Gayle: Ok, some of these are really basic questions, and some of them are more in-depth. First of all, I was wondering what drew you to music and why you play the bass.

Mick: Originally I played drums, and I initially wanted to get more into melody, but everyone played guitar, of course. But no one really got interested in bass, and there didn't seem to be a lot of people who pursued it really, in a serious way, so I kind of took it up. And also just initially when I heard people like Stanley Clarke -- and not that that is something that is my goal, you know, to play really fast or anything -- but there is a whole range of things you can do with the instrument.

But that's about getting into bass; what got me into music was mostly (that) my mother was always an avid music listener and bought tons of records every week from all over the world, international music -- French, Italian, Greek - you know, like bazuki, flamenco, Middle Eastern music -- so I was surrounded by all this stuff. And then she would sometimes even buy stuff like Talking Heads' Fear of Music. This was late 70's. She had a very open ear to new stuff, so I kind of caught on to that and then continued on with that-- like from Talking Heads, and then I went to The Sex Pistols and Public Image -- just went off on that and eventually into jazz and stuff.

Gayle: When did you start playing?

Mick: Drums when I was 12, and then bass when I was 16.

Gayle: So you've played in other bands?

Mick: Yeah, I've always been playing in a band of some sort since high school. One way or another, I was in some kind of group or project.

Gayle: Where were these projects and what kind of bands?

Mick: When I was in high school -- this was in New York -- we never took off anywhere. We never played out. We still couldn't get into bars, not even in New York. (laugh) We would get together and play, and we thought we would play at the high school dance or whatever, but it never took off. We were always practicing and keeping the vocabulary alive, which is what I always felt was the most important thing. If you are anything, that you just do it -- no matter what it is -- or what level of playing or dancing, or acting.

So some of the things wasn't exactly my ideal. But that I was still playing -- that was the most important. So then, I got to college, and that was mostly working with this cover and original band -- like a lot of funk/ reggae stuff. That was in Saratoga Springs, the college. That was a really good experience for me, because I was playing out, and I gained a lot of confidence through that -- a lot of confidence in improvising and working with just the basic form, be it reggae or an R&B party song and just jamming it out and feeling comfortable with that and not having to work note by note and be nervous that, "Oh, this song is ending" or anything. It was like "Have fun with it, improvise, let what happens happen, and be OK with that and be able to work with it."

Then, I finished college. But all throughout college, I didn't think of being a musician. The college band was more of a social thing -- and of course, musical -- and it was very fun, but I wasn't writing songs for that. What I was doing mostly then was sculpture and photography, and I was really serious about that. But then college ended, and I was kind of -- I don't know, not really disenchanted but just lost interest in visual art and the whole scene -- and being in New York and a lot of my inspiration came from the nature, of being out there, because I was raised in the city.

So I turned to music and answered a couple of ads in The 'Voice and tried a few bands. Not to sound conceited, but usually...most of the groups when I first arrived in New York weren't really that serious or as musically evolved. (They) were more into -- I don't know how you say -- they just weren't as adept. Not that you need to be that adept, but I think that it helps in order to explore new ideas. So I kind of was disenchanted with that -- the first few bands that I was in. I went through a period where I was just auditioning, and I would be in the band for a while, and if I wasn't happy with it, then I would immediately quit. I wouldn't say, "Oh, well, I'll wait it out." If it wasn't happening, then adios.

Gayle: Right.

Mick: And that's what really let me towards, or rather directed me towards Jeff Buckley was his wanting to move forward and not just always be in a band and have this supposed loyalty to something that really wasn't going to sail. Because most of the groups that I was playing with -- they weren't long time friends or people they had been with in high school. They were just people who I came in contact with and learned something from, and they learned something from me. I really wanted to push forward, and I always felt this resistance from a lot of the groups I was in. Then I met Jeff, and here was a person who wanted to just fall into the abyss and trust that he'd land on his two feet -- much like a cat. Which we're still pursuing, and I love that. So, I'll try and make that work as long as I can -- as we all can.

Gayle: If I can go back a bit -- so you graduated with a BFA then. In Fine Arts?

Mick: That's right.?

Gayle: What kind of photos and sculpture were you doing? Just out of curiosity.

Mick: Sculpture and photography, I should say, as a minor. My major was in art history.

Gayle: What was your work -- your visual work -- like, then?

