The monitor guy got into some troubles with Nick during the "Mondo Generator" set and so the
Mondo show was a bit shorter than expected. So below is the interview... un intervista a tarallucci e vino... uomo avvisato, uomo mezzo salvato |
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170: so Brant, this is the second time you're touring europe with the Bros this year, you have just been playing a couple of festivals in Belgium and the Netherlands. I think that was the first time you played your songs from your solo records infront of an audience that wasn't there exclusively for you, so how was that experience? Brant Bjork: yeah, it was great, it was awsome! I was really pleased with the reception, yeah it was really cool, they were really enthusiastic about the music. 170:on this tour you will even play for the first time in Italy. BB: yeah, I'm excited! 170:you have some friends there? BB: yes I know some people, like through my girlfriend's family from Milan. 170:have you ever been to the south or on the islands, like Sardinia or Sicily? BB: no, the furthest south I've been is Rome but we're gonna try and go to Sicily next year. 170: you'll even be playnig some shows there? BB: yes I'd like to. I'd love to play there. 170: after this tour you will be playing some more shows in the states, then go to Australia and come back to Europe in october. You're doing a lot of touring recently!
BB: yeah, I took so many years off to get my record label started (note of the editor: www.dunarecords.com check it!) and to get my music out and find a band, I decided that now it's the time to get out there and really start playing. 170: and "The Bros" is it basically the same band as "The Operators" or is it a different band? BB: no, "The Operators" is a different band with different members and "the Bros" is a totally different band. 170: so with the Bros you will be performing everything you recorded, like not only your solo stuff but also Kyuss and Ché and other things. BB: yeah "The Bros" have just been kinda like a band that's been celebrating all the material that I've been writing and we're gonna record our own band with fresh new material at the end of this year. 170: you got a record just coming out: Local Angel. I heard it's got some similarity to "Jalamanta". BB: it's really laid back, it's a really mellow record. 170: that's great! I bought "Jalamanta" in Seattle when it first came out and it's been my favorite record ever since. BB: well, thank you! 170: like your other stuff is also cool, but it's not so laid back. Like "Jalamanta" that's got something special, that's very difficult to find, like it's mellow but it rocks. I don't know of anyone that does something similar. BB: my records kinda follow my moods, so you know we're always moody, a little bit of everything... 170: hmm, yeah, by the way if yo want to have some wine, I have some wine with me from Sardinia.
BB: oh yeah! 170: I even have some taralli here. BB: yeah great man , that's good. bottle of wine: glu glu glu glu glu... 170: it's just a wine from a farmer from Sardinia. This friend of mine that went to see your show in Rotterdam, he is from Sardinia and he was there some weeks ago for a bit of surfing. Yeah, that's one of my questions, I think you're a surfer, do you surf? BB: I surf but I'm not a surfer 170: cheers! BB: salute! 170: sweet cheap wine. BB: that's my favorite! Sweet, cheap, red wine! 170: yeah! So you never surf when you're in Italy BB:
well you know, growing up in the desert... my parents met at a beach in
San Diego, so we were going back to San Diego every year a couple of
times. I would get in the water, I started body surfing then started get
itno surfing with some friends as I got older, like I used to surf with Fu
Manchu before I was in the band. We used to go down to San Clemente and
surf. But I was never, well as a kid I wanted to be a surfer, but you
gotta grow up at the beach to be a surfer. You know what I mean... and surf
every day, understand the ocean... In California surfers are guys that get
up every morning at six o' clock, catch some waves, I mean like they're
surfers, but yeah I do surf. 170: about surfers. I met Dave Dinsmore, who played bass in Ché, a couple of years ago. BB: oh yeah, good friend of mine. 170: I was wondering, what happened to him becouse I have never heard anything from him after that Nebula-Unida tour in 99. BB: yeah we were living together in Palm Desert, at that time. Dave, basically moved back to Santa Cruz and got married and that was it, I don't really hear from him that much anymore. 170: so he's not doing any music anymore? BB: he might be playing music in Santa Cruz but I haven't seen him. 170: I think he's a great bass player. BB:
oh he's one of my favorite bass players ever and a good surfer too, great
surfer. 170: yeah, he told me it was very hard for him to move from Santa Cruz to the desert when he played with Unida. BB: see cuz he's a surfer and needs to surf every day! When you live in the desert you can't, that's why we skate board. 170: yeah, heh! Well this year the Desert Sessions performed live at the "Coachella Festival" in Indio, did you play there with them this year? BB: No, I didn't go to that "Coachella Festival", I went the year before to see the Stooges... 170:
yeah that was the first show they played... well Alfredo Hernandez is
touring again, he's with Mondo Generator is he on tour with them. BB: yeah, he's here. 170: oh that's great news! BB: yeah, that's awsome! 170: what was he up to before that, I've heard nothing from him after he left "Queens Of The Stone Age" apart from some session things (Orquestra Del Desierto, BTW they'll be playing live in Munich at the Backstage on August 25, check www.raodburn.com for the tour dates) BB: Alfredo was living in Palm Springs, where he always lives and he was just playing in a couple of local bands and booking bands and just being involved in music in the desert. 170: is it true that he played with the reunited "Yawning Man"? BB:
yeah Yawning Man! They were playing for a while and actually recorded a
record and there's talk of duna releasing the Yawning Man material next
year.
