Meet The Mudd
RUG students playing Grunnsonic
The Mudd members are Taska Smit, Eljosha Boll, Hugo Heinen, and Bas Kuus. They met each other at an introductory camp for their bachelor in arts, culture, and media three years ago. ‘We were doing musical chairs’, says Taska, the band’s singer and bass player.
‘I asked if anyone wanted to start a band’, guitarist Eljosha continues. ‘Six or so people raised their hands. We all had a couple of jam sessions together, and after a few weeks the four of us were left.’
It took a while to come up with a name everyone liked. One day, Eljosha and a friend of his were talking about mud. ‘At one point I said “the muuuudd” in kind of a weird way, and we liked how it sounded.’
Their first performance was at the Groninger Museum, and three years later the band has written eighteen songs. Lately, they have been focused on finding places to play. After their gig at the museum, they participated in PopTalent twice and then did five shows at Vera. This week they perform at Grunnsonic for the second year in a row.
Schizophrenic
Last Friday, The Mudd released their first official single, Love Apparatus, a song they have been playing for more than a year. The song has morphed into something new with each gig, undergoing several changes before the band was satisfied.
‘Someone once described our music as schizophrenic’, Taska jokes. ‘Hugo might add a funky pedal effect, or Bas drums a smooth jazz beat.’ Drummer Bas: ‘We took a long time to find our own sound that we were happy with. It all culminated in this.’
They are inspired by other music and by each other. Everyone has an equal say in the music they make. Each song truly represents each member.
Rehearsal
When they were all in the same bachelor programme, it was easy for them to rehearse. ‘We’d see each other during class and all our schedules were the same. It was easy to find rehearsal times’, says Hugo. But now that they’ve each branched out to different programmes it’s more difficult, even though they are all still students at the RUG and are committed to rehearsing.
‘As long as we’re still enjoying ourselves we’re going to keep going to keep going’, says Bas. ‘And I think we’ll be enjoying ourselves for a while yet. I can’t imagine a future where I’m not making music.’
