MUDLARK - Hornswoggled #5 (unpublished circa Summer 2009)

BLOG NOTE: My friend Jordan once did this zine entitled "Hornswoggled" and he has a small collection of interviews from the last, unpublished, issue that he was kind enough to send my way. Here's the final installment.

I hate to start on a heavy note, but I was recently shocked to learn that your friend Michal Majewski passed away in Squamish just last week. I only met Michal very recently (at a Mudlark show, actually) and then ran into him a few more times in Vancouver and Victoria, and I was really saddened to hear the news. How did you come to meet Michal? Could you tell us about the benefit you played for Michal's family?

I first met Michal when he came out to Van with Mesrine and Suckcess about three or so years ago. We hit it off right away and then a couple months later Mudlark journeyed out east for the first time and he hooked us up amazingly with killer shows, amazing beer / food, and great company. We stayed in contact consistently after that bro down session, we're both grind freaks, and when Mudlark and Scumbelly did our tour this June he jumped in the van with us after a FATO show and came all the way to PEI and then back to Van with us where he was staying with me and ScumbellyBob. I'd like to add that having him with us on that tour was awesome, he was stoked at every show, good or bad, and would always make us keep playing so he could thrash, amazing.

So yeah, after the sad turn of events Gord organized a benefit show to help his family in any way we could as they were always so killer to us. Burn in Hell played first, an amazing band who we were always ranting to him about, seemed fitting, then our favorite locals War Hero, then Osk and Mudlark played. It was the perfect way to tribute a good friend who lived for fast music and art.

When and how did Mudlark form? What bands have you guys played in previously?

Mudlark got together about 4 years ago. We were all playing in other bands at the time. Jay and Gord had a stoner band called Obey the Eye going, and I was playing in Meat of Mankind. We started jamming on the side when we had time, then playing shows a bit, then all of our other bands kind of disintegrated leaving us with lots of time to do Mudlark. So we did.

How is the DIY scene in Vancouver? Is there a healthy network of bands and venues?

I think there is a killer scene right now in Vancouver, other people might say differently but judging by the shows I've seen / played the last year it's awesome right now. There are a ridiculous amount of killer bands right now, all styles, and all the small sub catergories and all that bullshit seem to be merging slowly which is cool as it makes for bigger, funner shows. A lot of touring DIY punk bands that come to Vancouver seem to be fucking stoked on the turnouts and energy of the scene. There's always your bullshit "scene" crap but I try to keep my head down and avoid that waste of energy at all costs. A band is a band, we're all doin' this for fun, period.

Unless I'm wrong (quite plausible), Mudlark started out as a more traditional doom/ sludge band, then eventually brought in more grindcore elements. Why the stylistic change?

I think we've always had grind type shit in our music, but yeah definitely in the past little while we've become faster, live anyway, and I don't know why. That's just the way it happened. I don't think any of us did it on purpose. Personally, playing fast live is super fun, maybe that s why, but, we'll always have sludge/doom elements, that's what Mudlark is.

You guys have a couple new releases out, including a new LP with 7", as well as a split 7" with Half Gorilla. How did the records turn out? Are you happy with the first full length?

Yeah, I think the records came out fucking great. I'm stoked on the job Schizophrenic Records did on the LP & 7" release, we were lucky to have Craig be interested in putting out a record for us, thanks again. I'm stoked on the HG split too, we met those guys three years ago at Arsonfest and immediatly we all knew we should do a project together. Luckily Gord was able to make it happen.

Any new releases in the works?

I think there are some splits coming up in the future, three are being talked about right now, a 7", a 10" and a LP, so we'll see what happens. I'm stoked on the possibility of all of them, time will tell.

Mudlark recently completed a pretty hefty tour across Canada and back. Any highlights or lowlights? Any cities surprise you?

Yeah that was a great tour, Vancouver to PEI and back. There was definitely no lowpoints, a couple weird / dead shows but we still managed to get wasted and make a good night of them. Highlights would be Charlottetown, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal I guess, it's hard to say. Those shows were all super nuts. Musically, I was blown away by some bands I saw on the east coast, Slave Class, Eyesore, Sound Asleep, and Quebec ragers SOIL OF IGNORANCE!!!!! Check them out, you will shit yer pants. I could go on all night really, we met awesome people everyday and came home with a lot of new friends.

You also play guitar and sing in the band Osk. How did Osk come about? What are the differences between playing in Osk and in Mudlark?

Osk came to life when Meat of Mankind ended. Me and Braden (drummer) wanted to keep playing together so we asked JerseyJay to jump on the bass and we just kept rolling with a different name and new songs. Playing in Osk is a lot different from Mudlark because I'm playing guitar which is what I usually and most often play. Also in Mudlark, Gord comes in with most of the songs finished, in Osk we all come in with songs, and then together edit them or ditch them or leave them how they are. Stylistically, Osk is all over the place, hence the PV tag, where as Mudlark is pretty much set on its course of brutal grind/sludge. Either way, I have a great time playing in both bands.

Any plans for Osk? I know you guys are touring out to Arson Fest this August, anything else planned?

Yep, we did the Arsonfest tour this summer with the northwest coasts best band, War Hero, and it was a blast. As for the future, we've got some things coming out, I think there are 3 splits lined up and this box set thing (ala Tomorrow Will Be Worse) that may or may not ever see the light of day. The next release will be the split with War Hero, stoked on that one. Other than that we tend to take it as it comes, we'll probably tour sometime next year, hopefully in foreign lands, and we've probably got 30-40 songs we need to get recorded before we forget how to play them, and if were lucky we'll get asked to play some sick local shows.

Thanks again for everything, if people wanna get in touch with you, how should they go about that?

Thank you for all help this summer with shows, we had a great time in Nelson and are definitely gunna come back, and if you want to get in touch with us I suppose hit up the MySpace page. Stay grind.