Chuck Mosley @ The Hideout; 08/26/17 Interview & Show Review
words by R.G.B. Robb/pictures by Patrick Carnahan (Cracked Glass Photography)—
Vocalist/guitarist Chuck Mosley is the epitome of a “road dog.” For the last 30-plus years—with a slight sabbatical in the early 2000s—he has entertained audiences across the world. Having spent the early part of his career fronting the legendary acts Faith No More and Bad Brains, and now focusing on his brand of acoustic-punk rock, Echoing Magazine got to speak to Mosley about his past, present, and future, as well as catching the performance of him and his backing band.
Though playing a couple of tunes from his past works, a majority of the show was spent educating the audience on the music that he has spent the last year writing/recording/perfecting. This really came as no surprise because of the level of excitement Mosley has in his voice when speaking about his new pieces of art, along with the entire recording process. “We actually just recorded with [producer] Matt Wallace in L.A. for three days. It was a dream come true because he made me a singer, and I haven’t worked with him for 30 years. He knows me really well. He gets the best out of me out of anybody I’ve ever worked with, except for [maybe producer] Joe [Haze], who we worked with today. I met him a few weeks ago. I met Joe because he was producing a Primitive Race record. We had found some anomalies on some of the vocal tracks that I did in Cleveland, Sacramento, so we had to do some stuff over. I did the whole thing in two days.”
Mosley states that working with such amazing producers came about somewhat serendipitously. “At the time I was trying to get with Matt, I asked Joe about doing the record, and [I told him] the only way I would say no [to him producing] was if Matt agreed to do it. And then right after we left [on tour] Matt agreed to do it and said ‘OK, three days.’ I was like ‘What! No way!’ So we cancelled two shows in Arizona and drove 30 hours from Houston to L.A. and arriving just in time to start recording. We got seven songs done, [with] two of them over 10 minutes, so it’s an album. The two songs we didn’t get to do, we tried today, but didn’t get to finish.”
With an acoustic guitar and backed by a full band—guitarist Chris Morgan, bassist Randy Pirosko, and bongo player Doug Esper—his set was filled with musical twists and turns. With acoustic guitars played through effects with a ton of attitude, he has crafted a style all his own. The one song which stood out head and shoulders above the rest, “Blue Suede,” had a feeling like Nancy Sinatra and Concrete Blonde put together a tasty little tune. Though some may look at the history of Mosley and be confused as to how a sound like this could come from a man who has performed in some aggressive punk bands—the aforementioned Bad Brains comes to mind—it’s his answer about when asked as to where his inspirations come from that solves the puzzle. “Anybody that knows me well enough to know about Faith No More, Bad Brains, Cement, and Vandals Against Illiteracy, [probably] knows me best from Faith No More. Mike [Patton, vocals] replaced me in Faith No More, and I replaced H.R. [from Bad Brains] for a couple of years. We did some recording, but nothing got released. If anybody knows me from Cement and Vandals, they know that I like to mix it up all the time. It’s kind of where the rap thing over the singing came in. Basically, I like both styles. I’ve always liked a wide variety of everything.”
Though his new music is something to behold—especially given how well his performance went—there is always a tie to him and his past. Some of this has come to the fray over the last number of years. “Since 2010, I’ve gotten with Faith No More a few different times. The first one was in San Francisco, we did five or six songs—it was a real tear-fest. You could see people in the audience crying, so it made me all teary. Then I was going to see them in Detroit a few years ago, and Roddy [Bottum] said I was going to do the encore. So I fucked up a little on that one, but it was in the moment, so nobody could really tell—except for the critics. Then they did the remix/remaster of [the album] We Care A Lot last summer, and we did two shows for that, doing the whole album. I did some of the songs, but it was still brutal.”
From the opening moments of the set, to the incredibly loud and raucous ending, you could tell that Mosley and his comrades truly love what they do. The band could feel it and emoted it throughout the evening. The audience could feel it and reciprocated that love most effectively. It was after the show that I realized when we spoke earlier, what the weight of the true love and passion of playing live and spending so much time on the road means to him. When asked if the next year is going to find him on the road a lot, his answer was pretty common for road dogs of his ilk—both negatively and positively. “Pretty much. Not unfortunately [for me], but unfortunately for my loved ones.” He claims that the title of the tour, “Reintroduce Yourself,” has a lot to do with allowing those fans which may not be familiar with his other work to play a little bit of “catch up.” “Everyone asks ‘Where’d you go for 20 years?’ Well, the Vandals record we waited 13 years to get started in 1997, right after I got the pins out of my back [from a van accident]. We were around in different incarnations with different people. That was released in 2010. But in the meantime I learned how to be a chef. I was honing my skills by working with different chefs. Then I had my second daughter. With my first daughter I wasn’t around a lot because of Bad Brains, with my second daughter I made the commitment to be around more.” After pausing for a moment, he looked me in the eye and made a confession. “Then I started going back out on the road. It’s an addiction really.”
With him playing all over the US for a number of months before heading overseas for a European jaunt, there is going to be ample opportunity to catch him live—seeing this legendary performer is something that I think fans of great songwriting will appreciate, and should make the trip out to see.
