Kevin Wood is a lead guitarist and a legendary member of Seattle-based grunge band, Malfunkshun. Kevin, along with his brother Andrew, are often recognized as the founding fathers of the grunge scene–having formed around the same time as bands such as The U-men, Melvins, Green River, and Soundgarden.
Over his 30 year career, Kevin has shared the stage with such bands as: Brad, Stone Gossard, Extreme, Puddle of Mud, Grand Funk Railroad, Satchel, Fishbone, Soundgarden, Super Suckers, Husker Du, Discharge, The Mentors, Dehumanizers, Chad Channing, Ben Sheppard, Tom Morello, Shawn Smith, Tim Robbins, Jack Endino, and Duff McKagan.
Table of Contents
3:17 – If you had to describe yourself as a band, song, or genre, what would it be?
5:13 – How did you get started in the music business?
9:23 – Looking back at your career, what stands out to you as your proudest moment?
10:41 – What’s been one of your biggest failures, and what lessons did you learn from that moving forward?
19:56 – Three things artists should be doing today to grow their fan-base and move their careers forward
If you had to describe yourself as a band, song, or genre, what would it be?
Love rock. It’s a slogan that we’ve been bantering around forever. It’s in response to the heaviness that can be associated with loud, powerful music. It’s always been our goal to have a positive spin on music. That has been my personal goal as well, to have a positive spin on rock guitar, and rock music, and giving people a good vibe.
How did you get started in the music business?
I dabbled in music as a child. I learned violin as a boy, and dinked around with the guitar somewhat. It wasn’t until high school that I figured it would be a great way to get into show business. I loved rock n’ roll. By the time I finished out high school, I was ready to start my life, and I decided to throw my hat in the ring and do the music business.
I didn’t really know what I was doing. It was at a time when experimental music was really big and the punk rock thing was happening. There was a backlash against what they called ‘dinosaur rock.’ So it was perfect for me. I basically started a group and then learned how to play rock n’ roll. Other groups have done that before, I know U2 had a similar experience.
Looking back at your career, what stands out to you as your proudest moment?
The proud moments happen when there’s a great night onstage. I’ve had so many of those. I did have some commercial success with a band called Devil Head that I started with my other brother, Brian. But nothing can eclipse having a great night on stage and playing my ass off. Really having everyone respond to the songs and the vibe.
What’s been one of your biggest failures, and what lessons did you learn from that moving forward?
Something that has been haunting me since it happened was that I didn’t carefully read a contract one time. When I was in Devil Head, we were hard up for money and we were selling our publishing from our first CD. My manager at the time, and my brother Brian, put together a contract with Sony Publishing that lumped in my publishing from Malfunkshun and the contract was brought to me and I was told, “Hey, we need to sign this thing right now, or we won’t get our money until months later.”
We were hard up for the dough and this contract was the size of a magazine. A really thick catalog of 300 pages, and I didn’t read it or send it to a lawyer, I just signed it with the trust that I wasn’t getting screwed. And sure enough, years down the road I found out that I had sold my publishing for the Malfunkshun “Back to Olympus” CD, which to this day, even if I want to put out a re-release, I have to pay for the license to do my own songs. Don’t trust anyone and read your damn contracts.
Three things artists should be doing today to grow their fan-base and move their careers forward:
- Invest in some sort of recording apparatus for your home and learn how to run it. There are things that you can buy that can get your stuff down and post it on the web. So many artists are inept with recording and producing their own samples, and that holds them back.
- As a musician, you are dealing with a craft and a gift. In order for it to be at it’s most enjoyable state, you need to regard that craft and gift as something special and worthwhile.
- Don’t be shy. And that doesn’t mean go be an egomaniac and thump down doors. Get out there and expose yourself. Don’t lock yourself away and think that you’re not good enough. Get out there and show people what you’ve got.
The best ways to reach Kevin:
On the web:
http://malfunkshun.org/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/OfficialMalfunkshun
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/MalfunkshunBand
Label:
http://wammybox.com/
Outro Music:
Rains of May
Malfunkshun
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