Oh, no! It's the NO-FI "Interview" with

conducted by Ernie Mejia & Chris Beyond
June, 1999 (Part 3 of 3: The "Conclusion")


C=Chris, E=Ernie, M=Mark Mothersbaugh, B1=Bob "Bob 1" Mothersbaugh
B2= Bob "Bob 2" Casale, W=Cousin William, W=Wife of Cousin William, A=Assistant

...and now the conclusion to our interview...
E: Have you produced any videos yourself lately?
M: Uh...actually yeah. I started a production company a couple years ago and there's a show that some friends and my wife Nancy called Jackpot that we just sold to MTV. It's a fucked up twisted Las Vegas lounge in the near future that features interesting music that would have no other reason to be on MTV except for this show. Other than that I just did a short called Mindless Bob. It's sort of a Boogie Boy vide to it and so far everybody that I've shown it to says, "Oh, that's great... we don't want it on our network." We've been visually interested for a long time. Bob was the first one of us to direct film. He did 8 millimeter film back when we were kids.
B: ...in high school.
M: Yeah, dressing up and making skits and filming these little short movies.
B: I did some stuff with claymation and stop motion.
W: Does your dad still have those videos?
M: He's probably got them somewhere. When he says our dad, he's really talking about "General Boy" who pretty much controls DEVO and had a lot in guiding our careers and during the successful years he was...actually he and his wife...pulling the strings behind the curtain until we were swayed by Bob Dobs and the Church of the Sub-Genius. And so once we became love-slaves to Bob Dobs, things took a nose-dive because we didn't realize that Bob was such a prankster. So he talked us into signing with Enigma Records which was kind of like our Titanic.
E: Was that "Total Devo?"
M: Yeah.
E: That was some great music.
M: Yeah, it just didn't get heard by anybody.
C: I saw some of those videos on Request Video!
M: Well, that's funny because before MTV first came out there were about two years where they were just in local markets and testing and we were like 50% of their daily programming.
E: You and Rod Stewart.
M: Before Rod Stewart even. We had so many videos and nobody else had them.
C: The "The Smart Patrol" came along with a character called The Turkey Monkey... Have you ever held a real monkey?
M: Held a real monkey? Bob used to have a pet monkey Chi-Chi... kind of inspired Turkey-Monkey.
B: Yeah, his name was Chi-Chi.
M: After Chi-Chi Rodriguez.
E: The golfer?
M: Yeah, the monkey could golf. Bob had fashioned a little bag with some sticks and a little hat and the monkey would golf!
C: So whatever happened to the monkey? He just went where monkeys go?
M: He went to the zoo. He needed other monkeys in his life. He needed a higher life form than humans to hang around with. We went to visit him about a year later and it was kind of sad because Chi-Chi was the only monkey standing there all by himself in a corner with a little cap and a little golf club and all the other monkeys would be on the other side of the area fighting over bananas and Chi-Chi was all sad, like "Come on! Anyone wanna play some golf? Nine holes we'll do a three par course."
C: Sad sad monkey story.
M: Which of course influenced our first album that had Chi Chi Rodriguez on the cover.
C: Was that Chi Chi Rodriguez?
M: Well, it was on our "Be Stiff" single cover in London, but Warner Brothers, in their lawsuit paranoia, said that you can't use Chi-Chi cause we'll get sued. So they had these four photos of US Presidents: Ford, Nixon, LBJ, Kennedy and they stitched that into our cover and he went from being this Non-american Beautiful Mutant to being this American Caucasoid Moron.
C: Were you happy with the artwork?
M: We liked the "Be Stiff" artwork better. The best part was, in the meantime, Warner Brothers was doing the artwork, our manager found Chi-Chi on a golf course in Florida after he lost a match and he asked him if we could use his picture on our cover. He said that would be GREAT! "Just give me 200 to give out as Christmas gifts." So we're printing out all these album covers that look like a mutant version of him and so by the time he got them, he must have been very disappointed. The funny thing is that even after he got them, he sent us 4 8x10 glossies and said if we ever did anymore albums and we wanted to use his pictures, we could.
C: Who are some of your favorite local bands?
M: We like THE VANDALS.
B1: THE VANDALS are good.
C: I saw Warren ("Mutant Boy") Fitzgerald's paintings at that punk rock museum.
M: I've seen his paintings. They're really good.
C: Everything involves a huge penis.
M: They're bratty, but they're funny in a bathroom humor sort of way.
C: Do you like DON KNOTTS OVERDRIVE? (Now known as HEDSET)
M: Yeah, we like DON KNOTTS OVERDRIVE.
