Feature Photo by Jeff Moh Photography
In 2001, Aussie-born bassist Guy Maddison joined Mudhoney, replacing the nearly irreplaceable Matt Lukin. In short order, Maddison made his talents known, contributing his grooves to 2002’s Since We’ve Become Translucent, and has stayed on ever since, with his latest four-stringed thunder rumbling across speakers via Mudhoney’s 2023 record, Plastic Eternity.
But Maddison’s six studio (and one live) recordings with Mudhoney are just the tip of the iceberg. In the ’80s, Maddison was a member of Lubricated Goat, Bushpig, With Monroe’s Fur, and Bloodloss. To that end, any proper punk-loving rocker will happily digest Maddison’s catalog, which blends punk, alt, grunge, and the lot easily.
Lately, Maddison has been pushing new boundaries, learning classic rock and R&B staples to further his soundscape when not on the road with Mudhoney. Beyond that, to be sure, more new music and continued shows with Mudhoney lay ahead.
As for how he’s looking at the bass these days while enjoying his time off, Maddison tells ClassicRockHistory.com: “What keeps me inspired is I just love playing,” he says. “I just really enjoy playing and creating music.”
Adding: “That’s not something that’s ever really changed for me. I play an instrument daily unless there are some extenuating circumstances, like I’m somewhere, and there’s no instrument to play.”
What inspired you to pick up the bass?
My first instrument was the Trumpet, and my earliest influences were probably Brian Ferry and the Beatles. Things changed dramatically when I discovered punk rock. In my first year of high school, I became aware of the Sex Pistols and Devo. This developed over the next few years, and by year 10 in 1980, I identified as a punk.
Who were your early influences?
I was heavily into the Stranglers. Buzzcocks and Dead Kennedys by this point. Soon, Joy Division, PiL, and Black Flag came into the picture. My buddy Roger had a two-stringed guitar I started messing around with, and the idea of bass playing sort of came from that.
When did you get your first bass?
In 1982, I bought my first bass. It was a Japanese-made guitar called a Rakai, essentially a Fender copy. At his point, my bass playing influences were Jean Jacques Burnel. Klaus Fluoride, Peter Hook, and Chuck Dukowski.
Tell me about Lubricated Goat and your early bass rig during Padlock of Love.
I joined Lubricated Goat in 1986; I first met Stuart in the late ’85 when he came through Perth. This is where he recorded the first side of Plays the Devil’s Music. Brett and Peter played on that; Peter played bass, and I actually used my Fender P-Bass for that recording as he didn’t have a bass.
I believe the timeline is Stuart then went to Adelaide to record side two with Martin Bland. In early ’86, I relocated to Sydney with my band, Greenhouse Effect. I saw Stuart crossing the road one day in Surry Hills, and he asked me if I’d like to join him and play bass. I had a tape cassette of the first side of the Devil’s Music and thought it was fantastic; at that point, it was just Stuart and me; Peter and Brett were still in Perth.
We got signed up for our first gig at a Black Eye records show at the Piccadilly Hotel. James Baker, after a couple of practices, sat in on drums. Also, in that initial lineup was Pat Kavanaugh, our friend, who was on both second guitar and clarinet. Shortly after that, Brett and Peter arrived in Sydney, and the initial live lineup, Lubricated Goat, was formed.
We carried on for the next couple of years with that lineup. In those early days, my bass rig was much as it was from ’85 through the early ’90s when I relocated to America. I used a Fender 100-watt Bassman head and a Fender 4X12 cabinet. The bass I still own is a 1974 Fender P-bass, maple on maple.
No effects. Initially, Stu asked me to play his fretless bass, and I did for a few gigs, but we found that the more precursive sound of the fretted P Bass instrument was better suited to the music we were playing.
I would be remiss if you didn’t get your memories of your performance on Blah Blah Blah…
The Blah Blah Blah show was put together by our friend Bruce Griffiths; he was a comedy writer for television and radio and a stand-up comic in his own right. It was a word around town that we’d been having nude parties at the house that we lived in, in Lubricated Goat, and Bruce ran with this idea of a nude band for the show.
