JASON SIEGEL
Big Head Todd and the Monsters (from left, Rob Squires, Jeremy Lawton, Todd Park Mohr and Brian Nevin).
Big Head Todd and the Monsters will celebrate their 40th birthday next year, a rare landmark for a modern rock band. They are marking the anniversary with a new album, Her Way Out, and a lengthy national tour that will bring them to New Jersey for two shows: Feb. 18 at The Vogel at The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, and Feb. 20 at The Shea Performing Arts Center at William Paterson University in Wayne.
The lineup of singer/songwriter/guitarist Todd Park Mohr, bassist Rob Squires and drummer Brian Nevin is unchanged since they met as classmates at Columbine High School in suburban Denver and began gigging regularly in 1986 as students at the University of Colorado, while “new guy” Jeremy Lawton (keyboards, pedal steel) joined more than 20 years ago.
“A band relationship is similar to a good marriage, where there’s ups and downs, but you always maintain something constant in the middle that makes it all workable,” says Mohr. “Once we settled into realizing that we could do this for a long time, we kept asking what we can do to make it better. And we’re still trying to tweak. That’s all part of the fun.”
In their four decades together, Big Head Todd and the Monsters has covered the bases in an ever-evolving music business. The group established themselves around their home base and throughout the Mountain West; released two DIY records on their own label, Another Mayberry (1989) and Midnight Radio (1990); got signed to a major label and released Sister Sweetly (1993), which had a long run, slow burning its way to platinum status. They released several more major label albums, including 1997’s Beautiful World, which included a duet with blues great John Lee Hooker on his epochal “Boom Boom.” In recent years, they have returned to running their own label. Her Way Out is their 12th album, but their first in seven years.
The cover of Big Head Todd and the Monsters’ 2024 album “Her Way Out.”
“We kind of gave up on albums because everything got so singles-oriented and the expense of marketing an album is such that it’s hard to turn a profit,” says Mohr. “We opted instead to do Monsters Music Monthly, where we put out a new single and video every month for a little over two years, which led to some really fun collaborations — with Buddy Guy, David Hidalgo (of Los Lobos), Ronnie Baker Brooks and Toad the Wet Sprocket. We built up a hankering for creating a longer, more comprehensive run of music and spending some time on it, so we made Her Way Out.”
Mohr believes that recording monthly tracks, many of them covers of other people’s tunes, made him a better songwriter and a more consistent studio performer by “turning up the pressure in a good way.” Having a deadline, he says, “forces you to rehearse and get consistently better as a writer, in the studio, and as a band.”
Monsters Music Monthly also allowed them to take chances they “never would have on an album,” notably recording a version of “Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)” that surprised everyone in Big Head Todd and the Monsters by going viral and becoming one of their most successful tracks. (watch video below)
“Working so consistently, you get looser and looser, which can lead you to a very creative space,” says Mohr. “I was writing songs for this record with no idea what I was doing, just following ideas. When you get in the mode of making records on major labels you follow more of a commercial goal and a formula. I had none of that, and the result ironically sounds commercial to me.”
Part of the joy of being in such a long-running band, Mohr says, comes from working together to continue improving — growing in all directions. That very much includes his own dedication to improving as a guitar player, though his Strat work has been front and center throughout their career.
The cover of Big Head Todd and the Monsters’ 1993 album “Sister Sweetly.”
“When I started out, I didn’t have much formal education with guitar, and there wasn’t YouTube and the access to learning that we have now,” says Mohr. For decades, he adds, he was uncomfortable hearing praise for his guitar playing, thinking of himself more as a singer-songwriter.
“I always felt like I had less to offer as a guitarist than as a singer-songwriter, which I had more confidence in,” he says. “Now things have opened up and I feel like I have a lot more to say on my instrument.
“I have slowly raised the bar for myself and now I can see the light. There’s a certain level of technical ability that gives you the tools to be more creative and expressive. I always found myself boxed in as a player. Now I’m legitimately proud of myself as a guitarist.”
That striving for continual improvement has helped Mohr and the band keep going for 40 years without getting complacent. “It gives me energy and momentum,” says Mohr. “There are five or 10 songs we will always play because I feel people need to hear them when they buy a ticket. The only way I’m going to have more fun with them is if I improve my playing. I don’t have to cover every base; I just have to play my own songs better and play better solos in them. It’s a lot of fun.”
The Big Head Todd moniker was a nod to greats like blues singer and saxophonist Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson; Mohr’s playing has always been rooted in the blues, though he is careful not to label himself that way, mostly out of respect for the genre. “I’m a bluesman with some tricks,” he says. “Whether that’s how I view myself becomes a complicated question, because I’ve gotten to play with so many of my blues heroes and I know that I have a limited claim to the music.”
Big Head Todd and the Monster’s current tour celebrates their 40th anniversary.
On the other hand, Mohr says, touring with blues greats including Buddy Guy, Honeyboy Edwards, Hubert Sumlin and Lonnie Brooks gave him the opportunity to observe and learn directly from masters of the form.
“It’s harder to just listen and copy blues,” he says. “I’ve had incredible experiences with these guys in the flesh and blood, and that’s taught me a lot about guitar playing as well as performing, but I know I cannot lay claim to being a real bluesman.
“I don’t buy into the rigidity of categories, especially when it comes to ethnic or traditional music. Everybody should be themselves and work towards bringing out what’s unique, while understanding that tradition is a very special, important thing. Blues music is about celebrating the mentors and the tradition. It’s participating in something that has a long view of what a human being is, and what human life has been. I like that about blues music, and processing it made me more of a traditionalist as a songwriter.”
Big Head Todd and the Monsters have primarily made their living on the road, and the two-year COVID pause “put the fear of God in them,” Mohr says, causing them to downsize their touring operation.
“We went from a bus to a Sprinter van and it’s been good. Having a bus is very expensive and it’s much cooler to be smaller and more mobile,” says Mohr. “A lot of people would have a hard time downsizing in any aspect of life, but we realized quickly it was the right thing to do. I thought it would be impossible to leave the bus, but it’s been very workable. That also goes back to being friends with the guys in the band. If it’s just a guy you hired for the tour, you might not want to sit next to him in a van.”
Big Head Todd and the Monsters will perform at The Vogel at The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, Feb. 18 at 7:30 p.m. (visit ticketmaster.com); and The Shea Center for Performing Arts at William Paterson University in Wayne, Feb. 20 at 8 p.m. (visit wpunj.edu/wppresents).
For more on the band, visit bigheadtodd.com.
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