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Bob Mould's career in songwriting with
legendary punk trio Hiisker Dii, '90s alterna
tive band Sugar and as a solo artist has had a
common theme that is itself a golden thread
connecting all great rock music: your life is
important. Through the adversity of having to
help pioneer the then-uncharted punk touring
circuit, Mould, along with bandmates Grant
Hart and Greg Norton, always wrote songs that
were personal anthems easily applied to the
listener's own experiences.
Hiisker Dii's 1984 double album, Zen
Arcade, traced the movements of a Holden
Caulfield-esque protagonist whose story com
bined the melodic chime of classic rock with
the blistering angst of hardcore, and after
that, rock music was literally not the same. In
his new memoir, See a Little Light: The Trail of
Rage and Melody, Mould examines his experi
ences with those bands, his struggles with his
sexuality and other trials he has faced as an
indie-rock workaholic.
One wonders if, while etching a path out of
his band's home of Minneapolis into the world,
he ever expected that his work would be so
important to so many people...
"I think it's a surprise for a while, and then
I think you start to believe your own press,"
Mould laughs. "With Hiisker Dii, I felt we were
always pretty fucking good. Especially being
at a place like SST [Records] where you're
never better than second banana, because it's
always Black Flag first—let me rephrase that:
always Greg Ginn first—you're not really used
to shining. And when you start to reach a big
ger audience, and people start talking about
it on a bigger scale, it's all a bit of a surprise
at first. And then you go, 'Hmm. Maybe we are
pretty good.'
"It's easier when you look back to see
when the moments happen," he continues.
"When you're in it, you're just plowing ahead,
100 miles per hour. You don't really stop to
consider the importance of what you're doing.
I knew in the time between two Hiisker Dii
records, Metal Circus and Zen Arcade, that we
were at a moment where we could really make
it important."
Currently, Mould is touring in support of
his book, but also allowing himself some room
to breathe. "I'm 50 years old; it's nice to take
a little bit of time to enjoy the benefits of
everything that I've done," he says. "I may
not tour as hard. I may not write as many
songs, but I spent three years working on that
book; that was a hell of a lot of work. When I
wake up in the morning, the first thing I think
of is: 'What am I doing today with music? Is
it an office day? Is it a writing day? Is it a
rehearsal day? Do I have to be at the airport?'
I pretty much jump out of bed and am doing
something immediately that has to do with my
work. I'll always be like that, I think." [Jeff
Tobias]
Finishing one of Terrapin's seasonal pump
kin ales in the backyard of Will Cullen Hart's
home, it occurs to me that I could probably
sit here and say nothing at all. Talking to Hart
and Bill Doss of The Olivia Tremor Control is
like that—a perpetual motion machine mob
bing about a vacuum. Spiraling essentially out
of nothing, you can find yourself digressively
discussing The Beatles, minimal composer
Alvin Lucier, or Hart's cat, which taught itself
to flush toilets.
But it is at the point where Doss and Hart
start talking about the stereoscopic vision
of the sperm whale that I realize the men
are essentially talking between themselves
about themselves—and no less, their creative
process:
"Stereoscopic? It's two images that you put
in a View-Master, and when you look at both
of them at the same time, it gives you the
impression of a 3D image. With eyes on both
sides, whales see two separate images in one,
too," Doss says. "And your brain makes that
happen," Hart adds, completing his partner's
sentiment.
And Doss and Hart do this constantly,
finishing each other's sentences, expanding
on the other's wild abstractions. In fact, it
wouldn't be much of a simplification to say
The Olivia Tremor Control operates much like
a stereoscopic device. Of the two chief song
writers, it has been said that Bill Doss is the
poptimist—the fan of The Zombies and The
13th Floor Elevators who crafts the three-min
ute sunshine pop goodness—while Hart is the
experimentalist: "...fuck it up and mess with
► continued on p. 19
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