Mick and Marina Muhlfriedel on the L.A. punk-to-funk transition

Transmission 319: Interview with Vivabeat

Formed in Los Angeles in 1978, Vivabeat emerged from a convergence of the L.A. and Boston punk scenes. Led by Marina Muhlfriedel and Mick Muhlfriedel, the ensemble transitioned from a thrashy, art-punk foundation toward a synth-driven dance-funk sound, eventually incorporating Japan guitarist Rob Dean. Their history is marked by early support from Peter Gabriel and a live circuit presence alongside contemporaries like the Human League and Depeche Mode.

Title: Wild World (Live in Los Angeles 1980-1984)
Artist: Vivabeat
Release Date: 2026-03-27
Genres: New Wave, Post-punk, Synth Pop
Label: Liberation Hall
Description: Vivabeat’s Mick and Marina Muhlfriedel discuss Wild World, a live album from Liberation Hall out March 27, 2026, documenting their 1980-1984 career.

Following recent reissues of their studio catalog, the band releases Wild World (Live in Los Angeles 1980-1984) via Liberation Hall on March 27, 2026. The 14-song set documents three distinct stages of the band’s timeline, from an early 1979 lineup at the Whisky a Go Go to their final show at FM Station. The package includes previously unreleased tracks “Glisse le Rat” and “I’m Right,” sourced from archival cassettes and video tapes restored through modern digital isolation techniques.

How did you meet, and what was the catalyst for starting the band?

Marina: I’ll take that one. I was playing in a band in Los Angeles, kind of an experimental punk band called the Audio Vidiot, and that band did a just really rudimentary demo of some songs, and I happened to meet Peter Gabriel, and I played it for Peter, and he really responded. He felt like it was kind of messy, but he thought we had something there.

There was a beginning of an idea, and he said we should work on it and get back to them. Well, the guys I would see in Audio Verde took that as a sign that we were suddenly going to have a record deal and a career, and so Alec Murphy, the guitar player I was working with, called Mick, who lived in Boston, who he used to play music with when he lived there, and said, “you know, we have this band, you should come out and play with us.” I was on the road as a rock journalist at the time, and was on the road with Van Halen, and stopped in Boston, and met Mick, and a synth player named Connie De Silva, and a drummer, Doug Orilio, and told them about the band, and told them about the Peter story, and they all moved out, but technically, we met at Logan Airport in Boston. Mick came out, and he really didn’t like Audio Verde, and it wasn’t really his thing, and he was going to go back to Boston, and I felt like, “no, don’t go back, I will leave Audio Verde, and we’ll do another band,” and our guitar player, Alec, came with us, and that’s how Vivabeat started.

Mick: The two people who were moving out from Boston, Doug and Connie, came out also, and so that made five of us, and then we had nobody that could sing, so we put out flyers for auditions and stuff, and Marina knew this guy, Terrance Robay, who was doing a play in London as James Dean, and he had a big thing about wanting to be an actor and stuff, and I thought, oh, there’s no way he’s going to want to join us, so he came to an audition, and he had an incredible voice, and strangely enough, he did want to join us, so that’s kind of how the beginning six got together, for the first recordings that we made.

How did the Boston and L.A. music scene differ when you started out?

Mick: I think the Boston music scene was really sort of tied into the New York scene, because we were so close, so we would get bands from CBGBs, the early Talking Heads, Blondie, Ramones, and so there was much more of a cross-cultural thing with sort of the New York punk scene, and not to be dismissive, but the L.A. punk scene wasn’t anything that we even thought about, and I think it might have been the same way, L.A. to Boston.

Marina: See, in L.A., I feel like it was much more concentrated, the punk bands in L.A., a lot of them hadn’t broken out, they’d tell me, yeah, you know, there was X, and the Go-Go’s, and the Bags, and then from San Francisco, we had the Avengers, and the Nuns, and all these groups, but California is really its own country in many ways, and I feel like we were more geocentric culturally, and I felt like we were a very, like L.A. had more of a, like it was almost like a theatrical art-punk vibe to it, like art-punk bands from around the country loved coming and hanging out, Devo was hanging here all the time, Deaf School came over from England, and we also had a very close connection to London, the Damned was hanging out in L.A. a lot, and I feel like the New York-Boston punk scene was kind of dug their heels in, was a little grittier, a little more maybe rebellion-centric, where I feel like we were a little more art-centric as a scene.

