Hüsker Dü's Bob Mould explains the role Montreal had in shaping him as an artist
The pioneering American punk musician says a Ramones concert in Montreal changed the course of his life
You might know Bob Mould as one of the co-founders of the influential punk band Hüsker Dü.
Back in the late '70s and early '80s, Hüsker Dü cut a path for countless bands to follow, like Nirvana, Pixies and Green Day. But before all that, Mould was just a precocious kid growing up in Malone, N.Y. — a small farming town near the Canadian border.
"Malone is five miles south of the Quebec border, about 50 miles south of Montreal," Mould says in an interview with Q guest host Garvia Bailey. "So I grew up with Québécois, with French television and all that stuff."
The lyrics of Mould's song Neanderthal off his new solo album, Here We Go Crazy, give a glimpse into the kind of kid he was. "I was the golden child with all the brains," he sings in the track's first verse. "I was so wild and too hard to contain."
When you're curious about the world and living in a small town, like Mould was, visits to the big city have a funny way of shaping who you become. For Mould, the big city was Montreal.
"In high school, I was taking a lot of French and my French teacher became my de facto counselor," he says. "He would organize road trips where a number of us could get on a school bus and go up to Montreal and ride the subway and go to museums and take in culture."
Many times, those trips to Montreal were based around a rock concert at the Forum, which was something Mould really looked forward to.
"The culture was so different than northern New York State, but it was so familiar because [I was] watching the Canadiens, you know, Hockey Night in Canada, three nights a week," he tells Bailey. "My dad used to take me up to go see pro wrestling at the Montreal Forum."
But there was one concert in particular that changed Mould's life, ultimately shaping him as an artist.
"The concert that changed my entire direction for certain with music was at the University of Montreal at the small theatre, watching the Ramones open for Iggy Pop," he says. "I think Iggy would have been The Idiot, Ramones would have just been releasing Leave Home."
After that show, Mould knew that he was meant to make punk music.
"I said, 'OK, this is it. This is the kind of music,'" he says. "'Aerosmith, Kiss, Foghat, Fleetwood Mac, whatever — all of that is really good, but I'm going to go in this direction.'"
The full interview with Bob Mould is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Bob Mould produced by Kaitlyn Swan.
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