The Mooney Suzuki
Slow It Down to Speed It Up
2008-02-15
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For The Mooney Suzuki, slowing down had never really been on the agenda. Looking back to their genesis in 1996, you’d be hard pressed to find an instance where they even took a breath. Rising out of the New York Garage revival of the late ‘90s, it seems like the Mooneys have had speed on their mind the entire time, working their lightning-paced shows and unrelenting brand of rock while celebrating the fact they’re allowed to do what they love and contribute to the musical styles that made a difference to them. Having long admired the title of “The hardest working band in the world,” The Mooney Suzuki set out to become just that, and their love for playing and crafting new music shows the conviction behind that desire.
Speaking about their new album Have Mercy (Elixia Records), Mooney Suzuki frontman Sammy James Jr. gave insight into the band’s momentum for the album and the future, saying: “When you release a new record you want to get something down, let something out. In the past, looking back at our old records, we’d get that stuff out and be like, ‘Cool, now I get to do this.’ You just move on to the next thing you want to do.” And with Have Mercy, that’s what they got to do. After the exhaustion caused by major label woes and the over the top, “maximalist” sound of their previous album Alive and Amplified, The Mooney Suzuki found themselves looking to a future that didn’t seem quite as certain anymore. Having completed their contract with Columbia, The Mooneys were moving on to V2, a label that was soon to be rife with problems.
“It gets harder and harder and harder to do anything in the music industry,” Sammy professes. “People who buy records aren’t buying in the ‘40 minutes of music on a compact disc’ format anymore; it’s in a decline. Now you have your songs on video games, or ringtone versions or whatever. There are so many other ways that people can consume and enjoy the medium these days, and the whole 40-minute CD around which the entire music industry is based is in a decline, which causes problems.”
Nowhere was this decline more apparent than at V2, a label in disarray that proved a very frustrating point about the money-laden concerns of the music industry today.
“Everything about making money in the music industry is in a decline, which stresses people out,” Sammy explains. “People are getting fired and people are afraid of getting fired, so your band gets moved down on the priority list and that causes problems. Our record was originally supposed to come out on V2, but V2 went out of business, and there’s definitely an obstacle you have to overcome when your record label goes out of business.”
But overcome they did, and Have Mercy was the result. With the emblematic title reflecting the difficulties of these past couple years for the band, The Mooney Suzuki’s fourth full-length release has them taking a step back from the overwhelming intensity of Alive and Amplified and walking into a more organic and stripped down sound while maintaining the band’s trademark energy. Over the course of 10 tracks, the band receives some much needed catharsis via Have Mercy’s more relaxed approach and straightforward longing for the rock ‘n’ roll heyday of their idols.
“We’ve always been an over the top, ‘knob to 10’ kind of band, and Alive and Amplified was us going all the way to 11,’” explains Sammy. “Once you get as maximum as possible, you come back around to the beginning, and Have Mercy is more acoustic guitars and an organic sound. After breaking through the sonic roof of maximalism, we certainly haven’t retreated into minimalism, but we’ve stripped back to a clearer, more bare-bones set of elements to be working with this time around.”
Having recorded many of their previous albums in weeklong marathon sessions, Have Mercy shows a departure from that practice as well, with the album resulting in a more well thought out, calm, collected feeling than the Mooney’s previous records. In trying to draw up a new sound for Have Mercy, the band found themselves working more with the momentum of things than looking to the past for answers.
“Looking back, I listen to our old records and things I used to think were really cool on our first record I cringe about now and things I used to cringe about on our second record are really cool now. What I can say is consistent is that things work more like a pendulum, and after taking such a far swing to one extreme on the last record, we obviously had to come to the other end of the spectrum on this one.”
Fortunately, one thing that hasn’t changed with time is the band’s love for performing live. Currently in the midst of a North American tour, Sammy is very forward in expressing his enthusiasm and continued love for the road. “I was just thinking yesterday as we were loading up the trailer about how when I was a kid I owned a Playmobil pirate ship, and I’d think to myself, ‘Man, wouldn’t it be cool to grow up and live in a pirate ship?’ Flash forward 20 years, and I’m living that dream; I’m like a pirate on a pirate ship.” Equally optimistic is Sammy’s take on the new course for the Mooneys, ensuring fans that there’s more pulse-pounding rock to come. “After playing all these acoustic songs, I’m very, very ready to plug in. I’ve got more riffs lying around than I know what to do with, so I imagine when we make the new record it’s not going to be so much strum as it is going to be amplifiers pumping and rocking.”
