One of the interesting things about working in a record store is the people you meet. Sometimes they can be annoying as hell. Sometimes you get lucky and they turn out to be some of your best friends. I was working at TOWER RECORDS in the early 90 s when a cool thing happened to me. The store closed at midnight and I started sweeping up the aisles. I was cleaning up the 7" single aisle, yes TOWER still had 45s, when this guy politely brushes by me. He starts going through the bins of 45s at lighting speed and picking several out. I say, what s up? Like a man on a mission with no time to pause he fires back just grabbing some singles to play while we clean up. I ask him what will be first up. I m thinking maybe some Stevie Wonder. I tell him it s been years since I ve heard Stevie, and I doubt I will even know the song. He looks up from his task, stares at me dead on and quietly, but intensely, says, Oh, trust me, you ll know the song. I laugh it off and go about my sweeping near the life size DON HENLEY display. About a minute later I hear the needle drop over the shitty sound system. I pause, wondering if he was right and I would recognize it. Two seconds later I hear it. Yep, he was right. The second I heard those opening horn notes and drums, I recognized it. Sir Duke by Stevie Wonder. He spared us yet another painful listen to the latest PAULA ABDUL by playing AMAZING 45 after AMAZING 45. He reminded me of what great music REALLY was. He was Jim Wilson.

Over ten years (several un-produced scripts on my part, and several amazing albums on their part) later, I am still friends with MOTHER SUPERIOR. Like I said, sometimes you get lucky.

I recently sat down with the band at THE MOTHERSHIP and after a few beers we loaded up the minidisc recorder. Here s what the hottest band in the land had to say.

Hey guys, how's it going? Everyone feelin all right?

MARCUS: Feeling great.

JIM: What s up JCB?

MATT: Woody! Come here. Get out of there!

(Matt has brought his dog Woody along to the interview and at that moment he decided to go get a drink of water out of the toilet bowl)

How about an exclusive on the title for the new record?

MARCUS: There is no exclusive.

MATT: It changes about every three days.

JIM: Today's title is 25 to life . Someone e-mailed us that as a title suggestion today.

MATT: There you go, that's the fan's vote.

I've been at the sessions, and I've heard some rough mixes. I think it s amazing, possibly your best. But how do you guys feel about this recording within the context of all your previous records?

MATT: Out of all the MOTHER SUPERIOR albums I've been on, it s my favorite.

(Everyone laughs)

JIM: It's our best album to date -  PERIOD.

Was there any kind of specific vision in mind when you set out to make this particular record?

MARCUS: Actually there was. For it to be rock n roll. CONSISTENTLY rock n roll. On the other albums we'd go on other tangents like soul or whatever. This record is rock all the way through.

JIM: That was the idea, but...

MARCUS:0 Yeah we strayed a little here and there, but for the most part we did that.

MATT : We started with a three-word phrase of Big Dumb Rock but then it stopped being so dumb, so then it was just Big Rock.

Some of your previous albums were recorded in a fragmented way, stealing studio time in between tours and whatever. With this record it seems there was an effort to take a lot of time writing, recording demos, rehearsing, and then hitting the studio. Would you say it was a little more planned and less rushed than others?

MATT: Sounds like we fooled you. (Laughs)

JIM: I think we purposely tried to come up with the best songs we could. But that wasn't some strategic move, we kinda always do that.

MARCUS: I think with Matt in the band now we did kind of take our time a little more.

JIM: Yeah, that s true.

MATT : The thing I love about playing with these guys is that they write - period. Not write for an album or write for a hit or write for a slow song or whatever. Just write. That seemed to make it all come together pretty easy and pretty naturally.

JIM: We also wrote several songs early on that turned into other songs by taking the best of the best and making them better.

MARCUS: Yeah, we would take the chorus from one song and find out it worked better in this other song.

MATT: We recorded every rehearsal and sometimes you listen back and dig a song more than when you were actually playing it. So we would revisit that with more enthusiasm maybe.

