here<\/a>). In keeping with Devo\u2019s retro-robotic weirdness, the tour is called Mutate, Don\u2019t Stagnate.<\/p>\n(Devo today includes Mothersbaugh and Casale, along with lead guitarist Bob Mothersbaugh, brother of Mark and another founding member, with drummer Jeff Friedl and Josh Hager on keys and guitars.)<\/p>\n
Mark Mothersbaugh is a noted visual artist, and the CEO of Mutato Muzika, a music production company. He composed (among others) the theme song and other music for Pee-wee\u2019s Playhouse, 13 years of Nickelodeon\u2019s Rugrats cartoon, and the scores for many, many films, including Wes Anderson\u2019s Bottle Rocket, The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.<\/p>\n
More recently, he created the music for Thor: Ragnarok, Cocaine Bear and The Minecraft Movie (he\u2019s currently working on the sequel).<\/p>\n
The Devo story begins, and still hinges on, a theory that contradicts evolution \u2013 rather, humans are de-volving, adapting to chaos, calamity and conformity by simply accepting everything they\u2019re handed by governments and by advertisers.<\/p>\n
Casale and Mothersbaugh both trace it back to the events of May 4, 1970. They were young, impressionable students at Kent State University when four people \u2013 two of them personal friends of Casale\u2019s \u2013 were shot and killed by the Ohio National Guard during an anti-war protest on campus.<\/p>\n
The\u2019s the sort of thing that will point your mind in a different direction.<\/p>\n
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St. Pete Catalyst: With all the success you\u2019ve had in more recent years, why was it important for you to re-visit Devo now?<\/p>\n
Mark Mothersbaugh: Because it\u2019s still relevant, is our feeling. Matter of fact, I feel like what we had to say is more relevant now than it was 50 years ago.<\/p>\n
I feel different now than I did 50 years ago, in a way. Fifty years ago it was the \u201870s, and it was Nixon, and Vietnam, and I was a student, and we were protesting the war in Vietnam. The governor just got tired of it, so he said \u201cLoad up your guns and shoot \u2018em.\u201d And they did. They shot over 30 kids, and killed four of them, and it changed my kind of optimism about the world. And it did the other guys too.<\/p>\n
We were trying to figure out what had happened, and what was going on, and came to the conclusion that humans might be the only unnatural species on the planet.<\/p>\n
We wanted to talk about that. And it was the kind of thing where if you talk about it too blatantly, people just think you\u2019re crazy. But we did talk about it, and it was part of our message.<\/p>\n
But we also realized that the way that people hear things and accept things is through subversion. It\u2019s like, the people that are the most successful at changing the way you think use subversive techniques, like Madison Avenue, for instance. They\u2019re able to get you to buy shitty cars, shitty clothes, shitty food and be happy about it.<\/p>\n
We thought well, that\u2019s the techniques we\u2019re going to use. And that\u2019s why we got into music and doing live shows like that.<\/p>\n
As far as how I feel now: I remember when I was 20, in 1970. I remember thinking \u201cI wish I would have been born 50 years earlier. I wish I had been alive during the \u201820s, in Europe. I could have been in Berlin, or Paris, and been around for the Futurists, and Bauhaus, and Dadaists and Ballet M\u00e9canique and all these amazing art movements that were happening then.\u201d<\/p>\n
And I was too young to realize what was happening. Artists were responding to a dark time in human history. That that was the period where Hitler and the Fascists were coming to life. And the \u201870s was something similar. It inspired punk rock, and new wave, and a lot of interesting pop art like conceptual art, all became inspired by that time period.<\/p>\n
And I think maybe we\u2019re at that again. We\u2019re at that point. Where I used to think everything was just devolving and going downward. There are people that think that, you know, but I feel like maybe what\u2019s in reality is there\u2019s a constant struggle between evolution and de-evolution. That\u2019s what I feel now. I feel maybe that\u2019s what\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n
Because there were times in the last 30, 40 years that I was proud of my country. \u00a0And we did things that I never thought could possibly happen. And I saw things in the world that were very positive and optimistic.<\/p>\n
And then it got dark again. I think it\u2019s a time now where artists, they\u2019re usually the first to respond to social injustice, for instance. And I think if Devo has a purpose now, it\u2019s maybe to help inspire or invigorate those kids that are going to be making art now that five years from now, you and I are going to go \u201cThat is so amazing. Why didn\u2019t I think of that?\u201d<\/p>\n
Right now, capitalism and greed have once again risen to the top. But I\u2019m hoping that things change again.<\/p>\n
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You had the devolution message, but you also had to go out there and be \u201centertainers\u201d for people who may not have cared about why Devo existed in the first place. Did you think \u201cWell, this is the only way we can get the message across\u201d? <\/p>\n
