MERCURY REV!
“Most rock and roll biographies end with fire and brimstone,” said Jonathan Donahue, the lead singer of Mercury Rev with a devious twinkle in his eye- the same that has drawn thousands of fans to his musical court over the past two decades. “Ours started there. I loved and lost and now I’m back again.”
As Mercury Rev prepares for their month long Australian tour- one that pits them with a collection of indie-rock’s most luminous acts- Portishead, Flaming Lips, Mogwai- there is a sense of renaissance, a spirit of renewal and also of appreciation that comes only after an influential body of work has been celebrated. The recent re-release of Mercury Rev’s 1998 sonic masterpiece, “Deserter’s Songs” has solidified the band’s place as alternative rock royalty.
“That in a way, is quintessential America,” said Donahue. “Find your way, dust yourself off and continue on.”
Ultimately, Mercury Rev is a tale about brotherhood- and a tenacious one at that. The band is now a sextet, and the cofounders- Donahue and Sean Mackowiak, aka Grasshopper, have been collaborating for more then twenty years.
“The BBC called us the Butch and Sundance Kid of rock,” said Donahue. “The idea that both men are on the same journey, both with their little tragic flaws, and experiencing the identical thing differently.”
That “thing” has manifested into seven albums, numerous singles and soundtracks, worldwide tours, critical acclaim and commercial success- though not without it’s share of personal heartbreak. In fact, it was the chaos that came with drug addiction that brought Donahue to the state of reflection that produced the exquisite ‘Deserter’s Songs’, rated the best album of 1998 by a plethora of alternative rock’s highest judges.
Donahue and Grasshopper emerged from uniquely different musical backrounds. Grasshopper was classically trained on the clarinet. As a child in Fredonia, NY, musical opportunities in the seventies and eighties were numerous- with a repertoire that combined Burt Bacharach and Bach. Donahue was self-taught with a visual vocabulary for how his music could be communicated, hugely influenced by the Delta Blues, which utilized alternative tunings.
Jamming in Buffalo at eighteen years old, Grasshopper made the musical connection between “the swampy kind of mood” epitomized in the Delta Blues and his own art-rock influences. The result was instantly unique. Throughout the span of their recordings, Mercury Rev have built a name upon intricate melodies, often super imposed over each other, creating deep textures and a cinematic, expansive mood over which Donahue’s vocals soar.
“In Mercury Rev, it’s always been this way, a lot of very simple things that add up to something complex,” said Grasshopper, who studied film at SUNY Buffalo- a history not lost on the cinematic scope that has evolved in his music.
Like many pivotal artists, Mercury Rev grew in a truly organic and unassuming fashion, putting together their debut record in Buffalo with childhood friend, Dave Fridmann, who was studying audio engineering.
“It was a learning atmosphere,” said Donahue. “We learned analog recording and we had all these hours to experiment and screw up.”
Fridmann would go onto record other luminaries such as the Flaming Lips, a band in which Donahue joined for several years.
Following his stint in Buffalo, Grasshopper moved to New York City, but after five years got fed up with the rents and drug scene, “the day to day beat down,” he acknowledged. In 1995, he established Kingston as a home base. Quoting the lyrics on ‘Hudson Line’, a pivotal track on “Deserter’s Songs”, Grasshopper whispers- “You know I love the city, but I haven't got the time."
On random afternoons, passersby on North Front Street in the Stockade District of Kingston might be privy to the mercurial sounds of Mercury Rev emerge from the back room of Wright Gallery Records, where they have been rehearsing for their latest tour. These are telling moments, for behind all the pomp and circumstance that have surrounded the band for all this time, there remains a homespun aesthetic at its core.
“Kingston is like this weird town- with its history of bootlegging and old factories,” said Grasshopper. “It’s always going to be this, in the midst of everything else. And it’s cheap and everything’s accessible.”
Born in Kingston Hospital, Donahue has been equally affected by his hometown. “It would be hard to say where I begin and the mountains end,” said Donahue. “Time goes very slowly in the mountains, and if you’re fortunate, it stops. The mountain is inside the man,” he added.
In speaking with Donahue, it seems the quiet of the mountains has infused his entire creative process. In fact, it inspired his largest creative success. It was the spacious yearnings of “Deserter Songs”, fueled by contributions from The Band’s, Garth Hudson and Levon Helm, that lent itself to critical acclaim, never mind spawning three top 40 singles.
“When it’s from the heart, I don’t question it. The heart of hearts radio station is really quiet. You have to be really quiet and still to be able to hear it.”
Throughout much of their recordings, Mercury Rev has defied categorization, continually re-defining itself. Speaking on the great arcs of the band’s career, Donahue stated- “When you reach a height, expectations become concrete. And when these aren’t met, it becomes about making music just for yourself again, without any audience in mind.”
Together, Donahue and Grasshopper will continue to explore their collective muse- wherever it takes them. Fresh from their return from their jaunt in Australia, Mercury Rev has returned home to the Hudson Valley to put together the finishing touches on new material for an upcoming release.
“We take awhile,” admitted Donahue. “Some songs come right out. Other songs germinate for awhile and they change and go through transformations.”
Carlos Anthony Molina has been working as a bass player with Mercury Rev for over a decade. Speaking on the Australian jaunt, he said- “It was totally a delight over there. Opening for Portishead, it felt like a cross pollination of the audience.”
Every time it’s refreshing and kind of magical, a really lively audience.
The band “came from odd and humble beginnings,” said Molina, with a non-linear trajectory that has been “a little squirrely”
“Watching how Jonathan navigates through that has been enlightening for me,” he said.
“Paint the landscape- to speak in terms of colors and shapes.”
Musically, Molina’s contribution has been huge.
“I can calculate – that’s when the cherubs come in and meet them in the clouds. It’s cool to communicate in both worlds- and weaving the soundscape of the record that way…”