Suicidal Tendencies: No Mercy for the Fool

Words: Brendan Crabb
Latest release: No Mercy Fool!/The Suicidal Family
Website: http://www.suicidaltendencies.com

Despite not yet releasing their much-anticipated new album, 2010 was still a busy year for Los Angeles crossover icons Suicidal Tendencies. The band released both No Mercy Fool!/The Suicidal Family (a collection of re-recordings of early material) and the Live at the Olympic Auditorium DVD during that 12-month span, to the delight of their dedicated fan base. With the band due to return to Australia in May, I spoke to always intriguing, livewire frontman Mike Muir about the progress of their next record, touring, his thoughts on the Internet’s effect on the music industry, the current status of his funk metal project Infectious Grooves and much more.

Q: Hey Mike, what’s new in the Suicidal Tendencies camp?
A: Well, we just finished touring the States and we’re taking some time off for the holidays and a few things like that. Then we start back up in April in Japan, doing some festivals there and then obviously coming to Australia in May.

Q: Are you going to be working on any new material during those few months off the road?
A: Well, (it’s) kind of a long story, but basically I’m having another kid and there’s a few people that have family situations, surgeries, things like that, so we’re taking a little bit of time off. Everybody’s getting back acclimated with their families and things like that.

Q: Do you think a new studio album from the band will see the light of day at some point in 2011?
A: That’s an interesting question and at this time, you know, if you would have probably put it in terms of five or ten years ago or something we’d say we’d have two, two-and-a-half records that are done that we’re eventually going to put out. The thing is now I don’t know what actual form that we will put them out in and stuff. It’s hard for me to answer questions, ‘cause everything’s kind of convoluted; it eventually gets to the point that it makes sense to some people and to the people that it does make sense to, it scares them. But you know, music is something that we’ve always said is not something to try to ‘fit in’ in life, and my dad always people who try to fit in are the ones who can’t stand out. Every record we did, we didn’t try to say, "oh, this is what’s going on, let’s do it". A lot of times we took a lot of criticism or whatever, because we didn’t do what other people were doing. (But) that wasn’t really our concern and that’s not why we started music. I really basically didn’t like what other people were doing, so I wasn’t going to mimic it, I was just going to do what I liked. I thought that I was maybe strange or different and so there probably wouldn’t be too many people who liked it, but I wasn’t really concerned about that. You know, when people do like it, it’s good and when people like it for the reason why I like it - I think that’s great. That’s a whole different situation… I think for us, it’s a lot of times, if you look back at what was big at certain times and someone put something on, and you laugh at it; "I can’t believe people listened to that and liked it", you know? For us, we’ve got records that are getting up to 30 years old and we still think they’re great and don’t sound dated or old or (from) a time period. For us, that’s… Music is more important that we do now, (from the perspective) that 10, 15 and 20 years from now, people that maybe aren’t born or people hear it for the first time will go, "wow, that’s killer". I think a lot of times people panic and they try to rush out music because they’re afraid that they won’t have an audience anymore for whatever reason. Whether it’s (because) stylistically it won’t be any good and because the stuff that we have is not really stylistically in-tune with what people are doing now, it doesn’t really matter. So when it comes out, even though some of it may be five or seven years old when it comes out, it’s going to be different than what people are listening to (at the moment). So we don’t have that concern.

