Mudvayne: King Crimson of 2023?

Tomorrow (Saturday) is the Download Festival’s opening day at the Donington Race course and among your faves, such as Iron Maiden, Marilyn Manson and AudioSlave, you’ll find a rather interesting band – Mudvayne. It’ll be the band’s fifth Euro-visits in the last three years and they’ve already mini-toured their album ‘The End Of All Things To Come’. It is a record that is heavy (Slipknot haven’t got much on them), spaced-out (Tool come to mind) and then industrially cyber (closely related to Nine Inch Nails)… But then, there is an inkling that heavy-cum-melodic with complex arrangement King Crimson are a close influence, which we touch on toward the end.

Spüg, the band’s drummer, is here to illuminate us on the band, its workings and its aspirations. But first, he has to tell us how much the band enjoys coming over the Atlantic.

“We love coming to Europe because we always have such a great reception. We started at the bottom but now venues are larger, hotels better and there are more fans. It’s a long way from 1996, when we formed, and our ambition then was… It may sound naïve but our motivation has always been artistic and even back then we were pretty old to be in a rock band. I was truly resigned to the fact that we may never get a contract and thus played music we like, more personal and satisfying ourselves creatively.”

Quite a humble approach to the music realm that is ego-infested?

“Well, we had no illusions but wives, kids and different agendas. When we eventually got the contract it was as much a surprise as a delight. I believe we got recognized for our musical motivation and it was honestly the greatest things that could have happened to me. It is nice to earn some money now but the thing with us has always been to make music that satisfy our needs and express our creative sides.”

F-frontin’-Art

The band emerged from Peoria, Illinois, and its members are named in the Spinal Tap’s tradition: Chüd (vocal), Güüg (guitar) and R-üd (bass) who wonders in during the interview but then refuses to say much bar hello. Two years ago their debut ‘L.D.50’ presented a concept of their (parallel?) universe; it sounded progtastic but it was way too anything but. It is obvious that a lot of thought has gone into this, which suggests plenty of time off due to – what?

“I have to keep reminding myself what my motivation is and decision we make now are much more complex, record labels that’s invested huge amounts of money, whether my motivation is completely financially driven and where does art fit in all of this? I’m not a very good actor and can’t pretend to be somebody else for our fans; I believe they are smarter than that and if my motivations stray, our fans would figure it out. I think it is our level of sincerity that our fans appreciate.”

Very noble at the time when it is more important to go to a choreographer rather than learn a chord?

“Music industry has become, everybody can see it, very corporate and lost its edge with it. To me, even now, part of fun of what we do is not so much opposing myself to the way it works but learning how to do things inside of it. Make sure how to avoid being sucked in…

So, what is the secret, how do you balance commercial and artistic demands? Do you experience bringing your album in and have execs roll their eyes in wonderment – ‘How do we market this?’

“Yeah, you got it on the head but, it fits in with what our band is – an anomaly. Our relationship with the record label, that is really positive, I don’t really think our label understands us but they see it working and let us be, that benefits us. What worries us is that video-clips can cost twice as much as the whole album!”

Antagonize your friends and love your foes

‘The End Of All Things To Come’ offers another window into the band's soul that evokes the spirit of conceptuality without falling into a nostalgic trap. They share stylistic nuances with some legends…

“I appreciate you seeing that because a lot of people do not. I feel that more people understand that and start to respect… I believe that people started to dig we are a cerebral band and respect our thoughtfulness and there are overriding conceptual things about the band but what I can brag about our band is that we were able to do that without ostracising listeners and an audience that is not interested in a complete sonic picture we try to present.”

Songs do stand on their own. Still, with a touch of King Crimson-esque air…

“That’s one of the smart things we’ve done, not shoved anything down anybody’s throats. Smart as we try to act like we are or as smart as I want you to believe that I’m, we still have fun. We make fun of ourselves, there is a lot of humour that comes out in a lot of interviews… That tongue-in-cheek kind of playing with ourselves…”

(We have a quick, hearty laugh about it!)

“King Crimson are important to R-üp and me,” Spüg continues after a sip of coffee, “but I didn’t find about them until about two years ago. It wasn’t an early influence but ‘Red’ (1976) is one of my all-time favourite albums… Are you telling me it was one of Kurt Cobain’s favourite albums as well? Wow!”

“I am inspired by a lot of other artistic forms,” he admits, “be it films, paintings, literature, theatre… I find popular music has been disconnected from arts and segregated into this show-bizzy candy for eyes… Our expression is the result of David Lynch’s films as much of the late William Burroughs or Jean Paul Sartre.”

Before we get to cerebral, one of your new assignments is touring USA with Metallica?

“Yeah and it is funny because our manager told us, years before our contract, that one day we’ll be playing with Metallica. And it’s been on my mind for a long time and now – it is like a validation… The biggest hard-rocking band in the world and I can’t imagine a better opportunity for a band in our situation. We are very excited as we are excited about our show at Download Festival.”