Suicidal Tendencies hail from the streets of Venice, California, a place known for blending hardcore territoriality with artistic and cultural expression.
During the 1980s they threw dirt in the face of the music industry and rose to international fame from relative obscurity with a mix of punk rock, metal, and a sense of humour with their socially conscious themes.
After spending some time with his Australian wife and kids in Queensland, frontman and band spokesman Mike Muir is back in the United States working on the group’s first album in 13 years. Muir offers us an insight into the band’s approach towards their forthcoming release, life in modern day Santa Monica, and his philosophies on how to squeeze the most out of life.
Over the last few days the band has been tracking drums at Dr Dre’s exclusive Interscope Studio. “A friend of ours is a good friend with some people,” says Muir. “They said ok and let us in for a few days. They don’t let anyone record in there but they let us in, so that was cool.”
Muir adds that they’ve already “recorded hundreds and hundreds of tracks that we like,” adding: “Most of the time we’re just happy liking the stuff without actually putting it out. We’re taking a slightly different approach this time and recording with the actual intent of putting it out.”“When [our debut] first came out the punk magazines said it sucked and it was metal, and the metal magazines said it sucked and it was punk.”
Muir is never short of words and after such a long time between records it’s easy to feel the excitement in his voice at the anticipation of a fresh Suicidal release.
“Next year will be the 30th anniversary of our first album,” he bursts. “When it first came out the punk magazines said it sucked and it was metal, and the metal magazines said it sucked and it was punk. We didn’t really care because we weren’t putting it out for magazines to like, we put it out because we liked it and now almost 30 years later people are still listening to it.”
Muir reasons that it’s still the core philosophy three decades on. “I think in this day and age where music doesn’t really sell that we make sure we’re not putting out music that we think people will like, but we’re putting things out that we think are a good alternative to what other people are doing.”
“Time changes everything you know… ” Muir pauses, reflecting on the trials and tribulations of the music industry. “When you do something and people don’t expect it, then they have to put it down. In Spin magazine… every record we put out from Suicidal Tendencies to Infectious Grooves they gave us terrible reviews. They’d say each record was so disappointing because apparently our last record was really great, so we don’t really worry about stuff like that. It doesn’t affect me or how I live my life.” He states with an invigorating confidence.
“We’re not a candy shop. We’re not sugar coated people. You take a kid to a candy shop every day and he’ll end up with diabetes and rotten teeth, so we’re not trying to do that. I mean I looked back and I realised that all the music that made an impression on me was completely different to most of the stuff around at the time.”
Furhtering his point, Muir emphasises, “we’re not trying to do the same thing over again, we’re trying to do music for all time which is far more important than what is cool or trendy now. That’s what musicianship should be.”
“I hate most of the music I hear.” he continues. “What that means is that I’m not really that concerned whether people like it or not, and I think it’s kind of like my kids in that respect, I love them and I don’t care what other people think about them. I’m not going to have them live their lives for other people.”
“Too many people I know want their kids to do certain things, whether they’re old school and want them to be a doctor or a lawyer or now – they want them to be a skater, a pro surfer, an athlete, or this or that,” says Muir.“We’re not a candy shop. We’re not sugar coated people.”
“I want to let my kids be kids and hopefully they’ll find something that they love and that they believe in,” it’s something the Suicidal Tendencies frontman pinpoints to his own childhood.
“That’s the way my dad brought us up, and it ended in my brother becoming a pro skater and I did music,” reveals Muir. “The motivation behind it all was not to make other people happy. Motivation is when you find something that makes you happy.”
Born in Venice and raised in Santa Monica, an environment that was tough and pushed the local kids to their limits. Muir said his neighbourhood was raw, poor, and full of energy, an energy that drove the progression of skateboarding and music almost hand in hand.
However time does change everything and the coastal enclave that created so many cultural icons is now home to new and very different cultural icons. “Venice now is so much different than it was when we grew up,” Muir forces down the phone line with his Southern Californian flow.
“Santa Monica is basically the new Beverley Hills and all of where we grew up has been sold. Now there’s Viacom, there’s HBO, there’s the Yahoo centre, there’s Microsoft, and there’s Google,” he lists. “I mean almost every major corporation has offices in Santa Monica now.”
“In areas they literally tore back mobile homes and it’s completely, completely different. We were just talking about that yesterday actually. We were wondering if we grew up in a place like this where there’s just so much money now, would we just be super duper angry?” ponders Muir; “Or just arrested a hell of a lot more times from always being in trouble.”
Describing his hometown as a place once populated by “hippies of the south”, calling Santa Monica “a ghetto back in the Dogtown days,” but now – says Muir, “it’s all uppity.”
“People here in high school have every major corporation down the road, but when you travel to other parts of America like the mid-west, people feel like they’re isolated and they don’t dream of much,” illustrates the frontman.
“I mean, I’m not a dreamer but my dad said ‘dreams are worthless if you wake up, and they’re worthless if you stay asleep’.” Reflects Muir before adding with characteristic defiance: “You have to wake up and do something!”
Suicidal Tendencies kick off their Australian Tour on December 12th on the Gold Coast, before playing shows around the nation. Full dates and details here.
