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Steve Mackay interview from UK Zine Bad Acid
by Vincent Paternostro

So what attracted you to being a musician?

My Mom, Elle Vance was a professional pianobar-style entertainer, knew how to play 2000 songs and could fake it if necessary,   Mad Angus Mackay,  on my Dad's side, Queen Victoria's  bagpiper  and  much more we won't talk about now.   Was it the plastic Emenee sax when I was 6?  The Stan Getz  and Birth Of The Cool records my mom had? Was it late 50's pop radio with a tenor solo on every song? Was it my teacher Warren Faulkner, or Ed Ryder ,  who helped me learn to improvise?    what about Chaos, Inc,  our High School rock band? I loved to play all kinds of music and it was inevitable . Going to Ann Arbor sealed the deal.

So basically it was in your blood. Who where you playing with in  the Ann Arbor days?

When I first arrived there to go to College of Architecture and  Design at U of Michigan in the Fall of 1967,  my father and  stepmother requested that I wait at least a semester before I got in  a band,  but it was about 5 days before I ended up in one!  Went to the local Head Shop and was informed that Billy C. and The Sunshine  s looking for another horn player, ended up playing 5 nites a week playing the blues at Clint's Club on the one-block strip that functioned as A-squared's  nexus of the Black Community, when we played, it was cool for whitefolk to go there, is where I met Commander Cody, who was doing frat gigs with a weird circus of performers,  get back to the dorm at 2 am and ready to deal with 6 8 am studio classes; somehow I managed, I was only 18... Billy C and company were a regular part of many shows at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit .  Billy C quit the band New Year's Eve 1967 and led to the formation of The Charging Rhinoceros of Soul,  Otis Redding songs and the like, even read charts!  Opened for Creem and Mothers among others.  Had a job (Pop's old job) at Discount Records  by the campus,  quit Charging Rhinos,  and hooked up with high-school bud Marc Lampert to form Carnal Kitchen, originally just drums and sax, but it was sort of like The Pied Piper as folks that wanted to improvise to a jazz/rock beat kept showing up, nobody else seemed to be doing that, and we ended up playing in the Parks with the MC5 ,  Parliament/Funkadelic, etc. on Acid-drenched Sunday afternoons summer of '69,  saw the early Stooges and became friends with Jim, aka Iggy. He was in the front row at CK's first high profile show, I was impressed!  A few months later he asked me to come over to Stooge Manor,  he already had the song "Funhouse" waiting for me,  did a few local gigs with them and was then informed by crew-members that I was going to LA with them to record!  The rest is History,  but by October everything was going to smack-hell  and I was gratefully fired.  Got my job back at  the record store,  but CK pals said I had to learn a bunch of (charted)  Jazz Standards,  took a while, but I did!   We broke up after local successes and then I fell in with Mojo Boogie Band,  Jim Tate and Bill Lynn,  and we had a regular tuesday nite gig at Flick's Bar, where we jammed with Bob Seger (he wanted to sign us but we wouldn't fire our drummer...  this all lead to almost 5 years with them  and a lot of eating  flour chapatis with peanut butter until we became a regional force to be reckoned with.  Finally the breakup of my Relationship and disagreement about the direction of the band led me to relocate to the Bay Area , where I knew the guys from Commander were ...  a wise choice as it turned out,  as I ended up with Bill Kirchen's Moonlighters, playing Country and Western Swing, a unique gig for a saxman!   Soon thereafter we were back with Cody, and more Carnal Kitchen in the Bay Area.

So by this time in the early '70's you've already acquired a resume longer then most. Commander Cody took you a lot to New Jersey where the band had a good size following.  What albums did you do with Cody and how did this lead you to play with the Violent Femmes?

