Bob Mould


Robert Arthur Mould is an American musician, principally known for his work as guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for alternative rock bands Hüsker Dü in the 1980s and Sugar in the 1990s.

Early years

Mould was born on October 16, 1960, in Malone, New York. He first started playing guitar in 1976 after being inspired by the Ramones. He said he "figured that if they could do it, anybody could." Mould lived in several places, including the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, where he attended Macalester College in Saint Paul. At Macalester, he formed Hüsker Dü in the late 1970s with drummer/singer Grant Hart and bass guitarist Greg Norton. Mould and Hart were the principal songwriters for Hüsker Dü.

Musical career

Hüsker Dü

Forming in 1979, Hüsker Dü first gained notice as a punk rock group with a series of recordings on the independent label SST Records. In 1986, they signed with a major record label, but found only modest commercial success. However, they were later often cited as one of the key influences on 1990s alternative rock, including bands such as Foo Fighters and Pixies.
In the late 1980s, Hüsker Dü broke up acrimoniously amid members' drug abuse, personal problems, disputes over songwriting credits, musical direction, and the suicide of the band's manager, David Savoy. Mould and Hart played together only once after the breakup for two songs at a 2004 benefit concert for an ailing friend, the late Karl Mueller of Soul Asylum.

First solo period (1988–1991)

Just before Hüsker Dü broke up, Mould moved to a remote farmhouse in Pine City, Minnesota, having quit drinking and drugs, and wrote the songs that would make up his first solo album. Released by the newly formed Virgin Records America label, 1989's Workbook eschewed Mould's trademark wall-of-noise guitar for a lighter tone. Drummer Anton Fier and bassist Tony Maimone served as Mould's rhythm section. The album peaked at number 127 on the Billboard 200 chart, and the single "See a Little Light" reached number 4 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.
His 1990 album Black Sheets of Rain had a much heavier guitar sound, recalling Hüsker Dü's louder, angrier moments. According to the liner notes for the 2012 re-release of Sugar's Copper Blue, Creation Records president Alan McGee verified that total album sales were 7,000 copies. Still, the album peaked at number 123 on the Billboard 200 chart, and the single "It's Too Late" reached number 10 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.
Mould also co-founded a record label, Singles Only Label, with Coyote Records label founder Steve Fallon. The label released singles from bands such as Daniel Johnston, Grant Lee Buffalo, Moby, Mojo Nixon, Morphine, Nikki Sudden, and R. Stevie Moore from 1989 to 1994.

Sugar (1992–1995)

Mould then formed the group Sugar, with bassist David Barbe and drummer Malcolm Travis. Along with extensive touring, Sugar released two albums, an EP and a B-sides collection before breaking up in early 1995. Copper Blue was named as NMEs 1992 Album of the Year, and was Mould's most successful commercial album, selling nearly 300,000 copies.
While in the band Sugar, in 1993 he contributed the track "Can't Fight It" as a solo artist to the AIDS Benefit Album No Alternative produced by the Red Hot Organization. In 1994, he recorded "Turning of the Tide" for Beat The Retreat, a tribute album to the English guitarist and songwriter Richard Thompson.

Second solo period (1996–present)

