Punk legend and former Hüsker Dü frontman Bob Mould is bringing his electric solo set to The Kate

Bob Mould hasn’t calmed down much in the 40 years since he made punk rock history with his first band Hüsker Dü, but some of his fans have settled down a bit. That makes the clean, comfy Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center in Old Saybrook a fine place for his blistering live electric solo set on Tuesday.

A solo performer for the last couple of decades, Mould also led the band Sugar and has guested on albums by Foo Fighters, Golden Palominos, Throwing Muses, The 6th and appeared on the soundtrack to the film version of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.”

“Distortion,” a 24-CD box set collecting his last 30 years of recordings, was released in 2020.

Mould’s musical output over the years has been called punk, hardcore punk, second-wave punk, post-punk, indie and alternative rock, but when asked how he likes to be described, he says without hesitation, “Pop music. A singer/songwriter/guitarist that works in popular music.”

Mould spoke with the Courant earlier this month about his influences, being an influence himself and how a kid from New York became the king of punk rock in Minneapolis.

How did you end up in Minnesota in the first place?

I was fortunate enough to receive what they called an “underprivileged” scholarship for Macalester College in St. Paul because I grew up before the poverty line. The first band I was in, Hüsker Dü, formed in the second semester of my first year in college [in the] spring of 1979. I went for the scholarship [and] stayed for the band.

The Twin Cities was a very interesting musical community at the time. I guess the short version of it is that there were a couple of different camps or styles of music: What I referred to as the North Side gang, like Prince and Terry [Lewis] and Jimmy [Jam], you know the R&B stuff, and then there were the bands who were more South Minneapolis, where the big ones would’ve been The Replacements, Soul Asylum, Hüsker Dü. The scenes came together under one roof as they progressed.

Who were you listening to growing up?

I listened to AM radio as a small child. That’s how I taught myself to play piano. I started writing songs in the late ‘60s, mostly influenced by the jukebox singles that my late father would buy for me. That would be everything from Beatles, Beach Boys, Hollies, Byrds, The Who, Mamas and the Papas, Motown, trucker songs — pretty much everything in mainstream ‘60s pop. I was lucky enough to get my musical taste upright in high school, finding out about bands like the New York Dolls and The Ramones, Television, Patti Smith, Buzzcocks, Sex Pistols, the first wave of punk in the mid-’70s, whether it was UK or U.S. punk. Those are the things that sent me on the course toward Hüsker Dü and onward from there.

Hüsker Dü's “Zen Arcade” was a concept album. Why haven’t you done more conceptual pieces like that?

Well, that would be a hard one to top. I dunno, can’t say really. Better to be one for one than one for two?

You’ve been through Connecticut many times. This one’s a sweet concert hall in Old Saybrook. Do you remember any of those older shows?

As far as Connecticut, the ones most people would remember were at Toad’s Place. That was sort of the go-to club for a lot of the ‘80s and ‘90s punk and alternative bands. The theater I’m coming to [The Kate] sounds great. At our age, when a storyteller comes to town, this is a good place to sit and listen, right?

You still play loud, though?

It’s a solo electric show, so just imagine the rhythm section not being there. Just me, the guitar, the amp and the mic, that’s it. It will be a forward show, an aggressive show. It may or may not be loud, depending on the acoustics in the room, but I guess that at this point in our lives, sitting in a theater and watching somebody go through their songbook, that sounds like a good night to me. Comfortable.

Do you do songs from your entire career?

Sure. Solo, Sugar, more solo, a good spotlight on the last decade, the five albums from Merge. I always like highlighting that pack of albums. It’s a real broad show. A lot of crowd favorites, a handful of deep cuts, a little bit of chit-chat, a poster, an album, maybe a shirt if you’re lucky.

You were out there before there was a national touring circuit for punk bands in small clubs.

The ‘80s was an interesting time. There were key figures in each city in North America, and once we all got to know each other we were essentially putting on shows for other bands from outside our town. In return, we would have a place to play in that band’s hometown. It was really organic, it was really natural, it was really necessary. Everything just fell into place through all of us helping each other out, whether it was Mike Watt [of Minutemen] or Greg Ginn [of Black Flag] or Jello Biafra [of Dead Kennedys] or D.O.A. or Naked Raygun or [Boston’s] Fort Apache scene. It was a natural network of likeminded people and we shared resources. Lo and behold, by the fall of 1991, when [Nirvana’s] “Nevermind” came out, we won!

I’ve never not been touring, except maybe 1999 through 2001. This is a continuation of a year’s worth of touring. I just finished up 13 shows on the West Coast. I’ve three weeks of East Coast stops, then a month in the UK in June, some band work in July, then September/October should be two more rounds of solo touring. I’m trying to get caught up after missing a year and a half of work.

Have you been recording?

I’ve been writing, keeping busy, but in terms of going into an actual studio with a band and making an album, no, that did not happen over the last two years. I did the songs on [the recent “Ocean” EP] in my recording studio in San Francisco and I’m really happy with how those turned out. It was nice because it reminded me of how simple the process can be. The feedback I was getting from longtime fans was, “We forgot what it sounds like when it’s just you and the guitar. It’s incredible.” It was a nice between-albums kind of recording.

Other than the couple of years I took off in the late ‘90s to do other stuff, it’s pretty much write, record, release and tour. It’s never changed.

You’re an acknowledged influence on countless bands.

Yep, it’s very humbling. When I grew up, music was all I had, all I wanted as a child. To be fortunate enough to have a really good first band like Hüsker Dü to get up on a stage and get on the road and travel with, that was amazing. After that, I guess there were many doors I could open because of that, and lots of people have heard the work over the decades and I’m always grateful when people have good things to say about the work. It’s always humbling when people cite the work as an influence on their work. It’s a great thing. It’s a by-product of me continuously working.

Where do you live now?

San Francisco’s been the home base for the last 12-and-a-half years. I spent a good chunk of time at the end of the last decade in Berlin, Germany, splitting time between San Francisco and Berlin, but the pandemic put an end to that.

There were stories about some of those years when you were having a rough time. Are you doing OK these days?

All things considered, everything is great. Life goes on. I think what you’re asking is probably in reference to the intentionally sunny “Sunshine Rock” album, which was written after two records [that] dealt with the consecutive loss of each of my parents. In light of that, yeah, I’m doing as well as I can.

Bob Mould performs Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, 300 Main St., Old Saybrook. $55. katharinehepburntheater.org.

Christopher Arnott can be reached at carnott@courant.com.