“Not for nothing, when I came through last time at the Grog Shop, I thought, ‘Yeah, I need to bring the band back here,’” says Mould via phone. “That crowd was off the hook. [When I return,] it’s going to be a tornado.”
Mould’s musical resume features the time he spent fronting notable indie/alternative acts Husker Du and Sugar. But for the past two decades, Mould has actively pursued a solo career. His new studio album, Here We Go Crazy, represents his 15th solo effort and first full-length new album in more than four years.
Mould says the pandemic threw a wrench into his usual method of writing, recording and touring.
“My life is like a series of repeated cycles,” he says. “I write a record, I record a record, I wait for a bit. The record comes out, and people like you write about it. The last step is taking it out on stage and integrating it with the songbook. That’s where I get to see if I did my job right. I didn’t have that for two years [because of the pandemic], and it stunted the writing. In 2022, when I got back solo electric, I was bringing a handful of these songs out. People were responding well. I kept writing. This was recorded at the beginning of 2024. That’s the backstory on how it took so long.”
The Southern California desert where he’s recently spent a significant amount of time provided inspiration for many of the tunes. Specifically, he and his husband recently started visiting Palm Springs on the regular.
“We enjoy the open space and found a little place to hang,” he says. “Right now, it’s back and forth between San Francisco and the desert. There’s a lot of inspiration. A lot of the record, especially the title track, is trying to describe the vibe: the time and the place and the open sky and that it’s a gay friendly place to live. It’s very quiet and unlike my normal life, whether it was New York or D.C. or San Francisco or Berlin. It takes getting used to, but it had a big impact on this record.”
In typical Mould fashion, the album’s opening opening title track features a nice balance of noisy guitars and upper register vocals. Layers of vocals make the song really shimmer.
“When in doubt, take the song that sets the stage for everything else and put it first,” Mould says when asked about the tune. “You can also name the album after it. I’ve done this before, and I think about the song ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.’ You hear the band tune up and the crowd and fanfare. It’s like, ‘Here is where we are and the characters you are about to see.’ It’s trying to paint a little bit of a visual picture of what it’s like in the desert these days and a nice easy way for people to enter the records.”
With its driving guitars and rapid fire vocals, “Hard To Get,” another album highlight, has a raw intensity to it.
“That’s just me trying to be a clever pop song writer,” says Mould. “It’s like the Fifth Dimension or even some Jimmy Webb stuff. I try to turn bits of phrases inside out. It has the tiniest amounts of ornamentation. I sing that the third time is the charm, and you hear the three door bells chime. It’s stuff like that. “
The thrashy, Foo Fighters-like “Fur Mink Augurs” has a similar intensity.
“I must have been high when I came up with the title,” says Mould. “I think I said it in the car, and I laughed. Then, I remembered it and thought what would it mean. It was cold in Minnesota, and it was a long winter. In life, we’re on a road and then we take an emotional turn. Then you go, ‘How the fuck did I end up here?’ in a bad way. There’s a lot of that stuff in the song. It’s a darker song. There’s broken glass and ambulances.”
The anthemic, brighter “You Need To Shine” marks the beginning of what Mould says is the album’s second act.
“For the last three songs, I tried to give the album a happy ending,” he says. “It’s written for somebody really close to me. The idea is that music is therapy. Music can lift us all up. Do what you do. It’s your time to shine. It’s a real simple idea. It’s nothing too heavy.”
At 64, Mould admits he’s in the “fourth quarter” of his career. But, as the inspired new album demonstrates, he’s as committed as ever to the craft.
“In my twenties, I seriously doubted I would live past 30,” he says. “When I did, I realized this was my life and that I need to start taking care of myself to have a long life in music. It is everything to me. It is the first thing I think about when I wake up. I think about what I am going to do with music. I don’t take anything for granted. I do what I can to stay in physical shape. I am grateful that anyone is still listening, and I get a kick out of it.”
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This article appears in Cleveland SCENE 3/27/25.