How did you transition from a punk attitude to a dance-funk sound without losing your head?

Mick: Well, I think that was more a question of evolving, and also just changing members. I mean, we, right after we made our first record, we had some serious issues with our guitar player and the one keyboard player, Connie, and so we let them go, and then Doug, who was our drummer, had a very serious motorcycle accident and was in a coma, and basically never got able to play again. So Marina, again, knew Rob Dean, who was from the band Japan, who had just left the band Japan, and she made a phone call, and again, it was one of those crazy things where she said, there’s no way he’s going to want to come here, and of course he did want to come here. I think so much of our sound that evolved in sort of to almost of a dance thing was through Rob, because he played a completely different style of guitar, and it really influenced my writing in terms of how I wrote, because I started writing stuff that I could use, because he was an exceptional guitar player, so I could use his creativity, his stylistic stuff, and that sort of became incorporated in doing much more of a techno dance band thing, and you know, at the time, we were very into bands like Heaven 17, and the Human League, and you know, just the whole English, you know, Roxy Music, and Bowie, obviously, and so we sort of drifted away from the punk thing pretty quickly once we changed members.

Marina: Yeah, I also feel like we were much more, we embodied more of the punk sound when we played live than on the recorded studio work, where, you know, we really had time to reconsider ourselves, but the thing about, you know, we have this new live album coming out, Wild World, and it reminded me, working on those tracks, of how punky we were in the beginning, how thrashy we were. Doug‘s drums and Alec‘s guitar, and we even got Terrence, who was this kind of musical theater guy, to find that grit in his soul, which was really great.

Mick: To put it succinctly, once we switched over and started working with Rob and stuff, we kind of went from punk to funk, sort of, you know, we became much more of a groove band rather than, you know, a big, loud guitar band.

Marina: We also really, by that point, it was a few years on, and I think we had gained the proficiency in our instruments to really try a lot more stuff, to rise to a higher level and to experiment. You know, there was kind of nothing we wouldn’t try. And we worked with a great producer-engineer named Earl Mankey, and Earl was very, very helpful in helping us to kind of realize what we really could do, and he kind of helped pull it out of us, at the same time, tell us when what we’re doing was stupid, and we should let that go.

What was it like playing techno pop at the Whisky in the early 80s?

Marina: You know, it tended to be a harder rock and punk side, more rock and roll. But at the same time, Magazine was playing there, and Ultravox, and these were bands that treaded that line between techno and a bit of punk also, so I felt like we kind of slotted in that part of what they presented. I thought it was great.

One of my favorite Whisky moments ever, I think it was our first time we played there, Nina Hagen was on the floor dancing, just telling… What was she saying?

Mick: She kept screaming to us, “you guys are stars, you guys are stars.” And we’re like, no, we’re just playing music.

Marina: We’re just a little band in LA. But I know it’s small, but that moment gave me a connection that was very empowering. I loved playing the Whisky.

You know, the Whisky was one of the… I grew up in LA, and the Whisky was one of the first clubs I was ever at. I ran away from home to see Black Sabbath, and to be on stage there was great. I had played there in my previous band also, in a girl punk band called Backstage Pass. I had played there a few times, but it was so different with Vivabeat because… And this sounds so self-indulgent, but we did have sort of a majesty about the work that we did. I mean, we got up there and we looked at each other, and it wasn’t like, let’s just play our instruments and thrash it out. There was something we created together that I felt was really special, and really had a weight and a universe that I played within.

