Interviewing a band a day isn’t easy. It can be cool, it can be infuriating, it can seem like a thankless, never-ending task, but ultimately it can be a lot of fun.

One artist who was bound to understand the ramifications of DP’s latest escapade is Icelandic experimental rocker Mugison. Mugison, a name taken from the Icelandic naming convention ‘for the surname of someone who is the son of Muggi’, hails from a musical family. His father is a travelling Karaoke singer and co-promoter, along with Mugison, of the Aldrei fór ég sudur festival (Never went South) held annually in his native Iceland.

Mugison understands what we’re going through because for the past three or so months he has been performing a gig a day all over Europe in preparation for the release of his Mugiboogie long-player. Mugiboogie will be Mugisons fourth album release and carries on the Mugsion tradition of radical changes in direction with each release.

Sticking with his guitarist/drummer ensemble for the third time, Mugison is currently in London for a day before heading off to Germany. We meet up with the one-time fisherman somewhere in the depths of boreditch over a coffee and cigarette to talk music awards, intense touring and why there is always hope.

Chillin' out, maxin, relaxin all cool and shooting some b-ball outside of a school...

DP: So you've been doing a gig a day since April?

M: Well we have had two weeks off in that time.

DP: How much longer are you going to keep this up for?

M: We have ten more gigs to go. Hopefully we'll make it. It is pretty intense but also a lot of fun. I'm definitely glad we've done it this way.

DP: Where have you been this week?

M: We were in Germany yesterday. Now we're doing lots of towns around England, London later and Birmingham tommorow. We're doing the whole of the UK and Ireland. I got into a lot of trouble about making that mistake.

DP: What?

M: We put Dublin down as part of the UK part of the tour and got lots of angry complaining letters and calls saying that Dublin is not part of the UK. It's crazy really.

DP: So the new album, your thirds, is about to drop pretty soon in the UK. How you feeling about that?

M: It's done pretty well in Europe. It's being released in the US also. So we'll be touring over there. It also came out in Japan, which was an amazing tour by the way.

DP: Are the covers really made out of old Bibles?

M: Yes.

DP: Do you think the sky-god (whatever his name may be) will see that as a good or bad thing though? I mean that guys's pretty unpredictable at the best of times.

M: I'm sure I will be fine. I haven't been 'smote' (smote?) yet so I'm guessing he's cool with it.

DP: I can imagine touring Japan would be pretty amazing.

M: It's really great. It's an amazing culture. Everybody should play Japan at some point, a really, really unique place.

DP: It's the hope issue. What does hope mean to you?

M: I'm a great believer in hope, fate and happy accidents. It's funny how life works out like that. You could accidentaly turn left instead of right and end up bumping into your future wife or best friend. The guitarist in my band came to see me play in Iceland. They wouldn't let him in and he stood by the window watching the gig from there. I saw him standing there the whole time and recognised his face as I was walking around a few days later. We got talking and he became the guitarist for the band. He's also one of my best friends, a genius player and a great guy. It's amazing how things can turn out you know.

You can check Mugisons Myspace here for details of his i.n.s.a.n.e tour and for any news of new material if he survives it. Good luck Mugison! You can check his last fm here.

25% EXTRA FREE! ALBUM REVIEW!

BY JAY SHERMAN

"Despite more big changes to his sound since Mugimama, Mugiboogie still manages to spend the majority of its running time rarely straying from the Blues-rock territory Mugison clearly finds himself most comfortable in. With flashes of the Electroclash influence so prevalent on previous outings, Mugiboogie is a very listenable record.

With this outing Mugison delves deeper into his acoustic side, tracks such as Deep Breathing and My love I Love are lush, gentle soundscapes featuring some impressive guitar skills and mildy-touching, though not quite epic lyricism."