Fifteen minutes with: Suicidal Tendencies

Martin Zavan talked to Mike Muir ahead of Suicidal Tendencies visit to Australia.

In the madness of early 1980s LA, with its eclectic blend of WASPS, Hispanics surf and skate culture and punk and rap music Suicidal Tendencies was born. Almost thirty years later founding member and vocalist Mike Muir is still plying his trade, dazzling crowds across the world with Suicidal’s unique sound that redefines genres at the same time as it transcends them. Suicidal have been praised by fans and artists from diverse musical styles for their pioneer approach and refusal to play the music industry game. Suicidal makes music for its members and if anyone else likes it that’s just a bonus but was never the intention. Suicidal Tendencies return to tour Australia later this year. 

How would you describe Suicidal Tendencies?

We have our own community and do our own thing.

How did skating culture influence your music?

For us it was the attitude. Like with the Zephyr team (professional skating team that Mike’s older brother was a member of). They came in and they got one shirt and that was their Zephyr shirt. It was like if it’s covered in blood and it gets ripped up then so be it but if someone tried to take it you fight like it was for your life. It was something that had meaning. At the time a lot of other people skating were wearing tight-tight shorts with the neon. The Zephyr team came in and they brought this surfing aggression kind of style and it was kind of like ‘hey you know what this ain’t for you it’s for me’. And I went to skate contests with my five year older brother and people would say “That’s not skating they’re destroying it.” Because they weren’t following the rules that somebody that couldn’t do anything else decided that those needed to be the rules. So I think we learnt musically not to be limited by the rules.

Did you draw much inspiration from songs you heard on the radio as a kid?

We heard what was on the radio and it didn’t do anything it didn’t move you and for us music was supposed to be something that you listen to that gets you excited and gives you energy and then bam you go out there and do it. It’s like a motivator; it’s like an adrenalin rush. So that’s what we wanted to do with music. We wanted to make music that does something to you when you hear it.

Reflecting on your success did you ever imagine you would become this big after starting up the band to play at friend’s parties?

I think for us the biggest thing, over the years everybody talks about record sales and all these kind of things but there are a couple of ways to look at it. When we started playing in the kitchen in the hood in Venice if someone said years from now you’re gonna have golden records, Grammy nominations and this and that I’d say “you know what, you’re the devil get outta here.” And that’s not something we ever attempted to do nor thought was possible. And you know, didn’t really care about. So when you sit there and look back you say “wow, that was cool” but on the other side when you sit there and go when I was in the seventh grade and heard sex pistols for the first time and said I’m gonna do a record one day and Steve Jones is gonna play on it from the sex pistols. I only just laughed at myself. Like you talk to your friends and say one day I’m gonna do a song and Ozzy’s gonna sing on it, you know you just kind of laugh. So the thing is I’ve always been in a position where I appreciate things that I never thought would happen. I never tried to manipulate things to make them happen it just comes about naturally and I think that’s the cool thing. And for us it’s not about how much a record sells the week it comes out it’s how many people are listening to it five, ten, fifteen, twenty in our case almost thirty years later.

It seems to be a different approach to the one taken by a lot of other bands?

We look at things lot differently. You know when someone asks me what music’s about I think about the four or five times when someone came over and played something for me or I heard something for the first time and I just go “wooooo! What is this? This is different.” And if you could do that to other people where they remember the very first time they heard you and they didn’t know who you were and how they did it. Actually there’s a funny story where some guy stole a car, put the cassette in and it was Suicidal and this is a true story. Cops were following him, was like a big chase and the dude was thinking “man I gotta find out who this is.” He told us “I got and extra five years because of you.” And over the years you hear a lot of stuff but I think that‘s the thing you love and you can appreciate when you go wow this is like someone putting my music in the same terms as like the three or four people I wish I would have been able to have met and tell them what I want to say but when I saw them I wouldn’t be able to say it.

Do you think it’s easier to be in a band today because people like you have fought the battles against censorship and just demonising of heavy music in general?

For us it was a little bit different cause we tried to fight that battle behind the scenes. We had a situation where we had an EP, called Feel Like Shit…Déjà vu and before it came out they had to send out all the upcoming releases and the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center) at the time went to the head of sales at CBS and said you “If you put this out were gonna do this and that and all the little boycotts” and they got really scared and went to our manager and eventually it came to me and said “we’re gonna have problems we have to change it and this and that.” So I said “wait a second, let’s take a step back. Half of of the stores don’t carry our record cause of the name Suicidal Tendencies, so it’s already not in half of the stores. Even less will take it cause it says feel like shit. But if the PMRC gets out there and they say “Don’t buy this record like they did with 2Live Crew then everyone is gonna want to buy it like cigarettes outside the liquor store. And to me that’s not what music is I don’t want people to buy it because other people are saying “Don’t buy Suicidal Tendencies” or to  buy it because “Tipper Gore says don’t buy it, I’m buying it. That’s how cool I am.” We didn’t want our record to be like cigarettes or something like that. We wanted people to like the music for the reasons we liked it. So when it comes to the battles I said our records aren’t in half the stores, it’ll be in even less but if they get up and hold it I’m gonna be on every talk show and I’m not Luther Campbell (2Live Crew member) and I’ll be able to explain myself very carefully and I’m gonna make ‘em look like idiots. So we basically took it back to them and said “if you want a war you’re gonna lose and you’re gonna sell a lot of records for us it and we didn’t want that to happen for that reason whereas a lot of people try to use that, they try to create controversy.

You haven’t put out any new material for a while. Are you running out of ideas?

We have a couple records of material that we could put out at any time but the beauty of Suicidal is what we’re doing I think is great and we don’t have to worry about fitting any trend because it’s not trend music. It’s not something that fits into now and in three years might be obsolete. And some of the songs now are five years old. If they’re ten years old if and when they do come out they’re not gonna sound like they’re ten years old. I’m more concerned about how they’ll sound in 2025 and 2030.

In an age where people don’t buy music do you put something out just to put it out? So they don’t hear it? What we’re gonna do is do something that actually means something. I mean if it doesn’t mean anything then why put it out? Every once in a while I’ll be somewhere and play something for someone and they’ll be like “fuck! What is that?” And that’s good enough for me.

You said that you were blown away the first time you heard the Sex Pistols. Has there been any band that’s blow you away lately?

I haven’t had that experience in a long time. I would love to hear something I’ve never heard before that is just amazing where you’ve got four or five crazy people and they just put their craziness together in a musical way. But I don’t believe that ‘s a reason that people make music now and I think a lot of people that are still crazy wouldn’t be doing music, they’d be playing video games or something.

So not much inspiring you in the modern music scene?

Nah.

Nothing that would be influencing Suicidal Tendencies material to be released in the future?

(Laughs) Definitely not.