Oh, no! It's the NO-FI "Interview" with
conducted by Ernie Mejia & Chris Beyond
June, 1999 (Part 1 of 3: The "Pre-Interview")
C=Chris, E=Ernie, M=Mark Mothersbaugh, B1=Bob "Bob 1" Mothersbaugh
B2= Bob "Bob 2" Casale, W=Cousin William, W=Wife of Cousin William, A=Assistant
I finally truely understand why I shut down No-Fi "Magazine" for so long... it was this interview. The weight of the task ahead after doing the interview was crushing me. Ernie had transcribed the interview into 40 handwritten pages and I would then have to type the interview for the issue itself. At some point I finally sat down and over several nights I had typed out half of the interview..only sometime between then and now, those pages went away. (probably when we switched everything from the old Mac to the iMac.)
Anyway fast forward almost a couple years... Here we are now finally doing the issue that the DEVO interview was supposed to be in. Some of the info is a little old, but I know that won't matter to you hardcore DEVO "spuds" out there. It's also a little obvious that we were a little nervous during the interview which is why we played most of it straight, but c'mon these guys are serious music pioneers ("who got scalped"), so we had to be on our best.
We did this interview in June of 1999 in the big bright green forum looking builing on Sunset which happens to be their music company's (Mutato Musica) headquarters as well as their studio. After a quick lunch, we met Bob Mothersbaugh (aka "Bob One") sitting outside the building smoking a cigarette. He then took us into the mysterious building and upstairs to their studio control room where Bob Casale (aka "Bob Two") was mixing music for a video that was on a big screen in the room that this room was overlooking. We were soon introduced to Mark Mothersbaugh who was working with Bob 2 on the mixing board.
C: So what are you guys working on?
M: Right this minute? We're working on the opening song for a movie called Mystery Men.
C: Ohhhhhhhhh!
E: That's with Ben Stiller and Janeane Garafolo.
M: Paul Reubens...
C: Janeane Garafolo!
M: Janeane!
C: Janeane! (thumbing Ernie) He has a bass guitar with Janeane Garafolo all over it.
M: Oh, yeah?
C: Ernie does.
E: I do.
M: You're kidding.
(their assistant walks in)
A: Am I inturupting anything?
C: Nah.
M: No. The three of us might go to another room if we're gonna talk a little louder. You know, we played Saturday night. (June 5th 1999)
C: You played?
E: Where at?
M: With the WEIRDOS, X, um...TSOL.
E: Wooow, TSOL.
C: Where?
M: (To Bob 1) Who else played?
B1: ADOLESCENTS, CIRCLE JERKS, uh...GO-GOS...
C: I went to that punk rock exhibit recently...
M: This was where they were holding the exhibit.
E: Oh, for that, um, "Punk-Out"
C: Yeah, I told you...
B1: We had a lot of fun.
M: We all played the same amps and guitars.
E: That's really cool. They do that nowadays.
C: I'm so disappointed now.
M: I was laughing because I was playing a guitar that was down here.
(Mark puts his hand at his knees. Everyone laughs.)
E: That's how my brother plays.
C: That's the way to play.
M: Yeah, that's the punk style.
C: When are you playing next?
M: Who the hell knows? We didn't know we were gonna play.
C: I didn't know about that at all.
B2: There wasn't any info. We decided at about 2 minutes before we were gonna do it.
C: How were the GO-GOS? Cuz they just recently got back together.
M: GO-GO.
C: Did they do their old punk stuff?
M: I didn't hear them.
B: I didn't either.
C: Hmmmm.
B1: That'd be interesting. THE WEIRDOS were good. They were better than they were in 1977.
M: Is Vic the same guy you split his head open that night?
B2: I don't remember if it was him or not.
M: I thought it was him.
B1: It wasn't him.
B2: Yeah, it was him.
C: How'd that happen?
M: Jumping off stage. Like we'd see who could jump the farthest and over the most heads into the audience.
B2: Somebody had seen us the night before and knew I was gonna do it and they put their hands up and caught my feet - performing Plastic Surgery...
M: ...with the guitar...
(the assistant walks into the control room again.)
A: Do you know some guy William from Florida? A cousin of yours.
M: What? Who? A Girl named William?
A: No, a man named William. Here.
M: And he's a cousin of ours?
A: That's what he says. That he's a cousin of yours and he's here from Florida.
(Bob 2 proceeds to play the intro song from Mystery Men.)
B2: I know who it is. He ain't no cousin of ours. I'll go take care of it.
M: He's the heavy. Let's get the hell out of here. We get cousins every now and then. Also we're all from good hillbilly stock so you never know who's gonna be your cousin.
C: They make good moonshine.
M: We're gonna go to another room so Bob (2) can get some work done here.
C: I'm sorry.
M: That's what we should do and we'll get William and my brother...in the new room. Are you guys really a magazine?
C: We're really a magazine actually.
E: A totally independent magazine.
M: O.K. lets go.
Click here to see the 2nd part of the DEVO interview!
