It's been a long time between drinks for SoCal punk-funkers Infectious Grooves - eight years in fact - but that's not going to stop them from coming back with a vengance.
The band, which featured Suicidal Tendencies front man Mike Muir, will be heading to Australia as part of the Soundwave festival later this month.I caught up with Muir on the phone from his Los Angeles home recently, where he talked about what is gong on in his world.
"With Suicidal it's been a year since we did a record, and there has been a couple of things. I had back surgery, then I had another back surgery, so last year Suicidal was on the Soundwave Festival in February and that's when we started touring again and that's where Infectious is starting," he told Undercover.
"Suicidal goes to Argentina next week and does a couple of festivals, so we do that then Infectious comes to Australia and does the Soundwave festival, then in April we do a month in Europe, then June and July we do another month and a half with Infectious Grooves, then about September the next Suicidal comes out then before that we put out a CD that is basically a compilation of all the stuff that's gonna be coming out."
That new compilation is going to sum up his three musical personas - front man of Infectious Grooves, front man of Suicidal Tendencies and Cyko Myko (pronounced "psycho Mike - oh") "It has some new Suicidal, new Infectious and new Cyko Myko, all the different projects like that. Then the new Infectious will be out."
But despite an eight year gap between albums, the band haven't exactly been lying dormant, "We've been doing stuff over the years," Muir explains, "we have our ProTools studios like everybody else, so we've been working on stuff for a long time. We got about eight records that are 80 - 90% done that will probably come out and we've got about twelve that will never come out."
The one you will be hearing this year, however, is going to sound like Infectious in a new era. They weren't interested in harking back to the days of old.
"When we did the record, we didn't want to do one that sounded like it was a follow up from eighteen, twenty years ago. We wanted to do a record that twenty years from now people will go "Wow, that's pretty cool," there are ones that are way way out there that I'm pretty excited about. There is all kind of different types of music.
"If you're a bass player, you listen to what Steve's doing, you can practice all you want or you decide that you're not a bass player anymore. I think that's what the whole record is. The people who see us live, the people who consider themselves drummers are gonna watch Eric and go "Wow, I don't think I'm ever going to play like that, and I think that's great."
And if you're worried about the line up being slightly different to what you were listening to when you were fourteen, the current band certainly has some credentials.
"In the band we've got Steve and Dean, Dean was originally Infectious and he's been in Suicidal for about ten years," he proudly announces, "Steve is the bass player from Suicidal so like Robert (Trujillo) he does double duties in both of the bands and on drums we have a guy named Eric More and on guitar we've got Timmy Stewart."
"One of the good things, like with Timmy, when he was fourteen he bought the first Infectious record, so he's had that side of it, but he's also played with everyone from Stevie Wonder to the American Idol guys. They're young but they're cool. Eric, he was just in Australia playing with Bobby Brown, so it's a totally different situation and Steve who plays in Suicidal and Infectious, he's in Israel right now playing with Erykah Badu. Ron, his brother, was going to be the Infectious drummer he plays with Stan Clarke, George Duke and all the jazz guys. Everybody has their own thing and I think that's great.
"What the thing is is that they're great musicians, so they're able to go and play with the Stanley Clark or George Duke and the jazz guys or whatever. They're so good that they can do what they want, and Infectious gives them the opportunity to step forward."
Despite being surrounded by hardcore session musicians, Muir doesn't see himself as a serious musician, just a lucky man with a bit of enthusiasm.
"No, not at all. I consider myself a person that has my understanding and definition of what music is, and I believe in that. With me, what a lot of people at any particular time will define as great is rubbish. It's like Suicidal, our first record has been out 25 years and people still listen to that. It's like with 'Institutionalised' being on Guitar Hero, you know, like so many of our friends, their little cousins got that game and they're like "Hey dad, have you ever heard of this band called Suicidal Tendencies?" They don't realise it's 25 years old."
You can catch Muir and Infectious Grooves, as well as many, many more at the Soundwave Festival at:
FEBRUARY
23 - Riverstage and Parklands, Brisbane
24 - Sydney Park, Sydney
29 - Showgrounds, Melbourne
MARCH
1 - Bonython Park, Adelaide
3 - Steel Blue Oval, Perth
