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Considered against the world's most influential music, Mercury Rev albums lie somewhere between the Shaggs and the Beatles White Album. They've noodled and rocked and spaced-out and popped without ever quite making it into the mainstream. Even after ten years of orchestrating glorious guitar gems and cinematic surrealist rock, the group is still searching for stable ground, treading in obscurity and refusing to compromise art for the sake of popularity. |
But with the release of Deserter's Songs last year,
Mercury Rev are finally homing in on their niche. Moving out of the
city and their former major label home at Sony, permanent Rev
fixtures Sean "Grasshopper" Mackiowiak and
Jonathan Donahue have divested themselves of rock
& roll's debilitating trappings (drug abuse, nervous
breakdowns, in-fighting), and have delivered to the public a
handful of inspired, eclectic, psychedelic songs that comprise an
undisputed classic album. Singer/guitarist Grasshopper spoke from
his home in Kingston, N.Y., about the long and winding road that
led Mercury Rev to the Other Side.
Deserter's Songs is winding up on countless "Best
of 1998" lists. Ten years after you formed the group, why do you
think people are just getting into it? What has changed that has
solidified the band with the revolving door policy?
We changed labels, we moved upstate. And we've just gone through a
lot of stuff, like relationships with people, some of our friends
passing away. Going through that, we were just trying to keep our
chins up and keep making music. You know, the hope of the music --
and life -- to keep on going.
You guys have always been revered as an influential band,
though Mercury Rev's never been the most popular of groups. Is that
something that you strive for?
I mean, we try to do music that's timeless and that we like. With
this record we just tried to make an honest, romantic, heartfelt
record in our own world and to make our own music without too many
expectations. It's great that people are starting to get into it. I
think a lot more people would like it if they got a chance to hear
it.
One sign of popularity is hooking up with name-brand
producers. And you guys have worked with the Chemical Brothers a
couple of times, right?
They had seen us play a couple of times in London and one time they
saw us we had quadrophonic sound -- we had speakers in the back of
the hall, so the sound was all around. They dug that, so they
started doing it. Their manager called us after See You On the
Other Side and asked us if we wanted to play on one track on
their new record and so we did that. And when we finished
Deserter's Songs we sent it over to them and asked them if
there was anything that sort of caught their ear, so they remixed
the "Delta Sun [Bottleneck Stomp]" song.
There were periods before Deserter's Songs when
you went into a monastery. What was that like?
It was weird. You would have silence for long periods of time. It
was a settling experience. You can go there for like a month and
just go to seminars and teachings every day, and people come from
all over the world and sort of give lectures and stuff and you do
chores. Everybody helps clean up the food and everything. Long
periods of silence. You meditate a lot.
Do you feel like it simplified your life or made it more
complex?
Both. It definitely simplified it, but there was a lot of time to
think about things. I sort of pushed a lot of things out of my
mind. I was forced to come to grips and work things out.
Do you think that silence sort of translated into the
spatial, atmospheric stuff on Deserter's
Songs?
Yeah, I think it's that and being up here in the Catskills
mountains.
You seem totally into nature. I know the beginnings of
Mercury Rev stemmed from you and Jonathan making soundtracks to
nature films and other shows on television as a hobby. Do you think
that's where the sort of theatrical aspect in the music comes
from?
I think so. We didn't know technically about music and how to talk
about it so much. So Jonathan would try to communicate with a
picture or some kind of visual thing. We'd draw up these charts to
songs -- what visual images to put in to each part. And his words
would get very visual with their images.
You said you wanted this album to be timeless and romantic
and heartfelt, so what sort of things inspired you?
The experiences that we'd been through.
They seem like they've been somewhat painful.
Yes, they were. And some of the record is emotional and there's
pain in some of it, but you try to turn it into beauty.
Are you going to do anymore solo work?
I'd like to at some point. I want to do sort of record like
"Grasshopper Plays His Favorite Standards."
Like jazz standards?
Some. And some older songs and stuff.
That's funny that you'd say that, because I read that your
old label told you that the song "Everlasting Arm" would be a hit
if it were 1940. Who introduced you to all of this old music you're
into?
I had an uncle who worked at Atlantic Records. He used to give me a
lot of stuff, a lot of [John] Coltrane and Ornette Coleman and
Miles Davis records. Books by Jim Carroll. All kinds of stuff.
So, what's next?
I'd love to write a book. I'd love to be in a film. And we want to
do a lot more soundtracks and stuff.
Go back to your roots.
Yeah, but on a much bigger scale.
HEIDI SHERMAN(January 7, 1999)