Would you ever considering recording an album in a different country? What about Spain?

MARCUS: Sure!

JIM: Why not? We love rockin out in Spain.

MATT: Let s see if anybody steps up.

Devil Wind and Little Motor Sister are just two of the songs that seem to be driven by the drums. They almost feel like the song was written from a drum riff. Can you talk about that Matt?

JIM: We purposely DON'T put drums on demos so Matt can come up with his own stuff. We don't want to influence or suggest, cus maybe what he's going to hear in his mind is something way cooler than what we would have thought it would be.

MARCUS: He brings his ideas to the song. And sometimes what he brings to the song totally changes the feel of the song and might change the way Jim or I approach the song.

MATT: And sometimes I try something that s different just cus it's different and end up going back to the straight rock beat anyway. (Laughs) Whatever works for the song is what s right.

Can you talk a little bit more about Devil Wind ? Is it just me, or does it feel like a huge, sprawling, widescreen, epic western?

JIM: It s kind of a western. It s a chord progression that should have been written before but hadn't been. Then that chord progression sort of lent itself to certain words in my mind. So the narrative started to turn into the story of someone who's being knocked down and is trying to get back up. And in the end, you either get back up, or you don't. Fortunately for all of us, the character in the song gets back up.

MARCUS: Yeah, when we were writing the music for it, I kind of had a Sergio Leone landscape in mind.

MATT: I just like what the producer Danny Saber said when he heard it. He said it sounds like Woody Guthrie meets Black Sabbath.

JIM: It's Leone-Iommi.

(Everyone laughs)

Lyrically, the songs are always a pretty eclectic mix. This Song Reminds Me of You is totally different from say Jack the Ripper . Is that intentional on your part? Or does it just happen automatically?

JIM: That just happens. I mean nobody want to keep repeating themselves, do they?

MATT: It didn't sound like we wrote any of the songs as a response to another song. We didn't feel obliged to keep continuity. The continuity is that it's three guys playing the same instruments with each other. We come up with ideas and then try and let the songs write themselves. It s our job to pay attention and follow.

JIM: Yeah.

MARCUS: I think it's automatic. I mean it's the worst when you listen to somebody's album and every song sounds the same. We try to add variety. Not just with this album, but from album to album.

MATT: We all kind of grew up listening to similar music, and we have similar tastes. So when we get together we can kind of finish each other's sentences musically speaking.

The album ends and begins with the same musical interlude. What can we interpret from that?

MATT: I got it.

MARCUS: Take it.

MATT: We were talking one day about what makes good music good music ? I was trying to think of what s the common thread. Ya know what's the common thread between Buck Owens and Miles Davis? Or Beethoven to Hendrix? And to me, it's BEAUTY and SADNESS. So it was kind of nice to start, and end, the album with these dark strings. Really beautiful, but really sad and haunting too.

JIM: Hey man, we should call the album BEAUTY AND SADNESS.

MATT: Now we have our title for the next three days.

(Everyone Laughs)

JIM: Yeah, see ya on Tuesday (Laughs).

MATT: And we have to give credit where credit is due. It's Brian Kehew. He's the best. I mean, we just kind of described what we were thinking and he just sort of took it from there.

MARCUS: Definitely!

This is a perfect opportunity to cut to a new portion of the interview. On a separate occasion I spoke to Brian Kehew, co-producer of the album. Brian has worked with tons of artists. Everyone from Fiona Apple to Mother Superior and a shit load in between. Not to mention his own Moog Cookbook albums. He also works on a lot of reissue campaigns. A lot of his work for Warner Brother's is uncredited. He did 100's of mixes on ALL the Elvis Costello CD bonus tracks and only got about 4 "Thanks" credits! But it's a dream to contribute and work on Ramones, Alice Cooper, Yes, Fleetwood Mac, Aretha, the Faces releases - tons more. How cool is that job!? He is also currently writing a book about HOW the Beatles recorded their records. Not a Who or When, but more for behind-the-scenes stories and details. It may be the last mystery about them to uncover.