Mick: The actual studio work? Mostly stone carving -- marble and softer stones like soapstone, alabaster. I really enjoyed that. But as I said, it had so much to do with being in the nature, getting inspired by that. Once I came to New York, I couldn't really react to anything in that way, because you live in an apartment and you can't just kick around some logs [laugh] and get down with the materials. It's so dainty. Music seemed the logical thing to do after college.

Gayle: Right. You were talking earlier about how you when you started playing in bands that it was not worrying about how a certain song ended -- more about the improvisation?

Mick: In college, yeah.

Gayle: And then you went into talking about how you got involved with Jeff and all that. One of the questions I have for you is about the creation of the Nag Champa mix of "Dream Brother" and then about "Tongue".

Mick: OK. I couldn't really tell you that much about the instrumental Nag Champa Mix, because that was something Jeff had done on his own.

Gayle: Right. Remixed?

Mick: He was solely responsible for that project. But obviously I know about the making of "Dream Brother" itself, but not that mix specifically.

Gayle: Well, we would be interested in that too. [laugh]

Mick: In "Dream Brother"?

Gayle: In "Dream Brother" and "Tongue." Because that is when you participated the most in the writing on Grace, right? Of course, "Tongue" isn't on Grace.

Mick: Right, "Dream Brother," yeah. That was pretty much the first song we wrote together as a trio, because we were first a trio before Michael came into the picture, and we performed as a trio for the first half year or so. Anyway, we had been playing and just sort of taking out of the air whatever came our way. Then Jeff turned to me -- "Do you have any grooves?" So I started playing this simple F/A/G or something I had come across on my own in another jam, and it had never really taken off. I knew there was something in it, and Matty laid in this really nice cymbal and snare and bass drum kind-of-figure, and then Jeff started to do this very trailing -- almost snakelike pattern to it. I didn't even think it would go anywhere, because at first, I thought, "Oh, God. This form sounds really bad." The amp was kind of crappy -- and I couldn't really mute the strings right -- but it really started to take off more and more. It wasn't until we came to Bearsville, where we recorded the album, that it really started to take more shape in listening to the jam tape. And we messed around with a few arrangements, but it didn't take us long for it to come together, actually. So, we recorded it and got a good version. This was without any lyrics...

Gayle: Oh, ok. That is what I was going to ask.

Mick: ... at all. It was strictly instrumental. What was so amazing was that Jeff had gone on tour and then come back -- and I think actually he was in L.A. -- but he had no idea what he wanted to do for lyrics. I think he did have this poem he had written about Chris Dowd called "Dream Brother", which is usually what he does -- he already has an existing set of lyrics and then tries it out with the musical form. So that was quite a feat -- that we already had this arrangement that could not be moved or fixed -- actually we could have maybe done some splicing -- but it was pretty permanent, and he was able to work the lyrics around that. Came out quite beautifully, I might add.

Gayle: Oh, yeah. That's a beautiful song.

Mick: So. that's the story behind that. "Tongue" came about from something Michael was doing very quietly with his guitar. That was really strictly a spontaneous happening, and we took that -- what came of that -- and it was live to cassette. We took that and mastered it from this cassette that was totally unedited. There are no punch-ins or anything.

Gayle: So did it just happen that the band was happy enough with it to put it on a CD? Or...

Mick: "Tongue"? Yeah. We just listened to it and it was "perfect". There are things about a spontaneous happening that you just can't do or just don't seem to happen when you are arranging something and making sure -- counting the beats and all that and making all the chords. We really liked it. So we put it out; we needed a B-side and kind of wanted to show another side of us that was a little bit more experimental or just something else we were interested in. Or just another flavor. So we said, "Sounds great, let's do it." But, I don't think it's that available; it's kind of a limited edition thing.

Gayle: Oh yeah it is. (meaning it is a limited-edition release) It's on an import CD. I think the Grace import CD.

Mick: Yeah, something like that.

Gayle: So in relation to your work with Jeff and the band -- would you say that Jeff had a philosophy -- or I guess for lack of a better word, a musical philosophy -- that meshed with your own?

Mick: Absolutely, yeah.

Gayle: Is that what drew you to work with him, or was it something about his music or his singing as well?