Cody and I co-produced "Lose It Tonight" (1980?) on Line Records, Germany and yellow vinyl USA product of same name on Peter Pan Records (kid's label out of NJ)  .In 2000, Q records (USA)  put out "Commander Cody Live at Gilley's" on CD, where I sing 2 of my songs, "Go To Hell" and "Goin' To New Jersey" (from 1982?)   CD of the first record also exists, I have a copy somewhere...Got burned out from touring, Quit touring and got a job pumping sludge at SF sewer plant  but also hooked up with Snakefinger's "History of the Blues"  as well as his " Men in Blue" and"Disco Jocks"   as well as also playing with "Mitch Woods and the Rocket 88's"  ( '40's-50'sjump boogie)  and the wonderful "Ibbily Bibbily Experimental Pinhead Band".  Was actually making a living playing music in SF!  It was during this time, Spring of '83, that I got a call from Gordon Gano of the Violent Femmes, he had gotten my number from a friend of mine in Wisconsin,  went right to the sound-check at the legendary I-Beam and it was love at first note!  Come November of '83, went to Europe with Snakefinger for a tour (recorded live shows for History of the Blues,  on Rough Trade Deutschland), then stayed on in Amsterdam  for a few months, playing all over the Netherlands with "The Rex Reason Blues Band" ( and old friend from U of Michigan days with a Dutch backup band, also had them back me up as"Steve Mackay's Carnal Kitchen" for a few shows... Was in contact with The Femmes, they wanted me to come to NYC to record on "Hallowed Ground" but that didn't work out , they got John Zorn instead, but when they came to Europe I did a few shows with them in Holland and Belgium. They got word that a backup musician had to cancel on them for their upcoming USA  tour so they invited me along, a lucky break as I had worn out my welcome with my Dutch hosts! Toured the states and Europe with them as a full-time member until December '84 when I burned out again and went back to SF. Ended up in a Relationship with someone who didn't want me touring, became an electrician for 15 years but still would sit in with the Femmes when they came to town and a few West coast tours with them as well,  as well as a few years playing Norcal with another version of Carnal Kitchen. In 1998 got in a much better and  supportive relationship that continues to this day! Femmes kept using me on the West Coast and even took me to South Africa, what a trip...sorry they had to break up, but I understand.

During that 15 year hiatus as an electrician you met and played with Marlon and Grady from Liquorball and subsequently got connected with Temple of Bon Matin and the Radon Collective. This has all led to collaborations with experimental musicians from Zu in Italy to recording with Grails, and Koonda Holaa; as well as bands in Turkey and across Europe and the US. How have these collabs effected you  as an artist? Do you still see a common linkbetween the underground today and from the experimental days of the
'60's and '70's?

Absolutely! A lot like the stuff we were doing with the first Carnal Kitchen ( "Death City" on Radon from '69) Noise with a beat and references to Jazz and Rock that those hippies (like us!) loved to trance and dance to in the park in Sundays and at all those rallies to Free John (Sinclair) Now!  I feel were were an influence and delighted to see where it is going as well as so happy to be involved with all of  this new generation. Must also say that Iggy is a big fan of "Michigan and Arcturus" , which includes many of the folks you mentioned in your question.

It must feel ironic that the smallest part of your career was the few songs you played on "Funhouse", yet that's what your most noted for. Suddenly, you guys have a huge audience. How does it feel to be working with them again after so long? For years I would mention Funhouse, etc in my homemade press releases but It hardly mattered. It wasn't until the late 90's that younger folks started introducing themselves to me as great Fans, and this also manifested itself with  Ron and Scott as Jay Mascis went on tour with a Stooges tribute. I sat in with them, and Watt, in SF in 2001 (?). Pop got wind of all this and figured it was time to Put The Band Back Together, something he had resisted for years; Skull Rings also gave it a further push. He called me in 2003 about Coachella, first time I had talked to him in 30 years, and at that time it was a one-off that led to all of this now.We are certainly older and hopefully wiser but a lot of the good part and quirks of personality  haven't changed. I feel closer than ever to them and also am delighted to have Watt as a close friend. I treasure every show and flight and hotel because of course it won't last forever and it's great to have already gotten 5 years into, and out of , this amazing trip.I feel pretty fucking fortunate to be in this position, there are a lot of folks with a lot more talent than me who never get this far..

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"As interesting an underground career Mackay has lead, what's he's doing now with the Radon Ensemble is the most mindblowing...they exude a future blowing energy such fringe-genre music can readily use...Tripping and metascoping sax jowl action..."-from Bull Tounge by Thurston Moore and Byron Coley

"I'm so glad they brought him aboard. Steve's a great guy and 'hoots and honks' like a motherfucker!"
-Mike Watt on the Stooges reunion line-up

”There are people out there -- trust me, I'm friends with them -- who claim that "Fun House," the second album by protopunks the Stooges (Iggy Pop's first band), is the greatest album ever…One of the record's most distinctive features was the blasts of saxophone provided by Steve Mackay which helped make it more than just a garage rock record, adding to the claustrophic intensity of the music...”-The Washington Post

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Here's an interview with Steve from Mixer Magazin
 

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Steve was featured on the cover of PUNK GLOBE magazine. 
 

MACKAY!