Speaking about their new album Have Mercy (Elixia Records), Mooney Suzuki frontman Sammy James Jr. gave insight into the band’s momentum for the album and the future, saying: “When you release a new record you want to get something down, let something out. In the past, looking back at our old records, we’d get that stuff out and be like, ‘Cool, now I get to do this.’ You just move on to the next thing you want to do.” And with Have Mercy, that’s what they got to do. After the exhaustion caused by major label woes and the over the top, “maximalist” sound of their previous album Alive and Amplified, The Mooney Suzuki found themselves looking to a future that didn’t seem quite as certain anymore. Having completed their contract with Columbia, The Mooneys were moving on to V2, a label that was soon to be rife with problems.
“It gets harder and harder and harder to do anything in the music industry,” Sammy professes. “People who buy records aren’t buying in the ‘40 minutes of music on a compact disc’ format anymore; it’s in a decline. Now you have your songs on video games, or ringtone versions or whatever. There are so many other ways that people can consume and enjoy the medium these days, and the whole 40-minute CD around which the entire music industry is based is in a decline, which causes problems.”
Nowhere was this decline more apparent than at V2, a label in disarray that proved a very frustrating point about the money-laden concerns of the music industry today.
“Everything about making money in the music industry is in a decline, which stresses people out,” Sammy explains. “People are getting fired and people are afraid of getting fired, so your band gets moved down on the priority list and that causes problems. Our record was originally supposed to come out on V2, but V2 went out of business, and there’s definitely an obstacle you have to overcome when your record label goes out of business.”
But overcome they did, and Have Mercy was the result. With the emblematic title reflecting the difficulties of these past couple years for the band, The Mooney Suzuki’s fourth full-length release has them taking a step back from the overwhelming intensity of Alive and Amplified and walking into a more organic and stripped down sound while maintaining the band’s trademark energy. Over the course of 10 tracks, the band receives some much needed catharsis via Have Mercy’s more relaxed approach and straightforward longing for the rock ‘n’ roll heyday of their idols.
“We’ve always been an over the top, ‘knob to 10’ kind of band, and Alive and Amplified was us going all the way to 11,’” explains Sammy. “Once you get as maximum as possible, you come back around to the beginning, and Have Mercy is more acoustic guitars and an organic sound. After breaking through the sonic roof of maximalism, we certainly haven’t retreated into minimalism, but we’ve stripped back to a clearer, more bare-bones set of elements to be working with this time around.”
Having recorded many of their previous albums in weeklong marathon sessions, Have Mercy shows a departure from that practice as well, with the album resulting in a more well thought out, calm, collected feeling than the Mooney’s previous records. In trying to draw up a new sound for Have Mercy, the band found themselves working more with the momentum of things than looking to the past for answers.
“Looking back, I listen to our old records and things I used to think were really cool on our first record I cringe about now and things I used to cringe about on our second record are really cool now. What I can say is consistent is that things work more like a pendulum, and after taking such a far swing to one extreme on the last record, we obviously had to come to the other end of the spectrum on this one.”
Fortunately, one thing that hasn’t changed with time is the band’s love for performing live. Currently in the midst of a North American tour, Sammy is very forward in expressing his enthusiasm and continued love for the road. “I was just thinking yesterday as we were loading up the trailer about how when I was a kid I owned a Playmobil pirate ship, and I’d think to myself, ‘Man, wouldn’t it be cool to grow up and live in a pirate ship?’ Flash forward 20 years, and I’m living that dream; I’m like a pirate on a pirate ship.” Equally optimistic is Sammy’s take on the new course for the Mooneys, ensuring fans that there’s more pulse-pounding rock to come. “After playing all these acoustic songs, I’m very, very ready to plug in. I’ve got more riffs lying around than I know what to do with, so I imagine when we make the new record it’s not going to be so much strum as it is going to be amplifiers pumping and rocking.”
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