Mick: I think it was a combination of the two. It was perfect -- the fact that I had seen him solo. The first time I had ever seen him was at the Postcrypt Cafe, which is a place where they used to bury the clergy at the basement of a church on Columbia campus, near uptown New York. And I wasn't even going to see him; I was going to see my friend's band, Glim, with this guy Daniel Harnett. Beforehand, there was this other folk woman who sang, and then there was Jeff. I was like "Woah! This guy's really something, and he's doing this open tuning kind of thing, which I found very interesting. Not a lot of people seem to do it -- at least they didn't seem do it very well. And it was such emotion and power to it and such a great investment and also natural ability that I was really taken by it.

I kept on thinking about it, and this was maybe March of '93. And after that, I just talked to him briefly -- we went to an after-show party over at Daniel's house. We talked very little, and we didn't even exchange numbers or anything. I didn't tell him I was even playing bass or anything. But I just kept on thinking about it.

Then it must have been maybe June or July of the same year, 1993, and I happened to notice -- I think it was the New Music Festival in town -- I saw "Jeff Buckley at the Fez." I was like, "I really should see that." I went with this friend, this friend/girl whatever you want to call it. We were going to go to this bar, and I knew it was like ten bucks to get in, and I thought, "Well, I don't know." I also think I just burst and said "OK, let's go!" So, I took this girl Cynthia to the show.

Gayle: Um hm.

Mick: And we're waiting, and I see it's ten bucks, and I'm like "Damn." But then I see Jeff, and I'm like, "Hey, Jeff!", and he recognizes me and everything, and he gets me in free and stuff, and we just kind of hit it off. He was preparing for the show and just singing out loud in the hallway while people are paying to get in. And we exchanged numbers, and I saw him that night. And that night was even like more of a mind-blowing experience, because he was even further down the path of just annihilating people with his talent and diversity. I remember he did the French song, the Edith Piaf, and Strange Fruit. It was all just...it was just mind-blowing. There will be one person and a guitar, and that was an incredible night. So, I had a really good feeling about that. And I told him that I played bass, so we -- I actually went on tour after that with this band, Woodpecker, for two weeks -- just the Midwest. It was a funny little band. (laugh) I came back, was kind of disenchanted with that, just because the way it was going and these agendas, and I didn't like the management. So I had Jeff's number, I called him, and we got together. We actually went to see that band, Glim, again. And after that, we went to his apartment, and we were just playing very quietly. He had this jazz bass, and he had been -- which I was playing -- and then he had his 12 string Rickenbacker, which he still uses. And it was -- I actually have the tape of us first playing -- it was August something, 1am to 2am, I think it's called.

Gayle: (laugh)

Mick: And it was -- you can barely hear it -- and it was almost like we were like two -- not to sound too grandiose or anything -- but it was almost like two angels were playing, and I couldn't even tell if it really happened, because when I played the tape the next morning, it was so faint, and he was taping it on this -- he'd gotten this MiniDisc from Sony as a present -- and I guess he still was trying to figure out how it recorded and everything. But it was quite amazing. And then we went through the process of looking for a drummer. We'd gotten together a few times after that, but I could tell he was very open to just working off the moment and not always having a prescribed idea. A prescribed idea like an Elvis Costello song or most pop anthem type-things, which are very definite. They're 2 minutes 37 seconds. You know what's going to happen. I wanted to do both of those things -- have the anthem quality but also the trance, the non-Western, the Middle Eastern kind of just letting things happen. Whatever's in the wind, you know. Not always just imposing, like "Here's my Pop Order. Listen to it," which is OK, but it's a little bit limiting.

I wanted to explore other things, and that's where Jeff was at totally. And I was very, very happy with that. And he had the talent to match it -- his interests -- which is not always easy to find, because you find a lot of people, whatever, hippie type or it doesn't have to be -- or just (laugh) industrial banging on metal and there's just no form, no order, and that can be kind-of hard to work with. But there was such a great balance of this great musical ability, but also an openness to new things, and I just felt that I was -- I still am -- but I'm the luckiest person to be able to play and learn from this person.

Gayle: So you were in the band how long before the recording of Grace, then?

Mick: Well, that was the thing. It was like six weeks after even meeting him. Because after I met him and we played that, whatever you want to call it, the Angel Jam, (laugh) he hadn't called me for a week or something. So figure we had five weeks to get that album together. So...and then there was getting a drummer, and...but Matt was actually the first drummer we auditioned, which was pretty amazing -- that it just happened like that.

