Mark Mothersbaugh has been evolving for decades. From his pioneering art-pop band DEVO, to his visual art, to his work creating soundtracks for shows, movies, and video games like Pee-Wee's Playhouse, Rugrats, The Royal Tenenbaums, Crash Bandicoot, A Minecraft Movie, and many more, Mothersbaugh has never stopped tinkering and reinventing his style.
On April 11, Mothersbaugh joins his DEVO bandmates Gerald Casale and Bob Mothersbaugh at Mutate Don’t Stagnate: An Evening with DEVO at 850 W. Lincoln, presented by Easy Partners and Hello Lincoln.
This event features two components: first is a free merch pop- up shop running from 3 PM-10 PM, featuring DEVO merch, Spud Patrol, Phoenix’s premier DEVO cover band, DJ Kate Scratch Fever, and exclusive t-shirts and posters designed by underground comix artist Brad Dwyer, plus art by various artists.
At 6 PM, doors will open for a screening of the documentary DEVO (2024) and a post-screening Q&A.
Purchase a DEVO energy dome to access to this special event:
GET YOUR ENERGY DOME AND ACCESS NOW.
Public Record creative director Jason P. Woodbury recently caught up with Mothersbaugh on the phone to discuss the event and explore how mutation is a key survival tactic.
Public Record: You just announced a new live album from the UK label Futurismo, Nitrous Nightmare: Live in ‘75. It was recorded on Halloween, when Devo was opening for the Sun Ra Arkestra. What was it like sharing the stage with the mythic Sun Ra?
Mark Mothersbaugh: I was a fan of his and when I saw him play, it made me want to emulate his style. He was playing his keyboard with an open paw—his hand spread wide, like a child, his hand banging the keys. I thought, 'If you made sounds on a synth that approach worked with, maybe that’s the right direction to be going in 1975, given that rock & roll is over and we’re in a new era.'
Public Record: It felt like rock & roll was done all the way back then?
Mark Mothersbaugh: It was wishful thinking. We did our version of “Satisfaction” in 1974 as an homage. It was 10 years old and we thought it was the quintessential rock song. We thought, 'We need to reinvent it for the ‘70s.' We hoped rock & roll was over. But actually, rock & roll is a pretty strong virus. It’s still going pretty strong.
Public Record: Could you ever have imagined back then that The Rolling Stones would still be touring in the future, in 2026? Or DEVO for that matter?
Mark Mothersbaugh: I remember in 1977 being on-stage going, 'I’m not going to be able to do this when I’m 30.' That was three years away. I thought, 'I’ll never be able to do this.' [Laughs] That we’re still able to do this is humorous to me.
Public Record: It’s been an especially active time for DEVO. You’ve been touring a lot, you had the Netflix doc, and you have all this activity. Do you encounter younger people at the shows who are interested in what DEVO is doing? What does that feel like for you, given that you’ve devoted so much of your life to this project?
Mark Mothersbaugh: We have seen that. It’s quite surprising. I remember being at Soldier Field last year watching kids that are younger than we were—high school and college kids—singing along with me on songs that were out before their parents were born. Kids nowadays are in another world. They have access to so much information in their hands. It’s easy for them to go, 'Who’s my favorite band in the world? Who influenced them? Oh, Nirvana, and they check out Nirvana and they wonder, well who influenced them?' And they find DEVO and show up at the shows. I think kids are smart and interesting these days. They are in a world that I am jealous of. I wish I was 16 right now, that’s how I feel about it. We’re in a very interesting time right now.
Public Record: It’s easy to look around and see the downsides of how the world is now. It’s hard for artists to get paid for their work. And at the exact same time, the technology we have allows access to a global audience. You can go live on Instagram and, theoretically, anyone can see what you’re doing.
Mark Mothersbaugh: Exactly.
Public Record: We can’t ignore the negatives, but it’s also important to not miss all the positive aspects of the world today. The 'Mutate, Don’t Stagnate' slogan you’re using for this event, it feels philosophically important right now. Have we hit a stagnation point culturally?
Mark Mothersbaugh: [Laughs] Here’s how I feel about it: I’m 75 years old. When I was 19 or 20, I wished I’d been around in the late ‘20s or ‘30s, in Paris or Berlin, when all these incredible art movements were happening: bauhaus, dada, surrealism, futurism. There was music like “Ballet Mécanique,” which influenced DEVO, and does still to this day. But it was partly formed by a really dark time in history leading up to World War II. It sorta came back again in the ‘70s, with what was happening with Vietnam and around the world. That inspired artists, punk and new wave sprung out of that. Pop art, and other movements, and DEVO. And now we’re maybe back in that again.
Being 75, it’s different than when I was 25 and I thought everything was going down. We talked about de-evolution and things falling apart, the idea that humans were the one species out of touch with nature. Then it kind of came back. It’s in cycles. I still believe in de-evolution, but I also believe in evolution. It’s a yin and yang, a tug of war constantly going on. They take turns. Humans are not a perfect species. We are the one species that isn’t in touch with nature.
Public Record: Does this moment feel a little like that moment did back then?Mark Mothersbaugh: I look around and think, 'This reminds me of when DEVO and other bands all across the spectrum were being inspired by what was going on and responding to that.' I think we’re going to see a lot of interesting art and music, because technology has changed again. We took advantage of technology back then and ended up with sound and vision, and people like Andy Warhol were who we paid attention to. His art and the things he was doing, was about the idea first, and whatever technique best suited his idea. He’d do a print, a Polaroid, a painting, fashion shows; he produced The Velvet Underground. The idea always came first, and that’s how it is with DEVO and our work.
I see it now, with the situation kids are in. Everybody’s scared of AI. There are things about AI that are dangerous and scaring people for good reason. But I also think from an artistic point of view, it’s just a technology. This is why I wish I was a kid: I remember telling my girlfriend, ‘We have to eat tea and toast all weekend, so I can save seven dollars and go to Radio Shack and buy a reel of Shamrock quarter-inch reel to reel tape, cause I’ve got two more songs in my head and I want to record them.'
Now, kids could be walking home from school and they don’t have to have to learn bass; they don’t have to have a set of drums down in the basement, with their parents yelling, 'Turn that off! Shut up! Stop making that noise!' They can be walking home and make up a drum beat on their phone. And if they like it they can go through different drum kits and say, 'I want this to sound like The Foo Fighters, or Run DMC, or DEVO or whoever.' They pick any sound they like. They can keep adding instruments, and if they make something they really like, they don’t have to go, 'We live in Akron, Ohio, where’s a record company? I guess they’re in California and New York and London, how do we get there? Who’s gonna let us make a record?' They can go online and post that, and the whole world can see it overnight.
I love what’s going on with technology, I think it’s so great. And you don’t have to do it like that, you don’t have to be that extreme, but I’m just using that as an example. You can have your band play in the basement over the phone.
I have always been the Booji Boy in the band, I’ve had an optimistic viewpoint. I continue to be the one who thinks, 'Yeah, there’s a good side to everything.' That's how I feel about the world. And as long as no crazy people start detonating atomic weapons in the meantime, we can straighten things out and make it bigger and better. There’s a chance for more unity now.
Art and design: Wartella
Words: Jason P. Woodbury
Special thanks: Erin Mason, John Dubuque
