Double trouble

>> Heart to heart with
Man Man’s Honus Honus

GAY-BOURHOOD WATCH: Man Man

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

The last time we checked in with Man Man’s lead singer Honus Honus (aka Ryan Kattner), he was still reeling from the high stress of much of his band leaving, just prior to going into the studio to record their second record, Six Demon Bag. He was stuck living in his rehearsal space, with no label on the horizon. A year later, the band have finished two successful tours with Modest Mouse, by whom they were handpicked, and Man Man have just released their crowning achievement, Rabbit Habits, a disc which can finally match their incredibly intense live show. It bears the imprint of the respected, artist-friendly label Anti, home to such luminaries as Tom Waits, Neko Case and Nick Cave. Despite all of this success, though, the verbose Honus—chatting over the phone from his rehearsal space in Philadelphia, where he continues to reside—isn’t counting all his chickens just yet.

Honus Honus: So I heard the place we are playing in Montreal is in the gay-bourhood. I guess it might be because of our moustaches.

Mirror: Yeah, it’s going to be at le National, which is a pretty big place.

HH: Really? Shit, dude, we’re fucked. Maybe they should call us “Man on Man,” so we can fill it. God, now I’m getting scared no one will come out to the show.

M: Was recording Rabbit Habits any less stressful than Six Demon Bag?

HH: No—if anything, it was more stressful, because we were self-financing the record and didn’t really have a label to bail us out, so we would record a chunk when we had money and then go out on the road to generate money to finish it, and of course we all got sick the whole tour.

M: You have always been unfairly compared to Captain Beefheart. When you put “Man Man + Captain Beefheart” in your search engine, tons of articles come up. Is there anyone else you think I should mention in this article, to take the heat off the good Captain?

HH: I wouldn’t mind if something like Bobby McFerrin or maybe the Ghostbusters theme comes up when you Google our name. It’s great to be associated with such a great man as Captain Beefheart, but if anything, I just wouldn’t want his good name being dragged through the mud by being associated with our band.

M: With all of these great tours you’ve been doing, and with a solid label finally behind you, have you noticed things are getting a bit easier?

HH: Well, we just put Furbies on our rider and we actually got one recently, so that’s a good sign. I don’t know if things are starting to fall into place but so far, the label feels really E.T.-and-Elliot with the band, but the record is just coming out so I don’t want to shoot myself in the face. When you’re in a band, especially one like us, you have to expect it to be hard because like the old adage goes, if it were any easier, everybody would be doing it—and we’re not exactly one of those Gang of Four kind of bands with a wiry, handsome singer.

With Yeasayer at le National
on Sunday, April 13, 9 p.m., $17