Chuck Mosley @ The Hideout; 08/26/17 Interview & Show Review
words by R.G.B. Robb/pictures by Patrick Carnahan (Cracked Glass Photography)—
Vocalist/guitarist Chuck Mosley is the epitome of a “road dog.” For the last 30-plus years—with a slight sabbatical in the early 2000s—he has entertained audiences across the world. Having spent the early part of his career fronting the legendary acts Faith No More and Bad Brains, and now focusing on his brand of acoustic-punk rock, Echoing Magazine got to speak to Mosley about his past, present, and future, as well as catching the performance of him and his backing band.
Though playing a couple of tunes from his past works, a majority of the show was spent educating the audience on the music that he has spent the last year writing/recording/perfecting. This really came as no surprise because of the level of excitement Mosley has in his voice when speaking about his new pieces of art, along with the entire recording process. “We actually just recorded with [producer] Matt Wallace in L.A. for three days. It was a dream come true because he made me a singer, and I haven’t worked with him for 30 years. He knows me really well. He gets the best out of me out of anybody I’ve ever worked with, except for [maybe producer] Joe [Haze], who we worked with today. I met him a few weeks ago. I met Joe because he was producing a Primitive Race record. We had found some anomalies on some of the vocal tracks that I did in Cleveland, Sacramento, so we had to do some stuff over. I did the whole thing in two days.”
Mosley states that working with such amazing producers came about somewhat serendipitously. “At the time I was trying to get with Matt, I asked Joe about doing the record, and [I told him] the only way I would say no [to him producing] was if Matt agreed to do it. And then right after we left [on tour] Matt agreed to do it and said ‘OK, three days.’ I was like ‘What! No way!’ So we cancelled two shows in Arizona and drove 30 hours from Houston to L.A. and arriving just in time to start recording. We got seven songs done, [with] two of them over 10 minutes, so it’s an album. The two songs we didn’t get to do, we tried today, but didn’t get to finish.”
With an acoustic guitar and backed by a full band—guitarist Chris Morgan, bassist Randy Pirosko, and bongo player Doug Esper—his set was filled with musical twists and turns. With acoustic guitars played through effects with a ton of attitude, he has crafted a style all his own. The one song which stood out head and shoulders above the rest, “Blue Suede,” had a feeling like Nancy Sinatra and Concrete Blonde put together a tasty little tune. Though some may look at the history of Mosley and be confused as to how a sound like this could come from a man who has performed in some aggressive punk bands—the aforementioned Bad Brains comes to mind—it’s his answer about when asked as to where his inspirations come from that solves the puzzle. “Anybody that knows me well enough to know about Faith No More, Bad Brains, Cement, and Vandals Against Illiteracy, [probably] knows me best from Faith No More. Mike [Patton, vocals] replaced me in Faith No More, and I replaced H.R. [from Bad Brains] for a couple of years. We did some recording, but nothing got released. If anybody knows me from Cement and Vandals, they know that I like to mix it up all the time. It’s kind of where the rap thing over the singing came in. Basically, I like both styles. I’ve always liked a wide variety of everything.”
Though his new music is something to behold—especially given how well his performance went—there is always a tie to him and his past. Some of this has come to the fray over the last number of years. “Since 2010, I’ve gotten with Faith No More a few different times. The first one was in San Francisco, we did five or six songs—it was a real tear-fest. You could see people in the audience crying, so it made me all teary. Then I was going to see them in Detroit a few years ago, and Roddy [Bottum] said I was going to do the encore. So I fucked up a little on that one, but it was in the moment, so nobody could really tell—except for the critics. Then they did the remix/remaster of [the album] We Care A Lot last summer, and we did two shows for that, doing the whole album. I did some of the songs, but it was still brutal.”
From the opening moments of the set, to the incredibly loud and raucous ending, you could tell that Mosley and his comrades truly love what they do. The band could feel it and emoted it throughout the evening. The audience could feel it and reciprocated that love most effectively. It was after the show that I realized when we spoke earlier, what the weight of the true love and passion of playing live and spending so much time on the road means to him. When asked if the next year is going to find him on the road a lot, his answer was pretty common for road dogs of his ilk—both negatively and positively. “Pretty much. Not unfortunately [for me], but unfortunately for my loved ones.” He claims that the title of the tour, “Reintroduce Yourself,” has a lot to do with allowing those fans which may not be familiar with his other work to play a little bit of “catch up.” “Everyone asks ‘Where’d you go for 20 years?’ Well, the Vandals record we waited 13 years to get started in 1997, right after I got the pins out of my back [from a van accident]. We were around in different incarnations with different people. That was released in 2010. But in the meantime I learned how to be a chef. I was honing my skills by working with different chefs. Then I had my second daughter. With my first daughter I wasn’t around a lot because of Bad Brains, with my second daughter I made the commitment to be around more.” After pausing for a moment, he looked me in the eye and made a confession. “Then I started going back out on the road. It’s an addiction really.”
With him playing all over the US for a number of months before heading overseas for a European jaunt, there is going to be ample opportunity to catch him live—seeing this legendary performer is something that I think fans of great songwriting will appreciate, and should make the trip out to see.
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