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Todd Park Mohr (Guitars,
Vocals)
Rob Squires (Bass, Vocals)
Brian Nevin (Drums, Vocals)
Jeremy Lawton (Keyboards, Steel Guitars, Vocals)
Though his band has racked up seven studio albums
and countless miles since he first picked up a
guitar as a Colorado teen, Big Head Todd and The
Monsters frontman Todd Park Mohr still uses the
word “discovery” when he talks about
writing songs. He says of “Blue Sky,”
from the group’s forthcoming album, All
the Love You Need: “We befriended this guy
who’s in research and development for NASA,
and he asked us to come up with a song for their
launches. But I’m not the kind of person
who can say, ‘Okay, I’ll write you
a song about a particular topic.’ A few
months later, though, I discovered a piece of
music I knew would be great; I just sort of fell
upon it.”
More than anything, it’s
Mohr’s excavation of his imagination that
continues to drive Big Head Todd and The Monsters
– singer-guitarist Mohr, bassist-singer
Rob Squires, drummer-singer Brian Nevin and keyboardist-guitarist-singer
Jeremy Lawton. The fact is, BHTM could have begun
resting on their laurels back in 1993, when their
Top 10 singles “Bittersweet,” “Broken
Hearted Savior,” “Circle” and
“It’s Alright” pushed the album
Sister Sweetly to platinum certification. However,
Mohr says, “I’ve fought throughout
our career not to be a one-trick pony, to be the
kind of band that has depth and diversity in its
catalogue. I’m a fan of this band, and I’m
constantly looking forward to what comes next.”
Asked how All the Love You Need
– produced by Grammy winner David Bianco
(Tom Petty, Mick Jagger, AC/DC) – departs
from the band’s last studio album, 2004’s
Crimes of Passion, for instance, Mohr begins,
“There’s a punk-rock element.”
His assessment is unexpected considering the disc’s
expansive melodies, diverse arrangements and sophisticated
wordplay. “It isn’t so much the angst
or anger of it,” he clarifies, “but
a rhythmic aggressiveness, especially on songs
like ‘Spanish Highway’ and ‘Fortune
Teller’ and definitely ‘Beautiful
Rain.’ I’ve always loved the spirit
of punk rock.” He pauses, then deadpans:
“I guess you could call those tracks ‘punk-rock
epic ballads.’”
The title track, too, finds Mohr
challenging himself, venturing into uncharted
thematic waters. He diverges from the traditional
love song with the tale of a woman who takes him
by the hand and says, “Let me let you in
on a secret/ You’ve already got all the
love you’re needing/ In your heart, in your
mind, in your imagination/ You’ve already
got all the love you need.”
This rather revolutionary notion
was inspired by Mexican writer Don Miguel Ángel
Ruiz. Mohr explains: “In his book The Mastery
of Love, he imagines a magic kitchen, where you
have all the ingredients to make anything you
want. It’s a metaphor for our inability
to see what we have and have faith in it. There’s
so much love in our hearts to give and receive
but we just aren’t willing to believe it
or act on it. That’s a really powerful idea.”
Mohr is particularly fond of Spanish
art and literature. “It tends to be very
dramatic and romantic,” he illuminates.
“There’s a tremendous emphasis on
death and tragedy and this classic macho outlook.”
“Spanish Highway” is among the more
personal outings on All the Love You Need. Written
while he was mourning the death of his mother,
the song returns to the image of an empty runway.
“It’s about life’s departures,”
he says. “The plane has flown off and you’re
left standing there alone.” “Spanish
highway, driving back to what belongs to you,
longs for you,” Mohr sings of the aftermath
of loss.
