When not busy playing bass in Birds of Avalon, David Mueller’s been nurturing his own solo project, Heads on Sticks. The band’s musical abandon into experimental fields of rhythmic frenzy and energetic melodies have already garnered them some due attention (notably a spot at the upcoming Hopscotch Fest).
All that potential is well and fine, but it’s no guarantee Mueller can handle the Gimme Five treatment. Will he survive? Find out after the jump.
1. If your band were a book, which would it be? (and why?)
I’m not really sure what book we’d be, we’re a relatively new band and there’s a lot that’s unwritten. I did recently read a Henry Miller short story called “The Angel Is My Watermark!” that I really identified with in regards to the creative process. It’s about a painting he’s working on and he keeps painting over parts of it and allowing errors or deficiencies to change the scene into something else. All sorts of fantastical landscapes ensue but at the end he’s scrubbed everything off the canvas but a blue angel. In the parlance of the story, I don’t think we’ve reached the angel yet. We’re still trying to decide if we should turn the horse into a hammock.
2. Where did the choice of band name come from?
It either comes from Conrad or something my little brother said. I can’t remember anymore.
3. Describe your typical band practice.
Everyone’s late and nothing works. Neighbors start throwing rocks at the house and all the birds and squirrels flee. Sometimes the cops kick the door in and eat all the mayo in my fridge. The earwigs dig it though. They crawl up through the tub drain and jam out the whole time.
4. Who/what might be a few inspirations or influences that would really surprise people?
I’m really into “Da Doo Run Run” right now. That and Moshe Dayan’s Diary of the Sinai Campaign. Taken together they can yield some unexpected results.
5. What did you dream of being when you were a kid? (how ’d that turn out?)
When I was a kid I had a recurring nightmare of the apocalypse. I imagine a lot of kids growing up in the 80’s did. The entire world was on fire. There were no buildings anywhere, just piles of rubble and flames. I came upon this fat guy lying on the ground with his face half melted just screaming. Then an ambulance would pull up and this skinny guy loaded the fat guy into it and drove away. Sometimes the roles reversed and the skinny guy was screaming and the fat guy drove the ambulance. Now that I think of it, they were kind of like a nightmare version of Beaker and Honeydew from The Muppet Show. So far this hasn’t come up in my adult life but we’ll see what shakes out.
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Wander down to the The Nightlight this Thursday, May 19th to see Heads on Sticks. And by all means, give David a high five when you see him!