Gayle: Right.

Mick: So yeah, it was like five or six weeks at the most before we were taking the van up to Woodstock and starting to rehearse.

Gayle: So that's kind of like -- I mean for you -- it sounds like spending a lot of time trying to find the people that you wanted to work with, and then all of a sudden, BAM! You're in a situation.

Mick: Yeah. Yeah, it was like (laugh) wishing for something and then, when it really does happen, you can't believe it.

Gayle: Right.

Mick: 'Cause I mean, I do feel that you often get what you want; it's just that you never know at what point, and you never know when it's going to happen. I mean, you don't always get what you want, but...it happened, and I just couldn't believe it. It just seemed too good to be true -- to be able to work and do what I love and make, you know, some OK money.

Gayle: Right. And on the road, of course, you guys now do -- or did or whatever, since your tour's over, I guess -- "Eternal Life" speeded up.

Mick: Right.

Gayle: And I was wondering where that came from, and if that's a group decision, and all that stuff.

Mick: That was something that Jeff started doing in England, but just that section of the song. But we didn't even think -- I don't know if he had it in mind intentionally, he might have -- but basically, he was doing that, and it felt really good to break into a thing that was a little bit harder. And if there were a lot of people and a crowd, it would really get things going, because so much of the material is really solemn and contemplative. So we thought it would be nice -- when the time arose -- that we would break into something a little bit harder. And plus, we weren't really that satisfied with the old version and then the recording -- kind of felt it was a little bit lackluster. If you notice, the whole song is like one energy level, it's just on 10 the whole time -- which is all right, considering that the rest of the album is pretty dynamic. But we figured, "Well, if we're going to go that far, why not take it one more?" And even make it more evil and more balls-to-the-wall, so to speak.

So it was mostly Jeff starting out doing that, and then the first time we did it was in Stockholm; and it just seemed like a funny joke to do it that way. I mean, here we were in Stockholm, -- either it was in Stockholm or Copenhagen, the first European tour -- and we just started to do it, and it became part of the set. I didn't think it...(laugh)...I thought it was just very funny at first, but actually, it started to work after awhile. And we enjoyed doing it. But that's one of the things that you find out when you are just about being on the road and things take shape differently than if you were to just be at home or just rehearsing.

So that was one of the things -- potentially, you could call it...or possibly, you could call it a drawback of recording the album so soon after we had just met. In that instance, we didn't have enough time to flush it out -- at least with that song. In other ways, it was very beneficial, you know, that we kind of took it right when it was very fresh and the ideas were just sprouting, and I just kind of like that sometimes. I think that sometimes when you labor too much on something and try to get it that right, then it kind-of kills the good stuff all the time. But anyway, that's the story of "Eternal Life."

Gayle: Thank you. OK, so you guys just finished touring, and I was wondering...

Mick: Yeah, Australia. We finished September 7.

Gayle: (laugh) You have the date memorized, huh?

Mick: Yeah, and I'm good with dates.

Gayle: (laugh)...but anyways, I was wondering if there were any memorable shows on the tour. For you. Maybe not exactly that tour, but the tour. The tour that lasted a year and a half.

Mick: In the past year?

Gayle: Yeah.

Mick: Um. Well, to be fair, you always got to talk about the good ones and the bad ones. But there were some shows in...I remember on the first American tour, there was The Green Mill in Chicago...was very...was a great show.

Gayle: The second night or the first night?

Mick: No. Well, the first time we came to Chicago, we only played there once, and then we played...Well, the first night, we played at The Hothouse, and then the second night we played at The Green Mill. That night at The Green Mill was a great show.

Then we came back and did it two nights at The Green Mill. The first night was...was pretty (laugh) abysmal, seeing as Jeff had taken the liberty of getting pretty plastered on Cuervo tequila. That's always kind of an ongoing joke on-stage. Some people -- most people -- don't get it (laugh), because they weren't there. That was a particularly funny night. You had to laugh. And then, the second night we played was...we really made up for that -- the first night. So we did have two good shows at The Green Mill. It's a great place. It used to be Al Capone's hangout, I guess, back in the '30s or something. It's just incredible -- molding and velvet seats and beautiful wood and...

Gayle: It sounds great.

