Interview Mudshow

Mudshow's debut album "Destiny" is a sonic odyssey inspired by wrestling feuds, blending heavy metal with influences from Three 6 Mafia and hardcore wrestling, promising a unique musical experience.

1. Congratulations on the release of "Destiny"! Can you share the origin of the album's title and its connection to the themes of anguish, revenge, and catharsis that you explore throughout the record?

Thank you! “Destiny” was actually named after a wrestling show, the climax of the long-term story our album explores. It’s just such a perfect name for the debut album of a band that came together so seamlessly and progressed so quickly. The pain of being denied your destiny and the satisfaction of chasing it down both played equal parts in motivating this album into existence. 

2. The album draws inspiration from the wrestling feuds of Matt Tremont with Atsushi Onita and Rickey Shane Page. How did these particular feuds influence the sonic direction and lyrical content of "Destiny"?

Matt Tremont is - without hyperbole - the greatest American deathmatch wrestler of all time. Period. And the 5-year story he told with Onita is pure poetry. It started with a young Tremont calling out a deathmatch god for a whole year, challenging him to a battle with barbed wire and explosives, and ended with a retired Tremont being called back to the ring by the same icon he had gotten on his knees and begged to fight him just 4 years earlier. That’s storytelling at its finest, and mirrors (on a grander scale) certain aspects of my personal life from around the same period. Mudshow set out to make this album a condensed, 35-minute musical recap of that period in Tremont’s career. So that meant matching a lot of passion, a lot of intensity, and a lot of brutality. The music needed to slice like barbed wire and burn like fire. 

3. "Mudshow" is a unique and evocative name for a band. What's the story behind the band's name, and how does it reflect the identity and ethos of Mudshow?

“Outlaw mudshow bullshit” is a derogatory term for deathmatch wrestling that gets parroted by wrestling podcaster/historian/former manager Jim Cornette’s listener base of fucking incels and boomers. So when we started a band that writes exclusively about deathmatches, the name Mudshow seemed like a perfect middle finger to the ever-present detractors of this art form that means so much to us. 

4. The album is described as a sonic odyssey echoing the tormented prose of Arthur Rimbaud's "A Season In Hell." Can you elaborate on the influence of Rimbaud's work and how it translates into the musical and lyrical aspects of "Destiny"?

Rimbaud was an outlaw, and almost foolishly brave with his words and his willingness to put himself through the wringer psychologically in order to tell his story with as much brutal truth as possible. All of that went into “A Season in Hell”, just like it all went into “Destiny”.  Beyond that, every song on the album is littered with lyrical references to “Season”, and the album even features 9 tracks to represent the 9 parts of Rimbaud’s magnum opus. 

5. For fans of Neurosis, Eyehategod, and Primitive Man, "Destiny" promises an unyielding onslaught of sonic devastation. How do you balance the heavy, sludge metal elements with influences from Three 6 Mafia, kaiju films, and hardcore/deathmatch wrestling?

Deathmatch is always the biggest influence, so the priority is making sure the music matches the story being told. When Mudshow first started, there was a whole other sound in mind. But as the songs started coming together, they got heavier and heavier so we leaned into that. The subject matter molded the sound in a big way. But seeing as most other deathmatch-inspired bands play grindcore or hardcore or death metal, we slowed it way down. We set out to make a bleak, driving, plodding noise that sounds like a well-paced deathmatch main event or a stomping kaiju destroying a city and is just effective as what those other, faster bands are doing. 

6. Each track on "Destiny" seems to tell a different part of the story, inviting listeners to witness the brutal spectacle of killing idols and confronting demons. Can you take us through the conceptualization and storytelling process behind the album?

As I mentioned earlier, the story is basically following Matt Tremont’s career from 2016 to 2021. Without saying too much, Track 1 is Tremont calling out Onita. Track 2 is Onita’s response. Track 3 is their first meeting. Track 4 fast forwards a few years, and serves as a ten-bell salute to “The Deathmatch Viking” Danny Havoc, Tremont’s best friend who passed away in 2020. Track 5 is Tremont’s decision to retire and his nemesis Rickey Shane Page answering the challenge of being Tremont’s final opponent, and features a guest verse from our friend Johnnie from the band Seeing Hell. Track 6 takes us another year in, where Tremont is now answering the challenge of the man he had taunted into a war 4 years earlier, Atsushi Onita. Track 7 is a calm-before-the-storm prelude to Track 8, the centerpiece of the album, featuring alternative hip-hop artist Morrison Jones. The huge showdown. Tremont versus Onita, landmine explosion barbed wire deathmatch. And then Track 9 ends the album with settling unfinished business with RSP. 

7. Your influences span across various genres, from metal to hip-hop and wrestling. How do you seamlessly integrate these diverse influences into your music, and what do you believe each genre brings to the overall Mudshow sound?

We just want to make a loud, heavy spectacle. We’re influenced by the same Sabbath and Acid Bath and Eyehategod and Melvins as every other sludge band, post-metal stuff like Neurosis and ISIS and Chelsea Wolfe and Emma Ruth Rundle, the hypnotic repetition and honest violence of old 90s Triple Six tapes, the unfiltered emotion of Converge. Gothic and alternative country like 16 Horsepower and Jason Molina are other big influences on the songwriting that might be a little unexpected. Basically all the music I spent the pandemic obsessing over, I brought to the table and my bandmates delivered a perfect backdrop for the lyrics I had been writing. All the pieces were there and somehow fit effortlessly. 

8. The album explores themes of martyrdom, exile, and the relentless pursuit of redemption. How did these themes come to the forefront during the songwriting and recording process, and what messages or emotions do you hope listeners take away from "Destiny"?

All three of us have spent a long time playing music for the love of playing music. Sacrificed time and energy and money and our social lives, just like any artist who takes their work seriously. I can only speak for myself, but it does feel validating or redemptive to get to have this album heard on the level that it is, through such a badass record label and with so many eyes on what we’re doing. And I think that was a big motivator as we finished the writing process and headed into the studio. We felt like we could have run right through a fucking mountain the weekend we recorded this album, and I think it shows in the performances we captured. We hope the listener picks up on that energy and feels like they can do whatever the hell they want in this world. Because they can.

9. "Destiny" is described as a journey into the heart of darkness. Can you share any specific challenges or memorable moments you faced during the creation of the album, and how did these experiences shape the final product?

I think I’d rather take the “let them decipher their own meaning” route, and not give away too much about the personal issues that went into this album. Because doing that would give attention to people and situations that never deserved it and certainly don’t at this stage of my life. Just know that a lot of very real, very serious hurt went into making this album. I, and all of Mudshow, left it all on this record. 

10. As a debut offering, "Destiny" showcases Mudshow's uncompromising vision. How do you envision the band's evolution and growth in the future, and what can fans expect from Mudshow in the coming years?

All I want to say there is that we already have a predetermined number of how many Mudshow albums there will be, and we have a basic idea of how we want the sound to progress from “Destiny” to our final album. The Mudshow of 2024 looks nothing like the vision we have for what we will eventually become. We just hope folks enjoy the ride with us. 

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Destiny | MUDSHOW | HPGD (bandcamp.com)