MERCURY RISING! It’s maximun Revs from a band at the cutting edge of new music
by Vicky Davidson
When Mercury Rev go looking for instruments they’re as likely to whip down to their local DIY store as to a music shop. For their critically acclaimed album Deserter’s Songs featured everything from a bowed saw to a flugelhorn.
Says singer Jonathan Donahue: "They’re just instruments that we’ve always loved. Some songs need a flugelhorn, some need a Fender guitar. And I did nip down to the hardware store to pick up a new saw," he chuckles. "But you won’t see them on this tour. The bowed saw is a very quiet instrument, so it doesn’t work very well in a live, loud context."
Mercury Rev play Glasgow’s G2 club, in Sauchiehall Street, on January 14 and you can perhaps help Jonathan out by explaining his own lyrics to him!
"I don’t understand the record very well," he says. "I know I wrote it, but I don’t really understand it completely. I think I will, in time."
Given that a lot of his inspiration comes from his dreams, such weirdness is perhaps not that surprising. Although it took three years and battles with drink and drugs - which saw Rev member Grasshopper retreat to a monastery for six months - Deserter’s Songs is the album that has sent Mercury Rev rising.
"We never set deadlines. We live in the mountains, where things go slow. When I’m not writing songs, I take my dog out on the mountains, running around. It takes us a long time to realise it’s time to make another record. But as far as I’m concerned, this record is a success just because we made another album. The fact that we were actually able to keep it together and make another record makes me really happy."
It’s also made the Chemical Brothers happy too - they got their mitts on the single Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp. Joining forces with the gurus of high-tech dance beats seems a strange move. "The fact that their music was so different from my own is what prompted me to do it." says Jonathan. "I was blown away when they first contacted me. They called me up out of the blue a couple of years ago and said they were fans and asked if I would like to collaborate on some music."
So is all this new found success going to change Jonathan? Not likely!
"I was born and bred in the mountains of upstate New York. It’s where I live, where I grew up. It’s all I’ve ever known. Making music was a way we could entertain ourselves. Our first record was just music for ourselves. We didn’t plan on being a rock band or going on tour."
"These days we get real enjoyment out of travelling to different places, being around each other. We’ve had some hard times. So now things are good, they’re really good."
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Reproduced from Xs, the Sunday Mail magazine of Sunday 3rd January 1999.