In 1996, Mould returned to solo recording, releasing a self-titled album in 1996 on Rykodisc, often referred to as Hubcap because of the cover photo. Mould played all of the instruments himself, and programmed the drums instead of using a real drummer. The album peaked at number 101 on the Billboard 200 chart, and number 1 on the Heatseekers chart.
In 1998, Mould released The Last Dog and Pony Show, his final album on Rykodisc. The album was named as such because Mould decided that the tour that followed would be his "last electric band tour".
After the tour, Mould took a break from the music world to get involved with another passion of his, professional wrestling, when he joined WCW as a scriptwriter in 1999 for a brief period. Creative differences with some of the other writers led to Mould's leaving the company and returning to music. The liner notes for the 2002 album Modulate thank some of the wrestlers he associated with, most notably Kevin Nash and Kevin Sullivan.
During a stint living in New York City in the late-1990s, as he more fully embraced his identity as a gay man, Mould's tastes took a detour into dance music and electronica. Those influences were clear on his 2002 release Modulate, which featured a strong electronica influence to mixed critical reviews and poor fan reaction. One song, "The Receipt", was fairly straightforward, according to City Pages: it "can be taken as a barely veiled attack on Mould's old Husker Dü-mate Grant Hart." In further pursuit of this sound, Mould also began recording under the pseudonym LoudBomb, releasing one CD so far under this name.
His next solo album, Body of Song, had been originally scheduled to closely follow the release of 2002's Modulate. Instead, Mould worked on the album for the next three years, resulting in a 2005 release. By this time, he had changed his mind on touring with a band, and announced his first band tour since 1998. The tour lineup included bassist Jason Narducy, drummer Brendan Canty, and Mould's Blowoff collaborator, Morel, on keyboards.
In addition to his solo work, Mould also worked as a live DJ in collaboration with Washington DC-area dance music artist Richard Morel, under the collective banner Blowoff. They frequently staged at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. A Blowoff CD was released in September 2006, consisting of songs recorded together by the two. Mould has also done remixes for a variety of dance and alternative rock artists, including a remix of the Interpol song "Length of Love".
District Line was released February 5, 2008. A little over a year later, on April 7, 2009, Mould released his next album entitled Life and Times in the midst of researching his life for an autobiography.
Mould ultimately wrote that memoir with Michael Azerrad, the author of Our Band Could Be Your Life and Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana. The book, See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody, was published in June 2011.
On August 6, 2012, Mould released the first single from his first album on Merge Records, Silver Age, on September 4, 2012. It peaked at No. 52 on the Billboard 200 album chart, No. 12 on the Alternative Albums chart, and No. 3 on the Tastemaker Albums chart. In 2014 Mould released Beauty & Ruin and in March 2016, his album Patch the Sky was released.
On October 25, 2018, Mould shared a new song, "Sunshine Rock" from his new album of the same name, arriving February 8, 2019, via Merge Records
On June 3, 2020, Mould released a new song "American Crisis" the lead single from his album Blue Hearts, released on September 25.
On January 8, 2025, he announced a new album, Here We Go Crazy, coming out on March 7, and released the title track as its first single. He will be touring throughout the United States in support of the album.
In October 2025, Mould stated he would be reforming Sugar with Barbe and Travis with plans to gig in London and New York in May 2026.

Instruments

As a member of Hüsker Dü, Mould was known for playing Flying V–style guitars, mainly an Ibanez Rocket Roll Jr.
In 1988, Mould bought a blue Fender American Standard Stratocaster off the rack after playing it "for about 15 seconds, unplugged". The Stratocaster has been his electric guitar of choice since the breakup of Hüsker Dü around that time. His favored acoustic guitar is a 12-string Yamaha APX.

Collaborations

Mould has made various guest appearances throughout his career. In 1984, Mould played piano on Ground Zero's album Ground Zero. In 1991, Mould sang and played guitar on the Golden Palominos album Drunk with Passion on the song "Dying from the Inside Out". In 1992, he contributed vocals to the song "Dio" on the Throwing Muses album Red Heaven. Mould performed the guitars for the soundtrack for the film version of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, released in 1999. In 2000, Mould sang "He Didn't" on the 6ths' album Hyacinths and Thistles. He also contributed vocals to the 2009 Fucked Up cover of "Do They Know It's Christmas?"
In 2011, Mould performed on the Foo Fighters album Wasting Light, contributing guitar and vocals to the track "Dear Rosemary". He made sporadic appearances with the band during their Wasting Light tour to perform the song on stage, including on the Conan O'Brien show. In December 2017, Mould opened for the Foo Fighters in four states during their Concrete and Gold tour.

Granary Music

Granary Music is the independent record label and publishing company operated by Mould. As a record label, its only artists are Mould himself, his former band Sugar, and his electronic dance music side project Loudbomb. Under the Granary name, Mould controls the master rights to the entire Sugar discography, and all of the solo work he has recorded since Sugar's breakup in 1995. Most of these masters have been leased through Granary to other labels, including Rykodisc and Yep Roc; however, Mould released his 2002 solo album Modulate and the Loudbomb CD directly through Granary. Granary also controls the publishing rights to all of Mould's compositions, including all of the songs he wrote and performed with Hüsker Dü, which he claimed after the band's own publishing partnership was disbanded in 1988.
Granary is also the name used to refer to Mould's home studio, first used in NYC for parts of The Last Dog and Pony Show and for Modulate. When he moved to Washington, D.C., Mould moved the studio and label along with him and recorded most of the basics for his 2005 Body of Song there.