Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo)

Honoured to be joined by a true music legend on podcast this week. Mark Mothersbaugh, Devo frontman, artist and film composer.

Mark discusses his beautifully designed mail-art book. ‘Apotropaic Beatnik Graffiti’, which features Mark’s wonderful drawings on small postcards.  

Mail art, also known as postal art and correspondence art, is an artistic movement centred on sending small-scale works through the postal service. This lifelong passion of Mark’s started back in 1969 and he now has over 700 red books of mail-art in his archives, including postcards from legendary artist, Andy Warhol. This book represents just 5 of those books from the collection.

We also talk about 50 years of Devo and the story behind the look and visual aesthetic of the band. It’s safe to say that band’s visual style is as iconic as their music. There is no one else quite like them!  

They are arguably one of the most influential bands of all-time and new documentary about the group premiered at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. The film, which has had the odd screening in the UK, was directed by Chris Smith, who also made ‘Jim and Andy’, a wonderful film about Andy Kaufman and the making of Man On The Moon.