Mick: Yeah, it's in this shady neighborhood -- just abandoned. I guess it's called Uptown -- it's on Broadway. But that was a great show. And I know there were other ones, but -- in America -- Europe was also very good, you know, a lot of those shows.

Gayle: What is the difference, for you personally, between touring Europe and the USA as far as shows go? I mean, because, you know, like on the mailing list and all the fans that -- we talk about Jeff Buckley and the music on the mailing list. We have Europeans, and then we have Americans on the mailing list.

Mick: Yeah.

Gayle: And it's funny, because we always wonder why Jeff is spending so much time in Europe, and the Europeans always wonder why Jeff is spending so much time in America. Then we see that the band is playing shows that are selling out like 4,000 seats or something in Europe, and then they're playing in America and playing -- usually -- considerably smaller shows.

Mick: Yeah.

Gayle: And I know there's a lot to do with that geographically, but it seems that there are other differences, too. That we can't really experience, obviously, because we haven't done the tour. (laugh)

Mick: Yeah, but usually we do spend more time in America, because it is bigger. So, it's usually 6 weeks to tour the States -- 5 to 6 -- and then it's usually a month in Europe, because it's a little smaller. But I'd say the biggest differences...In Europe, it seems to be a lot more genuinely wild and a lot...It's a lot more festive and much more patient and...wild, but still less. We were playing, and it was just completely, completely silent. And you get that in the States, too, but you get a lot of gabby people in the States. (laugh) It's really very curious why people would want to come to a show and talk about their dead cat...

Gayle: (laugh)

Mick: ...in an auditorium where you pay money to see good music.

Gayle: (laugh)

Mick: And you're lucky one of us isn't Charles Mingus and then come over there and hit you over the head with a big upright bass. But that's another story...

Gayle: Is that disturbing when people are gabby or is it just like, "Well, whatever" ?

Mick: Yeah, sometimes. Most of the time, it's like "Whatever", but other times it's particularly bad -- especially for Jeff if someone's talking in the front row and...or even singing very loudly. It can be very distracting to him, I know.

Mostly, if people are talking a lot, Jeff says he doesn't mind -- which is nice -- that he lets people do what they want to do. But I know he would prefer to have silence... during the songs for the most part. Something like "Lilac Wine" -- that's like a still lake without any ripples in it -- the song kind of needs a...because it's very vulnerable. I mean, it's not like a lot of these punk bands: "Well, rip it up and shred it out!" -- and that's OK, but there's just so much of that. It's nice to be involved in something that says, "Well, that's cool, but let's go someplace else." That may be a place where people had gone 30,40 years ago or not even -- like Nina Simone -- or just to bring that back and get people's ears a little more open to things. And sometimes maybe not even be able to hear the music because it's so soft and hearing new things as opposed to always hearing Marshall stacks and Telecasters blaring -- which we do, too, but we try to make it different.

Gayle: Right. The live performance...Jeff is the singer, so he's obviously the focal point...

Mick: Yeah.

Gayle: And Matt makes a lot of funny faces when he's drumming...

Mick: Yeah.

Gayle: But besides that, you and Michael are pretty mellow...

Mick: Yeah.

Gayle: ...on the stage. Do you have anything to say about that? I mean, I don't know what we expect, and I don't thing we really expect anything else, but it's just kind of interesting.

Mick: Yeah, well you had mentioned that -- you had also talked about the configuration of how we're standing and stuff, which may be something that you're going to ask about, I don't know. But basically it's sort-of like a telegraph system where Jeff is the conductor. He sends out the signal, and it goes to Matt. Then that translates to me, and then it translates to Michael. Or it could be a number of different ways, but because we're melodic instruments and it's a little bit harder to follow Jeff -- doing both, obviously, rhythm and melody at the same time, as opposed to just drums. It can be very nerve-wracking. And he does switch around stuff... quite a bit sometimes.

Gayle: You mean during the show?

Mick: During the show and we'll just start doing something we've never done before and it just happens. And I had to be very much on my toes, and so it's sort of hard for me to feel like, "Hey, party down" or just (laugh) "Let's get wild and loose." Because there's so much about getting down with yourself and really listening and not being concerned with how my PVC pants move in the lights or any of that.

