MUD: How long have you been around?

BUBBA: We played our first gig as Bedhead in Austin in Jan/92. There was a band just prior to Bedhead with Matt, Bubba, and Trini from which most of the songs on "WhatFunLifeWas" and the "4-songCDEP" originated.

MUD: How much did you practice for the EP?

BUBBA: We really just worked the idea (the four-song sequence) into regular practice, and then Trini and Matt and I worked out the tempos, the approach - basically the overall feel - in a few extra practices. When we got to the church we had lost a lot of time, because of various disasters that I won't go into, and we really didn't know if we were going to be able to pull it off. We played half of the first song a couple of times to get levels and adjust the instruments in the room for the desirable balance, then we played the whole thing. Once we started, it took 19 minutes to record.

MATT: We originally practiced the first three songs on the EP so we could record them for the sake of documentation. They were songs that never made it to the first record. Around the same time we had worked up a cover of Disorder that we liked (Bubba and I had covered the song, badly, for six or seven years). Even as we went to tape, we never actually thought we would end up putting out what we were doing; we simply liked the recordings and things turned out the way they did.

MUD: When is your new record coming out?

MATT: Sometime in the Spring. We've finished recording the songs, but we're still in the mixing process. Before then, though, we'll put out an EP called the Dark Ages, which, we hope, will come out in February.

MUD: Are you going to tour soon?

MATT: No, not until the summer. We may play a few shows here and there depending on how personal schedules work out. But when we tour this summer, we will tour pretty extensively.

MUD: If so, where? and with who(m)?

MATT: In the summer, Europe and the U.S. The rest is up in the air.

MUD: Who are some of the bands that have influenced you besides Joy Division?

BUBBA: We got rich a lot later than I expected.
MATT: I'm too old to spend my money.
TENCH: You couldn't afford me.
KRIS: Sheet metal worker.
TRINI: Rock n Roll ain't got no future.

MUD: Are there any new instruments on the new album like horns, piano, etc...?

BUBBA: The instrumentation is basically the same. We haven't yet felt that guitars, bass, and drums (with glockenspiel in a few places) weren't enough to do what we've wanted to do.

MUD: Do you have any unreleased demos?

No

MUD: How did you end up on Trance?

BUBBA: King had bought our first 7" "Bedside Table/Living Well" on a recommendation and liked it enough to come see us when we played in Austin.

MATT: He came up to the stage after we finished playing to pay us a nice compliment, saying something like, I'm a friend of Tench's and I really like the band. I, like a dumbass said, oh do you play music. Yeah I play drums, he said characteristically self-effacingly. With what group? Oh, the Butthole Surfers, uh, but anyway. He really hated to admit who he was, and I, partly because I never listened to them and partly because it was dark, had no idea. That's the kind of guy King is -- extremely modest and anything but self-centered.

MUD: The Butthole Surfers and Joy Division? It's a strange combo.

MATT: We probably wouldn't be on Trance if we weren't from Texas - that's the way things happen. It had little to do with the fact that King was a Butthole Surfer or who was on the label - we just felt that King was sincere and would treat us well. And he is, and he has.

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