In your opinion, what about the band's music changed the most, and what has remained unchanged the most from the HEAVY SOUL record to now?

BK: The lyrics are definitely getting to be equal with the music - much more personal at times, or more clever. I think Henry's involvement must have had something to do with that, but I don't know. I wonder if he "had a talk" like Dylan did with the Beatles...?

You've worked with many different artists in various genres of music. What is different or unique when working with Mother Superior?

BK: They live life as "a band", in the traditional sense. They hang out together as constant friends, regardless of the music work. They play for "feel", whatever works for the music. Hard to describe that, but you know it when you hear it. They are not a "simulation" of some former music, like a lot of 60's and 70's influenced bands. They make music naturally to them, without copying. You can tell when people copy - good bands too, but with more of a "minus" because of that.

When recording MOTHER SUPERIOR, is the first or the last take the best?

BK: Usually takes a few to sink it in - they sometimes hear back what they've just played and see where it needs to go. This is something the Beatles often did... But notice we are NOT after perfection, EVER.

On the new record, what song stands out the most to you, and why?

BK: Jack the Ripper. Not only a long one, with various audio parts adding color, but it really has dynamics that are GONE from a lot of music. It also is kinda unlike MS music normally is - structurally. They are definitely playing with fire writing a song about such a classic subject. It could have been cheesy (Saucy Jack) but it really isn't at all. And the ending is pretty cool....

The guys affectionately refer to you as the NUTTY PROFESSOR. Did you know that? Do you dig it?

BK: I've heard it. Doesn't make a difference to me. It sorta applies, as I'm not "normal" how I do things, and it is on a smarter level, rather than a dumber level. As long as it ROCKS when we're done... and it does.

In the past you've played Mellotron on many MS tracks, any musical contributions on this record?

BK: More Mellotron for sure. I usually try NOT to play on people's records. I think that's a bad tendency from producers and engineers nowadays. I'm pretty good at guitar and keys, but it's better to let bands be what they are. If they need something added, my help is usually sonic contributions - more color than parts, see?

I've always thought MOTHER SUPERIOR are amazing musicians. But I've also wondered if I, as the average music fan, am qualified to judge. As someone who's worked with a variety of musicians, in your opinion - do these guys have the chops? Do they kick serious ass?

BK: NO! And yes! I love a lot of classical music, and those guys make EVERYONE look dumb on an instrument, so NO. Fair enough. But in rock (a great Deep Purple LP by the way), they are as good as the classic bands you love, so YES. If you like Hendrix, Page, Bonham, JP Jones, Sly Stone, Ernie Isley, Jimmy Nolan, Pete Townshend, Dinky Diamond - then Mother Superior are at that level. Yes! But when you hear MS, they can rip, but it almost always is just a part of the music, rather than a solo-istic thing.

In the bizarre comparison section: If Mother Superior were a car, what car would it be?

BK: Chevy Camaro, lots of muscle, stylish, classic as hell, timeless, and active!

You've worked with Mother Superior on five of their albums, six counting this one being finished now. How would you describe your working relationship with them?

BK: Numerous! I guess it is "comfortable". My sessions with them are NEVER a worry, we know each other so well at this point. We laugh a lot, and have all the same musical backgrounds.

Before I let you go, what's next for Brian Kehew?

BK: More work on THE BEATLES book. More mixing for Warner Bros reissues, amazing to hear all the classic music made by some overly - talented people. This week's band is a secret - I've done work before for them and they loved it, but they didn't know who did it!

And now back to MOTHER SUPERIOR

Your earlier albums were recorded in analog. Then 13 Violets was digital. What about this album?

JIM: Well, we were immediately re-united with Brian, so that put us back in to two inch tape.

MARCUS: The only pro tools he has in his studio is this metal box with screwdrivers and such that says pro tools on it. (Laughs).

MATT: We also need to acknowledge Chris McClure. He and Jay Ruston did some pro-tools recording with us. They did a great job of tracking us how we play. And that stuff sounds slammin too.