Mick: Also the Whisky, as I’m sure you know, even by the time we were there, was a legendary club. I mean, Led Zeppelin played there. U2 played there. Johnny Rivers back in the 60s played there. The Doors played there. So, you know, you felt like you were walking into sort of the National Museum of Music in America. You know, like to be invited to play at the Whisky was like being invited to play at Carnegie Hall or something. You know, it was just like every band wanted to play the Whisky because it meant you were a serious band. So, yeah, I mean, it was really the best place to play.

What was it like touring with bands like Depeche Mode, R.E.M., and B-52s? Do you have any memorable moments to share?

Mick: Yeah, the funny thing was, we had a song called Man From China, and it wasn’t a huge hit here, but it was a fairly well-known song in England, especially among sort of the techno people. So they, you know, we weren’t just like an opening band for them. I remember the guys from Depeche Mode saying, “oh, well, we love that whistle song,” you know.

The band sort of treated us a little bit better, like the Human League would send all their other, because the opening band never got any food. So the Human League would always send all their food over to us. And so we felt like we got a level of respect that probably most opening bands didn’t. There was probably no band that I think we played with that we thought, geez, those guys were jerks. I mean, everybody we played with was just very gracious to us. We were really lucky because we have friends that went on tour with bands. We won’t mention them, of course. It’s just that these guys were horrible. But everybody we met, everybody we toured with was gracious to us, helpful, gave us long soundchecks and stuff. Some opening bands didn’t get soundchecks. They always said, “no, BBB gets a soundcheck.”

Marina: Phil Oakey from Human League is an extraordinary person. And he told the promoters, he told his manager, I guess, who told the promoters that whatever they get, we get. And, you know, we had to get proper dressing rooms, his mix in, the food, the drink. He is just a very egalitarian person. And they didn’t act like rock stars to us. And one funny note was that in one of our early gigs, R.E.M. actually opened for us. We never went on the road with them. It was a one-off. But we were watching them, you know, we’re going, hey, this band’s pretty good. Wait, they’re from like Georgia? What bands are from Georgia other than the B-52s, you know? It was really funny that, of course, six months later, they were one of the biggest fans.

Mick: We had to like, it was a tiny little club. We had to share a dressing room with them, you know? And again, I remember complaining to the guitar player about how we’re not getting any airplay in the US. And he goes, “oh, we always hear you in Macon, Georgia.”

Marina: OK.

What was the hardest part of rescuing these old cassette tapes?

Mick: It was pretty, you know, at first we thought there’s no way we can do this. But we found a guy who’s sort of well-known in the industry for being able to transfer two-track cassettes, tapes, whatever, to digital files. And we gave them to him and he was like, OK, I’ll try.

So he transferred them. But in one of them, the one I think from FM Station or something there, we had a sound guy that was recording it. And he was talking through the whole thing. So not only do we have to deal with the songs, we had to deal with getting his voice off all the stuff. Basically, I took the tapes. There’s a program called, once we had it digitized, there’s a program called Stem Splitter, which takes a two-track tape and turns it into discrete tracks: bass, vocals, drums, and whatever. Then it just took weeks and weeks and weeks of compressing and EQing and adding reverb. We actually had a program where we could re-trigger the drums or we would put the drums that were being played through a process that would then output the same beat and everything, but with bigger sounding drums and stuff. So it was a lot of work. The first couple of times I heard it, I said, oh, there’s another one, you know, these are just like historical relics. But through a lot of work with a lot of help from really talented engineers and studios and stuff, we got it to kind of sound okay.

Marina: Yeah, it was… I mean, Mick is much more the engineer producer of us. And I just get to comment and give my ideas. But he was there for months in the studio, just trying to get enough out of the tracks to make them listenable. I mean, to get from a weedy, crackly cassette to a high fidelity sound. The guy who did those transfers, originally Bill Smith, is an amazing guy. The first time we walked in there, he was like doing the Oasis catalog. I mean, he has just been a force in the industry of being able to really bring up music to a modern standard. And we were so lucky to cross paths with him. Actually, it was Bob Clearmountain  who told us about him, right?

Mick: Yeah, Bob Clearmountain, the producer.

Marina: Yeah, which was just a great lead. The thing was, we had two shows that were on cassette, and then the third show was just videotape. And actually, this nasty old little videotape sound was so much better than the audio cassette. We were actually able to work with that for the most part more easily, wouldn’t you say?