He informs that Bruce Springsteen,
whose work with The E Street Band has surely influenced
Big Head Todd and The Monsters, has himself been
influenced by the richness of Spanish culture
and storytelling. Coincidentally, the narrative
of the standout All the Love You Need track “Fortune
Teller” came to Mohr in a dream obliquely
related to Springsteen. “It was the vibe
of his early stuff, running around in Jersey,
to bars and pool halls with this friend of his,
this poet who was so in love with one of Bruce’s
girlfriends that he took the rap for her after
she killed her abusive husband. The dream was
so vivid,” he relates. “I wrote the
song from the poet character’s point of
view.”
Mohr stresses the involvement of
producer David Bianco (who, in another bit of
serendipity, recorded Springsteen’s tour
for Darkness on the Edge of Town) in the creation
of “Fortune Teller.” “We really
benefited from David’s musical vocabulary
on this record,” he attests. “He has
a great feel for the mechanics of songwriting
and arrangements. One of the records he did that
sold us on working with him was Tom Petty’s
Wildflowers. It has that sound where you just
hear a band playing but with this heightened sense
– when you close your eyes you can see the
musicians playing together live. He doesn’t
pile on the sounds; he just brings out the essence
of what’s there.”
The essence of Big Head Todd and
The Monsters – a rootsy, emotionally direct
variety of rock ’n’ roll that lends
itself particularly well to a live setting –
has been winning fans since Mohr, Rob Squires
and Brian Nevin started playing together in high
school (Jeremy Lawton joined in 2004). Needless
to say, the three never expected to be in the
same band at this late date, but, as Mohr points
out, “It was a really fortunate combination
of musical personalities, and we’re still
partners in every sense of the word.”
The band spent seven years developing
their chemistry and amassing a following, boosted
significantly by the independent releases Another
Mayberry (1989) and Midnight Radio (1990), before
being “discovered” by the listening
public at large with 1993’s Sister Sweetly.
After a major-label stint (Sister Sweetly, 1994’s
Stratagem, 1997’s Beautiful World), during
which the trio increasingly found itself frustrated
artistically, they reclaimed their independent
status (2001’s Riviera, 2004’s Crimes
of Passion). “If it were not for our ability
to do things for ourselves, we would have disappeared
a long time ago,” Mohr allows.
Among the chief perks of independence
is, of course, the songwriter’s freedom
to pursue his muse, but it also enables a uniquely
committed relationship with BHTM’s fans.
“We love playing music for people,”
Mohr states matter-of-factly, “and we don’t
need a record company standing between us and
the fans. We got rid of the middleman and we’re
still here and we’re doing great business.”
Much of that business involves
touring. BHTM calibrates carefully the number
of dates they perform each year (among them their
annual throw-down at Denver’s Red Rocks
and yearly New Year’s Eve blowout) to make
sure everyone’s happy – not least
of all themselves. “There was a period in
my life where I was on tour nine months of the
year,” Mohr reveals. “It felt endless;
it just wore me down. I was a very unhappy person.
Now, we play about 35 dates a year, plus a lot
of festival shows, and we really enjoy it. I do
like traveling. For 20 years I’ve watched
the country go by. It’s a magnificent place,
and I feel very lucky to know it as well as I
do and to have made fans and friends all over.
That’s the way it should be.”
The band is so devoted to its fans,
in fact, that they’ve logged three fan excursions,
two cruises to the Caribbean and a land-lovers
jaunt to Hawaii. “We play a bunch of shows,
and we never play the same song twice, which we
all love,” Mohr says. “We don’t
make any money off the trips, but we have a blast
and there’s really no better way to get
to know your fans.”
Still, for Big Head Todd and The
Monsters, remaining connected to their audience
means taking creative risks and inviting their
longtime followers to grow alongside them while
also welcoming new fans into the fold. “We’re
never going to be one of those bands that relies
on their hits,” Mohr says. “I think
All the Love You Need is the best record we’ve
ever done. I’m enjoying being a performer
and a songwriter more than I ever have, and I
think that’s the payoff for making new music,
discovering something fresh and interesting and
ultimately, worthy of our fans.”
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