W
ith Pete Townshend and Dave Grohl
among his biggest fans, Bob Mould
spent the 1980s co-fronting the
highly inf luential Hüsker Dü, before forming his
own group, Sugar. Now into a second spell as
a solo artist, the 58-year-old performs four UK
shows this month.Why did you relocate from San Francisco to
Berlin in 2017?
It’s a wonderful city that I had visited many times as
a touring musician. I have a lot of friends here and
I love its culture.Did the new environment inspire the apparent
optimism of your new album, Sunshine Rock?
Yeah, in a way it did. The previous two records were
both fairly dark, following the losses of my parents
one after the other. The title track was written direct
from experiences in Berlin, and when it arrived
I knew it would be a good way to go.Juxtaposing some of your gruffest vocal
performances in recent times with the
addition of an eighteen-piece orchestra, it’s an
interesting record.
The strings are not overly lush, they fit really well
and add a lot of colour and emotion to the songs.
Hold it up against the more direct, visceral vocal
approach and I believe it’s pretty varied.The press biography states that you’re still
“trying to make great rock albums because
there’s not that many [of them] any more”.
I’ve been blessed to work in this medium for four
decades, and been told that so often rock is dead.
And times and technology have certainly changed
the art form. Right now synthetic rhythms and
sounds are very popular – and I love that stuff – but
rock music is guitar, bass and drums, and I don’t
see too many people doing that.What prompted you to write such a moving
tribute to Pete Shelley the day after his death?
The Buzzcocks were a pivotal band for me. Pete
wrote romantic lyrics, and as a confused young
gay man I loved the gender-neutrality of his words.
They opened up the possibility of writing a love
song to me.A blog entry from November revealed that you
were producing an album for “one of America’s
premier rock bands” that you couldn’t name.
Can you tell us now?
No, that’s still under wraps. They’re from the East
coast and we have a lot of things in common, but
that’s all I can say for a month or two.Does your current live set include songs by
Hüsker Dü and Sugar?
Oh, absolutely. Sunshine Rock is the third album fromthis configuration, so we lean
pretty heavily on that, but
it addresses my songbook
from start to finish. There are
plenty of older, deeper cuts.People tend to mellow in
middle age. Does that make
it harder to remain driven
and, where necessary,
angry?
I’ve mellowed in my personal life, but in
a professional sense the aggression is still there.
And anger is always good as long as it’s for the right
reasons. All of us have a right to be angry with the
leaders of the world and the way they’re behaving
right now.When you f irst met Dave Grohl and he
admitted ripping you off for the past f ifteen
years, how did you respond?
I replied: “I know” [laughs].That’s all you needed to say, right?
Yeah. But it’s cool, it’s all good. And since that
meeting he’s been very, very generous with his
bright light. He occasionally shines it in my
direction, and I’m always grateful for that. DLThe first date is in London on March 14.Bob Mould
Expect Hüsker Dü, Sugar and solo-career songs, including “plenty of older, deeper cuts”.
MOULD IN
MICROCOSM
Bob was born in
New York in 1960.
His autobiography,
See A Little Light: The
Trail Of Rage And
Melody, was published
in 2011.
Support on these
dates comes from the
Berlin-based trio Pabst.102 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
“Rock (^) m
usic (^) is
guitar,
bass
and (^) dru
ms,
and I (^) do
n’t (^)
see too
many (^) p
eople
doing th
at
[right (^) n
ow].”