MA: Well, they were probably doing a lot of coke. (laughs) Keith was doing a lot of heroin. They probably just didn't care as much: it was like, put out another record, do another tour, make a bazillion dollars. With us it's a different situation. Recording the album, releasing it and playing it live is a reward in and of itself.

MPP: Are there any plans for a tour this year?

MA: No, not really...we're playing two Northwest shows in a few weeks, but after that Dan's wife is giving birth to their third kid. So while she's still on maternity leave, he's gonna be a stay-at-home dad. Then in May we're playing Europe for two weeks. We hope to do more in the fall, but Guy's finishing up his Bachelor's in nursing...basically, we just squeeze it in when we can.

(The picture that launched a thousand amateurish pratfalls - photo by Charles Peterson)

MPP: Why don't we talk about the early years of the band? How did Mudhoney come together?

MA: Okay. Steve and I knew each other since about 1983; in the last six months of my first band [Mr. Epp & The Calculations], he joined up and played - it was a two-guitar line-up. And we've basically been playing in bands ever since. There were six months after we both quit Green River when we weren't, but then I joined on drums with the Thrown Ups and we were together again. We're almost like a married couple at this time; we no longer talk when we eat breakfast. (laughs) That's a terrible analogy.

So anyway, before Green River Steve had started playing with Dan Peters, and the Thrown-Ups singer [Ed Fotheringham] was also singing with them. But he didn't seem enthusiastic about playing in a real band who practiced (laughs)...he was mainly an illustrator. He did the covers for Piece of Cake and My Brother the Cow, and now he's in almost every issue of The New Yorker. But when Green River broke up, I called Steve and said, "wanna start a band?" He was like, "well, I've been playing with Dan." So I joined up with them, and we had a couple rehearsals.

Matt Lukin we'd heard got left behind by the Melvins - he didn't want to move, so he'd stayed behind in Aberdeen. We'd known him since '83 or '84, so we asked him to join...and I don't think he ever said whether he would or not. (laughs) New Year's 1988 was the first practice with the four of us, and Matt had to drive out from Aberdeen to get there; those Melvins guys would drive to Seattle every weekend, and none of us had cars except Matt. So he had to drive for two and a half hours, pick all of us up, and then drive to the rehearsal space. (laughs)