Question 1:

Q 1. What’s the origins of Massive Attack?

Massive Attack in its earliest incarnation formed in 1987 from the ashes of The Wild Bunch (named after the Sam Peckinpah Western), who had been a popular soundsystem playing shows/parties in and around the Bristol area (and some even further afield, most notably Japan) and which combined together some of the best elements of hip-hop culture such as ‘DJ-ing’,'MC-ing’ and graffiti artistry and repackaged it all into a wholly British alternative to the similar soundsystems coming out of the East Coast of the US at the time in the early 1980’s. Their most famous hangout and venue of most of their hometown Bristol shows was a club named the “Dug-Out”. It would be here that the future members of Massive Attack would meet each other.
With two of its lynchpin members, DJ Milo (Miles Johnson) and Nellee Hooper beginning to lose interest, The Wild Bunch would disband in 1986, leaving two of its other members 3D (the main graffiti artist of The Wild Bunch and occasional MC/rapper) and Daddy G (DJ and founding member of The Wild Bunch) to form a new soundsystem known as Massive Attack together with Mushroom, a periphery member/spectator of The Wild Bunch’s shows. Other occasional members of The Wild Bunch would join them in a few years time on Blue Lines including Tricky, Willy Wee and Shara Nelson.
The actual name, ‘Massive Attack’ was suggested by DJ Milo to Daddy G. Quote - DJ Milo on how Massive Attack got their name - “Underground Massive. I thought it was a wicked name but I wanted to turn it into an acronym sort of thing so that it would read as T.U.M.A. So I added the word ‘attack’ to make it work so it became ‘The Underground Massive Attack’. It got shortened after that.” [The Wild Bunch: Story Of A Soundsystem (Album Booklet) - October 2002]

Q 2. Why did Massive Attack temporarily shorten their name to just ‘Massive’ in 1991?

A well known fact to most Massive Attack fans is that the band temporially changed/shortened their name to just ‘Massive’ for the first half of 1991, until immediately before the release of Blue Lines. This was not the decision of the band however, but of their record label, Circa, who felt that the combination of the words ‘Massive’ and ‘Attack’ together had negative connotations in light of the Gulf War in the Middle East which was at its height at this time.
It was felt that most radio stations would refuse to play or promote Massive Attack with a name such as their’s as it instantly reminded everyone of the ongoing war. It is for this reason that every copy of Unfinished Sympathy single which was released in this time period is credited simply to ‘Massive’. The only other reminder of this, is a few rare copies of Blue Lines issued in the UK during its initial printing that bear the abbrievated name.
At the time of this, the band went along with this temporary name change without much opposition but have since regretted it, chalking it up now to being a relatively young band at the time just doing what they were told. Quote - 3D’s feelings towards the forced name change - “Yeah, we got kind of cornered by our manager, who gave a pretty compelling case, which was that people might misunderstand the name and think we were actually potential supporters of the war. And, you know, it was our first time and we sort of took the bait.” [Hari Kunzru Interview - March 2003]

Q 3. Why did Mushroom leave Massive Attack?

Before ultimately leaving Massive Attack in the Autumn of 1999, rumors had been circulating among the British music press for well over a year before about the tensions in the band following the release of Mezzanine, with many critics pinpointing the bandmembers increasing dislike for one another as evidence for the darker more bleaker sounds of the third LP in stark contrast to Massive Attack’s first two lighter albums. In retrospect, the increasing musical and personality differences between the bandmembers were the catalysts for Mushroom leaving Massive Attack. Musically speaking, Mushroom (being a hip-hop purist) did not approve of the more new wave, post punk sound of Mezzanine, which had mainly been 3D’s direction and inspiration for the record.
Things had gotten so bad during Mezzanine’s recording sessions that 3D, Daddy G and Mushroom were working in complete isolation from each other in the studio, requiring Neil Davidge as co-producer to stitch together all their indivual efforts into a cohesive whole in the end. Mushroom however, was not allowing 3D or Daddy G to interfere or touch his contributions in any way, which led to much infighting between them. Mushroom was also against Massive Attack gradually morphing into a live band (with guitarists and drummers etc…) and moving away from their soundystem roots. Mushroom regarded the touring aspect of the band as being “boring” and it did not help matters either that the Mezzanine tour of 1998 was a pretty gruelling and extensive touring schedule.
Personality wise, 3D and Daddy G were more alike and able to work together better increasingly over this period than with Mushroom. Mushroom happened to be teetotal and did’nt care much for football, which further distanced himself from his fellow bandmates. It also appears Mushroom personally resented 3D for even before Mezzanine starting to take on a more dominating role in the band as self-appointed leader in his eyes. Mushroom quietly made the decision to leave Massive Attack in early 1999, probably encouraged by the prompting of 3D, who highlighted to him that this was not working out anymore and it might be more productive for everyone involved if he would just part company for his own hypothetical solo album, leaving Massive Attack to continue as a duo.

Q 4. Whatever happened to Mushroom? Has he done anything since leaving Massive Attack?