170: that's what I wanted to ask you, becouse up until now you only released your solo material except, for one punk rock thing "balls for days" by Decon where you play drums.
BB: oh yeah Decon, well this next year we're gonna start releasing some other material from other artists like we're gonna do a Nick Oliveri acoustic record wich is a great record. 170: yeah, I like that Roky Erickson cover version on the ipecac QOTSA "songs for the deaf" vinyl. BB: yeah "bloody hammer", if you like that you'll like Nick's acoustic record.
BB: well I heave heard that Scott is making a solo record, I haven't heard that from him but throughout the grapevine. He has his own studio now so I would be expecting that that would happen. I did talk to him about three months ago but we didn't talk about that, but I'm sure he's getting back involved into music... he's doing his own stuff right now and producing.
170: you produced Fu Manchu's first album "no one rides for free" but you didn't produce any record after that, or did you? BB: no, I just kinda produced my own stuff, I was kind of involved in a lot of the production process of Fu Manchu records but never really like bothered to make it known, you know it's not really important. But I've always been producing but it's not an advertised kind of effort. But if I heard a band that really inspired me to do production I wouldn't hesitate becouse I love making records. 170: you just appeared on the Melissa Auf Der Maur record. You played drums there... I haven't listened very much to that record but it's got power. BB: she's a great person, man, she's a really neat artist, beautiful woman, she's got a rad mind, and she's very talented and she's a friend man, and I just like helping out friends. 170: well... somewhere I read there will be a new record by the "earthlings?", even though Fred Drake is not with us anymore, Dave Catching is gonna go on. BB: they have recorded it, they recorded a new record about a year and a half ago, and it's just kinda sitting on a shelve, and it's a great record. It doesn't sound like any of their other stuff it's a lot different but it's a great record non the less and I'm not quite sure what they're doing with that record. The "earthlings?" are very... (whistles) hehe 170: maybe you wouldn't know, but, it was also years ago I saw the "earthlings?" opening for on one of the first "Queens Of The Stone Age" shows here in europe and I was wondering if the bass player was Molly McGuire. BB: no, it was a girl but it was a different girl, I think her name was Jamie, I can't remember. Girlfriend of Mark Lanegan I believe, I think so, Dave would know. Great bass player though. Have you seen Mondo with Molly and Dave Catching? 170: Not yet. That's why we came to see the show here and drove all the way from Italy. Cuz we could have also gone to see you play there but it's Nick Oliveri acoustic and my friends have already seen that in Rotterdam, in April, so we decided to meet up here and see Mondo too. Now Alfredo is playing drums though, will you play some drums too? BB: no, it's all Alfredo. |
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170:
well I was also wondering if Scott Reeder is releasing some of his solo
material or if he's maybe releasing it through your label.
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170: I found out like a month ago that you'll be playing some shows in Europe in the summer and I was surprised. Cuz you were just on tour, so I thought, let's see, if it's possible I set up a show in Innsbruck, Austria, where I'm currently living. Becouse none of you guys ever play there. Unfortunately it was just too short of a time, even though you'll be driving through Innsbruck on your day off on the way to Italy. but you will be touring again in october. BB: yes, we should do that in october. 170: yeah, I'd love to see that happen. BB: it will be great! 170: will it just be you and the Bros, or will there be some other band with you like Mondo Generator this time around? BB: Bros, just the Bros. I wanna start playing two sets a night and not having opening acts.
170: ok... want some more of the wine? BB: why not?! heh heh... 170: actually I made some compilations for you BB: really?! 170: we're doing a radio show (note of the editor: http://rancho.guitarsgalore.net daily on 105.9 MHz - insbrooke) and this is some of the music we're playing. BB: oh cool! 170: it's alot of music though, but on the bus you should have time to listen to it. BB: that's right! uhm... this doesn't seem like Germany. TIBERIO: it's tropical wheather! 170: it's crazy. BB: it seems like northern Italy. Try this wine, babe! Brant's girlfriend: what wine is this? BB: it's from Sardinia. She's italian did she tell you? 170: yeah somebody told me, I think it was Michael. Brant's girlfriend: good, try this! Alfredo is making sangria. BB: it's very nice! ... 170: well... it's very diverse music, like this CD has some gipsy music and some african music like on that compilation called "desert blues", just musicians from morocco, or anyway northern africa, the sahara... BB: oh great man, thank you so much! 170: yeah, it's great, you should listen to it. Then ther's one more like rock and one Cd is very mellow, like with José González, a swedish guy. If you know Nick Drake... BB: yeah! 170: it's that kind of vibe, he's parents actually are argentinian, that explains the name. Then there's this girl, she's from New York, Diane Cluck. From one of her Cd's she sent, also great. BB: awsome, thanx! I need new music, this is great. I just got a couple of CD's, they're in LA. Cambodian Rock...
