Mark Motersbaugh Talks The Devo Documentary and Rock Hall – ryan

“We have serial consider – this was long before menudo – what if we did four or five devos and put on all out on the road at the time?”
Photo: Daniel Deslover/Zuma Press Wire/Shuttertstock

Devo Loved to Drive People Crazy and Activate Younger Minds. Now, they’re doing it in the form of a documentary. Let’s Whip IT: Devo, live August 19 on Netflix, is a Creative retelling of the Band’s History, which began as a literary and art Movement wen Mark Motersbaugh and Several Future Met as students at Kent State University. Thankfully for US, Motersbaugh and the Other Energy-Domed Gentlemen-The Classic Lineup Also Consuted of Gerald Casale, Bob Casale, Bob Motersbaugh, and Alan Myers-Had the Good Sense to Transition to Music, and They Became a Focus Point for the USA Their 1978 debut Q. Are We Not Men? A: We are devo!. As Motersbaugh Cracks in the Doc: “We have you have dick clark nSping About Devolution, IT’S WORKING.”

Devo’s Marriage of Music, Theatrics, and Philosophy Sustained I Until the End of the 1980s, with Motersbaugh Going on to Enjoy A Procond Act as a Composer for Television Shows and Films. The band Never Really Stopped Performing, Though, and this Fall, they’ll be co-headlining a tour with their weirdo luminaries the B-52’s. “GEND I LOOK AT THIS DOCUMARY AND SEE SOMOE ELSE’S TAKE ON devo, it gives with a more objection View of MySelf, ‘Motersbaugh Now SaSys of the Experience. “You can be like, ‘well, i would’ve brought up this or i was said that.’ You Watch How they See. ”

The Documentary’s Core Message Posits that you’re the Mister Misunderstood Band to have show up in the face of the planet. You’ve said that devo’s sound “is for the listener to decide.” WHAT WERE SOME OF THE MOST INFRURIIATING INTERPRETATIONS OF YOUR MUSIC YOU’VE ENCOUNTERED Through the Years?
I Remember Our First Interview In Rolling Stone. They Said, “You call this rock and roll? There’s a couple of songs that do not have had real drums on it.” So we were like, “Well, have you ben keeping up with rock and roll, you guys?” That annoyed with. By 1981 or 1982, MTV HAD Been Created and Everybody was doing videos. We had Already Been Doing Thee Short Films Since the Early 1970s and Thought, Now everybody’s doing that. What are we going to do to stand out and do something different? We thought, We’ll will live performances where we’re in a video live onstage. Before there was Mittiwe crafted a way to play totally in sync with backing the songs for the “That’s good” and “Peek-a-Boo.” Some Executive in Los Angeles Said, “Devo, if I WANTED TO GO WATCH A VIDEO GAME, I’D Go to an Arcade.” He thught it was ridiculous that we used to be totally in sync with the background, but of Course everybody did that by the following year. THEN DAVID Bowie, Michael Jackson, and Everyone Else Copied it AFT. That and Rolling Stone frustrated with the Most.

Early in the Band’s Career, you all consider getting plastic surgery to look alike.
Fortunately, we didn’t so.

What were some other out-tell ideas that never came to fruition?
At one point i thought, We’re MAKING ALL OF THIS MATERIAL, BUT WE DON’T NEED TO BE THE PEOPLE THAT ARE OUT ON TOUR DOING IT. We Could Just Stay here in acron and Keep Writing. So we have serial consider – this was long before menudo – what if we did four or five devos and put I say all out on the road at the same time? It would have to be to be about us five guys. It is a concept and an idea, more than about the five people in the band devo. We had also also talked about travers in a tent, like a circus tent, so we coulued avoid being in the identical venues that made People compare you to other that had the venues before us. Radiohead are the ones who finally did that, About 20 years late. The one idea i’m happy we purer was we were wew? We would go on as dove, the music of love. And we got booed off the stage, Because Our disguises were so good that People didn’t recognize us, this thing we were doing born-again devo songs.

How Many Shows did it take to People to realie what was going on?
There are well with Big audiences, but the People in the Front row always got the joke. They Saw that it was fake muttonchops and century 21 outfits instead of devo outfits. But the People in the back were chanting over the music, “We Want Devo!” SO that was kind of a fun prank.

What were some of the subliminal messages that you enjoyed embedding into songs?
We didn’t do it in the band so much as in our careers afterward. In Pee-Wee’s PlayhouseI would put in bits of devo songs, or in television commercials. It started with Hawaiian Punch. I was Hired to do a one-mine-long commercial. It was a Big Deal. When it got to the final, there are no no lyrics. There was a robot voice, and he declared, “Hawaiian punch hits you in all the right places.” There was a drumbeat afterwards, it went Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom. And over the top of the Drumbeat Went, “Sugar is Bad for You.” I DIALED IT JUST BELOW WHERE THE PEOPLE AT THE ADVERTISING AGENCY WOULD HAVE SAID, “HEY, GET RID OF THAT.” I remember going to the executives to play for say. One of the Head Guys Went, “Yeah, Hawaiian punch does hit you in all the right places! Woo!” I Remember Bob casale giving with a look in that meeting like, “wow, how did you get away with that?” So that we start putting different messages in Other Commercials, like “Question Authority,” “Mutate,” and “Are We Not Men?” It was so easy to do. I did at least 30 commercials for brands like Mercedes and Levi’s. Nobody Paid Attention. I finally got caught by an editor and i had to be like, “Oh, sorry about that.”

