John Dear Mowing Club Interview: SXSW 2010

PHOTO LINK: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johndearmowingclub

John Dear Mowing Club is Melle de Boer, a Dutch singer-songwriter who plays with a group of musicians called the Mowing Club. The group plays mostly in the Netherlands and Germany, where they accompanied de Boer's friend, American songwriter Daniel Johnston, on tour last year. John Dear Mowing Club will be making a rare Stateside appearance for SXSW, where de Boer will perform his personal, folk-inspired songs from his new album, 'Melleville.'

Describe your sound in your own words.

Songs with a touch of American tradition, without pathos and with emphasis on the lyrics.

How did your act form?

I searched for musicians who understood the music without explaining anything. We don't have to practice, and the music stays alive and fresh.

How did you meet your band mates?

The Hague, the town where I live, has a very lively music scene. Most of the band members I heard playing in bars and venues. The guys I play with now were magic from the beginning. We've come a long way.

What are your musical influences?

It started with my father's heroes -- Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. Later I found my own heroes were Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Townes van Zandt. With these guys in your backyard, it's hard to find your own piece of lawn. It took some years to find it, but it was there.

How did you come up with your band name?

Mowing the lawn is a theme in my songs. Lawnmowers are a typical tool of my home country, Holland, an expression of the small-town bourgeois. And I think I have a destructive nature. A lawnmower mind.

What's your biggest vice?

Touching famous paintings with my nose. I already did. Van Gogh, Matisse, Warhol, Rembrandt, Pollock...

What's in your festival survival kit?

My new CD, "Melleville." It's a shield against the enemy. I made it in the studio where I make my drawings. Without producers and people who "know," I learned so much making it. Many friends are singing along. Now they travel along in spirit. It makes me feel really confident to take it with me.

Can you describe working with your friend Daniel Johnston?

He is a real friendly guy. We spent a month together touring through Europe, and I visited him in Texas last year and recorded a song for my new CD. He lives in a world of his own, with his own rules.

What's the craziest thing you've seen or experienced while on tour?

The double bass player was gone just when we had to go onstage with Daniel Johnston. A big crowd was waiting. Drummer Mowing Sean, Daniel's brother and me were running and shouting through the corridors and backstage rooms. Nothing. No bass player anywhere. Finally we decided to enter the stage with despair. Then I saw the double-bass gig bag moving a little. I walked towards it and zipped it open. There was bass player Mowing Rob, fast asleep.

And why had he done that?

We were touring for almost a month and performing two shows every night, our own show and the show we accompanied Daniel on. Each moment we could sleep, we tried to sleep. Bass player Rob took his chance.