This interview was taken from Form Guide Magazine #47 Oct ’97 Melbourne Australia. WEEN are back with us in October, touring the country to promote their latest audio enterprise- The MOLLUSK. I am happy to report that this new disc is chockers with the diverse range of ditties we've all come to expect from the enigma known as WEEN. And the good news doesn't end there, as Geof discovered when he spoke to Gene Ween the other day. Q: So what have you got in store for us on this tour - I hear you're playing a 2 hour set? A: About 2 hours. Sometimes we play 3. It all depends on the show. Q: What's the line-up for this tour? A: We have a Keyboard player, a bass player, a drummer and the 2 of us. Q: I noticed that you have a long list of people involved on the latest record "The Mollusk". Is WEEN still essentially you and Dean? A: We always have a lot of our friends and such playing on our records. But it's mainly us that writes all the stuff. Q: How do you go about writing your songs? Do you just start with an idea and build it up or do you have more of a planned trajectory - a definite idea you want to explore? A: Usually we just build it up. We start with a concept and just take it from there. Q: Is that the same lyrically? A lot of your lyrics are pretty out there. Q: they have literal meaning or is it a stream of consciousness sort of thing? A: A lot of the songs are stream of consciousness. Q: Do you find that people think your music is 'drug induced' because it's pretty out there? A: Definitely. And back in the ol' days we used to sing a lot of songs about smoking pot & stuff like that, so people associate us with drugs a lot. Q: For better or worse? A: Yeah it doesn't really matter. I don't care. Q: On that note of how people accept you - it seems that people have more trouble dealing with diverse, hard to define acts like WEEN, as opposed to formula "I want you baby, Yeah" sort of music. Does that bother you guys? A: Well that's the reason we're not rich rock stars right now. We're kinda waiting to have our cake and eat it too. Q: Maybe you guys should sing about harder drug habits, rather than pot- get a bit more suicidal... A: Yeah that might work, I never thought of that. We'll both become dope addicts. Q: Yeah that could help. It could be a good career move-it'll probably make you look quite sexy too. A: Absolutely. Q: That gaunt look. A: Dope sheik. Q: What do you site as your major musical influences? To me it sounds like Sesame Street would be rating up there. A: Sesame Street is a definite influence. All good music. From the Beatles to Prince, to Miles Davis, to Jimi Hendrix, to Doc Watson, to whatever. Q: You guys seem pretty immune to the pressures of what's "cool". You've always been pretty happy to embrace a lot of various styles that were considered dorky by the cool gang. A: Both of us consider that most music that's being made today is crop. Except for Nirvana, that whole Grunge thing just sucked, It sucked shit. Q: It does try too hard to be confronting and wild, while it's actually really conservative -I mean if there's not a distorted guitar in there for starters, people won't listen to it... A: Yeah formula rock. A lot of formula rock always just turned me off in general. l like some formula rock-like oldies music- doo-wop and that stuff, and sixties pop, and even disco-it's all formula, but it's good formula. Nowadays, it doesn't matter what kind of crop you put in there- as long as it obeys the formula it'll be a hit, and that's what's changed in music today and it just sucks. You really don't have to have any talent to make e million dollars in the music industry, you just have to get a good producer. And we could do that, but I'd rather not think we'd both feel like ass-holes. We pride ourselves in being somewhat punk-rock. Q: To me it seems a lot more 'punk' to challenge people with music styles that maybe they can't deal with- because it's too dorky if it's 80's or 70's or whatever. A: Right. It is punk rock and our fans that are into it, understand that. Q: I find that quite amazing actually (ie. That a sweet seventies sounding ditty sung by Muppet outcasts is a lot more punk than recipe power chord progressions and radius lyrics of rebellion). A: We started in 84, when we were 14 years old. Both of us just listened to punk rock, plus other stuff like the Beatles, Laurie Anderson, Devo and shit like that. It all just kind of translated into WEEN. And we do have this sort of work ethic, which says 'Don't sell out'. - Or if we were going to sell out, sell out so heavy duty that it was like amazing. Q: I find your music really funny, not 'funny ha-ha', but musically funny-the melodies and instruments are humorous. Do you think the funny thing limits your potential appeal? A: Especially in America. If it's humorous music, then you're pigeon-holed. You're not a 'serious' band, you're a 'joke' band. And we're not really. But that's a hard stigma to escape from-'the funny band'. But I mean hey, the Beatles were funny too. Q: You really tread the line with your humour. Do you think you might eventually get so subtle that you just become like the music you reference? A: Do you mean, we might phase out the humour? The thing is, we don't think about that. What WEEN's oil about is not thinking about that shit at all. The next 5 records could be the most serious records in the whole world-but if we're into it and if that's what we're going through at the time, then that's what we'll do. Or, they could just be Three Stooges records, like the stupidest shit. But if that's what we're into, that's what we're gonna do. The humour might disappear tomorrow, or it might get even funnier. The object in WEEN is to just not worry about that shit. Just try to make good songs.