MARCUS: So like half was recorded with Brian on an analog tape machine, and half digitally.

JIM: Try and tell the difference. You won t be able to.

You've all played with a number of other artists. When you play as MOTHER SUPERIOR, is your approach different?

MARCUS:0 Definitely. It's OUR vision and we aren't trying to achieve something for someone else.

JIM: Of course, we get to do what WE want to do.

MATT: It's not WORK. It feels like HOME.

Do you think being a trio limits you, or is it liberating?

MARCUS: I can t imagine playing with another person in the band.

MATT: It s liberating in how much we get to play. Like if you re in a horn section of some band. You play this one little part. You're just this little part of the big thing. With us, there are only three of us, so we get to contribute a lot more.

JIM: We get to fill in the blanks.

MATT: It s great live too. It s easier to branch out when we play live. When it s only three guys you all are focused on each other and you can read what's happening. If you got seven guys in a band it could be a train wreck going into the improvisation we go into.

JIM: By the way, Woody is being a good dog; he's just kicking it.

MATT: (directed to Woody curled up on the floor) Good boy Woody!

When you guys play live, do you try and re-create the album?

MARCUS: Never.

JIM: We rehearse.

MATT: Yeah, we rehearse so we can try and keep the fuck ups to a minimum. (Everyone laughs) But all we try and recreate is the honesty of the music.

JIM: With 13 Violets we kind of had to try and find ways to get around the weird production. There were a lot of weird sounds.

MARCUS: That kind of touches on the liberating question. When we play live we need to find ways to fill stuff up. In the studio you can layer, but live it s just the three of us, so we have to find ways to achieve that. That challenge liberates our playing.

MATT: Yeah, definitely. Also, the audience comes into play. When you record an album it's like writing a letter to someone. You can spell check, move stuff around, delete, whatever. But when you play live it s more like a conversation. You react instantly. You speak your mind musically. And often the audience affects that. When we have a good audience, I don t think it's possible for us even to play bad. It just happens.

JIM: The best part is when we actually pull something off live that we didn't even plan. We just sort of communicate a change musically, do it, and then look at each other like man, we actually just did that! It's pretty amazing when that happens.

MARCUS: Especially a song like THE WIGGLE, it changes nightly.

MATT: It's turning out like every song is starting to get a little like that.

(Everyone laughs)

You recently played a festival in Spain, something like 10,000 people. What was that like?

JIM: First time we played Spain as MOTHER SUPERIOR. We didn't know what to expect, and we were blown away. It was so great.

MARCUS:0 Check this out. We got there a day or two early. People are coming up to us asking us to sign our CD s that they are carrying around with them. They totally are just carrying around MOTHER SUPERIOR CD s a day before we are even playing. They are hardcore there!

MATT:0 Northern Spain really loves the rock n roll!

JIM:0 We played a killer set there.

MATT:0 Of all the bands we saw there, the NEW YORK DOLLS still kick everyone s ass. Quote me on that!

JIM0 and MARCUS:0 Totally!

MARCUS:0 And the Spanish fans were just amazing.

MATT:0 They were so nice to us.

JIM:0 Spanish Fans, we will see you again soon!

MATT:0 Oh and I love how our name in Spain is La Madre Superiore. Too cool!

Was it cool to meet all your fans in Spain?

MATT:0 Best crowd to play to, and the best crowd to hang out with. And we enjoyed doing both of those things.

JIM:0 Free hash baby, FREE HASH!

(Everyone Laughs)

In the past, some people have labeled your music as retro or even 70's. I think your music is timeless. Do you think some people are missing the boat? They're missing some of the subtleties?

JIM: Sometimes I think we are AHEAD of our time. When someone says we sound like the 70's I feel like saying what should we sound like? The 90's, the 2000's?

MARCUS: How many timeless great bands came from those decades?

JIM: I'm not trying to sound like Led Zeppelin, but I do LOVE Led Zeppelin. I mean, doesn't everyone? I listen to tons of Duke Ellington too. When that seeps into my soul and my music am I now a retro jazz artist?