Blah was for young adults, and each week had a different theme; the theme for that show was censorship, and obviously, censorship of nudity was what we were on there to “highlight.” It was hilarious and fun; in terms of a gig, we lip-sync to one song, “In the Raw.” Obviously, “In the Raw” is a slang expression for being naked, commonly used in Australia.
When we arrived, we went to makeup, there wasn’t much to that, we took our clothes off, and I had blah blah stamped on my ass cheeks. We got ready to go down and lip sync to the song; this all took place live at a club in Bondi I called Selenas. As we came down the staircase to where the stage was, I remember Peter Reed, who was performing as the drummer on that show (Brett had been asked to do it but declined), had a little wee on the steps before we went on stage.
We walked on stage naked and got one of the biggest applauses I’ve ever gotten in my life; it was pretty fun; the audience was killing themselves laughing, and we had a good time hamming it up to our song. Of course, it caused an immediate furor the next day, with people calling it obscene and the shock media jumping on it, “How could the ABC be so irresponsible.”
Of course, the junk press came calling shortly afterward, and we did a lot of non-music press, like People Magazine stuff. It was a tempest in a teacup and all over in a week or so.
How did you meet Mark Arm and join Mudhoney? Were you a fan?
I first met Mark in 1989 when we toured the US. Lubricated Goat was signed to Amphetamine Reptile Records, which were closely associated with Sub Pop at that time. Sub Pop actually lent us a van to start our tour. In 1989 we arrived in Seattle and did a couple of shows there, one with the Butthole Surfers at the Moore Theatre.
During that time, we met Mark; I’d previously got myself a copy of Superfuzz. I guess you could say I was a fan of Mudhoney; I was really interested in that sort of stuff that was coming out of America at the time, Dinosaur and Mudhoney and alike.
I think Mark was into the Goat, too. Our records being put out through Am Rep were getting a little bit of a buzz in the US, so I think there was a little bit of mutual appreciation.
Was it tough to take on Matt Lukin’s parts? How do you differ from him?
Matt’s style differs vastly from mine. I play mostly with my fingers, and Matt plays with a pick; from what I understand and from watching him, he uses a technique where he deads the non-fingered strings so that he can really strum and attack the note with his pick.
I play with my fingers, and to a certain extent, I don’t feel like I really took on Matt’s parts; Steve Turner and I got together on his front porch and just played the songs on acoustic guitar and bass. I played the song, and I learned where the notes were. I was pretty familiar with a lot of the material, and I just sort of worked out my baselines to go along with the Mudhoney sound in a way I thought sounded right.
The difficult thing about replacing Matt was the popular personality that is Matt Lucan. It cannot really be replaced when somebody has a stage presence like Matt, the ability to fire off these non-sequiturs, the little verbal jokes and puns, that’s impossible to really replace.
What’s it like recording with Mudhoney? Do you have a favorite album so far?
Well, it’s easy to say that the last album that we made is always the favorite record. To which end, I guess you could say that Plastic Eternity is my favorite. I do like our latest record a lot. I feel like we put a lot of work into it, and it turned out really well. I think that of all the records that I’ve made with Mudhoney since joining in 2001, probably The Lucky Ones is my favorite, just because we took such a different approach with that one.
We took inspiration from the encore of our live sets, where Mark downs the guitar and just sings the cover songs. We always really enjoyed that, and we thought, “Why don’t we write some songs around that format?” That’s how Lucky Ones came about. I think it turned out well; many of those songs remain a solid part of the set.
The recording process with Mudhoney is an interesting one. We write songs as a group; each individual brings their rifts in, and then those riffs are fleshed out in the practice room. Mark, who is the sole lyricist in Mudhoney, puts the words to them. Once we have words, we go back to tune the songs; then we head to the studio to record them.
Over the years, we’ve used different engineers and producers; in the last few years, it’s been Johnny Sangster and his studios in Seattle. The last album was interesting, in terms of the fact that not all of the songs were completed by the time we went in the studio, some of them were more loosely structured and we went in and sort of put them together in the studio, that last piece of construction work in the actual studio itself.
