THE MUKUS THAT BINDS

Interview With The Mukus

Echo Park

From Issue 2.4, March/April 2006

Apparently, stuff doesn’t work out. Some people progress, other people don’t,” said Mukus guitarist Johnny very matter-of-factly.

It was dark outside, just on the outskirts of Echo Park. The members of The Mukus sat around the dining room table in the kitchen of Johnny’s house talking about how some people evolve musically, while others stay the same.

For the Mukus and their music, nothing ever stays the same, which is half the fun when listening to and following this band. From the music they made in their early days, to the music they play now, it has consistently changed and grown with the musical tastes of the band members.

The Mukus, which consists of guitarist Johnny, 20; drummer Edgar, 20; vocalist Erdy, 19 and bassist David, 18, can never be accused of being in a musical rut or being boring to listen to. Each of their songs are different and according to Edgar, lately they’ve been sounding like a thrash band, but who knows, that could all change by next month.

“Basically,” Johnny said, “after you play the same music, after awhile, you don’t go anywhere.”

“Every time we play, people expect the old music,” Erdy added.

The only catch is that with a band like the Mukus, they don’t give the crowd what it wants, they just play what they want, which just makes them more attractive as a band.

“I like to think of us as a melting pot,” Edgar said.

His comment is dead-on. They each listen to different things and are influenced by different things when it comes to writing their music. Black Dhalia Murder, Capitalist Casualties, Spazz and the theme from the Power Rangers are among the types of music they listen to.

Their obvious excitement and love for music became evident as the interview progressed. Erdy played some of their old songs off a black and red iPod. Later on, one of their friends brought in a cassette recording of some bass lines he had been practicing.

Erdy started out listening to a lot of softer sounding music along with hip-hop stuff.

“He was an emo kid,” Johnny said smiling.

Eventually, through friends, Erdy became exposed to punk and thrash and then he started talking to Johnny about making a band.

The two asked their friend Joe to play bass. Fortunately for them, Joe had come into a good amount of money after winning a lawsuit against the city when his old building fell apart. Joe made a sound proof room, and spray painted “Mukus” on the outside, put up posters inside and according to Erdy, they would order pizza at night and play music all day and all night. Thus, the Mukus’s first practice space was born.

“He did a lot for the band,” Edgar said in retrospect.

Originally, the Mukus spelled their name with a “C.” They switched it out with a “K” in 2004 when they were recording some songs in the basement of fellow Echo Park band, The Violent Threats.

The band name actually came one day as Erdy sat in class when he was still in high school. One of his friends was helping him think of a band name and he asked Erdy what his favorite color was. Erdy responded, “green,” and so his friend said, “how about The Mucus?”

After the band’s old drummer relocated because of a new job, Erdy and Johnny asked Edgar to fill-in. They eventually decided to keep Edgar permanently on drums.

“That’s when things started changing,” Edgar said.

Their music became a little harder and faster. In 2004, they were playing shows just about every Friday and Saturday for about two months straight.

Once David came in on bass, it solidified the current lineup of the Mukus.

“He [David] brings a grindcore style-kind of messy,” Edgar said of their bassist.

“We put our own little backgrounds into it [the music],” Edgar said when discussing lyrics. When the band first started out, a lot of the lyrics had no real meaning according to Erdy but things changed.

Edgar said he sings a lot about junkies and high school drop-outs, which he has seen a lot of.

Erdy said he likes singing about, “people fighting, police resistance and not succeeding even when people are trying. Like, the new Rampart station will affect everyone in my neighborhood. It makes you think about how society is.”

In addition to all of that, Johnny said he reads a lot of books in the murder and crime genre.

“I write about mass murder,” Johnny said referencing to one of the Mukus’s songs about Ted Bundy.

“I just read a lot of books. I’m not sure how to say it,” Johnny said.

Their music explains enough of it. Their ability to integrate not only a variety of sounds, but a variety of outlooks on life, shows a perspective not common in many bands.

They recorded 17 tracks with a local record company in 2003. The recording was free, because they had some connections with the owners, but after some disagreement, plans with that label fell through. The record company ended up keeping all of their tracks.

Through several transitions with various musicians coming and going from the band, the overall music progressed with each shift. They got faster. There were more sound progressions. They saved money and bought an amp at a local pawn shop. They started playing clubs and have been asked to play at The Knitting Factory and The Whiskey.

“They always asked us to sell tickets,” Erdy said of many club venues.

“We’re not known enough to sell tickets,” Johnny added.

The only irony to that comment is that they’ve built a strong following among the local kids, and for this band, that’s good enough. People who have heard them play, use words like “amazing” to describe their music, but the members of The Mukus do not see it that way, Johnny said.

“We’re humble,” Edgar said. “We’re real humble about us. We’ll help out other bands-even if we’re not playing with them.”

So, people may be talking about how good the Mukus is, but, “we’re not the one’s noticing it,” Edgar said. “We’re not seeing the change.”

When asked what their goals are as a band, Erdy replied, “It doesn’t matter to me. I don’t think about it. I just like feeding off the crowd.”

“We don’t think about getting paid,” Johnny said.

They just think about playing and will continue to play whatever they want and never giving into what other people may want out of their music.

“Whether people like us or not, we’ll still keep playing,” Johnny said. “We’re not going to stop just because you’re talking shit.”

“We do our own brand of punk,” Edgar added, “with heavier guitars.”

“And I still scream,” said Erdy.

At the suggestion of Edgar, he said that to feel this band’s full effect, people need to hear them play live rather than on a recording.

“Come check us out.... Can I add a quote,” Edgar asked smiling, “It’s from [the movie] ‘Ace Ventura’: ‘It is the mucus that binds us.’”- Well, yes, that may be so, but it’s also this band’s talent and overall humbleness that makes their music stick to anyone willing to listen. Plainly put, they are amazing.