Mau Mau Chaplains Interview: SXSW 2010

Mau Mau Chaplains are considered the fathers of Austin reggae. The members have been playing reggae music since the '70s and helped the scene garner attention. Now, as they prepare to play once more to adoring crowds, Spinner.com spoke to Mau Mau bassist Moe Monsarrat about their sound, the history of the Austin local scene, what their name means, and the SXSW festival.

Describe your sound in your own words.

We play roots reggae music and it's classic reggae stuff from the '70s, '80s and even the '90s, so we play the classical reggae stuff. We play some Bob Marley, we play Toots, the Meditations and we have our own versions of things, too.

Was it hard to do that, play country and reggae?

Well, there really isn't much of a difference in that, except for moving the base and drums around a bit and in fact, in Jamaica, country music is huge. If Merle Haggard went there, he'd probably draw a bigger crowd than any reggae artist would.

How did your band form?

Well, we were playing in different bands at the time we formed this particular band. Steve [Carter] and I were playing country music and some of the other guys were playing other things, but we'd all played together in reggae bands and we just missed playing with each other, playing that kind of music. So, we would get together in a friend's garage and we'd play reggae. People would come by and say "You guys should go play in venues," and we just did that. We play at the Flamingo Cantina, the largest reggae venue here.

How has reaction been to a reggae band in what is a scene full of rockers, blues and country musicians in Austin?

Well, the funny part is that country music isn't nearly as big as it's portrayed to be [in Austin] and a lot of country artists are from here but they usually don't play around in town. There are a few country venues that cater to them. I play with Stop the Truck, which is a country band, and we also play those venues. My first band, the Lotions, was the first reggae band and we kind of opened up the doors for reggae music in Texas in the late '70s.

What are your musical influences?

Bob Marley is a great influence, Toots and the Maytals – those two bands are huge influences. Black Uhuru and anything that Sly and Robbie did, Studio 1, the Skatalites. Myself, personally, a lot of American soul music like Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, guys like that, Jackie Wilson.

How did you come up with your name?

There's a couple of different things, the Mau Mau Chaplains were a Jamaican gang in the '40s and '50s, and they extended from Kingston, Jamaica to New York City. Also, the Mau Mau chaplains, during the Mau Mau uprising in Africa, which I believe was in the later part of the 19th century, the priests that were Christian stayed behind and tried to talk the Mau Mau into peace. Of course, they got murdered.

You guys have been around for a long time as a band and as solo musicians, what keeps you going?

I don't think anybody else likes to be with us. [Laughs.] We just enjoy playing with each other so much and over the years, the more time you stay together, the better it gets. Over time, we've put our differences aside that we had in the past and just concentrate on playing music together. We're just happy that we have the same guys.

Have you played at SXSW before?

Yes, almost every single year since its inception, in various different incarnations. We'll have Louis Meyers, one of the founders, playing with us.

What's your festival survival advice?

The main thing is to not try to use your own equipment. If you have a band trying to play a gig and there's a back line, use the back line. If there's any way around dragging around your own equipment, do it because if you have to carry your stuff down the street, especially in 6th Street, it's not going to be fun. You are also using up your own playing time when you set up and you already get so little time to begin with, you don't want to waste it [your time] by spending time setting your equipment up. If you can play on their [the venues] equipment without compromising your sound, do it.

What is your musical guilty pleasure?

The Carpenters. I hate to say that [but] I love that girl's voice. [Laughs.]

What is the craziest thing you've seen on tour?

I saw a train wreck in Houston once. This lady had driven her little Toyota car, up on the train tracks behind the hotel we were staying, and it was half on and half off and she was stuck. She was drunk and we could hear the train coming, it was blowing its whistle, and we started yelling at her from the balcony of the hotel.

"Get out, get out of the car!" and she was like, "What? What?" and she moved over to the passenger seat to hear us. At this point, we were trying to jump over the fence to get to the train tracks, and by this time the train had come by and cut her car in half. But, it smashed the half she wasn't in because she moved over to talk to us. She didn't get a scratch on her; it was really the strangest thing ever.

Describe your shows in three words to people have never seen you before.

Surprising. Wonderful. Harmonic.

Alma Verdejo is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.