Too pop for punk, too 'old school' for the New Wave, Mumps were a '70s era New York rock band, out of time.
There's been a lot of role reversal going on in the band. The roles people have been playing for a long time will always be there, but everybody's willing to try on different outfits.
I've always worn jewellery but for a time it went out of fashion. Like grungy and punk bands didn't wear jewellery because it was stupid.
The New York Dolls did not think of themselves as punk rock. There was no such term at the time. They were just another band in what was called the New York scene.
I got my first trumpet when I was six years old, from Al Hirt. My father was playing in Al Hirt's band at that time.
Scuttle: I haven't seen this in years, this is wonderful! Ariel: What is it? Scuttle: A banded, bulbous snarfblatt. Ariel, Flounder: Oh.
Most managers in the rock n' roll world... don't care so much about who's in the band as long as it's making money.
I like all music. Well, I don't like music that was created to make money. I don't really like bands that don't write their own music.
Most people can't tell now who wrote what. I like that blurring of identities within the band. because it becomes a unified thing that can't be related to other forms of historical poetry.
My overnight success was really 15 years in the making. I'd been writing songs since I was 6 and playing in bands and performing since I was 14.
A lot of times, when a band finds success with a certain style or sound, they have a really hard time breaking away from that to grow as artists.
Going into hospitals and being able to meet kids that are in similar situations to those that the characters are facing in the 'Red Band Society' allows us to see the truth of these real humans' lives.
In high school, I once sang 'Let's Get It On' and 'Brown Sugar' with a band that included my English teacher and my math teacher.
The first Decline I did was out of sheer love and appreciation for the music. In 1977, it was more about bands, because punk was a new form of music. It was groundbreaking and political.
I grew up in a school that had a big music program, and it was incredible. It's what I looked forward to during the day. I had chorus, strings, band.
Yeah, I've played a lot of instruments, and I played in a lot of bands growing up, and I've even had to play music in a lot of films that I've done.
There are a lot of bands who claim to be punk and they only play the music, they have no clue what it's all about. It's a lifestyle. It's not about popularity and all that crap.
I was just a music lover who wondered what it would sound like if Otis Redding strapped on a guitar and played in a punk band. That's it.
I think we as a band, as individuals, understand that all popular music stems from blues and jazz and even pop, but rock 'n' roll especially comes from blues.
I've discovered all kinds of music and done all kinds of music over the past 40 years, from playing tango with Piazzolla to all the different bands I've had.
I definitely listened to country music. I don't think I listened to hair bands as much as I did Bruce Springsteen and U2 and Aerosmith.
