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Mustard Plug's Rick Johnson talks touring, the new MP record, Producing, DIY and more
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Mustard Plug, Grand Rapid's Ska champions, have a lot on their plates as of late so says bassist Rick Johnson, whom I interviewed through email. "Right now Mustard Plug is writing our next record/cd/tape/mp3 or whatever format it eventually comes out on. I think we have six or seven songs semi-finished which we will hopefully start playing live when we go out on tour in November". This tour will be one of many Johnson has gone on with Mustard Plug since joining the band in 2004 on bass guitar.
The band has become extremely popular around the world touring as far away as Japan and South America since forming in 1991. Johnson attributes this to being in "right place at the right time as well as the fact that we did a lot of touring". The large midwest ska/punk scene "explosion" at the time of Mustard Plug's formation was also a factor in their popularity rising according to Johnson but due to technology he believes that "there really isn't that (sense of) community any more or if there its really small and there are too many little scenes around the US."
The band thrives on the Do-It-Yourself, or DIY, ethic and the passionate fanbase that they incurred. The aformentioned Midwest ska scene at the time of Mustard Plug's formation was large and thriving. But in today's Myspace and Facebook era of promotion Johnson questions the amount of passion and work people put into promotion. "I almost wish Myspace and Facebook wasn't around because it makes people lazy. (There is) no more printing of flyers or ads. Now it is all friend requests and bulletin updates. After a certain point nobody checks that garbage any more. So I guess I like word of mouth better".
Johnson is a producer of particularly Lansing bands such as Cheap Girls as well as Randy Thunderbird and Natural Disasters from Kalamazoo, MI. Johnson points to a bigger production budget as the reason for Cheap Girls' new album "My Roaring 20s" being a larger success. "The biggest difference in those Cheap Girls records ("Find Me a Drink Home" and "My Roaring 20s) are that "My Roaring 20s" had a bigger budget so we could spend a lot more time on it. The first one we recorded at my parents cabin in a week and i mixed it in a couple of days. The new one we started tracking in February of 2009 and I had turned it in June of 2009. I lost track of the hours spent on it after while. I am pretty happy with it though". He has recently produced another Lansing band called Homelife as well as another unnamed band. Johnson has also opened his own studio called Cold War Studios. Johnson has a constant, nonstop schedule saying "I am never not working on something being touring or recording".
Hopefully for the rest of us Johnson and Mustard Plug keep churning out records until they can't anymore. That will keep us all happy.
Visit
- Mustardplug.com
- rickjohnsonrockandrollmachine.com
- coldwarstudios.com
Mustard Plug playing "Beer" at Mac's Bar on March 15, 2009
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