BB: yeah, from the late '60s from Cambodia. Fuckin' awsome man! Pang-paaang-poung, they got like this weird cambodian chick singin... 170: you wouldn't know what the name of the band is?
BB: my friend burned it for me and it's just called "Cambodian Rock" and, huh, it's fuckin' great. When I get home I'll have someone burn it for you! And then like I got this other one it's called "Nigeria 70". And it's rock music from Nigeria. Africa! From like earlie '70s. hwohhh! it's rad! 170: I just bought a vinyl by Can, "Tago Mago"... BB: uhm... 170: you know Can, a german band from the '60s. BB: yeah! I'm not familiar with their releases but I know their music. 170: I think it's their very best record. They had a japanese singer, it's crazy! BB: ahh! I love that shit man! Elliott Smith... He used to live in the town where I live, in the states. 170: realy! Yeah, it's unfortunate... BB: yeah, such... 170: do you know what happened? Cuz first I heard it was a suicide, then it wasn't... BB: I don't know. 170: nobody knows. BB: I've heard a lot of different things. I heard that he was batteling a heroin addiction. 170: hmm... BB: it's a shame. Heroin. Stay away from heroin!
170: heh! BB: heh heh! 170: we definitely will! BB: drink wine! Heh! 170: heh heh! It's much better! BB: so what were you gonna say if it feels like northern Italy here, in this town. 170: yeah, it's becouse there's a lake not so far from here. It's a pretty big lake, I don't know if you know lake Garda? BB: oh Garda lake!? 170: yeah, Garda. BB: but that's in Italy? 170: that's in Italy! And this lake has about the same size. The climate is not as warm as over there, but it's a very nice lake though, it's a bit colder than lake Garda. Have you ever been there? BB: ah, I've been there. Yeah, I've been to Gardaland. 170: heh heh... BB: hah hah hah. It's crazy, man! 170: yeah it is crazy. But there's a very beautiful part of lake garda. When you're coming from the south you have to drive over some small hills, then you see the lake. you're driving down some road, there's like serpentine... it's about the last spot where you could find olive trees in Italy when you're driving north. It's beautiful. But that's pretty much it, the rest is just very touristy. You know, like Gardaland. BB: Gelato... huh... and, heh heh 170: hah, yeah! I'm sure if you're going to Sicily, you'll like it there. BB: I wanna go to the south. I got a friend that is from Sicily, he's invited us down. I wanna really go. I love all of Italy but I wanna experience the southern part. I heard the food is very good in the south, spicier and... 170: yeah it's a bit spicier, definitely. Like my dad is from Naples, I've been living there for a while and... it's crazy. It's different from the north. Like the north is pretty much the same as Germany, just that they speak italian. BB: yes,
or Switzerland... 170: yeah, there's no big difference in the mentality. But the south is totally different. There's actually two different coltures in one country. BB: yes, but that's how it is in California, like San Francisco and all that and then when you go down to Southern California like Los Angeles it's a lot different. It's a completetely different vibe 170: yeah I'm planing on going to Australia in a couple of months. Cuz like some of my best friends are are living there. One has a vineyard in Adelide and a restaurant and has been inviting me for years. BB: gotta go! 170: yeah! I wanted to go for so many years but now it's the time to go! And also there's this other friend of mine. He was living in Canada, on Vancouver Island he got married over there and as soon as he got the canadian citizenship he was like I wanna go back home. And he's got a house near Melbourne now with his wife, sent me over some pictures and he's like you gotta come over and visit for a while. BB: ah dude. Australia is fuckin' great! 170: yeah! No worries! BB: no worries, no worries! ...But the food. 170: the food isn't that great? BB: english, english colony. English can't cook. 170: I am a cook, so I'll fix it up. BB: there you go! Hehe, make some food over there. Bring some of that italian mo jo, cuz they need it man. When I'm in Australia, you eat thai food. Thai food is excellent! 170: yeah, I know, I am cooking thai food. BB: Thailand is right there. 170: I don't know if it's thai food what I'm doing, it's supposed to be thai food, tastes allright but... BB: it's better than australian food, hah hah! No the food, it's alright, you know it's alright, you know sandwiches and burgers and fries you know chips and beers and... but the people, the australian people, are fuckin' great! They're the nicest people. 170: yes, every one I meet from Australia, they're like so mellow, so easy going. BB: they just, they wanna, good times, drink beers, rock and roll, surf. The australians are good. alot of italians in Australia too. 170: yeah, I know, I don't know how the acceptance of the italians is over there. BB: mhh, that's alright, the australians are very accepting people. It's the aborigines that get all the shit. 170: ahh, that's a pity. BB: yeah it's a real pity. But you know you experience that everywhere. It's always that, you know... anyway and chicks you know, blah blah blah heh heh... 170: hah,
