Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Q&A Outtakes from a conversation with Buzz Osborne of Melvins
Posted by Chad Radford @ChadRad on Wed, Apr 25, 2012 at 2:24 PM
Melvins play the Loft tonight (Wed., April 25) with Unsane. $17. 9 p.m. 1374 West Peachtree St. 404-885-1365.
If you missed the Q&A with Buzz Osborne of Melvins fame that’s running in CL this week, With 'The Bulls & The Bees,' Melvins make corporate rock at its finest, stop reading now. Check that out first, then come back and continue reading this.
In our interview, Osborne weighs in on everything from the stellar new Melvins EP, which pretty much trumps everything the group has done with the four-piece lineup, and some fans’ reaction to the group’s alliance with Scion to release said EP for free. Fitting our talk into the real estate of a printed page called for some tough edits. The following outtakes are bits of our conversation that were too good to let lie on the cutting room floor.
On the subject of being weird …
“Weird is our middle name! I've always been about the more weird, the more perverse, and the more peculiar you can be, the better. I don't think you can be weird enough when it comes to music. At one time people thought Jerry Lee Lewis was too weird. Now he's an oldies act.”
On Trevor Dunn and the forthcoming "Melvins Lite" album, Freak Puke…
“Trevor plays a lot of avant-garde jazz, but he also plays a lot of traditional jazz, too … Actually, I guess I don't really know how traditional the stuff is — I'm certainly no expert. But I've always loved the Frank Zappa quote: “Rock musicians play three chords to thousands of people, and jazz musicians play thousands of chords to three people!” [laughs]. We’re trying to put the new album right in the middle: 500 chords played to 500 people. [NOTE: I wasn't able to verify that Frank Zappa said this. If you know where this quote comes from, please drop us a line in the comments section.]
- Mackie Osborne
A lot of that stuff kind of blows past people and they don't hear it for what it is, but oh well. You can lead a gift horse to water but you can't look in its' mouth, right?
Chad Radford: There is a progression with Melvins’ music, but it's difficult to see it as it’s happening. Looking back at all of the records you've done, you can get a picture of how much you guys are capable of doing and how far you've come, but it's not pop music of any kind, and I can see how the change could go over people’s heads.
It’s not pop in the least. Pop music is popular! That's the key to our longevity: not being popular. Who knows? If I had a bunch of fuck you money in the bank I might decide to not do anything anymore, you know? That’s what most people do, or they just become lazy and blame the music industry, which I've never understood. I think millionaire platinum-selling artists should work harder than everybody else.
Maybe when you get to the millionaire platinum-selling status you feel like you don't have to work so hard anymore …
That's the spirit! That’s what Steve Jobs thought, right? “I don't have to do anything!” Meanwhile Bill Gates is still putting in at least 40 hours a week! But, they're not the same kind of animal — they're not artisans. That's an industrial thing and I'm sure they feel a kinship with the people that work for them. Me, as an artist, it's a different kind of thing. It's my job to go out and do this sort of stuff. People that have the ability, and have made millions of dollars as a result of their fans should be going out and showing people how this all can work.
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