AU: Hi Dave, thank you so much for your time. How is Monster Magnet’s tour in Europe going?

D: Really good, really really good. The record’s doing good. The crowds are like singing the new songs which is a really really good. It’s like, you know business as usual in Monster Magnet land.

Monster magnet did their last tour of Australia September last year. Is Soundwave main the reason you decided to come back so soon?

D: Well, there’s two reasons. One, I wanted to come back really. I wanted to come back in the worst way. I wanted to come back with or without Soundwave. But Soundwave came up and that was just fucking awesome. You know, it was just a happy coincidence Soundwave came up at that time.

How are the Aussie crowds compared to the ones in Europe?

D: How does OZ compare to Europe? It’s equally cool. In a different way, you know what I mean? It’s like there’s no loss of energy or anything. The Monster Magnet fans that I’ve seen, that I’ve been lucky enough to meet are a pretty dedicated group of people and it kind of crosses international boundaries. They’re not stupid. They know what they like, they know what the reference points are. I might notice a big difference in crowds, say if I was in a pop band or something, if I was dealing with normal people, but they’re not normal people, you know? They’re fucking cool. They know what they’re talking about. The great thing about Australia, I go down there but I haven’t been down there that much and I talk to people and it’s like I knew them my whole life. They’re talking movies, they’re talking comic books as well as Stooges, Hawkwind and stuff. And it all fits in this crazy scheme in their heads. It’s really a nice thing to experience.

Your new album ‘Mastermind’ is doing really well and it’s one of your heaviest records to date. What was the reason behind this change in direction?

D: I just felt like making a heavy record. Really it was kind of based on me playing live. We were playing live and I wanted to have some songs that would fit in with the live set and that meant heavier and that’s what started the whole thing. This was the record I would have put out a couple of years ago, I just never got to it. It was kind of a plan to do a heavy record like this for a while and it just finally saw it’s time.

With your last record “4-way Diablo” you were going through a lot of issues with addiction to prescription drugs…

D: Yeah I was fucking out of it. Completely out of it. “4-way Diablo” is more of a collection of songs than it really is an album. I was out of it when I was doing it, I can’t believe I even finished the god damn thing. It’s amazing it even came out, but this one “Mastermind” is definitely more along the lines of the way I usually do albums.

You also said that you don’t believe that drugs aid the creative process when making music. How did you come to that realisation?

D: I don’t. I mean I never did. I never in my life ever thought that drugs would make someone write better music. You know what I mean? I doesn’t make sense. Drugs distort your perception. So if you’re going to write music wouldn’t you want to control your faculties? I think that the romance and the legend of drugs helping creativity has always been the fact that a lot of creative people are very insecure and they have a lot of inhibitions and I think when they take drugs they lose thir inhibitions and will come up with stuff they normally wouldn’t come up with. I think that’s maybe where the drugs thing comes in. But for me, you know it’s good to remember what being on drugs is like. It’s good to remember, to know what it’s like being on the edge, being out of your mind on LSD or whatever. But when it comes time to put it down you should have control of your senses I mean music is great to listen to high, but it’s not that cool to make when you’re high.

I definitely agree with you there. I recently saw the video to the first single of “Mastermind” “God’s and Punks” with the homeless super villain…

D: Yeah, I mean I read and look at everything that’s out there. The superhero thing came up just because I happened to be having a conversation with a video director and just started blabbering on about the homeless super villain and all of a sudden it became the video, but I love all that stuff it’s awesome.

You have a lot of science fiction themes in your lyrics but they remain relevant to real life issues. Is this something you do intentionally?

D: Yeah, absolutely. I was always more as a kid and as a young adult, I was more impressed with the images and the concepts of science fiction rather than the details. For some reason I just love the idea of trying to be science fiction but always falling back into the gutter. It’s funny or cool or you know? None of my songs are fiction. They’re all real stories about my life or my emotions and stuff and I try not to make up just…. Yeah I try not to fall into the whole 70s thing when I’m just going to sing about unicorns or fucking somebody on another planet, you know? It’s like, it’s got to be coming from a demented mind. That’s the way I felt when I was a kid. It was like, what would be really cool reading Isaac Asimov, or just doing LSD and saying that you read Isaac Asimov in order to impress the girl to get laid. That’s what Monster Magnet’s really about. It’s kind of like taking those concepts at face value. As superficial as can possibly be and just running them into the ground… dead.

Monster Magnet has been around over two decades now. What is your take on the state of rock music 2010?

D: Oh geez, I don’t know. For one thing being around for two decades is bizarre to me. It doesn’t seem like twenty years. I haven’t gotten tired of writing, so I’m writing music and I love all the same stuff I always do. The world has changed as far as the music that’s coming out and the way it’s distributed, the way it’s put out. It’s a very strange time because I don’t think anybody knows what’s going to be the best way to get their music out. I’d say it’s a really weird time in music and everyone should just stay tuned and wait for something to come through that’s going to make things hopefully better.

I’ve also heard rumours of a Monster Magnet unplugged tour. Can we hope to see that in the near future?

D: I’m trying. I’m trying really had to do the unplugged tour. I went to a couple of promoters last year ready to get the unplugged thing going and they didn’t want it. They were like “No! You guys are a rock band. People are not going to want to see that” and I got really pissed off so I said; what do I have to do? Go back and write a fucking big rock album? So I did. I went did this album and I’ll come back, I’m going to push it through. There will be a Monster Magnet like, acoustic type tour. It won’t be totally acoustic. It will be like Indian instruments and bongos and shit. You know it will be cool as hell. I guarantee it. It’ll be really really cool.

Are going to take it down to Australia?

D: Yeah. I would love to. I think Australia will be the perfect place. It really depends on how many people would buy tickets to see it, but I think if I get it together and I film it and let everybody know what they’re getting into, I think I’ll sell tickets for it. I mean it’s really worth it. What I’m talking about is putting all like the coolest instruments ever. You know sitars, mellotrons, gongs, kettle drums and then singing some demented blues over the top of it. How can you lose?

Well it definitely sounds like the sort of thing I’d go and see…

D: There’s a lot of infidels out there my friend. A lot of people out there are like “that’s going to suck!” I’m like, what are you talking about? How can it suck?

We're just about out of time. Dave, Thank you so much for your time today.

D: Thanks. Take care.