Where were you pulling from in terms of songwriting with Mudhoney these days?
I think Mudhoney’s songwriting is basically a big collage of everyone’s influences, most of them pretty long-standing. It’s no secret that the band has a grounding in punk rock bands like Black Flag and the Circle Jerks. You can see by the covers of the band what some of the early influences are, you’ve got the Dicks, you’ve got Fang, you’ve got the angry Samoans, we wear our influences on our sleeve.
Obviously, everything is covered in a big dollop of Stooges fuzz and sludge. I think on our last record there’s slightly more psychedelic influences which have always been there, but perhaps a little more forward with this record. In terms of where my rifts come from, I’m always plumbing the well-known depths of Public Image, The Stranglers, and sometimes, The Byrds.
Do you have a favorite riff and solo? What does that process look like for you?
In terms of my favorite riff in recent times, I think the riff I laid down to the song “Nerve Attack” is something I enjoy playing and sounds good. On the last record, I really enjoyed some of the bass work that I put on the song “One or Two.” My process is to just try and serve the song, don’t overplay, but be interesting. Sometimes it works. [laughs]
Which songs best represent the player you are today, and why?
That’s a tough question to answer. My recent playing has been with Mudhoney, but it has also been with a recording project with my old colleague Martin Bland. We’ve been working on a project called La Paire D’Or. I think some of my bass, guitar, and keyboard work on that is probably representative of where I am as a player these days.
It’s different from Mudhoney; it’s a little looser and experimental, probably heavily influenced by bands like Can and Chrome; there will be a record out on Hex Enductions Records later this year, so I hope people dig it.
I think the last record that we made with Mudhoney, Plastic Eternity, has a lot of varied styles and flavors of tunes on there. I think that that whole record probably is an example of where my live bass playing is now. There are some quite punchy, punk rock-style bass riffs on there and some noodling, meandering psychedelic explorations.
How do you view the way you play today vs the past? What has changed most?
The thing that’s changed the most in my playing was when I moved from using a pick to playing with my fingers. This happened around the time that I left Lubricated Goat in the early-90s and was more focused on my playing in the band Monroe’s Fur, which was a very loose, free arrangement.
I started to develop my fingerstyle at that point. I also think that, as time has gone on, with constant practice, I’ve actually gotten better and have been more thoughtful about studying other players and trying to acquire different elements that I like from a wider range of influences.
Tell me about your gear: guitars, amps, pedals. What goes into those choices?
My gear has changed a little bit over the years. Initially, I used a Fender 100-watt Bassman and a 4×12 Fender cabinet, which was my standard rig for many years. When I moved to the US in the early ’90s, that Bassman was replaced by Music Man HD 130 and a 4×12 Fender cab, which I then used for another decade.
Joining Mudhoney and the need to travel for touring and not being able to bring our amplification with us. I began experimenting with smaller, more portable amps and ended up with TC Electronic RH 450 paired with a 4×12 cabinet. But depending on what is available, I often use an SVT 8 x 10s as the other speaker option.
I don’t use any pedals live, but in the studio, I will often use a Maestro Stage Phaser and sometimes some fuzz or distortion. When I’m working on La Paire D’Or stuff, I use a lot of effects on the synthesizers, the guitars, and the bass. I’m particularly fond of a couple of Earth Quaker devices that I have. In particular, the Avalanche Run delay pedal and the Spatial Delivery envelope filter.
What are your short- and long-term goals? How will you achieve them?
I think my short-term and my long-term goals are both the same: to continue making music and continue to improve as a player. Recently, I’ve been challenging myself to play in different styles, so sometimes that can mean learning a song that is from a genre that you don’t usually play.
An example would be “Watching the Detectives” by Elvis Costello or the R&B standard classic “My Girl.” I’ve been trying to learn a few new tricks in terms of practicing Motown bass triads or learning some reggae riffs. Mostly, I just try to pick up the guitar every day and play for a while. This usually gives me ideas on what I could develop as songs and where my technique can improve to make the sounds that I hear in my head.