The Doug Tuttle Interview
Born and raised in Rochester, NH, Tuttle was influenced by the likes of Billy Idol, Poison, The Ventures and Bon Jovi. Participating in many punks bands, he eventually relocated to Boston where he formed his longtime running outfit, The Mules. Tuttle has relocated records on labels such as Trouble In Mind, Burger Records, Six Tonnes De Chair Records and more. In this interview we explore Tuttle’s childhood and what influenced his youth and musically interest, pursuing music as soon as he became of age and what that journeys been like for him ever since!
Tell me about growing up in Rochester, NH. When did you first begin to fall in love with music, more specifically the guitar? Was this something that was relevant around your households growing up?
Rochester in the 80’s/90’s was an interesting place. Fairly isolated and surrounded by woods, but still very much a city. By the mid 80’s it was in a pretty serious slump as the city’s main industry -shoe shops- began to close down. Soon after most of the down town/one of it’s malls became vacant, so me and my friends as kids split our days pretty equally between running around the woods playing with fire/building forts and skateboarding in empty parking lots. The area always had the bar band thing going, which was of no interest to the kids obviously, but by the mid 90’s the area became kind of a beacon in the New England hardcore scene, which made a huge impact on me. I was born a few months before MTV first hit the air and it was on most of the day/night around the house. My mom was only 20 when I was born and my dad had been playing in cover bands since the 60’s, so I was exposed to tons of great music right off the bat, my mom was really into Led Zeppelin, Bread, Heart, my dad Roxy Music, Mott the Hoople, ZZTop.
Do you have any siblings? Who were some of your earliest influences?
I have a half sister, but we never lived together. I very much had the only child experience growing up, as did she. Really early on, like as a toddler, I was obsessed with Billy Idol. Not sure why exactly, but he was my number one for a time. A few years on the hair metal thing hit me hard, and I absolutely worshiped Bon Jovi, and Poison. But all thought out the 80’s, there were singles I’d hear on classic rock radio that would become my main interest/fascinated me the most. Turn, Turn, Turn, Spirit in the Sky, Rock On, For What It’s Worth. All these songs seemed to evoke almost an entire world within the first few notes. Those songs kind of set the groundwork for what I consider to be important music. I was also REALLY into surf music as a kid, and listened to the Ventures non stop.
When and where did you see your first concert and when did it dawn on you that you wanted to be a musician? An artist. When and where did you play your first gig and what was that experience like for you?
My folks took me along to some shows my dad was doing sound for when I was really young, but I don’t have a recollection of those. My family really didn’t get out much so I didn’t see a live band until some older kids played a school dance when I was in 6th grade. Completely blew my mind, and I actually ended up in a band with one of the members of this band (can’t recall the name) a year or so later. Most of my first experiences with live music were local bands. I think The Mighty Mighty Bosstones would have been one of the first nationally known bands I saw live, when I was 14, or so. (I saw them countless times as most folks who grew up in New England around then did) I started playing guitar at 6, or 7. I’d been begging for one for nearly long as I could talk. But it was out of the budget. My mom’s cousin and her husband bought me a 3/4 scale Harmony acoustic for Christmas one year. It took me another 6 years before I could play anything at all, but I started recording my self doing covers/a couple originals with atonal strumming right away.
My first gig was at a trailer park where the drummer of my band lived, It was part of their yearly block party, and we were opening for a band called Fancy Sick who’s drummer also lived in the park, and was my band’s drummers drum teacher. They did that funk metal thing that most local bands did around then where the verses had lots of wah pedal, and the choruses had heavy distortion. The other three guys in my band -Mellow Porgy- were 16, I was 14. Our set was three songs long, the other guitar player was supposed to sing the first original, I the second, and then I was supposed to put down my guitar and just sing on a cover of Nirvana’s “Rape Me”. I was shaking all thoughout the first song with my hat pulled nearly over my eyes. When It came time to play the second song I chickened out and we played it as an instrumental. For the Nirvana cover I went and sat on the lawn next to where we were playing and one of the other guitar player’s friends came up and sang. (He had been in the band I saw play at the 6th grade dance)
Did you participate in any groups, or projects before venturing into becoming a solo musician? 2014 through 2017 saw the release of your first three records, “Self Titled”, “It Calls On Me” and “Peace Potato.” on Trouble In Mind. Tell me about writing and recording those early works and what you wanted to express and achieve with those albums. How did the deal with those guys come about?