Not an awful alot at all, unfortunately. The year following his departure from Massive Attack, Mushroom did a few high profile DJ sets around the world in some top clubs. It was also in this time that word got out that he had hooked up with DJ Milo, his old cohort from The Wild Bunch who shared with his appreciation for hip-hop that had been ignored on Mezzanine. Sometime around 2002/2003, news broke that Mushroom was working on his first solo record which had the working title of “Champagne”. Since then until the present, this was about that last we, as Massive Attack fans have heard of Mushroom, with absoulutely no word on any solo album, not even a remix or a DJ set anywhere. It is believed he spends a lot of time in the US (he was actually born in New York, before moving to Bristol as a child). It also does’nt appear that he has had much contact with his former bandmates in this time either. The split from Massive Atttack was certaily not acrimonous. Quote - 3D on the split with Mushroom - “Every time we talked it was really painful. We had so many issues within the group that nothing could be discussed. Mushroom’s always been into his funk and soul, and that’s where he wanted to go. We talked about twisting it and mixing new wave and R’n'B - which could’ve worked, in a bizarre fashion - but Mushroom didn’t want to do that. Bands outgrow each other in the same way that friends and relationships outgrow each other. You hit critical mass, I suppose.” [Jockey Slut Magazine - February 2003]
The only other time Mushroom appeared on the news radar was in Summer 2006 when he took part in a special live event with other musicians in a local band named “The Girls” up in the skies over Bath, UK in a hot air balloon. That’s really about it concerning Mushroom. If he does still produce music, then he does it merely for himself with little intention of a wider audience hearing it. Even so, it’s impossible to say for certain if he will ever release any solo material, but as Massive Attack fans we can only hope for something in the future.

Q 5. Why did Daddy G leave Massive Attack temporially between 2001-2005?

Daddy G left Massive Attack for what would be a temporary sabbatical from the studio for a four year period between 2001-2005, leaving 3D and co-producer Neil Davidge to form the nucleus of the band throughout the 100th Window era. His reasons for doing so were his growing disinterest for making music with the band alongside 3D, who was going off in a more pure electronic direction and turning their back on using samples and other DJ practices, which was what Daddy G felt most comfortable with. Knowing that his contributions for the next record were not really what 3D wanted, he quietly stopped coming into the studio around 2001 and also stopped seeing 3D for an extended period of time, leaving many to speculate for the next year, that Daddy G too was leaving the band following Mushroom’s footsteps, at the hands of 3D’s more dominating presence in the band. Also, in 2002, Daddy G would finally live up to his nickname and become a father for the first time. Being more interested in his growing family than Massive Attack, also kept him out of the studio for this whole year, when 100th Window was being assembled in his absense by 3D and Neil Davidge.
Quote - 3D on Daddy G’s absense during the making of 100th Window - “G became a father, and then obviously he stopped coming to the studio, more and more, until he stopped coming at all. His priorities changed and everyone understood that. But my priority last January [2002] along with Neil’s, was ‘Fuck it, we’ve been making this record too long, it’s getting on my fucking nerves now’, So we started writing some new tracks.” [Venue Magazine - January 2003]
Even though, Daddy G returned in a live capacity for Massive Attack’s shows for the following two years, he continued to stay out of the studio, while 3D and Neil Davidge busied themselves with concentrating on film soundtracks (such as Danny The Dog and Bullet Boy). Daddy G spent most of this time, doing what he does best - putting on DJ sets in clubs/venues across the world, playing mostly reggae and dub music. He also found the time in 2004, to put together a compilation mix album in the DJ Kicks series by K7 Records. Finally in 2005, Daddy G returned to the studio to work on new Massive Attack material, but not Massive Attack’s studio. Instead, he hooked up with a local Bristol production crew known as The Robot Club to work on his own ideas for the next Massive Attack album away from 3D and Neil Davidge, where he thought he could work better on his own before presenting his new material to his fellow bandmates. Since then he has gone on more tours with Massive Attack and seems to be back as a full member of the band for their next long awaited fifth studio album.

Q 6. Who’s Neil Davidge? Is he an unofficial member of the band?

Neil Davidge has been Massive Attack’s de-facto co-producer and studio hand now since 1995 and has become some would say so indispensable to Massive Attack’s sound that it would be difficult to imagine them without him. Neil had been a local Bristol producer and former member of a dance/remix collective known as DNA in the early 1990’s. He was drafted in by Massive Attack at Coach Studios, Bristol for a engineering job on The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game, which quickly became a full producing job after The Insects had to pull out of producing the song at the last minute. At the time, it was only meant to be a once-off, but 3D saw that Neil and him worked well together in the studio (both having an affinity for graphic design and the same kind of music) and asked him soon afterwards to help produce their next album together.
Quote - 3D in 2003 reflecting on how Neil and him work together - “I’ve worked with Neil for seven years now. He’s the co-writer really. He’s someone I trust. We have an intuition between each other and a communication process. It’s important because, not being traditional musicians, lots of things need to be verbalised. Or even a look can mean, you know, let’s try this.” [BBC Collective - February 2003]
In the interim between Mezzanine and 100th Window, with the fallout of Mushroom leaving the band and Daddy G becoming totally disinterested, it was the tight working relationship between and Neil and 3D which made 100th Window possible. Neil’s role in this time and until now, started to take on even less of a typical producer role and more of a full time bandmember, co-writing all the songs and even being the driving force that got 3D back in the studio at the beginning of 2002, after the unproductive 2001/2001 Lupine Howl sessions had proved unusable and everyone was despondent at this.
Following on from 100th Window, 3D and Neil together have achieved another two of their goals: owning their own music studio jointly together under the moniker of 100 Suns (so they could better realise their musical ideas without time or money constraints) and branching Massive Attack off into scoring full length film soundtracks (a long term ambition and not surprising considering Massive Attack’s often times filmic sound quality to their music). The official line is that 3D and Daddy G are the only full time members and are certianly the public face of the group, with Neil seeking a more passive role at least when it comes to the limelight. He also does not seem to have any ambition with touring with the band either. Suffice to say, if Neil had’nt been there during the difficult 100th Window phase, Massive Attack might not even be around today.