The Mooney Suzuki – Interview

For the third record, The Mooney Suzuki teamed up with teen pop producers The Matrix (Avril Lavigne, Liz Phair) best known for penning Avril’s multi-platinum hits. Eschewing the raw, stripped-down minimalism of previous Mooney Suzuki recordings, the band, inspired by The Matrix’s modern-day “wall of sound,” set out to fashion an unabashedly colorful and ornate new sound: MAXIMALISM. Accustomed to completing an album in less than a week, the Mooney Suzuki spent a full 4 months with The Matrix in LA, exploding forth with a dense, layered and kaleidoscopic collection of songs and sensations: an aural experience.

The resulting album, Alive & Amplified, erupts with brand new sounds and ideas, indelibly marked by the band’s patented sass and swagger. Tracks include: “Primitive Condition,” “Alive & Amplified,” “Legal High,” “New York Girls,” “Shake That Bush Again,” “Sometimes Somethin’,” “Loose ‘n’ Juicy,” “Hot Sugar,” “Messin’ In The Dressin’ Room,” and “Naked Lady.”

We interview singer/songwriter Sammy James!

I love the record.

Thank you.

It looks like you guys will finally shake the garage band moniker.

I hope so.

Did you know this was what you were looking for or did it happen in the studio?

There is always the vision that combines with the reality of your situation. There are elements of both there. There are things we always wanted to do and were only able to do on this record. We stumbled on things and that became part of the sound. Then you get a new vision when you are there with the wet paint on your hands when you are putting it together that you wouldn’t have thought of when you are in the middle of the process.

This is one of the rare albums that I have been listening to everyday. You can’t listen to it and not sing along. It feels like I’ve had it for a long time.

Right on.

I have to ask, is there is any Kiss influence.

No. I’ve never understood Kiss. When I was really little I knew that I wanted to know about Kiss because they were supposed to be bad. I eventually got a record and I didn’t like it. But as a musician you try and understand all music. I’ve tried to figure it out about Kiss. I’m not a fan. It gets me a little frustrated because I’ve heard that from a few other people about the album that they hear a Kiss thing going on. I’m not crazy about that idea. I think what people find that is like Kiss is coming in on the upbeat. You know that (sings a beat).

It might be that feel good vibe.

I guess that too. I guess it’s the certain amount of exuberance. On the other hand we have come into possession of hundreds of Creem magazines from the ‘70s and brought them in a suitcase to L.A. when we worked on the record. So when we weren’t doing anything in the studio we were reading these hundreds of magazines and they set the esthetic boundaries for what we were doing. As long as what we did on this record would fit in Creem magazine—and Kiss fits in there. But we were thinking more Cheap Trick.

I didn’t mean it as a slight.

No, you know I know that. And seriously, I do take it as a compliment. I have heard that Kiss fans like us because we sound like Kiss. So obviously there is nothing wrong with that.

I think you hit in on the head with exuberance. I don’t think many other bands are doing that these days.

Yeah, unapologetic exuberance is not big these days.

We had an advance of Madden 2005 and that is the first time I head “Alive & Amplified” and I didn’t know who the song was by and literally the next day I got the record advance.

Yeah, we’re on that and some other racing game, too.

Burnout 3.

Yeah, something like that. I’m more of an old school gamer.

Is the songwriting natural?

I think the writing, I don’t want to say less natural, but the most natural thing is to sit and fuck around on the guitar. But to take those free form ideas and putting them on the track and emotion is not unnatural but you have to work on it and focus. Because if you are just fucking around any idea could be the best idea in the world but if you don’t put it into a song the potential disappears— if you don’t define it. Sometimes you stumble on things that work better.

It sounds impossible to write “Alive & Amplified” sitting alone somewhere strumming on guitar.

That song was impossible to write alone. I wrote it with the Matrix, the production team. We co-wrote three songs with them and “Alive & Amplified” was one of them. It was a difficult chore. To go from the sole songwriter to write with all these people was tough. But we were looking for some X-factor and have something pulled out of us that never came out before.

“Shake That Bush Again” rocks—it reminds of Hendrix.

We are huge Hendrix fans. There is a lot of Hendrix in what we do.

Maybe it’s the nostalgia. I wonder why people can’t rock like they used to rock.

I know they do not do that.

I thought “finally someone knows how to rock.” There is so much filler out there… you have no filler. How hard was that?

We did have a lot of songs that sucked; we just didn’t put those on the record. (We laugh) We had as much filler as anyone else, more filler I think. I fell like I have to generate more than most people. Hendrix’s ratio might be 1 out of 10 are awesome, but for me I have to throw away 99 pieces of garbage for the one that I think was good enough to represent us.

At least you found those ones. So you must have written a lot.

Oh yeah, we’ve got a lot of bad songs in the toilet.

Do you ever get worried that you are writing a bunch of bad songs and wonder if something good will ever come along?

I’m always amazed that if you are worked on something you like and you are stuck on a part or need something, all the work I’ve done in the past the right idea will come out of that. “Shake That Bush Again” was an instrumental idea and I was trying to write lyrics to it. I had a song a long time ago where I hated the song but liked a few of the lines so I used those.

How has the reaction been to the record?

It’s weird. The people that are the most positive are the ones who weren’t familiar with us before. The ones that were fans before are miffed because there is such a dramatic change. I think the concept of working with the Matrix got to them. To me the songs are the same as anything else we’ve done before. “Primitive Condition” and “Loose & Juicy” could go on any Mooney Suzuki album. Maybe it’s the female vocals on “Alive & Amplified” turns them off. I think we had a sound that people liked. I’ve had that feeling myself where I liked an artist and they changed and then I didn’t like the change. But as long as you have more than one fan you can’t please them all. It bothers me when someone that has been really supportive of us doesn’t like what we are doing. I’m really upset about that. I was really conscience of that when we wanted to branch out and try something new. I knew that I wanted to be pleasing to the fans who liked us before out of appreciation.

I can understand how a Metallica fan could be close minded about change but…

Garage Rock fans are probably the only people less open minded than Metallica fans.

+ Charlie Craine