Let me first see if I get your
concept right. You are a band from Liverpool, England (the home of Merseybeat
and The Beatles) and you play music inspired by Frank Zappa. Are you a tribute
band or are you just inspired by Frank Zappa and creates your own sound
?
When the band started
in 1990 the words "Tribute Band" didn't exist. We decided to play Zappa music
as a challenge because it contained lots of different styles and instruments.
There are so many songs and pieces to choose from, some of it had never been
played live before. Often we would take a song and rearrange it to suit our
band line-up, often we would incorporate themes and tunes from other bands we
liked. That is still an important part of our make up.
This is an archive based interview
also intended for the fans you get well after both you and I have passed away so
let's go straight to your releases. Please give us your views/some words on your
releases, starting with.......
It was never our
intention to make records, we considered the whole thing as a live project, we
didn't see the point of going in the studio to re-record Zappa music. But some
people started to suggest we should, that it was valid and in some ways
different to the original music. So some guys in Germany persuaded us to record
our versions "live in the studio" at the end of our European tours. So that is
how "Say Cheese and Thank You" from 1993 an "Mülm" from 1994 came about. Both
of those albums we recorded in a studio near Stuttgart, with minimal overdubs
(mainly vocals and the occasional harmony line) The band line-ups were quite
different on each of those albums, totally different rhythm sections. The 1993
band played a 6 week tour with The Grandmothers who were original member of The
Mothers of Invention. Jimmy Carl Black began singing with us during that tour.
In 1994 we had Ike Willis fronting the band, so we chose songs to feature
him.
In 1996 we released a
live album called "Feel The Food" which contained material from different
line-ups up to 1995. We thought that might be the last release, it was kind of
like our live anthology project.
By the time of
"Frankincense" (from 1997) and MufFinZ (from 1998) we had changed and evolved
into a different line-up playing different songs, those albums reflect what we
were playing at that time, As was normal, they were recorded at the end of a
tour.
"God Shave the Queen"
from 1999 marked the beginning of a new sound altogether, mainly because the
whole of the original band had left, there was a new lead guitar player with a
totally different style, the repertoire changed considerably. The whole vibe
and smell of the band changed, that was all recorded live in Germany.
That was your last studio album. You
have also released some live albums since the dawn of the millenium and you have
done 1000 gigs. Is your focus now solely on live gigs and live albums or can we
also expect a studio album ? What is your plans for the coming months and year
?
The last "studio" album
was "More Songs From The Campfire" but again it was recorded live in the
studio.
Our focus was always on
playing live. We got the chance to play with members of the Royal Liverpool
Philharmonic Orchestra, we called that project "When Worlds Collide" because it
featured a rock band playing with a classical ensemble. That was more
demanding, we had to learn to play with a conductor in a classical environment.
We record the music live in the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool and that was
released on CD.
You play a lot of gigs. Why should
we go to one of your gigs and what can we expect from you (stage and music wise)
?
You released a live album from the
Cavern club, which I guess is not the same club as The Beatles gigged in. How is
life and the music scene in Liverpool these days ?
We have played at The
Cavern many times, several of those shows were recorded and one from 2002 was
released. It is not the same club that I used to go to as a young man, the city
decide to redevelop the area, eventually they built a new Cavern on the site of
the original one. It is not the same atmosphere as the old place. The music
scene in Liverpool has always been very vibrant, the musicians move around and
play in a variety of bands and projects. There is a band in every street.
After a 6 year break
our original guitarist and drummer rejoined the band, and since then most of the
original members have played occasional gigs or tours. It has almost come full
circle, so if you see or hear these later line-ups they are much closer to what
the original band was about.
In 20 years there have
been 30 musicians in the band, including 9 original Zappa musicians as
guests
1993 - Jimmy Carl
Black, Don Preston, Bunk Gardiner
1994 - Ike Willis
2002 - Napoleon Murphy
Brock, Mike Keneally
2010 - Denny Walley,
Robert Martin, Ray White
The band has always
been a part time project, the players all work in other bands. We take each
year as it comes, some years we have been very active and played dozens of gigs,
some years there is less activity.
To wrap up this interview, is there
anything you want to add to this interview ?
At the moment we are
working with Denny Walley, as well as playing in the Zappa bands he worked with
Captain Beefheart, so we are incorporating some of that music into the set.
Playing Beefheart material is probably more demanding than a lot of the Zappa
stuff, but remember, we do this as a challenge while trying to have fun. That
is the bottom line.
Thank you to Roddie for this interview
Their PA profile is http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=2709" rel="nofollow - and their homepage is http://www.muffinmen.co.uk/muffinz/welcome_home.html" rel="nofollow -