INTERVIEW | Band, Mission of Burma reunites.

Why would Mission of Burma reunite after nearly two decades?

Joey Ramone’s death. Michael Azerrad’s book Our Band Could Be Your Life. Seeing Wire recapture some of the energy they had more than 20 years ago. These are some of the things Mission of Burma frontman Roger Miller says contributed to the reformation of his band in 2002 after nearly 20 years apart.

“There is no answer,” he says, in a telephone interview from his home.

“We made a list of about seven to 12 things that caused it. Nothing in particular did.”

The climate may simply be right for this sort of thing.

Fellow Bostoners the Pixies reformed in 2003 and are selling out concerts in Vancouver at breakneck speed. Everyone from the Eagles to the Sex Pistols to Poison have found fans ready and willing to accept them the second (or third, or fourth) time around.

Album cover: Mission of Burma’s ONOffON, 2004.

“It seems to be a thing the musical cultural environment is causing to happen,” Miller says. “There must be a reason.” And while he implies that his reason is a relative slump in the quality of the contemporary music scene, he’s careful not to be too critical.” “You’re very influenced by your environment,” he says, “and people who have grown up in this relatively conservative cultural milieu … it can screw up a whole generation in a way.” So it’s nobody’s fault exactly, but the void is there.

“There are still good bands,” he continues, “but as far as general movements go, it’s really this watered down world that mostly imitates things rather than creates news forms. We didn’t re-form for this reason … but obviously we are filling a void, otherwise people wouldn’t be paying attention.”

People certainly are paying attention.

Burma’s new album, the aptly titled ONOffON has been garnering rave reviews. Following the success of a number of East Coast shows, the band is set to tour the West Coast – including a stop in Vancouver – before setting off for the UK this summer. For guys who never achieved significant success in their first incarnation, this must be uniquely satisfying, though Miller is charmingly self-deprecating about the current buzz. “We’re just so amazed,” he admits. And rightly so.

Let’s face it. Mission of Burma is four guys pushing 50 (and older).

They’ve got kids – teenage kids. Miller’s tinnitus forces him to take the stage wearing an industrial headset. They’re not exactly who you’d expect to capture the attention of an image-crazed youth. But their shows are selling out, and not to nostalgia-happy middle-agers, either. Miller thinks there are possibly more youth lining up to see M.O.B. than there are old-school fans.

“They remind me of myself. When I was 16 I would go to clubs and I would watch the guitar player, and I would say, ‘oh I see … that’s how you play that. It’s really quite touching.”

Even with so many young people in the audience and kids of their own to consider, Mission of Burma’s members are more interested in exerting influence than being role models. “Perhaps because we’re older … we take things a trifle bit more seriously,” Miller says, but the band focuses its influence on the political more than anything else. “No New McCarthy Era” for one thing, and Wounded World, one of the tracks on ONOffON is about the war in Iraq. “Ironically, about the war in Iraq 12 years ago” Miller laughs again, “but it works perfectly now.” Much like Mission of Burma. Resurrected, but still relevant.

Mission of Burma plays Richard’s on Richards Friday. More baby journalism music pieces by Jen Selk can be viewed here.

A version of “Mission of Burma reunites” piece was originally published in the Vancouver Sun, June 2004. See below.