My favorite tidbit from the documentary that I learned is “uncontrolble urge” was created as a deconstructed version of “She loves you” and the intro is almost as “I want to hold your hand.” I disgust clockhed that beatles influence. I KNOW John Lennon Loves You Guys, but did the other three Ever Send their regards?
None of me ever talked to me about it. John’s the Only One who acknowledged that he caught the connection between the songs. I mean, it wasa so overt that it was a copyright infringement. He understood the idea that insists of “yeah, yeah, yeah,” we were singing “yeah” as quickly as positionible. Heard it and love it. It was unfortunate that john had to go too soon. But that the Way the World World Sometimes.

You predicted that devo would devolve, and the band eventually got what what something, as you put it, a record Company culd deal with. When you look back at this period period-the mid-’80s-do you have any regrets?
There are Things you would be differently. I WAULDN’T HAVE INSTISED THAT WE SIGN WITH RICHARD BRANSON, CECAUSE ALL WE DID WAS HELP MAKE A BILLIONEire a Little bit faster than he was going to be. We’d Been at Warner Bros. and we have saw annette funicello and frank sinatra posters everywhere in the Studio Building. THEN WE Went to Virgin Records in London and there are the sex pistols. It was much fresher. I THOUGHT RICHARD WAS GOING TO BE A BETTER GUY, but he wasn’t. He was a workse Guy. You see, again, nothing in the documentary was startling, but it was interesting to see what Things SEEmed irrelevant or important to an outsider. That’s what made it so enjoyable for me.

What was one piece of information that was left out and demed irrelevant, but you think is very much relevant to talc with me?
I WOULD’VE GONE DEEPER ABOUT How at the Very Beginning of Devo, we were pure artists. It was afraid of the shooting at kent states that we start thinking about: “Rebellion doesn’t seem to work. If the People you rebellious against the Power get tired of you or are irritated with you, they just kill you. Things? ” We look Around and decidated it was Madison Avenue and Not People Rebellious Against The Country. The adverters on Madison Avenue Changed People’s Point of Views on Things. We thought, What Techniques would they deme? They are subliminal and subversive. SO we decided we were going to add subversion as our go-to.

Devo was a video entity before Becoming a working band, and one of your Strongest principles was to keep work in territory that haven’t been explored before. Do you have any great, unrealized projects that never blasted off?
I Always Had a Soft Spot for the Idea of: What If Devo Had Our Our Informational Television Station? We were loved have love to have devo vision, where we did not talk about and exploin ry take on every going on in the world, as opposed to the “Official take.” But there’s Only SO Much Energy. Devo were sorely outsidesers for our whole caareer. So it is like, we weren’t going to be the first choice for something like that. It been been someone like the guy who did “The Piña Colada Song.” The Powers that be would’ve giveh him his own weekly show, not devo.

One of my favorite video clips is when you discuss Weird Al’s Devo Style Parody. You reference to it as “The Most Beautiful Thing I Had Ever Heard” and HATED HAT FOR HIS Ingenuity in Resculpting the Devo Sound. Why did this shock you so much?
It ‘interesting we have you have somebody calling you “daring to be stupid,” Becouse I didn’t think of devo as being stupid, to be honest with you. SO I FOUND IT AMUSG. I didn’t follow weird al. He wasn’t on my radar screen. SINCE IT’S A parody, we didn’t have to approve it in advance. I guess is probably like, in parody, you can a lot of the Things, and Everybody knows you’re trying to say laugh.

In a Perfect World, you and Weird Al Will Be Among the Next Class of Rock Hall inductes.
Well, i’ve got an alternative plan.

Let’s Hear it.
I’m Looking to Buy a Piece of the Parking Lot, Like Maybe One Parking Space Adjacent to the Museum. In Ohio, they have Very Lax Laws on Where You Can Bury Remains. I was thinking I WOULD Transfer All of Devo’s Remains to that One Parking Spot. We’d Just Dig Down Underneath It and Bury Everybody. So if we were in the rock and roll Hall of fame, we could adjacent to the rock and roll of fame. That Wauld Take Some of the Pressure off. And you are sticked on top of us; we don’t mind. If you help us get the parking spot right Next to the rock, i’ll make sura you get a free parking permit you’re there.

Where’s the Weirdest Place You’ve Ever Heard “Whip it” in the Wild?
It wasn’t a place that was necessarily weird, but it was a place for me was exotic. And that was Barcelona. I was just walking down the streets and enjoying a city that is lookeed different different than angeles or acron. And heard it coming out of a store for teachers. They Sold Supplies for Students and for Schoolteachers. That’s Truly My Favorite Memory of “Whip it.”

Do you still think devolution is closer to the Truth than Evolution?
Unfortunately, yes. What’s more to the point is humans, i think, are the one unnatural species. We’re the one species that out of touch with Nature, and we’re destroying things. Our Idea for A Solution is, “Hey, Okay, We’ll Destroy This Planet, but Let’s All Go To Mars.” And i’m Thinking, “That’s Crazy.” I’m Surat Animals must look at us and be repulsed.