the background cuz the style is always changing, and the moods not constant. I really think it’s the best work I’ve done and I was really happy with it, and also I was really determined to get the right kind of take and that’s why I had to redo the song, some of them I probably did two thousand, million trillion takes on it, but it was worth it.
Q: How are you finding working with a band?
M: It’s great fun. It’s good to have four or five friends with you when you’re touring.
Q: No ego blow ups?
M: We’ve got a system we developed in the first few days when we started out back in Iceland. Somebody turns nasty or quirky or whatever some in the group will say “113” cuz that’s the number of the whining mobile, or the whining ambulance, you start to moan or groan that’s what’s called next to the ambulance there’s a suckers ambulance
Q: That’s quite clever
M: Yeah, so every time the guys go and start to complain, you just go and say “113 asshole”.
Q: When was the idea of Mugiboogie born?
M: Um, in 2005, that’s when I got the idea
Q: So that’s the beginning?
M: yeah, I went away into a remote spot in Iceland for about a month, I drove there every morning around 6:00 and then I came back home around 7:00 in the evening. It was a 20 square meter shed that had electricity in it and I’d just be there thinking and writing things down. The rest was pretty much just trying to execute those ideas
Q: So, was there a particular moment in your shed when you thought I’m going to record a high octane blues album or has it been bubbling under for a while?
M: No, it all kind of was born in that shed. I was just there listening to stuff, taping like basic ideas. It’s really nice if you go somewhere where there is no telephone or internet and you force yourself. Nobody can drop by for coffee, there’s nobody bugging you, then you’re able to focus a lot. There’s a blue print for the album, I made kind of the big picture in that shed.
Q: How was the tour with Queens Of The Stone Age? Did you pick up anything about rock & roll from them?
M: Oh yeah, definitely. They’re great guys. They really surprised us, when they asked us to come and tour with them, they had just one rule, and the one rule was that we shouldn’t act like bitches, we should party with them and have fun and when we arrived, I’m a big fan of theirs, and it’s a bit funny when you meet somebody you admired for a while, and immediately when we came we met their sound engineer whose called Hutch and he’s one of the biggest legends of the industry, you know, he’s like the Gandalf of rock & roll really, he’s worked with everyone, and he’s got this aura to him that’s exactly like Gandalf. Yeah he’s got a beard and this huge hair and it wouldn’t surprise me if he materialized here right now. He came to us, we knew who he was and said “guys, why are you here?” it’s just like Lord of the Rings or something “why are you here?” And we were like “um, we’re just going to play” and he said “you have to realize boys, it’s fun. It’s only about having fun and kick ass.” And it was really good on first minute of arriving to get kind of his lecture. And they were so cool; there were no volume restrictions, which most of the time when you play with a big band like that, they have to have the loudest kind of volume. Their whole crew pitched in, like their guitar techs were fiddling around with our guitars when they broke down. Uh, the lights guy, everyone just pitched in like a family thing really. It makes a lot of difference when you’re spending that much time gigging. And the guys in The Queens, they were just really smart guys, great sense of humour and if I had a daughter and I was a Muslim mad I would have sold her on the spot to one of those guys.
Q: So, did you witness any rock & roll debauchery?
M: Yeah, sure, there’s a lot of fun to be had with that kind of scenario, playing for 5-7 thousand people every night, that’s a lot of adrenaline that your body produces and you have to calm yourself down one way or another. Um, yeah, there were some naked moments.
Q: Did you get any tips on throwing TVs out the window?
Um, yeah, there were some naked moments.
M: No, we were all staying in buses, on tour buses, so there was no TV scenario. Yeah, it was just lots of fun.
Q: Do you enjoy the freedom of playing with a band? You know you don’t have to worry about click tracks and you’re just able to jam.
M: Yeah, I think, like on this album, it’s really focused on kind of abandoning trick click track scenario cuz music isn’t, I don’t know where it actually happened, somewhere along the road in the last 20 years people started using click tracks for their music and thought that it would make it better, make it a constant pace. But I think that’s wrong cuz music is an emotional thing and songs are supposed to speed up and slow down and you know if people listen to classical music or whatever kind of music, it’s always changing tempos and music shouldn’t be like on a click track, it’s like taking the heart out of your lover or something. I don’t know, I’d like to meet that guy that said to everybody “you’re profession will use click tracks” I think it’s taken the soul out of things, cuz it’s an emotional thing, if you listen to your heartbeat it speeds up and slows down, there’s all sorts of funny things, I think people should play more out of time and not in tune.
Q: You’re Never Been South Festival, it showcases new bands alongside established acts and has a very clear vision of musical creativity. Do you find other countries’ attitude towards music, particularly the UK’s, strange? Our music is seems very much about the image, having the right hair cut. What do you make of all of that?
M: Yeah, I think so, you guys can be a little too cool for school, and it’d be nice if somebody would kick you in the ass just a tad.
Q: Is that what Mugison’s going to do?
M: Yeah, yeah, just grow up everyone. Um, no I probably won’t. You get that kind of feel sometimes that people are a bit pretentious, but I lived here for 3 years and there are a huge amount of nerds as well and that’s really beautiful and there are shops everywhere in the UK, small independent shops, and the independent scene is great over here, and it’s driven by enthusiasm cuz everybody knows there’s no money in it and there are people out there that treat music like religion, and some people are really focused on specific kind of really narrow field of a particular kind of something. And I think that’s great, and it’s what I loved about it when I lived here. It’s like you get all these different kinds of guys and girls their talking like doctors about their specific field of stuff and maybe that’s overlooked. I agree that maybe today it’s too much about the photograph.
Q: So, where next for you? Is it going to be back to the laptop or somewhere inbetween?
M: Yeah, I’m working on an album called ‘Music for Clubs, Cafes, and Commercials’, so yeah, that’s another electronic one. There’s also a full drone my hard track called ‘Mugimetal’
Q: Mugimetal?
M: Yeah. There’s also and Icelandic album.
Q: Yeah, cool. So you’ve got quite a few projects coming up then. What can we expect from this year’s Never Been South Festival?
M: Uh, I don’t know, it tends to kind of work itself out in a way. We have a website where all the bands apply to play and when they applied last year we had 120 I think, bands or acts that wanted to come, and then they donate a song or two and every now and again I’d go in to that folder and just listen to it and make a few notes and then at some point I have to choose you know 30 acts or something. But it works itself out, it’s really obvious all the time.
Q: So it’s not difficult picking the right bands?
M: No, the only thing that’s difficult is that it’s a small country and you probably have met all these people at some point or know their nephew or sister or something, so that can be a little bit hard to say no to somebody when you know you’re going to have a phone call from her mother; which happens a lot. It’s like “why won’t you let my girl play there?” But if the festival worked on that logic, that mommas could call me and get girls on the bid, it wouldn’t be a good festival.
Q: And the last question. Is there any chance of KISS making an appearance?
M: KISS?
Q: You know, Gene Simmons, the painted face.
M: Oh yeah yeah… no probably not. Not because of their music. The thing about my festival is everybody plays for free and everything is done in one tier. So nobody gets paid for doing the festival and I’m told that KISS are really concerned when it comes to money, so I bet they would just laugh their head if they heard the idea of coming to the North Pole to do a free gig for 20 minutes
