Can Eating a Bat be Good for a Music Career?
By Carole Snow

While MTV's, The Osbournes, has allowed the Prince of Darkness to say he is sick of his bat-biting alter ego, Big Head Todd and the Monsters' front man Todd Mohr, says that's just what his band is missing.

"That's our problem," he says, "we don't have anything, really. We need a handle — like eating a bat." Drummer Brian Nevin chimes in, "We've been searching for the right gimmick for 15 years."

But what BHTM lacks in gimmicks and animal associations, they make up for in quiet, understated success.

The three Boulder-based band members, who also include bassist Rob Squires, formed in 1986, and have since taken their low-key persona into an uptight and risky business.

Sister Sweetly, BHTM's 1993 release, was the band's first album to receive recognition on the charts. The early 90s presented the perfect time for the Boulder boys to get noticed and Sister Sweetly went gold.

The trio trekked into the music business together as three basement jamming Columbine High School friends looking for a hobby. Mohr , now a tech junky with numerous guitars and even a Macintosh laptop on stage, started off like most: simply.

"I had your basic music store setup," he says. "I did have guitar lessons in high school, for maybe 6 months." Squires laughs about learning from the Mel Bay books and recalls picking through three-chord songs like "Hot Crossed Buns" and "Yankee Doodle."

Practicing in Nevin's Boulder basement, the band members" mothers were happy their boys weren't out on the street.

But what started out as one mom letting them practice at the house and another mom giving half-hearted support grew into the realization that the boys were actually headed somewhere.

Mohr laughs about the idea of his mom's initial concerns, "After we were on MTV, we came to legitimacy in our mothers' eyes," he says. "Now they support us whole-heartedly. And they like the free tickets."

Recently touring in support of their newest release, Riviera, BHTM crowded in the dressing room of Omaha's Music Box, feet on the coffee table, T-shirt clad and tired. Their road manager hovers in the background as Mohr peels a banana, obviously uninterested in the elaborate fruit spread left on the table.

"I guess the weirdest thing we asked for on our rider would be brown bananas,"Mohr says of the cornucopia. "Oh yeah and salsa."

Squires is perched on a brown leather couch, sitting on one of his feet. He picks up the salsa and shakes the jar around.

"Didn't we used to ask for like a picture of Elvis Presley or something?"

Nevin shakes his head, "No, it's a picture of the Three Stooges." The easy banter is indicative of the brotherhood the band members share. They finish sentences and answer each other's questions.

The three attended college together, living in the same house, with Squires studying marketing, Nevin taking on a double major in music and business and Mohr planning on a career teaching English or history.

Squires was the only one of the three to graduate, but, "we graduated ourselves," says Nevin, looking over at Mohr.

By that time, the trio was traveling head on into the music industry, striking up contacts and filling their calendars with local and regional tours. The saying "ignorance is bliss" probably originated from just starting out garage bands, as BHTM can vouch for the fact they had far less problems as college kids running amuck.

Nevin points to BHTM's tour manager, Matt Need, as he whisks in and out of the small dressing room between the main stage and tour bus,

"I think our biggest pet peeve of this business is Matt," the guys laugh, "I don't think we had as many pet peeves starting out. It's just a nasty business."

Striking even more fear into the band members than the industry, are scary fans. "Some people just don't have a good sense of boundaries," says Nevin.

Mohr reaffirms this.

"Yes, it can be a little flattering, but sometimes It's really scary."

The band won't divulge any details, but they all agreed that the show the night before in Columbia, MO put scary fans a notch above the rest,

"It was just weird," they all give a knowing nod and pass a bag of potato chips around the room. Apparently nothing more needs to be said.

Despite the misfortune of industry red tape and Missourians who give Mohr nightmares after the show, BHTM has had their fair share of good things. Sometimes, Lady Luck has manifested herself in the form of Warner Brothers Distributors and even a former Colorado Avalanche player.

Being a couple of average guys with mad ,"I-taught-myself "music skills, BHTM went through the same signing struggle most garage (or in their case, basement) bands go through: they started their own label just in case no one recognized them.

BHTM birthed Big Records in 1989, releasing Another Mayberry and Midnight Radio.

Big Records has been revived for the release of Riviera, thanks to the help of Shon Podein. Podein, formerly of the Avalanche, provided publicity and, more importantly, funds for BHTM's current project.

Owning a label leaves room for creative freedom, which pleases the band.

"We can do absolutely anything we want," Nevin says.

Of course the downside to this, usually, is finding a distributor.

"We're lucky," Mohr says. "Warner Brothers distributes our stuff. Not many bands get that kind of exposure."

As for the signing of any other bands to the Big label, Squires says they are giving "One-hundred percent effort to Big Head Todd."

Luck and exposure adds up to one thing: relentless touring.

BHTM won't give life on the road a rest. Even before their relationships with larger

labels, they toured all over the West building a large, loyal group of fans. Ten years later, they're still packing out the clubs and living off of salsa and brown bananas for weeks at a time.

But in Omaha, the band is tired and close to their Colorado home base. But not close enough.

"Well It's Omaha, we'll just say that," said Mohr, reminding everyone of the rival between the University of Colorado and the University of Nebraska football teams.

BHTM has given up catching the new Star Wars flick and following The Osbournes (they've never heard of it) for a life on the road.

But what they miss out on films and reality TV, they make up for in a hard-nosed music industry and a real world of their own.

www.bigheadtodd.com

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