The (Tarantula) Heart Of The Melvins
King Buzzo talks about the band’s exploratory new album and the notion of retirement
Tarantula Heart, the 32nd studio album from the Melvins, begins with “Pain Equals Funny,” a sprawling, 19-minute track that plays like a mission statement of sorts.
The hypnotic grooves and psychedelic overtones within the composition deliver a confirmation that the sludge innovators are back, pushing their own envelope like they haven’t in years.
The Melvins—still the longtime partnership of guitarist/frontman Buzz Osorne and drummer Dale Crover with bassist Steven McDonald of Redd Kross—got weird with the recording process this time around. Adopting a double-drummer approach once again, the band recruited Ministry drummer Roy Mayorga to jam and see what might happen.
As Osborne explains, he and McDonald entered the studio with basic riffs written. The band and Mayorga would then jam for 15 to 20 minute blocks, which they recorded with producer Toshi Kasai. When he took those recordings home, Osborne realized something.
“As I was listening to them all, I realized every so often there’d be a little six-minute or five-minute section where they would lock up and it would be really great, like, ‘Oh they got it’ and then they’d lose it,” Osborne tells Rock & Roll Globe.
Working backwards, Osborne and Kasai selected the best parts from each jam session, assembling them into new song foundations. From there, Osborne went home and wrote all new guitar and bass parts. It was the exact opposite of the Melvins’—or any artist’s—typical process, which Osborne believes allowed them to create something weird and different.
“There’s a few sections that aren’t like that but 90-plus percent is done like that,” he says. “At this point in my career, I’ve done a lot of records and I’ve done them in every possible way you could imagine. It was a new thing and when I played it for the guys, they were like ‘Oh my god, what is this?’ because it was totally different.”
Songs like “Pain Equals Funny” and “She’s Got Weird Arms” are classic Melvins strangeness while “Working the Ditch” is as heavy as anything they’ve ever done. Despite this, Osborne understands that certain people will diminish the record because of its unorthodox creation.
“I really feel like we got something that’s completely opposite and weird compared to anything else that’s ever been done,” he asserts. “I knew I had to tell people the process but I knew in doing that, there was going to be some people who were going to piss all over it as a result of that. People have been shitting me to death my entire career. I figure people need to know this because it’s such an odd way to work.”
The Melvins have always had an array of influences that don’t really sound like them — they’ve dedicated entire albums to covering those artists. And it’s no different on Tarantula Heart, where Miles Davis’ improvisational studio approach served as inspiration.
“Electric Miles, that’s my favorite era of his,” reflects King Buzzo. “It’s hated by real jazz heads mostly. Not embraced entirely, it’s a little too weird for some people. I would say that’s 100 ppercent true. Not for me, I think it’s weird but I’m used to weird. Weird doesn’t bother me in the least. I like the lengthiness of most of it.”
A shared philosophy between the two musicians, Osborne states, is that they both let the musicians they work with just play. This applies both to his usual bandmates and the Melvins’ guests, like Mayorga and We Are Asteroids guitarist Gary Chester, who contributed various guitar overdubs to Tarantula Heart.
“Where people start messing up is when they start putting constraints on guys like that,” he explains. “If you put a restraint on Gary Chester or Roy or Steven McDonald, you’re going to end up with something worse than you were trying to get to begin with. You let them do their job and you’ll end up with something better. Trust the people that are doing that, trust them to do a good job. You’ll be way better off.”
With Tarantula Heart, it feels like the Melvins have relocated some of the weirdness and spirit that has been absent in some of their more-recent releases. Whether that’s due to the whacky recording process, the presence of Mayorga or something else, Osborne says he isn’t concerned with the pressure of the band’s legacy or fan expectations.
VIDEO: The Melvins “Working the Ditch”
“I don’t feel like I have anything to live up to as far as that’s concerned,” says Buzz. “I don’t know what people want. I wish I knew but I don’t know. I’m not even going to pretend to know, I think that’s a mistake. When you start thinking ‘This is what my audience is going to like,’ it’s like ‘Who? Who are you talking about? What audience? What people?’ There’s just no way to know that and so I quit worrying about that a long time ago and just started making music I like with the idea that, because I had good taste, there will be other people out there that will like it as well.”
Likewise, the musician doesn’t see the point in looking back too hard. There are records he would do over again if he could go back in time, things that sound “a little stiff,” but Osborne acknowledges that hindsight is often more clear and would rather focus on the future (Osborne and Crover have plenty on the schedule as the Melvins and by themselves) and celebrate the present.
“I’ve made a lot of records,” he reflects. “I’ve made ’em with producers and real studios and budgets that were bigger than we were used to and then we’ve done a lot of records with Toshi, but I’ve never ever made a record like this and I don’t think I could do it again.”
Being a musician is all Osborne ever wanted for his life and it’s what motivates him, he says, to continue making quality records. They’ll never make another Tarantula Heart, but the Melvins will certainly keep making noise.
“I heard this professional skateboarder say something I really liked,” he reveals. “‘You retire when either you don’t want to do it anymore or no one cares if you do it anymore.’ Some amount of people still care and that’s good enough for me.”
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