Gayle: (laugh)

Mick: It's just really about listening, and we have to do it the most out of anyone. And I'm watching Michael, too -- he's a melodic instrument. So it takes a lot, and that leaves me to the point of why we have that certain stage configuration that we do, which is because we have to watch him. And if we're standing out face-to-face with the audience, we can't watch what each other is doing and so much of what goes into the music is how things are suggested through body language and just certain gestures or looks that suggest going into something or... It's really hard for us to be like when you see the Clash or something and they're all in-your-face, looking at you. Because they know what they're going to play; it's very set and pat. As I said, it's anthem...

Gayle: Right.

Mick: ...It's 2 minutes 37 seconds. And we found that the best way to adjust to that kind of format is to sort-of be looking at Jeff. I can look at Jeff, and I can look at Matty and sort-of see these white sticks going, and that gives me information. I see Jeff, and that gives me other information. I don't really look much at Mike...that much -- only when I feel very comfortable, like in "Kanga-Roo" or something. And then it's just a free-for-all, and it's very fun.

Gayle: And then Michael's the last link in the telegraph, too.

Mick: Kind of, but he works off of Jeff, too, because he's got a lot of Jeff in the monitor system. And then he has some of Matt. He hears a lot of me, obviously, because we're right next to each other. But he's kind of last and...as I said, we did start out as a trio, and so that's kind of the foundation of it. But that's not to say Michael isn't very integral, because he is. He's got this great sound and it's...this is his first band, and that's quite amazing.

Gayle: Oh yeah, it is. So do you foresee "Kanga-Roo" continuing with the band?

Mick: As an encore or something that is slipped in?

Gayle: Right. On the last few tours, sometimes you played it, and sometimes you didn't, right?

Mick: Yeah, sometimes we didn't play it, or we would play it and we wouldn't do the "Kanga-Roo" vamp at the end. We call it the "Beehive Jam." Sometimes we would do it, and sometimes we wouldn't. It just depends on the evening, because it's a long song -- on the CD, it's 14,15 minutes. Most of the time, I really wanted to go into it. Sometimes we'd stop. He would end the song, and I was raring to go. But that's the way it goes sometimes.

I hope we do it. I never know, and Jeff doesn't really know. A lot of it has to do with whatever's in the wind, of what we work with.

Gayle: Yeah, I think that's noticeable by looking at your set lists from town to town. We do that on the mailing list, obviously, because there is some variation there. There is some variation and some order changes in a week's time. It's nice, as a fan, going to the shows.

Mick: Well, I'm surprised of that, because in total, at the most, maybe be have 15 songs in the repertoire. That's what we had to work with, so I'm kind-of surprised. I would think at times it would be a little boring -- to see us more than, I don't know, how many times.

Gayle: Maybe it's because you guys went through the U.S. so many times, or quite a few times.

Mick: We went 3 times.

Gayle: Yeah, so we saw the differences in "Eternal Life"; then we saw the additions of MC5 and the Smiths' song. And then "Kanga-Roo" getting played sometimes and sometimes not. Although it gets played most of the time, but you didn't play it in San Diego when I saw you. Maybe it's just because we're fanatics and just notice everything.

Mick: Yeah, I've been there every night, so that could just be me wanting to stretch out a little more and into other areas. But I think in many ways it was good that we kind of stuck with the same material, because a lot of it did evolve, I thought. I got this comment quite a bit, especially on the third leg of the tour -- because we did Europe 3 times, and we did America 3 times -- was that things definitely got a lot stronger and a lot more forceful. Which I liked. We didn't think it could happen -- that we could adapt to the bigger rooms -- because this music started out in cafes, very small theatres, and little coffeehouses that we'd play, just more sit-down things. And all of a sudden, to go to these big auditoriums -- not that big, but big enough where you have security guards and all that. We didn't think that it would translate, but we felt a lot more comfortable with it. It really evolved into that very naturally.

Gayle: Yeah, I think it translates, because when I saw you in Tempe at The Valley Art Theatre, I was in front row center, sitting down. So, I couldn't get any closer. Front row center is a great place to be. That was a really good show. But then, I saw you at The Back Door in San Diego, which was 200 people in a rectangular-shaped room, and I was about 7 rows back, just to the point where you're not crowded anymore. And I cried during that show. So, obviously, that was -- I don't want to say more impressive -- but it still translated for me as a fan.

Mick: Wait, was that the one that was sort-of like an Indian movie theater -- with that band beforehand, sort-of an obnoxious soloist?

Gayle: The Back Door?