C: They played the first No-Fi live show a few years back.
B1: I just went to see them track some songs for their new album.
C: They have a new album coming out?
B: Yeah.
E: They played on the DEVO cover compilation.
M: Yeah, we like all the bands on the DEVO cover comp.
C: What's your favorite dance move?
M: I think anything that allows a grown-up to act like a toddler is good.
C: Are you into infantilism?
M: You mean adults dressing in diapers? Well, I've worn diapers on stage before.
E: Is lactose intolerance a real physical condition or is it all in people's minds?
M: I think that there are people who know better than to drink cow milk. I still drink milk.
C: Where is the strangest place you've ever slept?
B1: I can't answer that because people would get in trouble.
M: You can't even say while driving a car because that's not that weird. 1400 people die each year from sleeping while they drive.
(NOTE TO OUR PAL JASON: Are you reading this carefully?)
M: (continues) This was before we had a record deal and we were sleeping on people's floors, but I remember falling asleep on somebody's bed with a brass headboard and my arms fell asleep through the bars and when I woke up I couldn't get out. I was just stuck. We used to have a roadie who would drive long distances asleep while we were asleep in the back of the van and we'd all wake up saying, "Where are we?" We're in the wrong state!" Eddie Barker.
C: Do you think that when you're asleep you're in a living dream state? Because it happens so often where people just drive while asleep and they just don't realize it.
M: It's a bonus.
C: So when can we expect another DEVO album?
M: Another DEVO-like album?
C: Sure.
M: We're thinking of doing a compilation for Rhino...a box set. We're gonna look in the basement for some older stuff that never saw the light of day.
(This set became the album "Pioneers Who Got Scalped")
C: How about shows?
M: Well, we just played that LA Punk art show closing.
B1: That may have been the last time.
(It wasn't. They just played a benefit earlier this year.)
E: Was that with the same lineup that you played with at the Universal Ampitheatre?
M: Yeah.
E: That's with Josh Freese (VANDALS, XTRA LARGE) on drums. I've heard him go nuts on drums, but with you guys he just keeps the perfect beat.
M: He said that when he got his first drum set, he got his first DEVO album. When we practice and we can't remember a certain part, he's like, "That's not the way you did it on "Freedom Of Choice", you did it like this..." It was good to have him around in typical Spinal Tap fashion. He was approximately drummer #4.
E: Who was before him?
M: David Kendrick and before him Alan Myers who joined us right after we had just done our earliest films and recordings with our younger brother Jim. He was our original drummer and he left to become an electronic inventer. He worked with Roland during the formulative years of Midi and he toured with us. He was more interested in modifying and hot-rodding our equipment and helping us get sounds than playing.
E: He was the 6th DEVO. (as in the 5th BEATLE)
M: He was the 4th DEVO and Bob Casale was the 5th and Alan Meyers was the 6th.
E: You guys used to throw bootlegs into the audience?
M: We never did bootlegs. We recorded our own stuff and gave it to anybody who would listen...before we had a record. Matter of fact, we sent a tape to David Bowie when he was playing keyboards for Iggy Pop in 1977. We sent some pretty girls backstage with a DEVO tape because we couldn't get back there and when DEVO and Iggy Pop went over to Germany, they found German radio so bad that they cracked this big suitcase full of tapes open and found our tape. They didn't believe it was a real band. They were learning DEVO songs in Germany and in the studio. So when we first met Iggy at the Starwood, he came backstage and started singing our songs to us. He wanted us to let him record our album before we did. We were like, "I don't know about this! We want to get a record deal. We don't want to be your songwriter!"
C: Have you seen Velvet Goldmine?
M: No. I've been a recloose lately. I just came over here to work, go home, and pass out.
C: Any words of wisdom for our No-Fi "Readers"?
M: Choose your mutations carefully.
C: And thank you for the interview!
And that's how it went down in 1999. We all said our thanks and goodbyes and Ernie and I were on our way out the door when Mark asked us if we'd like to check out a new keyboard that they just picked up. We documented the event with the photos you see on this page. Right after that we got to see their studio where DEVO practice and record all their stuff. The circular room was lined with all sorts of instyments from vintage to unrecognizable. It was a pretty fun experience and hopefully we can do it again someday (only less nervously).