Well, that\u2019s what I\u2019m saying. We had come to the conclusion that subversion was the most successful way to infiltrate people\u2019s minds. And that\u2019s the way Madison Avenue did it, for instance, or that\u2019s the way propaganda works. And we thought, we have a message for people \u2026 sure, they\u2019re going to buy an album and hear a song that\u2019s fairly shallow called \u201cWhip It,\u201d and they\u2019ll dance to it. But then maybe they\u2019ll buy the album and listen to the other songs, and they might hear \u201cFreedom of choice is what you got\/Freedom from choice is what you want.\u201d<\/p>\n
And they might go, \u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d So it might make them think. It\u2019s just been the methodology we chose.<\/p>\n
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You\u2019re on the road now playing to, I assume, lots of young people. Is the message getting through, or are they just going \u201cHey, \u2018Whip It\u2019 was a cool song. Let\u2019s dance!\u201d<\/p>\n
I think there\u2019s a higher percentage of people that get the message. I think kids are smart. They hear a band that they like and they go \u201cWell, who influenced that band?\u201d And they look it up on their phone, or on their computer, and it says \u201cThey listened to Nirvana.\u201d Then they listen to Nirvana and go \u201cWho did Nirvana listen to?\u201d<\/p>\n
They look that up and they go \u201cOh, Nirvana covered Devo songs; Nirvana were big fans of Devo\u2019s music.\u201d And they show up at our shows. And there\u2019s more kids singing along than I\u2019ve ever seen before. I\u2019m singing and I\u2019m watching them, and they\u2019re singing along with me. I find that interesting.<\/p>\n
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When my kids were little, I remember Rugrats coming on the TV and seeing your name in the credits. And saying \u201cHey \u2013 I know that name!\u201d And then you were doing Wes Anderson movies. How did all that come to pass?<\/p>\n
I just love writing music. And I think it\u2019s because I was born legally blind. And nobody knew it. I was almost 8 years old when I finally got an eye test, and they said \u201cOh \u2013 he can\u2019t see the big E on the eye chart.\u201d Somehow I\u2019d been walking to school every day. I\u2019d gone all the way through second grade without being able to see past six inches from my face.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d be in the living room playing, and I\u2019d hear a noise in the direction of where I knew the door was. Even though I couldn\u2019t see it. The door would open, and I\u2019d see a blur of color that was like pink, and I knew that was my grandma\u2019s coat. But I couldn\u2019t see her: I could just see light, dark and color.<\/p>\n
But my handicap put me in a situation where \u2026 I get scripts from people, and while I\u2019m reading them I start hearing music. And oftentimes it\u2019s music that ends up becoming orchestrated, with a hundred-piece orchestra, and it goes in the film. It\u2019s just the way my brain works.<\/p>\n
When Devo started slowing down, in the mid \u201880s, Paul Reubens had offered me a job scoring a TV show for him, called Pee-wee\u2019s Playhouse. I\u2019d been going on tour for the last six years before that.<\/p>\n
He sent me a videotape on Monday. On Tuesday, I wrote 12 songs. On Wednesday, I recorded them. On Thursday, I sent a tape from L.A. to New York; on Friday, they\u2019d mix it into the final mix of the show, and on Saturday we\u2019d watch it on TV. Monday, he\u2019d send me another tape.<\/p>\n
I said \u201cSign me up for this job. I just love the idea that I\u2019ll be constantly writing music.\u201d I put in little bits of Devo songs, or hints of other things. And I got to work with the Residents and all these other interesting artists during that time period.<\/p>\n
When I saw Rugrats, I really respected the people that created the show. And I liked the way the Rugrats looked, and the way that they all talked to each other like adults, and the adults didn\u2019t know what they were saying. And they were ugly; they weren\u2019t cute kids. Their heads looked like gonads, actually. I found that all very humorous.<\/p>\n
Wes Anderson, when I worked with him, he was one of the artists that reminded me of when we were putting Devo together. Working with him on Bottle Rocket, his first movie. He just kind of had that attention to detail and storyline, and he was very confident in what he was doing. We complemented each other really well.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Again, with everything you have on your plate, you felt Devo was worth re-visiting \u2026<\/p>\n
Devo was where it all started, and I feel like all the people that were involved in it, and all of us who are still here, we created something. And we\u2019ve all made permutations of Devo. And I think a lot of my music that I write is influenced by the way that our thoughts came together when we were in our early, idealistic 20s.<\/p>\n
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