Q: I spoke to Les Claypool from Primus recently, who much like Suicidal Tendencies has taken more than a decade between full-length studio albums of new material. He said he had no idea where the band’s next record would "fit" within the current musical landscape – is it a similar sentiment for you then?
A: Well, I think the difference for us is a lot of times people have a fan base and they’re trying to either get to that fan base or someone else’s. For us, we’re not really concerned about, you know, where do you try to get the music? I think the most important thing that I have found is, musically, is stuff that when I was young that someone liked so much they played it for me. "Dude, you have to hear this", you know? That’s the stuff that I remember hearing for the first time; it wasn’t on MTV or the radio. (Instead) someone saying, "woah man, have you heard this? Check this out, I’m coming over". I think that’s where music should be effective. A lot of times people get into, well not anymore because they don’t sell, but in the States, it was the SoundScan – how much did it sell the first week? I was always amazed, and I was going, "well, how many people are still listening to it five or ten years after it’s out?" That should be more important. So I think the great thing about music not selling is that you don’t have to get into that whole marketing thing and for a band like us… Well, you know what? It didn’t sell a million, but we’re not trying to sell a million, ‘cause if we tried to sell a million we would be doing different stuff, but that’s not why we’re doing it. Then it sounds like you’re making excuses through that, with people talking about where the bottom line is. You’re saying, "Dude, I just want to do what I do and if you don’t like it, you don’t like it. I don’t care". So it’s a weird thing to have to be in a position to defend yourself when you sell records with certain people, then defend yourself when you don’t sell a mass amount of records to other people. I don’t really want to be a politician.

Q: You mentioned people visiting friends’ houses to discover new music – that’s perhaps an activity that’s largely fallen by the wayside due to people finding other ways, predominantly via the Internet, to hear new music. Are you disappointed that many younger music fans especially aren’t having that experience now and don’t have to make more "effort" to hear something new?
A: I think when you’re as big as certain bands, obviously that’s just the way it’s going to be. Everybody is going to hear it; that goes back even before the Internet. If someone is super big, they’re going to hear it everywhere, whether it was the radio, MTV at the time or whatever. It’s going to be everywhere. But when someone hears something that they go, "you know what, this isn’t like anything else", you feel like you discovered something, it’s totally different and you want to share that – that’s great. Now, it’s kind of the misinformation highway (and) is just so easy just to click, click, click. There’s a friend of a friend that was in a band and they had their MySpace thing – this was a couple of years ago. He was talking, like, "oh, there’s all these people just telling me how much they love the band, we need to get back together and this and that". I go, "dude, they’re doing that to 40 other bands (laughs). It doesn’t mean anything. I’m not trying to be negative, but you’re hearing what you want to hear and that’s the case in life, not just music". They did a whole thing, got back together and there’s no one there. He was like, "I don’t understand it". I go, "You’ve got to understand the Internet – it doesn’t cost a penny for someone to say, ‘yeah, that’s cool, send me something free." You know what I mean? (laughs) That’s kind of the situation. Another friend of mine, he was telling this story about someone – he’s a good friend, I won’t mention his name but he’s in a band. Someone was talking about their record, saying "it’s a waste of money, blah, blah, blah". He told the dude, "tell him to send it fucking back to me, I’ll fucking pay him three times the amount of it and stuff because I don’t want fucking assholes like him listening to the music and this and that". The guy went back, and to make a long story short came back, and he said, "Send it back? I didn’t buy it. Why would I buy it?" (laughs) You know what I mean? "I don’t buy records". So even when they don’t buy it they’re talking shit and think that’s the whole Internet right now. It’s free and it’s safe.

Q: Obviously very popular and well-established bands such as Metallica will still sell plenty of albums in the future, but how do you feel about the greatly decreased record sales meaning there will be few, if any new bands coming through and selling million albums and becoming that successful?
A: Well, what I think is that it theoretically keeps bands like Metallica big. Just before we did the States tour we went to South America and we did a couple of really big festivals. Half the bands on there were bands that reformed within the past few years, who were big in the late ‘80s, early to middle-‘90s and stuff. There was a whole conversation with people about why that was and I said because there’s no new bands that are coming in that are big, because records don’t sell any more. So they have to go back to the old bands that used to be big; they’ve stopped being big, but it’s been so long that there’s nobody else who’s taken that place, because of the lack of sales. So you know, in theory it’s unfortunate because I don’t think there’s going to be many new bands that are really going to really break through and do something, because there’s just no… I wouldn’t say incentive, but it’s just real difficult, because how do you get people going over to someone’s house to play something when there’s 50 million things they can have in a second on the Internet? Why do you even check anything out, there’s just too much crap, you know? (laughs) It’s got to the point where it’s background (music). They have the discussion with the Warped Tour in the States, how when it was big and how great it was. The problem is a lot of these people, their parents will take their kids there, but they’re not going to any other shows. They’re just going to that because it’s an event and not going there because it’s music – it’s just an event. But they’re not going to next month go to any clubs or anything else to check out any other music. The only show they go to is that big show that their parents feel safe to take them to or whatever, it’s not motivating them to get into music and stuff. They’re just going to kind of go and that’s not what music was when I was young. It’s a whole different generation, so I sound old (laughs).

