A search of DEVO’s vault of early video footage evolved into DEVO, a new Netflix documentary directed by Chris Smith, frontman Mark Mothersbaugh said in a recent interview. Mothersbaugh described how an effort to preserve and present the band’s archival material ultimately became a feature film that chronicles the group’s history, its philosophy of “de-evolution” and its aftermath.
Mothersbaugh told Decider that the project began as an attempt to digitize and curate fragile early recordings — some shot on a single camera in the early 1970s — but that producers decided the footage needed context. "It devolved into a documentary," he said, noting the irony of the transformation. He said the band kept some distance from Smith’s editorial process; the director, Mothersbaugh said, was kept "at arm’s length" so his outside perspective could shape the film.
Mothersbaugh said the production encountered delays when Vice, one of the project’s original producers, experienced upheaval. He credited his wife with stepping in to handle licensing and the logistical work required to complete the film. Smith, who had previously worked with Netflix on Tiger King and who had been in a DEVO cover band in college, interviewed band members and sifted through decades of material to tell his version of the story, Mothersbaugh said.
The documentary includes material and themes that Mothersbaugh and other band members might have approached differently, he said, but he praised Smith’s choices. He singled out the film’s attention to the Kent State shootings as a sequence he might not have emphasized as heavily but defended the director’s decision to make the moment central. "We were protesters in the ’70s," Mothersbaugh said, adding that the shootings shaped the band’s outlook and its belief that protest alone would not change minds.
Mothersbaugh also recounted elements of DEVO’s broader cultural footprint that the documentary touches on or leaves out. He welcomed the film’s inclusion of the band’s work with Neil Young on the 1982 film Human Highway, saying he had a renewed appreciation for Young as an artist after seeing the director’s approach on set. Mothersbaugh recounted an anecdote from that period: while he and bandmate Gerald Casale had created a slogan for a rustproofing product — "Rust Never Sleeps" — the phrase later became the title of a Neil Young record after Young saw a shirt Mothersbaugh had printed. "It’s all yours," Mothersbaugh recalled telling Young when the musician asked to use the phrase.
The interview also drew attention to DEVO’s television appearances, including Saturday Night Live, Fridays and a 1982 cameo on Square Pegs. Mothersbaugh described the Square Pegs taping as a long day that included an immediate flight to Minneapolis to play a concert, and he said he enjoyed the band’s Fridays performances, which included a routine performed on treadmills.
Beyond his work with DEVO, Mothersbaugh has had a prolific career composing for film and television. He pointed to Pee-wee’s Playhouse as a turning point that led to a steady stream of scoring work, and he described the intense weekly turnaround the show required: episodes were sent to him on Monday and music would be recorded and back in time to be cut into that week’s broadcast. His credits include children’s programming such as Rugrats, Avengers: Endgame–era studio work and recent series like Our Flag Means Death. He said one of his most personally satisfying but under-noticed scores was for the HBO series Enlightened, starring Laura Dern, and mentioned work with Mike White on Brad’s Status.
Mothersbaugh discussed technical and curatorial projects that extend beyond performance. He said he owns Raymond Scott’s Electronium, an early electronic instrument he rescued from deteriorating storage after Scott’s death. Mothersbaugh described efforts to archive Scott’s acetates at the University of Missouri and work with contemporary musicians and engineers, including a digital recreation by artist-inventor Yuri Suzuki. He said he plans to present the original Electronium and related work at his Los Angeles gallery in Chinatown.
Asked about documentary favorites, Mothersbaugh mentioned Becoming Led Zeppelin and the Beatles: Get Back segments he found revealing, and he reiterated satisfaction that the Netflix film conveyed "the basic information of why we were DEVO." He said the band had not sought to micromanage the film and that the documentary represents Smith’s distilled view of the group’s most important elements.
DEVO formed in Akron, Ohio, in 1973 and maintained an on-and-off life as a collective beyond their 1980 hit "Whip It." The Netflix documentary joins ongoing interest in archival retrospectives that revisit the formative years of influential acts and aim to place them in broader cultural and political contexts. Mothersbaugh said he was relieved the project reached completion and that the film preserves the band’s history for audiences who know DEVO only from a single hit or fleeting cultural memory.