Mick: Yeah, I mean, it was all work. And in a lot of ways, it was like going back to your youth, really. You’re listening to stuff that you wrote back in your late 20s and stuff. So for me, it was a time tripping back into when I was a kid, almost. I really enjoyed doing it. I mean, it was really inspiring to do. It’s like if you’re a filmmaker and you find an old film that you did as a student film, and you can make it watchable again, you do it. I mean, it’s a labor of love, just to put it succinctly, yeah.

Marina: So the great thing about being able to put out this album, it’s almost like this baby we’ve had hiding in the closet just gets to pop out full grown into the world. And I’m at risk of sounding ridiculous. I mean, I’m so proud of it because it’s so affirming to hear who we were then and to know, geez, we had this. This was really good. And there was a time when Vivabeat wound down. We both got into film projects for a couple of decades. And so it’s remarkable to remind yourself of who you were. And now our lives are so caught up in it. I mean, Mick‘s made music all the way through. I kind of got really quite far away from it until about six years ago. I started a reboot with my first punk band. And then this all sort of took off with the re-release and remastering and re-releasing of Vivabeat‘s first studio stuff, and now the live material.

Was the Party in the War Zone a reflection of a political climate then?

Marina: I think it was more a reflection of our personal climate than, you know, I felt like we, that title for the album came to me while we were recording at the Record Plant. And I really did feel there was a lot of friction going on in the band while we were playing. A couple of people got a little money in their pocket, decided heroin was a good idea, and everybody wanted to be heard in their own way. I felt like, look at us. We’re like the luckiest kids in town. We’re at the Record Plant with all this great gear. And like we, there’s just this tightness. Personally, it was Party in the War Zone. But since that title, I’ve come across a thousand moments situation globally and personally where I went, yeah, this is what we are. We’re a Party in the War Zone.

Mick: I think in a way, War Zone was an analogy for the band. For a band is sort of a war zone, a musical war zone, in which there’s tons of fighting and stuff and people wanting to get their ideas in there. And so the chemistry of bands is always a hard, hard thing to navigate. So basically, it was a musical war zone. And it was us partying inside our musical war zone, basically.

Marina: Yeah, and I think some of the songs had a tone that might feel that way. I mean, Working for William was definitely a song that had a geopolitical sense, but it was more about political theory. It was really written about my perceptions of China. I’ve always been kind of infatuated by China and the power structure and their history for some strange reason. Maybe it’s like a past life weirdness or something. But it was kind of written about the usurping of power and how power is usually dominated by a figure of head but the people underneath who really create their own agendas with that kind of, more like without the knowledge of the overarching power. It’s something you see in like Iran now. But I kind of felt that song for China, even though William‘s that Chinese name. And the song, Enemy Fire, which song I wrote that also had sort of a geopolitical feel was not about that at all. It was written about heroin and how heroin was really stealing away one of the people in the band who I cared very much about.

Are you working on new material or together?

Mick: Yeah, I am. I mean, I’ve had a project for the last seven or eight years or so called Buff Roshi. And it’s more of a, I mean, it’s still, it’s a lot of techno stuff. It’s samples. It’s just whatever I’ve got available for me to use. And again, I’ve been lucky. I was working for quite a while with this woman named Holly Beth Vincent, who was a singer in the 80s. And she’s done some amazing vocals on it. And hopefully by the end of this year, we put out another record for it. But yeah, before that, I mean, I’ve been in music ever since Vivabeat. And I did some film scoring, commercial, TV stuff. Music has always been the thing that, I was lucky enough to be able to do the thing I really love to do, which is play music. And I’ve been able to do it and not have to go off and drive trucks or work at supermarkets or stuff. I can sit home in my studio and write music and I’m still doing that, yeah.

Photos courtesy of Vivabeat

Matteo Damiani

Matteo Damiani is an Italian photographer and author. Curator of the sites Retrofuturista.com; weirditaly.com; china-underground.com and others