PUSCIFER // Putting Maynard On That Mustard

Maynard James Keenan: if we could scoop out his brain and live inside his skull, I doubt we’d ever want to leave. Frontman and ringmaster of the circus that is Puscifer (also leader of two other bands, “implement or device” and “flawless graphic representation of 360 degree rotation”—happy now, PR overlords?) fills his stage with lucha libre wrestlers, eldritch visions and a dark, bitter sense of humour throughout. Sitting in his Arizona winery (yes, he’s a vintner, this is a real thing) awaiting the release of Money Shot later this month, we peel back Maynard’s meek mystique ever so slightly. His new book, titled A Perfect Union of Contrary Things pretty much sums it up. When it comes to marrying weird shit together, half-measures never suffice.

Hysteria: Puscifer is coming to Australia next January. The shows are hailed as “brain-frying,” “gig of the year” and other gushing praise. What goes on at one of these shows?

Maynard: We had to think outside the box in terms of presenting a rock show. Most people focus on … doing the rock show. [sighs.] Which ends up being, “Hi, I’m emoting. Here I am in front of you. You’re staring at me while I’m singing to you. This is how I stand when I sing this song, this is how I stand when I sing that song.” It’s boring. It’s regurgitating that kind of thing back and forth at each other. This show brings back the variety show mentality. There’s more going on, more theatrics. More of a presentation, more of a performance rather than just some rock band.

HYS: There’s a blurry line between concert and theatre, though is there writing involved in a Puscifer show? It’s hard to place exactly where you guys fit.

Maynard: It’s like this: how do we tell a joke while have it come across in a setting where we’re actually trying to sing serious songs. At some point we just said …’Fuck it, who cares!’ [laughs] We can sing the nice songs and let them sort it out. We kept doing that and the audience kept coming back. It kept getting bigger. ‘Oh, you guys get it. Good.’

HYS: How does ‘Luchafer,’ your lucha libre troupe, slot into the show?

Maynard: There’s always a storyline that goes along with Puscifer. There’s not just a band, there’s various characters that occur. It’s not necessarily … a logical timeline of characters. They’re connected, they’re not connected … they show up, they don’t show up … the story isn’t presented all in one piece. We give you pieces of the story. Little clues like breadcrumbs all over the place. The reason we do that is because we have no idea what the story is. We’re just making it up as we go.

But don’t tell anybody.

HYS: Your secret’s safe with me.

Maynard: [laughs]

HYS: Your new album Money Shot was ‘born’ because you feel that creativity is ‘like menstrual cycle, when the cramps come, you have to let it all out.’ Most bands are pressured into releasing albums every 18 months, you seem to take the Field of Dreams approach: you’ll build it when it comes.

Maynard: Yeah; it has to fit in between the activity between the vineyards – that’s set to a clock. But it can be that flexible project. Matt, Mike, Karina and I might just throw together an EP. If the spirit is moving us, we’ll just do it. There’s no label; we’re independent. There’s no sponsors, no underwriters, it’s just us. We can kind of do what we want. We don’t have an entire team of people ready to go to launch our marketing plan. We put out an EP and then we can put out a record later.

I have no idea what kind of discipline those people had in their lives, but you end up chasing the fart of the success you enjoyed because everything came together in a way that it won’t ever come together again. To chase that is counter-productive. Be who you are, do what you do. Do it the best you can and … don’t worry about an Oscar. It’s a distraction.
[ Maynard James Keenan ]

HYS: It also seems you have two things on your mind ‘Puscifer and Wine’.

Maynard: Oh no, there’s always things going on. What lands in front of you sounds like that’s all I’m doing. I’m doing a lot of things.

HYS: What kind of stuff? Just everyday life stuff? Whatever that means for you.

Maynard: I’m opening up a new tasting room, with an actual kitchen in it this time. I’ve been pounding away at pasta recipes. We have a lot of wheat in Arizona, so we’re taking a lot of the Arizona wheat for our pastas. A lot of potatoes for the gnocchi … a lot of herbs in our garden for pesto sauces and salads. They’re all from my garden. I’ve been cooking for a long time.

HYS: Looking at your book, A Perfect Union of Contrary Things, there’s bits in there about your time in the Army and moving to Boston—these seem like such structured experiences. Did this influence you to be creative, to push yourself to see beyond what’s in front of you?

Maynard: The creative part came a long time prior to all that. I was musical and theatrical long before the military. I was structured long before I was artistic. The Army part is mid-way through the book. But the structure helps with responsibility. It helps me with all kinds of things. It’s helped me get things done a lot over the years. That ability to stay structured.

If you have an infinite amount of time to be artistic with no structure, stuff sometimes just doesn’t get done. You always fall back to the excuse, or rationalise it with ‘oh, well that’s just the creative process.’ With just a little discipline in your life, you can force your way through that wall. It’ll happen, if you have the discipline to be in there and stick with it.

HYS: If you have no deadline, you could be out wasting time aiming for a perfection that just doesn’t exist.

Maynard: Right. When you see a little bit of success, it’s hard to deal with the ego-blow of something not being as good as the thing you did before. I dunno … the Psychedelic Furs for example. Their first couple of records were just inspired. Then MTV got a hold of them and they got a little older and drunker and they went their separate ways. I have no idea what kind of discipline those people had in their lives, but you end up chasing the fart of the success you enjoyed because everything came together in a way that it won’t ever come together again. To chase that is counter-productive. Be who you are, do what you do. Do it the best you can and … don’t worry about an Oscar. It’s a distraction.//

Puscifer’s Money Shot — Round Under Tour with special guests Luchafer will be here in January 2017

Friday January 20, MONA FOMO, Hobart TAS
MONA FOMO tickets available here
Sunday January 22, Plenary MCEC, Melbourne VIC
Monday January 23, Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide SA
Wednesday January 25, Darling Harbour Theatre, Sydney NSW
Thursday January 26, Convention & Exhibition Centre, Brisbane QLD
Sunday January 29, Vector Arena, Auckland, New Zealand

Tickets available here.