
With that statement Josh Evans joins a disgusted lineage that includes hellhounds ranging from Hunter S. Thompson to Nazi playwright Hanns Johst. Evans, 19, is the founder, main songwriter, producer and focal point of Muuy Biien. The name is meaningless outside of its goofball spelling but that device serves well as a visual aid and branding iron for this solo ambient/noise project turned actual band. That it didn't fail miserably like most other multi-cook events probably has less to do with luck than the fact that Evans is no moron simply taking on weight. The group he's assembled—guitarists Robbie Rapp and Tobiah Black, bassist Xander Witt and drummer Jacob Deel—are a crack ensemble and Evans is anxious for them to be much more than the beat behind his march. “I want this to be a band,” he says. “I don't want this to be identified as simply my thing anymore.”
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Why does the pursuit of perfection matter?I'm naturally a perfectionist. My dad is the same way. I guess it's sort of like an argument between a believer and a non-believer. It's the battle you can never win. But, at the same time, you get closer to your ideology that way. I think that trying to perfect our songs is us getting closer to them. It's also avoiding the punk ethos that “perfection doesn't matter.” In the place we're in at this point, it's really important that we play well. We're punks that can play! Ha ha!It's such a fool's errand to attribute so much significance to a relatively new band. They will almost invariably disappoint somewhere along the way and then there's this weird justification limbo of “yeah, well, their old stuff is great!” and that always rings false even as the words are coming out. I found myself even guarding against this once when I told Evans straight up that just because I've been all over Muuy Biien for several months that doesn't mean he gets a lifetime free pass. But, for now, this is the most real thing in current rotation. And, besides, why fret over some imagined inevitable? Because that's what human beings do.
What elements are necessary in Rock-N-Roll?Is it relevant and honest? That's all I look for.Is authenticity possible? Does relevance matter?Of course! That's what's so great about those old hardcore bands (Black Flag, Bad Brains, Minor Threat)…they were reacting to the bullshit they were presented with. Just look at where we come from, the music we're surrounded by—as well as the people. Then [when you] hear our record(s) it all makes sense.
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There are obvious work-arounds to all this. It's pretty easy to ignore lyrics, not to mention the ambient interludes on This Is What Your Mind Imagines. It's pretty easy to just throw back drinks and rock out and wear black and look good. But all art is of a piece and it's evasive to only engage a cherry picked set of factors. I mean, who looks at only a corner of a painting?What is Art and why does it matter?I'm not really sure. That’s such a vague term. To me, art is a reaction [toward] the times. So I guess for Muuy Biien it's me reacting against the moral and religious values of my time.The most compelling thing about Muuy Biien is the project's clarity. For all the murky, stumbling, half-mute human glop explored there's a thoughtful mind behind each line. When Evans speaks this truth it's in such a way that each line is internalized and imbued by its receiver. And what is that exactly? That's art. That's the listener's reaction. It's that gut twisting paradox between public commodity and private fetish.
What do you hate? What do you care about?I hate going to work everyday. Working in the service industry in this town has made me see things for what they really are. People are not connected to themselves at all. Don't get me wrong, I love my job and have been doing it for almost two years. I just know what its like to go without food and shit. When I moved here I lived in a house with about seven other people. We were all super fucking broke all the time and for the most part we still are. That's what I hate, not being promised even the smallest of necessities. I care about my sister a lot. I care about my friends and my band, of course. Other than that, nothing. I think people will destroy one another regardless. It's the animalistic drive we have. The human condition to kill or be killed.It's unfair to saddle any band, record, artist, whatever with the weight of history, both the world's and one's own and it's impossible to ask any of these things to be any more than they are. So, what I'm saying is it matters not one bit if Evans gives up tomorrow and Muuy Biien is left as a pile of ashes. Rimbaud quit before he was twenty, too. He won't, of course. There's too much steam building up and a storehouse full to let loose. But This Is What Your Mind Imagines is such a teeth-grinding, knife throwing, mirror smashing experience he should be thankful he's got the youthful energy to sustain.But, as was already said, it really couldn't have happened any other way.muuybiien.bandcamp.com@gordonlamb