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Mark Mothersbaugh
Mothersbaugh in concert, 2006
Background information
Birth name	Mark Allen Mothersbaugh
Born	May 18, 1950 (1950-05-18) (age 59)
Origin	Akron, Ohio, U.S.
Occupations	Musician, Singer, Composer, Painter
Instruments	Vocals, Synthesizer, Guitar, Keyboards, Minimoog, Mellotron
Years active	1972–present
Associated acts	Devo

Mark Allen Mothersbaugh (born May 18, 1950; pronounced "Muthersbaw") is an American musician, composer, singer and painter. He is the co-founder of the new wave band Devo and has been its lead singer since 1972. His other musical projects include work for television series, films, and video games.

Career

Mothersbaugh attended Kent State as an art student, where he met Devo co-founders Jerry Casale and Bob Lewis. In early 1970, Lewis and Casale formed the idea of the "devolution" of the human race; Mothersbaugh, intrigued by the concept, joined them, building upon it with elements of early poststructuralist ideas and oddball arcana, most notably unearthing the infamous Jocko-Homo Heavenbound pamphlet (the basis for the song). This culminated in 1973, when the trio started to play music as Devo.

Since Devo, Mothersbaugh developed a successful career writing musical scores for film and television. In film, Mothersbaugh has worked frequently with filmmaker Wes Anderson, and scored most of his feature films (Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou).^[1]

His music has been a staple of the children's television shows Rugrats, Beakman's World, and Clifford the Big Red Dog. He also wrote the theme song for the new Felix the Cat show for Hanna Barbera, some music for Pee-Wee's Playhouse in 1990 and the theme song for The New Super Mario World for DiC Entertainment in 1991.

Mothersbaugh and Casale have also produced much of Toni Basil's music.

Mothersbaugh is also known for his music in video games including Sony's Crash Bandicoot series, the Jak and Daxter series, and EA Games's The Sims 2. This work is often performed with Mutato Muzika, the music production company he formed with several other former members of Devo including his brother, Bob Mothersbaugh.

Mothersbaugh composed "Having Trouble Sneezing", the distinctive music heard in the award-winning "Get A Mac" commercials for Apple Inc.^[2]

Mark Mothersbaugh composed the score for the first season of the television series Big Love, which stars Bill Paxton. Mark Mothersbaugh was replaced after one season by David Byrne of Talking Heads.

He currently hosts a drawing segment on the children's television series, Yo Gabba Gabba!.

Life

Without glasses, Mothersbaugh is legally blind.^[3] At the age of seven, he was taken to the optometrist where he obtained his first pair of glasses and saw, for the first time, "smoke from chimneys and birds". After truly "experiencing" the world for the first time, Mothersbaugh started to draw, and his second grade teacher praised his work. That same night he had dreamed of being a famous artist. In addition to music, Mothersbaugh still paints – in a style influenced by surrealism and Andy Warhol. He graduated from Woodridge High School of Peninsula, Ohio.

Mothersbaugh has been married to his wife Anita since the early '90s and they have two daughters, Hope and Margaret. They all share 3 pugs.

On May 10, 2008, Mothersbaugh was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Kent State University.^[4]

Soundtracks

References

Mark Mothersbaugh at Allmusic

External links

• Video Interview with Mark
• Fecal Face Interview Jan 2008. Very in depth interview
• Video Podcast Interview by Weird America Podcast
• Interview, April 25, 2001 at liveDaily.com Retrieved September 5, 2007
• Professional Website
• "Devo Live Guide" – Comprehensive guide to Devo's live performances
• Extensive interview from 1998
• Mark Mothersbaugh at the Internet Movie Database
• Visual art website and gallery
• Home Front Invasion-Wartime Interview with Mark Mothersbaugh by Orhan Ayyüce for Archinect, Dec.2007