MATT: You see, young rock bands today are influenced by other young rock bands from just 5 years ago. But the bands in the 70 s were influenced by music that was sometimes centuries old! Whether it was classical, or folk, or Celtic. Zeppelin was checking out music from the Middle East. I mean this country alone, blues, R&B, and gospel; there are so many flavors to draw upon. If you don t draw from that pool you d be an idiot.

MARCUS: Did they call Muddy Waters retro? Fuck off!

JIM: At least it's our music that seems 70's to some people. Not some pair of jeans bought in a Melrose street vintage clothing store.

MATT: It's just about being honest. You can tell when you re listening to music and it's done for the wrong reasons. Like it's done for attention, or it's done for pussy, or it's done for money. When you hear our music, whether you like it or not, you can tell it's honest.

In times where bands are dropping like flies, this is basically going to be your 7th studio album in 8 years. How do you do it?

MATT: How do you not?

MARCUS: When the faucet is running, let it run.

MATT: How do you only make an album every 5 years when you write as much as we do? The greatest crime is to receive love so freely and not give it.

JIM: We love music and we know we re good at it.

MARCUS: We love our job.

Is there anything in the current pop music scene that REALLY excites you?

JIM: Neil Young and Bob Dylan.

MATT: I don t really know what the hell is going on anymore. Can't really listen to K-ROQ (local Los Angeles station that plays bands like Papa Roach and Sum 41) anymore. I would if I could. Some years it's better than others. This year I can t seem to take it. You know how when there's a mosquito buzzing around your ears? It's just annoying and you have to swat it away, it's like, get away!

JIM: Total mosquito rock.

MARCUS: The radio is so limited these days, it's not like it used to be. I'm too busy listening to us.

I saw a sales chart from a Spanish magazine and you guys were right in there with the Jayhawks, Wilco, even beating the Beatles. There wasn't an Ashley Simpson in sight. Not trying to dis our beloved USA, but do you think the music fans in Spain have better taste?

MARCUS: Well, we're in the charts, so obviously they do. (Laughs)

JIM: I m not even sure it's a taste thing. It's just that here in the states the music business is all geared to advertising. What teen idol can we sell today? Where as in Spain it seems like it's the music that decides what is cool and what isn't. They judge bands by what they hear, not by what reality show they are on.

MATT: Yeah, there's no award shows or lame magazines trying to tell these kids who is cool. They let the music dictate who is cool, not some advertising executive.

Would each of you please name around 5 to 10 of the biggest influences on you for your specific instrument?

MATT: Bruce Lee, Harry Houdini, Fred Astaire, Ringo Starr, and Zigaboo.

MARCUS: That s why you drum with your top hat on! Fred Astaire!

JIM: Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, George Harrison, Stevie Wonder, Brian Wilson.

MARCUS: Paul McCartney, John Entwistle, James Jamerson, Bootsy Collins.

MATT: I need to add Levon Helm to mine. Keith Moon too! I'll save Stewart Copeland for the Modern Drummer interview. (Laughs)

JIM: Pete Townshend!

MATT: Mitch Mitchell!

JIM: John Lennon!!

MARCUS: Brian Wilson!!

MATT: Bill Bruford!!

JIM: CHUCK BERRY!!!!

(At this point I had to stop them or they would have went on FOREVER!)

Can rock and roll save the world?

MATT: More importantly, can the world save rock and roll?

(Everyone laughs)

JIM: Perfect way to end the interview! Now, you guys have to here this Jimi Hendrix bootleg I just got.

The minidisc ran out of room, we ran out of beer, and the Hendrix boot was finished. We were about to call it a night when I managed to convince them to play the new mixes of their latest effort. But before that we had take care of something else first. We had to get more beer and I had to get my exclusive on the title. After a few more beers Jim Wilson leaned over and whispered, the title for the new record is MOANIN'. Mission accomplished, I got my exclusive.