Quite a few over the years, I played in a bunch of punk/hardcore bands as a teen, then moved to the Boston area in 2000 when I was 19, played with lots of folks. My main band for quite a while was called The Mules. We were kind somewhere between The B52s and DNA. Like a fun party band with lots of dissonance. After that I started a band called MMOSS who was around for close to a decade. We released two LPs and a split 10” with Quilt before disbanding in 2012. Trouble in Mind had put out the last MMOSS record, and unfortunately we broke up the month it came out. They expressed interest in hearing anything else I did in the future and it just worked out. My main goal for all of my solo stuff is just to see what I can come up with completely on my own. I’d never even written a song by myself before doing this. I’ve had some confidence issues to deal with making these records, but over all I’m pretty happy with what I’ve put out.
I picked a few tracks from each album such as “Peace Potato”, “Painted Eye”, “A Place For You” and “Leave Your Body”. Would you mind giving a little back story into writing those tracks and what each of these albums mean to you?
Peace Potato:
This one was a guitar part I had written in open Dm tuning. I was originally trying to make it more of a full band sound, maybe kind of a Fairport Convention vibe, but it wasn’t working out so I just did it as a solo guitar thing. That record has lots of small bits and pieces coming and going and it seemed like a fit.
Painted Eye:
I wrote this one after returning from touring Europe for the first, -and thus far only- time. When I wrote it I remember feeling it was the best song I had ever written, and I think a bit of that made its way into the sound of it. I don’t feel so open to most of what I write, and woking on this was a really positive experience, even though the subject matter deals largely with my own neurosis/irritability
A Place For You:
On this one I was trying to capture some of the feeling I get from this song called Mourning Electra by the band Orphan Egg. To me it has this really unsettling but completely abstracted storyline, where you can’t quite figure out what it’s about, but your gut tells you something’s very wrong. I’m pretty happy with how this one came out, and the lyrics are some of my favorites that Ive written.
Leave Your Body:
I was in a weirdly open/creative zone working on my first record, realizing I had no restrictions/nothing to loose. I was just into everything I came up with in a way I’m usually not. That whole record I just kinda said fuck it, and made everything as over the top blown out and tasteless as I could. There are two tracks of drums of this one, with really loud bass and organ and fairly minimal guitar. This one’s always fun to play live.
2018 saw the release of your split with Matt Lajoie on Burger Records. I'm curious to know how you guys approached this album and what the experience was like working alongside someone?
I’ve always loved Matt’s music/playing, and I got to play with him a bit a few years earlier when I recorded Herbcraft’s The Astral Body Electric. I think I asked him at a show if he wanted to do an improvised guitar duo record and he was game. He drove down from Maine to my apartment in Somerville MA one day and we set up our amps on either side of the room facing the wall and just went for it. I think we ended up using everything we recorded. He was at my place for maybe 2-3 hours and that was that. I sent a few different mixes to him till it seemed right and he did the art work. I hope to work with him again in the future, he’s an endlessly creative musician.
That following year you released an LP with BR entitled “Dream Road.” How did you want to go about bringing this album of songs to life? What have been some of your favorite projects to work on and why?
The process on this one was pretty similar to how I normally work. I’ll come up with a chord progression and a melody and just play it over and over making notes/recordings until all the pieces fall into place. Writing a song for me is more of a battle with staying interested in the music I’m working with than anything. If I can keep myself into it over the month, or two it takes to finish, it’ll get finished, if not it gets set aside. Right before the pandemic I was playing bass in Mayo Thompson’s live band performing his Corky’s Debt to His Father Record. That was really a dream come true, just an amazing group of people to play with, and one of my all time favorite records -certainly my favorite record for bass parts/sound too-. I always loved playing in MMOSS when we had it together. The lineup with myself, Rachel Neveu, Justin DeArmitt, and Aaron Neveu is just about the most perfect situation musically I’ve ever been in. We were just all way too unorganized, -and possibly chaotic- people for that to last though.
Are you currently working on any new material/projects/gigs for Spring and Summer? Is there anything else you would like to further share with readers?
I have a new record called Keeping Alive coming out April 28th. There will be a limited run 12” available from Echodelick Records, and it’ll be streaming all around. Hope to get started on another new one soon, just waiting for a spark.
