Interview: Golden Smog [Part I]

by John Davidson
2 August 2006

DAN MURPHY [pictured right]began playing music in Minneapolis, which had a growing punk scene in the late-1970s; by 1981, he’d joined buddies KARL MUELLER and DAVE PIRNER to form SOUL ASYLUM. They often vied with THE REPLACEMENTS and HUSKER DU for attention in the 1980s, but got the last laugh when 1992’s Grave Dancer’s Union became a platinum-selling record.

Around the same time, an all-star side-project of sorts called GOLDEN SMOG began, mostly as a covers band for local Minneapolis musicians; it featured a rotating cast of players. Only in 1995 did things get semi-serious when JEFF TWEEDY joined and the band recorded a couple of albums for Rykodisc. Lately, the line-up has been THE JAYHAWKS’ leader GARY LOURIS and bassist MARC PERLMAN, RUN WESTY RUN’s KRAIG JOHNSON, BIG STAR drummer JODY STEPHENS, and Murphy. It’s been awhile since we heard from Murphy, but he’s back this summer with new albums from both Soul Asylum and Golden Smog. They’re both highly recommended!

You’ve suddenly got a lot of things going. What got started first, the Soul Asylum record or doing Golden Smog?

DAN MURPHY: Soul Asylum. We kind of worked on it, off an on, for literally a couple of years. A month here, a month there.

Were you on this schedule because of Karl’s health?

DAN MURPHY: Well, what happened was that we kind of needed a break, so we took a really long break with no end in sight. And then Karl got diagnosed with cancer and he got really sick from the chemo and radiation. At first, his initial recovery was pretty good, so he was like, “I really want to make another record,” and that was all the incentive we needed. So we did that, and when you make a record, the bass and drums are generally done in the first few weeks or a month. Then, you kind of putz around with the guitars and other instrumentation. We did that, and then Dave Pirner was still living in New Orleans for part of the time, and we were finishing writing. About a year ago, I went to Spain to do the Smog record. We also worked on that for a couple of months when we got home. Three or four weeks in Spain, then we let it sit for a few months, got to a proper studio and kind of reinvented some of that material. So yes, to make a long story short, I’ve been a pretty busy boy.

So is this your great second act starting up?

DAN MURPHY: You know, until I started recording again, I kind of really didn’t even miss it. I still played music a little bit, doing a show here and there with Soul Asylum, but I just really needed a break from it. There are so many other things in life that are relevant; I have a kid! It seems like I was on this treadmill for twelve years with Soundscan, shows, touring, make another record. It’s not a bad life, and I’m not complaining but it’s kind of hectic and out of your control in the final analysis. How it goes, how it’s perceived. I consciously took a really long break from it.

Do you feel totally refreshed, or as you start to see the parts of the job that you don’t like, are you kind of cynical about it?

DAN MURPHY: There’s a little bit of that. I’m not nuts about traveling. You know, I had this tour bus driver years ago, and I was telling him how much I hated being on the road, and he says, “Buddy, you should have paid more attention in high school!” But I guess overall, I’m refreshed enough where I’m excited to play some shows. Golden Smog’s got a busy summer and I’m trying to get the Smog up to speed because the new record lends itself for playing shows.

Who got Golden Smog going again, and who got you all over to Spain to record?

DAN MURPHY: It was kind of funny. It was very sort of show business. Marc Perlman was kind of at that phase, as most musicians always are, where they are trying to figure out what to do with their life, and so he pitched the Golden Smog to write music for GUY RITCHIE. You know, Mr. MADONNA. So, we got together to write for a commercial, and we wrote a 32-second song that we had a video for; we kind of choreographed it to the video and it turned into this song that’s called “Corvette.” It was really fun and pretty painless, so we said, “The Smog should make a record again.” The funny thing was, when the commercial finally came out, they ended up using “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”! (laughs) So much for cutting edge! It was one of those first commercials in the Super Bowl!

Why Spain?

DAN MURPHY: Gary’s got a place over there. The town is pretty touristy but really nice. He bought this really neat, built in the 1600s, Spanish-Moorish thing that’s really cool. He got a really good deal on it, and he’s been spending some time there. There’s a little studio there that STEVE WYNN [of DREAM SYNDICATE] has worked at a lot, and Gary had met this guy PACO who worked there. Our criteria to record was that we wanted a live-in facility, because between the two of us, we didn’t really have anything written or worked out. So if you’re in the studio, everyone just comes in for a couple of hours and there’s really no time to finish writing. We tried to create this living environment with really close quarters so we could finish everything, do lyrics, and that really worked. We were kind of on each other’s heels a lot of the time, but I don’t think it was necessarily a bad thing.

Is that because you are all older and wiser, or because you all like each other…?

DAN MURPHY: Well, it was literally close quarters! Kraig Johnson and I had this little bunkhouse right next to the studio, and Marc and Gary shared a room. But it was pretty cool. The live-in cook, who did dinner every night, did back up vocals on one song. It was very comfortable and it kind of brought out the best behavior in all of us.

[Parts II and III to follow]

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