Mark Mothersbaugh, co-founder of Devo, headshot
Mark Mothersbaugh always knew he was going to be an artist. From a young age, the co-founder of Devo found himself immersed in color, movement and sound. That obsession with art drew him toward Gerald Casale, co-founder of Devo, at Kent State University.
From Akron, Ohio to New York City, Mothersbaugh and the band never worried about public perception and judgement. They created music and videos, telling stories they felt were important and that needed attention. And that path received support from David Bowie and Neil Young, eventually leading to a Top 20 hit, “Whip It,” and national recognition. In 1989, Mothersbaugh created his own production company called “Mutato Muzika,” producing music, scores and soundtracks for film, television and video games. Some of their huge projects include Marvel Studios’ Thor: Ragnarok, A Minecraft Movie, Rugrats, and Shameless. The story and journey of Mothersbaugh and Devo are featured in the documentary, DEVO, and is nominated for Best Music Film at the 2026 Grammys. Ahead of the annual award ceremony, we spoke to Mothersbaugh about the road from northeastern Ohio to the bright lights of New York, performing in front of Mick Jagger and The Beatles, the transition into studio production, and the concept of the documentary. How a Pair of Glasses Led To Performing for The Beatles and David Bowie COLLIDER: I would love to start at the beginning of your artistic and creative journey. In the documentary you said that moment was when you first got glasses and first started seeing the world more clearly. Why was that the moment that started everything creatively and artistically for you? MARK MOTHERSBAUGH: When I got an eye test, they told me that I couldn't see the big E. You know, the big E at the top of the eye chart from, ten inches away. I couldn't see that. And so I got glasses. It was extreme myopia. I put on these glasses and I saw things in focus for the first time, which was pretty dramatic. And so when I got these glasses, it's like I remember walking out of the optometrist and I saw the sky for the first time, and I saw telephone cables. You know, I'd never seen that before. Telephone wires. I remember I was drawing a tree, and came up behind me and said, “You draw trees better than me.” And, you know, I'm like 7 or 8 or something. And I'm like, “Wow, I draw trees better than her.” That was the first nice thing she'd ever said to me, you know? And I went home that night and I dreamed I was going to be an artist. And my dad bought all these inexpensive Time-Life books that you could get for two bucks apiece or something back in the 50s. One would be Renoir. One would be Van Gogh. He bought all these art books for some reason, and I'd always look at them and was really into them. And I thought, I'm going to be in one of those books someday. My destiny was to be an artist. Related The 10 Greatest Classic Rock Debut Albums of All Time, Ranked Not bad for a bunch of newbies... Posts 1 By J.S. Gornael And all those visuals and colors and drawings led to the creation of Devo, because Devo is more of a visual band rather than just sound. I'm interested to know, what would you say the turning point in Devo’s career was? MOTHERSBAUGH: We were in Akron, Ohio, and it was an industrial city. It wasn't like being in New York or London or Los Angeles or San Francisco where you were connected to the scene. We were creating it in a hidden bubble in a basement. It allowed us to marinate and it allowed us to create something. By the time we’d finally got in a car and we drove from Akron to New York and played Max's Kansas City and CBGB, we'd already learned that architectural blueprint companies can print a black and white poster if you use a piece of Litho Film, you can make a poster image two by three feet.And you put sticky letters on to say, “Devo. CBGB. 8:00. March 12.” So when we got to New York, Blondie's putting up posters that are 8.5 bt 11 inches. They're tacking things up, saying, “we're playing here and there.” Then people would see these big posters of this band that was in a factory. When we hit New York, it changed things immediately because people came and saw our first show, and afterwards they said, “Okay, I just saw this band. You’ve got to go see them.” So, it's like instantly we turned into this phenomenon in New York right away. By the time we played our second show, it was only like two bucks apiece to come to Max's Kansas City or CBGB in those days, and the band got half of that. 150 people could squeeze into the club, which was probably about as good as you could do in those clubs, we'd make 75 bucks. But subtracted two bucks for every VIP that was there. It meant that Frank Zappa and his band, and Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and it meant The Beatles, and it meant Jack Nicholson and Dennis Hopper and people like that. And we're like, “They should have to pay. They got money.” We ended up making like 25 bucks in a night instead because 25 VIP people showed up. But that was really the point where we said we’ve got something here. Mark Mothersbaugh's Unconventional Path to the Grammys DEVO is nominated for Best Music Film at the Grammys. What is something that you hope people will learn after watching this film? MOTHERSBAUGH: It's my fault that we did a documentary. I had no intention of doing one. I didn't want to do a documentary, ever. But about 5 or 6 years ago, these guys that had worked with Devo at the very beginning, had this reel-to-reel Sony, half-inch, black and white surveillance camera. They shot the first Devo performances ever. The first time we ever went outside of our basement and played shows. I wanted to put those out. Then somehow somebody started using the word documentary. Chris Smith was interested in meeting us and talking to us about doing a doc together. He'd already done some weird projects. In fact I scored one of his projects called Tiger King. He kept an arm's-length distance from everybody in the band. That's what I think made this documentary strong. And that's what I think made it have things that people know nothing about Devo could look at it and go, “Oh, that's interesting.” Chris was very objective. He took everything in. I'm tickled that it got a nomination for a Grammy. You never know what's going to happen with these things, but it's just that, that the documentary exists. That's the important thing to me. Creating Sound for Marvel and Minecraft How did your career in DEVO help you as a film and TV composer? Subscribe to our newsletter for music-film deep dives and more Explore more inside looks at musicians-turned-composers, scoring secrets, and film soundtracks; subscribe to the newsletter for curated interviews, behind-the-scenes context, and expert perspectives that deepen your appreciation of music in media and beyond. Subscribe By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime. MOTHERSBAUGH: It got me out to California, because I had no interest or thought of being a film composer. That seemed too impossible. By being out in California, I met all these people and I interacted with people. Thor: Ragnarok — I'm interested to know what were those conversations that you had with Taika Waititi and Marvel Studios about creating a new sound and feel for Thor? MOTHERSBAUGH: Taika, he started off almost like he was making Flash Gordon, and they cut over an hour out of his film. This film allowed him to get a lot of credibility and power in Hollywood. Our conversations were that he encouraged me to take things to places that people weren't familiar with, with both the Thor world and with feature film. In the footage that they cut out, which was the most outrageous of all the footage that he shot, I have to tell you that — maybe they should do a director's cut someday and let him put all that back in. I have about 50 or 60 minutes on a collection that I ended up finally getting to put it out, and I called it Mutant Flora. It's a dozen 3-to-5 minute long pieces of music that were originally written for the film, and then they didn't go in it. So if you're ever curious what some of that music sounded like, it’s out there somewhere. A Minecraft Movie — Because you're so visual, did a movie about a video game help your process visually in creating the sound and the score for that film? MOTHERSBAUGH: I like writing music for video games. I've written music for a dozen or more, some of them really big video games. And I love it because you think about music in a whole different way. With a video game, it's like the person playing the game actually gets to experience the song, much like the composer writes it. Because you put down a main thread and a melody, and then you start adding things in and that's how you write it. With , it was a director I already respected and really wanted to work with because of his past work. And Minecraft, I liked the game. I thought it was a very smart idea. To get to be part of that, I really enjoyed that. Like Follow Followed Devo Documentary Music Release Date August 19, 2025 Runtime 94 minutes Director Chris Smith Producers Danny Gabai, Chris Holmes, Anita Greenspan Cast
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