Mike Musburger

Joined the Fastbacks as a drummer in: 1994
End of Drum 'Internship': 2001
Other bands: The Posies, Love Battery, Flop, Tube Top, Shuggie, Ruston Mire, Marshall Artist, Miracle Whip, No. 13 Baby
Current band(s): Shuggie

Songs: 71 Time: 3:19:37 Rank: 1
SONGS (studio versions only)
  • 5-5-5 pt. 1
  • 5-5-5 pt. 2
  • As Everything
  • Bitter Drink, The
  • Defy's Gravity
  • Dreams I.H.S.
  • Find Your Way
  • For Tomorrow (unfinished)
  • Fortune's Misery
  • Girl's Eyes
  • Goodbye, Bird
  • Have You Had Enough?
  • Hung Up On a Dream
  • I Can't Win
  • I Found the Star
  • I Know
  • I Was Stolen
  • Is It Familiar?
  • Jester
  • Just Out of Reach
  • Just Say
  • Ladders, The
  • Like Today
  • Maybe
  • My Destiny
  • New Book of Old
  • One More Hour
  • On the Couch
  • Out of the Charts
  • Right Thing, The
  • Sign of the Times
Mike Musburger
  • So Wrong
  • Space Station #5
  • Stay At Home
  • Trumpets Are Loud
  • Used To Belong
  • Turn of the Century
  • Wait It Out
  • Waterloo Sunset
  • Weather: Perfectly Clear
  • We Can Be
  • What's the Use?
  • Which Has Not Been Written
  • Won’t Have to Worry
Interview by Mike LaVella from Gearhead #3

GH: So you're in The Fastbacks
M: They want me in, personally I want to be the Fastbacks drummer forever.

GH: When was the first time that you ever saw them?
M: I was in 8th grade, that would have been in '83 or '84, at the Mural Amphitheater at Seattle Center.

GH: Richard on drums?
M: Yeah, I remember Richard.

GH: What was you're first band?
M: I played in jazz band in Jr. High School, then I joined the Duke of Whiplash and then Nux Vomica. Actually, Rich, the first bass player from the Posies was in that band with me.

GH: What are we talking about, spiked hair hardcore?
M: No, I was never a hardcore punk. I just liked punk music and played it. I never lived the punk esthetic.

GH: Never moved into a squat huh?
M: No, I never did that.

GH: Well, you didn't miss a Goddamned thing!
M: I just moved downtown.

GH: How close do you live to that awesome Pink Elephant carwash?
M: Really close actually, I can see the Space Needle from my window.

GH: So you were in the Posies for how long?
M: 6 years.

GH: Since right after the first record?
M: Exactly, I met them like a week after they recorded that record.

GH: What's up with the hair on that record?
M: (Laughs) I don't know, you would have to ask them. They were from Bellingham, I'll just say that.

GH: So you play on "Frosting on the Beater," right?
M: Oh yeah.

GH: That's such a fucking amazing record.
M: Yeah, it's a good one. It's the one that I'm proudest of.

GH: Of course, I like "Answer the Phone, Dummy" better!
M: That's cool, I play on that one too!

GH: It must be weird not being in the Posies after 6 years.
M: It is weird. I gave my heart and soul to that band for a long time. Sometimes I feel really cheated, I feel like I was under-appreciated most of the time.

GH: Are you still friends with Ken?
M: Well I'm in his wife's band! Which, I did have reservations when Kurt first asked me to go back on tour with them for this record.

GH: Yeah, but how cool is Kim?
M: Oh she's cool, she really understands the position that everyone's in.

GH: After 15 years you would think that they would all have a grip on band politics.
M: Yeah, the Fastbacks are very real and very human, and they make me feel more like a human being than an employee. Even though in a way I am just an employee because I'm only one in a huge long line of drummers, but they don't treat people that way. They are really great, and it's cool because I can do other things since they aren't really a full-time band. Lulu has a great job in the film industry, Kim really loves her job at Sub Pop, and Kurt obviously keeps really busy, so it gives me a lot of freedom.

GH: The first time I ever saw you play drums was at the Chameleon.
M: That was fun.

GH: It was obvious that you couldn't hear each other.
M: I just told Kurt to turn his amp right towards me and I just played off of his guitar all night. I remember that Lulu kept getting shocked, so she put her own sock over the mic! But hey, punk rock, you know.

GH: So you're in the band, you are the man, that's it.
M: I'm the man (chuckles). Kim said on this last tour "you know you can't quit!" but I think Jason Finn wants my job!

GH: He could do at least local shows.
M: Yeah, while I'm on tour with his old band Love Battery!

GH: It's amazing how few drummers there are to go around, it seems like everyone should have one drummer and that's it.
M: Well, I'm working on it.

GH: On what?
M: On being every one's drummer.

(c) 1995 Gearhead.
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