Q: (Laughs) Changing topics, Suicidal Tendencies were obviously at the forefront of fusing many different genres within the spectrum of heavy music. What’s your view on the current state of heavy music, whereby more and more cross-pollination of genres is occurring?
A: When we did our first record, all the punk fanzines said it sucked and it was metal. Then all the metal fanzines and magazines that touched it said it sucked, (because) it was punk. Then we did our second record, all the punk fanzines which said the first one sucked and was metal (then) said it was a "punk rock classic" and "how could they come out with this metal crap now?" So we always kind of took the abuse and really weren’t concerned about it and I think that bothered people even more. So I think what we did there wasn’t really an audience for, (but) we didn’t really care. A lot of the punk bands when we started, they bragged about selling five thousand copies, you know? Which I guess nowadays you can brag about again, but back then that was nothing. There wasn’t an audience there for it and we didn’t really care. I think with music in that situation, now people are doing things more based on what they think people want to hear and where their audience is and that type of situation. You look at it with MySpace and all that with people, they start off and they’ve got a band name, a logo, they’ve got this and that and they don’t even have a song, you know? (laughs) I think something’s wrong with that, it’s completely backwards. Everyone is like, "how do we get big?" And even with friends or family, people are like, can you ask him that? I’m like, "how do you get big?" Wow, why are you in a band? Do you want to be big or do you want to play music that no one else is doing, that you think is great and that you really love? Or do you want other people to love your music that you don’t like yourself? It’s a weird thing and you can’t explain it to people if they don’t get it.

Q: Well said. Now, the band has a long association with Australia. What can fans expect from this upcoming tour?
A: One of the things we’re going to be doing on this tour is playing a lot of the songs from the re-recordings we did for the Join the Army and No Mercy records. Obviously being there the first there in ’93 we never had a chance to play those. The second side is a lot of people who were at the shows we played last December weren’t even born in ’87, so for us that’s pretty exciting. We’re not trying to go back and relive the past, but it’s more something to say, "hey, you know what, you don’t have to be retro, you can go forward even with songs that are 20 years old or something and make them sound better than they ever had". To remind people of why they love the band so much and fall in love a little bit more, and surprise them. I think that’s one of the things we’ve experienced on the last tour, you go to people, they’re really excited because they haven’t seen you in a long time. Then afterwards they’re like, "fuck, oh man!" and are surprised (at) how much they liked it and stuff. Like we said, not to go backwards, but give them a kick in the ass to go forward. I think that’s the best thing.

Q: Is there much activity in the Infectious Grooves camp at all?
A: Oh, well actually last summer for the first time we went to Europe and played some festivals and we just played a huge festival in Brazil right before this tour started. The last show we did we played in L.A, (and we) haven’t played there in ten years. We’ve been doing a few shows and every time we do some shows we get a few more offers and it’s just the same thing, fitting it in between all the schedules and stuff. We’re going to Japan – never been to Japan, (but) we go there in May after the Suicidal tour in Australia. So yeah, we’re doing some stuff and having a lot of fun.

Q: Final question – any famous last words?
A: Any famous last words? Well, I guess McCartney’s got the most famous last words – "I’ll be back" (laughs). One way or another, dead or alive – I’ll be back (laughs).