If you’re interested in knowing the exact number of times that sludge metal/experimental rock group the Melvins have played in Birmingham, you’d do best to avoid asking drummer/founding member Dale Crover. Much like the band’s near impossibly prolific output (their 19th full-length Hold It In was released last month), the Melvins are a force to be reckoned with both musically and geographically. Just two years ago the band made quick work of the Guinness Book of World Records challenge to play all 50 states in as many days, practically scoffing at the idea that such a thing would even be considered a challenge.
For Crover, vocalist/guitarist/founding member Buzz Osborne, and the ever-rotating bassist position, the Melvins have been immovably rooted in simplicity since the band’s beginnings in 1983. Crover’s own history as the one-time drummer for Nirvana might otherwise eclipse any other career venture were it not for the fact that his work with the Melvins over the last three decades has merited the kind of praise and respect rarely given by rock and roll’s notoriously fickle listening audience. As their current US tour sees its conclusion right here in Birmingham next week, Crover spoke with us about the band’s history and what he hopes to do while here in town.
Weld: You guys just released your umpteenth album, Hold It In.
Dale Crover: Something like that. [Laughs] I don’t know how many. Usually when I look and it’s like the 18th record or something I’m like, “That’s the 18th one? Really?” [Laughs] So yeah, we’ve done a s—load.
Weld: And that’s become synonymous with the Melvins — that prolific sense of creativity. Constantly putting out records isn’t exclusive to you guys, but the fact that each one is so inherently different from the next is almost a kind of trademark for the band. Has the creative approach for the Melvins changed over the years, or do you see it as largely the same?
DC: I guess since we’ve been doing it so long, especially recording, now is a much more comfortable situation than it was back then, because now I feel like I know what I’m doing. [Laughs] Whereas back then it was a really weird thing. Just recording in general can be because it’s not like playing it live. When you get into a recording studio it’s not really the same as it is when you’re in your practice room over your garage recording or whatever. There are micro-felt pressures on because you wanna get a good take, and especially for younger bands, it’s probably a lot harder to relax. That’s the thing. We’ve done this so long now that it’s just fun as opposed to when we first started making records, when it was more like pressure. “We’ve only got four days, and we’ve only got this much to make a record! We have to get it done!” Whereas nowadays we have our own studio; we’ve got all the time in the world. We don’t have any tape costs because that doesn’t exist anymore, and we can do whatever we want. Everything about it is the world is what you make it as opposed to “You’ve got this much stuff and this much time and money.”
Weld: Has that removal of distraction or pressure allowed you guys to maintain that constant creativity that you’ve had?
DC: Yeah. I think also now as compared to even 25 years ago — this is what we do for a living, so we can pretty much concentrate almost all of our time on it, too. It’s something that we like doing as well. Some bands, it takes them a long time to write songs, and they spend a lot of time in the studio, and they spend a lot of time on their music before they even get there. I think one of the things we’ve learned — even recently, even since we started recording the new stuff — has been not having to worry about time or budget or any of that stuff. It’s much more relaxing where we can focus on the whole thing, and we usually jump right into recording and don’t worry about going over the song a billion times to make sure each little part’s right.
What we usually do, lately, Buzz will come in with songs or maybe some ideas, and we’ll sit there and work ‘em out for however long it takes, and then we’ll record it right there. We won’t practice it over and over and over again to death. I think some of our earlier stuff has been like that, but that’s also because we didn’t have anybody putting our records out for us. All we have to do is write our songs and record our songs, and that’s a big difference now. I think that is a much more healthy and creative environment. For example, some of the songs that were brand new, once we work on ‘em and get ‘em down, and once we started recording it, I would get it in one or two takes. For our stuff that we knew and had even been playing live, if you have just that part and you try to record it, you’re gonna screw it up, and that would happen all the time. We’d think “Oh yeah, we’re gonna record this, and this is gonna be the easy song to record,” but that’s gonna be the longest song to record because you’re thinking too hard about it.
Weld: When you think about longevity as a rarity for bands and how you guys are still growing and evolving as a group, what do you attribute the longevity of the Melvins to?
DC: Hm. Well, I guess not being completely insane is probably the key. [Laughs] Most bands are just crazy and also just stupid, personality-wise and ego-wise and all that stuff. Some people just can’t get along, and people who are creative are sort of just crazy to begin with, so sometimes when they try to interact with other people it just doesn’t work. But in other bands that have those situations, this one works. I don’t know why.
Not that we’re not somewhat nuts — I think that probably shows through in our music, but we’ve always been realistic about the whole thing. We’ve never had any big designs where we were gonna be huge rock stars and have giant mounds of cocaine in front of us to make us even more crazy. We’ve been realistic about that from the beginning and made it work to where we could do this for a living and also realizing that “I don’t have to have a day job? F—ing great! I’m gonna make this work!” The reason we’ve gone through so many bass players is because of their personalities. They’re f—ing out of their minds. They don’t understand anything about it. This is what we do for a living. This is f—ing great. What an awesome job. Not too many people can say that, and a lot of people take it for granted, and we don’t. Plus, we just can’t do anything else. What am I gonna do? Where am I gonna get a job? [Laughs]
Weld: It’s another trademark of the Melvins, honestly. Seems like too often bands try to overcomplicate what’s really a simple formula of just doing your job and doing it well.
DC: Boy are we glad people actually give a s— about that. If they didn’t, and people weren’t buying our records or coming to any of our shows, then we wouldn’t do it. It wouldn’t be worth it. We might do it on the weekends or whatever, but yeah. When you’re 20 you can do that. You don’t give a s—, and it doesn’t matter. You do it because you love it, but after a while after you eat s— year after year after year, you’re probably not gonna do it anymore. That’s happened to plenty of bands. It’s like “Ah, f— this. We’re not gonna do it anymore.” That’s bands that aren’t making any money off of it, and bands that are making a s—-ton of money are getting big head and big egos and are just f—ing out of their minds, and they just let the whole thing fall apart.
Weld: You’ve been able to take part in the story for several of those bigger-name bands like Nirvana for example, and of course the Melvins have become an inspiration staple for countless artists, like Tool. I think artists see that constancy from the Melvins, and even with their own arena-success they still know where the value of all of this really lies.
DC: And that’s great. I mean, the average music fan is like, what, early 20s? We still kinda get that crowd, which is great. I’m glad that they’re interested in it for whatever reason, and it certainly makes it feel like we’re not completely old-fashioned. [Laughs] We’re not, though. And we really do stuff that’s new, and we try to do stuff that’s interesting. We never broke up, so we don’t have the reunion thing to fall back on. [Laughs]
Weld: You’ve got the show coming up here in Birmingham at Zydeco, and I’ve about lost count of how many times the Melvins have played here in town.
DC: Birmingham? Hm. Well, the Bottletree at least three times, the Nick at least three or four times, we’ve played there with Tool, and we did one other show that was closer to downtown too. We’ve played there quite a few times, and we certainly remember playing the Nick and going there. [Laughs] I know we played there at least four or maybe even more times than that. We always like Birmingham. Love the Vulcan. We’re big into the Vulcan. I’ve never been up there, but I know Buzz has. I should go up there this time. Our last show of the tour is in Birmingham, and I fly home the next day, so maybe I can go up the Vulcan before I leave town.
The Melvins will play Zydeco on Sunday, Nov. 9. The show will start at 9 p.m., and tickets are $15.