That's totally true. And sometimes, fighting our way out of a trouble spot is what makes it interesting. You're seeing real stuff. We don't always know what's going to happen. It's odd...we're a fairly weird band in certain respects. Sometimes we wonder why people like us. Our fans now, people our age, bring their kids now. It's peculiar. It's not the normal band trajectory.
Does it feel like you're stepping back into an earlier era of your life?
It did for the first year. But it doesn't anymore. It's just part of my life. I might have Alloy Orchestra rehearsals in the morning and Mission of Burma rehearsals at night. There's nothing weird about it. I've been doing it for 10 years now, so it feels completely normal to me.
Wasn't Mission of Burma supposed to tour with Joy Division before Ian Curtis committed suicide?
We were supposed to play with them in Boston at the Underground. New Order ended up playing in Boston later, but I think we were on tour somewhere. They might have cancelled and come back later. We did open for the Cure's first American show in New York City. Everyone in the band had really short hair and no stage presence whatsoever. We would do covers during soundcheck, and for this one, I remember we were playing "Mississippi Queen" by Mountain. Later Robert Smith told me that he really liked the song "Einstein's Day" - which makes sense, since it had the same kind of expansive quality that the Cure did then - but that he was really worried during soundcheck.
You could probably get away with "Mississippi Queen" now, but not then.
That was the enemy then. Now you can take some of that approach and mess with it.
What is Martin Swope up to these days?
He still lives in Hawaii. We keep in touch, but I haven't seen him in years.
Does he ever express interest in coming back, doing a guest spot?
He has no interest in that. His life has changed. That's no longer part of his life.
Does it feel like you're stepping back into an earlier era when you record or tour with Burma?
It did for the first year. But it doesn't anymore. It's just part of my life. I might have Alloy Orchestra rehearsals in the morning and Mission of Burma rehearsals at night. There's nothing weird about it. I've been doing it for 10 years now, so it feels completely normal to me. The weirdest gig I ever did...I tour with both bands. Mission of Burma played All Tomorrow's Parties a second time. We were offstage at 11:00 pm. At midnight, a cab picked me up and took me to the bus station. The bus took me to the train, the train got me to Heathrow, I got about an hour's sleep on a bench, then got on a plane that took me through Shannon, Ireland. I flew from there to Boston, took a bus north, and played in New Hampshire that night with Alloy Orchestra. Three hours of sleep. And that was just two years ago, and I felt fine! It must have hit my biorhythms just right.
So tell me about Mission of Burma Day. That, uh, came up in my research.
[Laughs] We got a proclamation in Boston. As we get older, the people who grew up with us are now in power. The irony is that we actually played a show (that day) in Cambridge, not in Boston. The really funny part was that I had a beer in a cup right after the show, when I noticed this cop approaching me. I tried to veer away and he just kept coming for me. I tried to angle away so he wasn't see my beer until I finally thought, "OK, I'm fucked." So the cop comes up to me and says (in a stern voice), "Why didn't you play 'Revolver'? I played Signals, Calls and Marches in my car all the way over here, and why didn't you play 'Revolver'?"