Mick: Was it with Brenda Kahn?

Gayle: The Valley Art Theatre was with Brenda Kahn, yeah. That was when you guys went into The Rocky Horror Picture Show, kind-of. You had to end early, because The Rocky Horror Picture Show was coming in, and you had the cartoons going on behind you.

Mick: I remember Tempe, yeah.

Gayle: And The Back Door was on campus.

Mick: Oh yeah, that's right.

Gayle: Yeah, and it was really weird, because it was almost like a conference room. That's what it hit me as.

Mick: Like a lecture room or something.

Gayle: So, you guys are obviously getting ready to write songs.

Mick: Yeah. We have this house on Long Island, and I'd imagine that in two weeks, we'll be kicking out the jams, getting things together. We'll live out there for a couple of weeks at a time, then come back to New York. Just really get back in stride with each other.

Gayle: I wanted you to talk about the redecorating of the house.

Mick: Which house?

Gayle: The house that you're going to be staying at, I guess.

Mick: Oh. Well, there isn't a whole lot we're really going to do with it. The focus is really on the upstairs, which is the music area, and just getting that down. We'll slowly collect things as they come, in terms of the living spaces. The upstairs is where we'll be spending most of our time. There's a fireplace there. There's a kitchen. There's even a terrace, if we wanted to just go outside. It's very lovely. It's a big, huge room on the top of a three-story Victorian mansion. (laugh) No, but they did stuff like sanding the floors and putting a ceiling in. It's a pretty basic New England Victorian remodeling.

It would be great to have mostly antique stuff -- nice and solid wood with little carvings. But it's expensive. But I actually find some good stuff in the thrift stores in Manhattan that people get rid of for free.

Gayle: Are you a thrift store person?

Mick: Absolutely. I love to go shop around.

Gayle: Did you do thrift store shopping on the tour?

Mick: Yeah, I did a lot of that -- mostly in America, but also in Australia. A few things in Europe, but I didn't really know where to go.

There's some good stuff. You have to keep on doing it, and then one day you'll just walk out with two bags full. It's your lucky day. Other days, it seems useless and you're looking around at someone's smelly laundry. It's all different. I'm sure you know how it is. Do you like to go to thrift stores?

Gayle: I don't have as much time as I would like to go to thrift stores. Or I guess I don't make as much time.

Mick: Oh, yeah.

Gayle: But we have lots of them out here -- a whole Valley of them. That and I already live in a very cluttered apartment.

Mick: Oh, I see.

Gayle: (laugh) It's probably not a wise idea for me to go to thrift stores.

Mick: I imagine you'd have a somewhat bigger place than what you can get here in Manhattan. Real estate can't be that expensive.

Gayle: Oh, no. It's just that I have 2,000 CDs and tapes scattered all around the place, and it's a mess. And then I'm a writer, so I have pieces of paper everywhere. Piles of paper. (laugh) It's really scary.

OK, I have some basic questions for you. What kind of a bass do you play? What kind of equipment do you use?

Mick: It's the one I'm touring with -- a 1966 Fender jazz bass. I'm using the Mesa Boogie 400+ amp and 4 15" speakers for amplification. But I like to use that for touring. I like to use other things for recording. Because it's very sturdy and durable -- it's a solid stack, the Mesa stuff, but something about recording it is not that interesting to me. Kind of go for the more Ampeg SPG...

Gayle: And this is going to be a quirky question, but I'm going to ask it anyways.

Mick: Quirky or corny?

Gayle: Corny. Well, maybe not corny, just maybe stupid.

Mick: OK.

Gayle: When is your birthday, and how old are you?

Mick: My birthday is May 7, 1968. So you can do the math.

Gayle: What would you say is your most memorable and/or influential image, idea, or dream?

Mick: (pause) Recently or all-time?

Gayle: Either one. Whatever.

Mick: I can't really speak for all-time, but I can say recently. I was in the Natural History Museum, and I saw Lou Reed and he saw me. We kind-of tipped heads at each other. It was a good feeling.

Gayle: Why do you think that was a good feeling? Just out of curiosity.

Mick: No, it wasn't why I think it was. It was just a good feeling.

Gayle: Oh, OK.

Mick: I love his work, especially the earlier stuff with the Velvets.

Gayle: OK. Well, I think I have enough.

- Gayle Keleman, November 1995