Bob Mould

Robert Arthur “Bob” Mould (born October 16, 1960) is an American musician, principally known for his work as guitarist, vocalist and songwriter for alternative rock bands Hüsker Dü in the 1980s and Sugar in the 1990s. Mould has put out equally iconic solo work between and after the bands and has worked also as producer for other artists.

In college, Mould formed the band Hüsker Dü, a punk band that would transition into a major label alt rock group. After six years, tensions led to a 1988 breakup. Mould got sober and launched his solo career with 1989’s Workbook, featuring the top 5 Alternative Rock single “See A Little Light”, and 1990’s Black Sheets Of Rain, featuring the top 10 Alt single “It’s Too Late”.

Mould formed Sugar in 1992 and the band released three albums over three years, scoring two top 20 Alt Songs with “Helpless” and “Your Favorite Thing”. During this time, Spin Magazine revealed Mould was gay against his will. After disbanding Sugar, he released two more solo albums in the late 90s before taking a short break from music as a scriptwriter for WCW Wrestling.

Mould’s return to music in the early 2000s began with the electronica-rock-influenced Modulate, described as “a rock record with electronic effects”, followed by an electronic dance release under the name Loudbomb. Both would be his first two solo releases to not chart on the Billboard Albums Chart. During this time, Mould began a monthly gay dance event called Blowoff with DJ Richard Morel that would last 11 years.

Since 2005, Mould has released a string of successful solo albums that aligned sonically more with his 80s and 90s work, described by reviewers with statements like “a nice melodic stamp on the musical world and holds up continuous quality for alternative rock” and “manages to hit all the right rock touchstones”. In 2011, Mould released his autobiography See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody.

After living in Germany for three years, he returned to the US in late 2019 and was outraged at how divided Americans had become in that time and also at the US government’s mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic. These issues became the inspiration behind the songs of his latest album Blue Hearts.