GLU is the solo project of Michael Shuman, and today sees the release of his debut EP MY DEMONS. Despite being around in music for decades now, having been a mainstay in bands such as Mini Mansions and Queens of the Stone Age, this is his first foray into solo territory.
In this interview we discuss the inspiration for GLU, its song topics, the collaboration with Phantogram on the title track, and even Mikey’s favourite fruit! Huge thanks to Mikey for taking the time to answer these questions. As a huge fan of QOTSA, this was a pretty cool moment for me.
MY DEMONS is out now.
Hi Mikey, how’s it going? Good good, how are you? Yeah, not too bad thank you. Sweet.
Talking about your solo project, GLU. Your newest single, ‘MY DEMONS’, was released earlier this month. Phantogram features on it – how did that collaboration come to be? Sarah’s been a friend for a while, and I’d been hounding her to do some stuff together. Once I had a good grasp of the tunes – MY DEMONS was the first song I did for GLU – and the vibe of the project, eventually I asked her. I said “Dya wanna sing on the song?”. She loved it. I have a studio at home, and she doesn’t live too far away, so she popped over, and that was it.
It was a pleasure to have a “real singer” who can do anything. It’s amazing to see, especially when you don’t see it all the time, being in the rock world sometimes. I mean, she is in the rock world in a way, but unless you’re Freddie Mercury, there’s not many amazing singers around. So, you see her and go “Holy shit! She can do anything!”. I felt really lucky to have her on the track, and it makes me look a lot better.
I feel like you’re downplaying yourself a bit there! No, but it’s true though. Like those singing competitions – whether you like it not, they’re cheesy as fuck – you’re still like “these people can sing! They’re really good” and that’s how I felt about Sarah.
‘MY DEMONS’ is also the name of the EP. I’ve had a listen and it’s very good (thank you). It feels like a project that leaves it out all there. ‘NIGHT SHIFT’ talks about your vices and being left alone. I wanted to ask if you enjoy the solitude and being so open with everything?
It’s funny when you say it out loud, as it’s hard to talk about. I guess that’s why I put it in a song. Talking about my vices and shit that’s going on…you seem like a great guy, but I don’t know you, right? You’re not my therapist, so talking about it is hard to do.
But that’s why I put it in the music because I’m at the age and stage of life where musically, I don’t give a fuck about hiding anything, and being the most ME as possible. I’m confident in myself, which I put down to age, and I wanted that to come across. For being out in the world most of the time, I’m a pretty introverted guy, so the solitude I enjoy. It gives me more time to be one with my thoughts and do whatever the fuck I wanna do.
What’s it like being front and centre on stage? There was three of you in Mini Mansions, Queens had five. If I actually think about it, it’s a lot of pressure. You’re only looking at me, so if I fuck up it’s like, you know who did it! But I’m really enjoying it. I’m strapped to the mic, which I’ve never done before. Starting as a bass player, I could really move around a lot, so now I’m strapped to the mic which is a cool thing.
I’m a big rehearsal guy. I like to rehearse which some people don’t appreciate. But it’s like Black Flag. They’d rehearse eight hours a day, five days a week. They were like “We wanna be the fucking best!” and that’s how I look at it too. You’re going out to the world to present what you’ve worked on, so you’ve got to put in the time and be the best. I get to rehearse as much as I want to, which makes me appreciate that side of being alone.
Travelling alone is a little funny. It’s just me in a car with podcasts. I’ve never done that before, so that was interesting. What podcasts did you listen to? I’m a big Smartless guy, so that, Armchair Expert and on tour I listened to Dr. Death. Have you heard of that? It’s bananas. About this surgeon who intentionally fucked people up. If you want some dark shit, check that out.
I wanted to talk about the sound of GLU. Was it one you had in mind prior to heading into the studio? There are elements of Mini Mansions’ ‘playful spookiness’ in there, but I feel like you played around with the formulas a bit, especially in the vocals?
I think you’re right. I didn’t really have a sound in mind, but I knew I wanted to try something completely different from me. Something that was a challenge, and that was in the Hip-Hop world. Towards the end of Mini Mansions, we toured a lot and got a drummer, so I wasn’t playing drums anymore. We had a song called ‘Vertigo’ where Alex Turner sings the second part, and I had to do that part. It’s in a different flow, and I did my interpretation of that and was like “I love Hip-Hop. Let’s see if I can do something like that”.
What’s funny is I saw an ex-girlfriend at a wedding and she was like “I really love what you’re doing. I always thought you had this gangster thing, and thought you were gonna do something like this”. I was like “really?”. It’s just weird that someone saw that so long ago, so maybe that was always in me. It also just feels natural now. Once you figure out the vocal delivery and the flow, you can do a million different things.
But musically, you can’t get rid of who you are and what you’ve worked on your whole life, so of course there’s gonna be things from Mini Mansions or Queens, so that stuff never truly goes away. “Playful spookiness” – I like that.
So with the EP out and Queens announcing a few festival dates, it seems like this year’s gonna be a busy one for you? Yeah, all of a sudden it got real busy. It’s gonna be packed. What I like to do is have zero free time and pack in as much touring and cool shit as possible as I have no life. I did that with Mini Mansions and Queens, and I’m gonna do that with GLU and Queens. Obviously, Queens is my band and I give everything to it, but GLU is something I really, really want to take as far as I can, so I’ve gotta put in the work.
What we do on the blog is ask people what their favourite fruits are, so Mikey Shoes, what’s your favourite fruit? My favourite fruit? I guess Bananas. Can’t go wrong. I eat two bananas before every show. I learned that from Matt Pike from High on Fire. He’s a fucking madman. I love him but…we’re not the same person. I remember he came backstage after a show in Oakland and he was like “You gonna have these bananas? I eat two so you don’t cramp up!” I’ve had cramp problems before so I was like “Oh shit!” So I do them now. Do you do them back to back? Yeah. Awesome. Just down the hatch.
Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions Mikey. Much appreciated. Thanks man. Nice to meet you.