Mustard plug

Mustard Plug tells all about the turbulent ska scene, the stresses of continuous touring and why all they ever wanted was zombies and small bikes. 
 

By: Melinda Dalton | melinda@staff.truepunk.com

Truepunk: You guys just finished your tour in Japan with Nicotine. What was the crowd reaction like over there?
Mustard Plug: It’s super awesome. It’s pretty much the same as over here…except in between songs. They’re all completely silent.

Truepunk: Do you find it strange having 1000 kids who don’t speak the same language as you singing along to all your songs?
Mustard Plug: I’d say initially it’s kind of weird, but in the end it’s just a bunch of kids coming out to have a good time

TruePunk: I know you guys have toured with Nicotine before, but how was this tour arranged?
Mustard Plug: They were doing a few Warped dates and I think they were going to record some songs or something. It just happened that they were going to be here and we needed to make-up some dates [ from a previously cancelled tour], so it just worked out awesome. We didn’t really have to say goodbye for too long from Japan

TruePunk: Do you find the ska scene in Canada a more difficult scene to “win over”?
Mustard Plug: I think it varies depending on where we play in Canada. I mean London [Ontario] has never been really great for us, but in Quebec they go crazy. Toronto is a different story; one tour we’ll do really well and another will be not so good.

TruePunk: The whole “MTV Ska-Wave” is on the decline and Moon Ska Records recently went out of business. Do you think that the ska popularity in general is lessening?
Mustard Plug: It’s just like every other form of music: it has it’s high and low points. I mean punk died a couple years ago didn’t it? Now, at least in some form, it’s gaining again. The big backlash against ska happened about eight months to a year ago and now half the bands have broken up or quit. Recently we played some of our biggest shows in Chicago and Detroit. It’s still really good for the bands that have survived. Kids come to the shows now because they like the band, not just because it’s a ska band.

TruePunk: Do you find it’s handicapped you at all that kids need to recognize a band before they’ll pay their money to see them preform?
Mustard Plug: Yeah for sure. You used to be able to just write “Ska” on the flyer and kids would show up. When we used to tour in the US, each time there would be six new ska bands who ages would range from 16-18 years old. Now there’s very few, if any, young ska bands just popping up. But when we first started playing ska it was a lot smaller than it is now.

TruePunk: A lot of the ska bands that started on smaller labels have moved up to larger ones. Do you have any plans to go that way or are you happy on Hopeless Records?
Mustard Plug: We’re definitely staying on Hopeless. Even the bands that moved on to the bigger labels were dropped after ska wasn’t “MTV popular” anymore. We’re just happy that Hopeless still like us! Look at Less Than Jake…they’re one of the biggest ska bands right now and Capitol just didn’t know what to do with them.

TruePunk: You guys have been touring for a long time now. Do you find it’s a lot easier now to just pick up everything and go on tour or do you still encounter the same stresses?
Mustard Plug: Well we exchanged some stresses for different stresses. I mean we don’t have to worry about if the show is really happening or not anymore, but there will always be other dumb things. The only real stress we have right now is crossing the boarder.

TruePunk: Do you still find excitement in touring?
Mustard Plug: I think we’re mostly happy with touring. I mean everything has it’s ups and downs. We still enjoying playing shows and meeting all the kids.

TruePunk: You’ve played sno-jams and you’ve supported a lot of tours and you’ve headlined many of your own tours. What would you say is your favorite type of tour to play?
Mustard Plug: We like the package tours, like sno-jam, because you get to hang out with a whole bunch of different bands and different people. Keeps it exciting.

TruePunk: My friend Justin here wants to know why you don’t play western Canada
Mustard Plug: Because it’s really far away!

TruePunk: Japan is also really far away!
Mustard Plug: That’s a good point, but we don’t have to drive to Japan!

TruePunk: Pray for Mojo has been out for about two years now. Are you planning a new album?
Mustard Plug: We’re trying to but we’ve never been very good at writing while we’re on tour. We’re barely a home writing band! We’re probably about half way done writing for a new record.

TruePunk: Are you planning a break in the touring to finish writing?
Mustard Plug: I don’t think we’ll tour too much until we have another CD out

TruePunk: I know you guys have two videos. Do you think you’d make another one?
Mustard Plug: I think that kinda goes hand in hand with a new album. We’d definitely do it again though, but I think we’ll try to do it ourselves next time, just have a friend directing and editing. Both of our videos have been done in California when we were on tour. They’re kinda funny for us to watch because we’re not from anywhere close to California. The only thing we ever wanted in our videos was small bikes and zombies. We come up with these ideas and they kinda get taken away from us. When we’re on tour and we’re doing a video we only have one day to film the whole thing. It’s weird in California too where there’s film people everywhere. They all have their own ideas because they want to get into directing or whatever. They definitely have their own opinions of what should happen and they aren’t really concerned with what a ska band from Michigan wants.

TruePunk: Do you find that the touring experience has influenced how you write music?
Mustard Plug: I think some of the bands we’ve played with have influenced us. I think we probably write songs based on a live show maybe not touring in general. When we write songs we’re usually more concerned with how it’s going to sound live rather than how it will sound on the album.

TruePunk: Thanks a lot for your time guys! Good luck with all your future plans!