Ska Boom Interviews - Dave Kirchgessner of Mustard Plug on 30 Years of Ska Punk

Welcome to Ska Boom Interviews, which is the audio companion to my book Ska Boom: An American Ska & Reggae Oral History now available from DiWulf Publishing and Amazon.   In this episode, I’m speaking with  Dave Kirchgessner, who is the lead singer of Mustard Plug.  2021 is the band’s 30th anniversary and as of this recording they have played 1,900 shows, recorded 8 albums and sold hundreds of thousands of records, becoming one of the most well-known and popular American ska punk bands.I first became aware of the band through their incredibly catchy ska punk cover of “The Freshman” by The Verve Pipe in 1997. When given an opportunity to capitalize on its growing popularity, the band decided not to do so, taking a different path than other ska bands of the era.  We discuss the decision the band made not to promote the song as well as why it's never a good idea to leave the van when on tour and any similarities between Dave's job as a singer and his other job as a real estate agent. Please note: The music clips included in this podcast fall under the “Fair Use Doctrine” as defined by Section 107 of the Copyright Act. The law allows for use of music clips for purposes of criticism, comment, and news reporting.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Om Podcasten

Ska Boom - An American Ska & Reggae Podcast is hosted by Marc Wasserman, author of Ska Boom: An American Ska & Reggae Oral History published by DiWulf Publishing. Wasserman helped to found Bigger Thomas -- the first ska band from New Jersey -- in 1988 and had a front row seat to watch the growth of American ska. Ska Boom is the audio companion to the book, which tells the origin stories of 18 American ska and reggae bands and one national tour from the early 80s through the mid 90s that helped to give birth to and define a uniquely American version of ska and reggae. The podcast explores the impact of ska and reggae on popular music and features interviews with key ska and reggae musicians, audio documentaries about the history of ska and reggae and special episodes based on news and developments in the world of ska.