yeah! Dave Catching: Brant Bjooork! BB: Daaaave Catching! Dave Catching: Alfredo is making sangria upstairs! BB: eh! This guy's asking about the new "earthlings?" record, what's going on? Dave Catching: some... some year! BB: hah hah, I told you! 170: yeah! Dave is great. Are you actually recording at his studio, the rancho de la luna? BB: I did local angel there. 170: ah yeah, you re-recorded it, I read it somewhere. BB: yeah I did. Two years ago I recorded the record. It wasn't right, so I went back and did it all again by my self, very intimate record. 170: like with "jalamanta", you did everything by yourself there too BB: yeah. 170: well that brings me to an other question, there's this guy Schneebie... BB: yeah, Mathias Schneeberger! 170: yeah, what happened, how did he end up there? BB: in the late '80s in Germany he started producing Saint Vitus. 170: really! (note of the editor: he produced Electric Wizard's "dopethrone" and just did their new album "we live" with Liz Buckingham on guitar) BB: yeah and "The Obsessed"! And then he continued producing "The Obsessed" and then finally came over to America in the early '90s. Then I met him through Fred Drake and he mastered "jalamanta" and then after that you know: Eh! this was great, so I went back and we did the "Ché" record and then I went back and we did the "Operators" record. 170: he also played there. BB: yes, then he was in the "Operators" playing keyboards. And then I went back and he mastered "Keep Your Cool" and he mastered "Local Angel" 170: alright. BB: he's a funny guy, producer! Big german guy. 170: he lives in the desert? BB: no, he actually lives in Los Angeles. 170: you're also living in Los Angeles now. BB: I live in Los Angeles now, but. I've been living in Los Angeles the last like two years. Desert, Los Angeles, desert, Los Angeles. But ehm, we're probably gonna go back to the desert. I wouldn't mind living in europe man. 170: yeah, you mentioned it in an interview. Like Amsterdam, you'd like to live there for a while. BB: yeah Amsterdam, or... I'd like to live in Italy but there's probably not much to do for a musician in Italy... heh heh. 170: heh, I know. I have some plans. That's also another reason why I wanna go to Australia to like clear my mind. Like there's so many possibilities here in Europe, like the laws aren't so restrictive, with booze and everything, so it's kinda more realistic, well except for Sweden and Norway, there it's very restrictive. And there's this big emptiness musically, there's all the commercial stuff but you know the coolest bands are all the american bands, there's some scandinavian bands for sure, but about all the input comes from america. Rock and roll is an american thing, no doubt about it. BB: hmm... 170: and so, like I always wanted to do like sort of a bed and breakfast or youth hostel somewhere on the beach. Like you know, the bed and breakfast would be just in the background , there would be some beds and you would get some breakfast but basically it's about live music and a cool time and close to the beach. But it's very difficult and you'd need a lot of patience and I have this idea that is growing in my mind. Why don't you just forget about the bed and breakfast and just do it like sort of a camping site. And just stay in the summer all the time. Like I'm planning on staying in the summer in northern Denmark, there's some waves there, well the water is pretty cold but there's some waves and the music is right there. It's in the middle of scandinavia, it's full of music. And in the winter I'd go to southern Italy, there's also some waves there, there's not as much music but, yeah... I have to think about it. BB: well the thing is with countrys like Italy and Spain, Greece and the southern american , latin countrys, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Chile... these are coltures that love rock and roll. And they've got the heart and they've got the passion and that's where I wanna play. Becouse I identify with that. 170: you experienced that? BB: I love that. I haven't been to South America but I played with bands and I met people and I can just tell these are the kind of crowds, the kind of passion. But the thing is that, the business is very shady becouse it's not very well organized. There's no one there to really start organizing a good system to bring american acts in, pay them, organize the event. Like in Italy, this show we're playing. That's just a guy, that's just like a guy like you that's putting on a show for us. Becouse we wanna go to Italy so bad, you know. It's very difficult unless you're like some, you know... But if people in Italy start popping up promoters to bring in acts, dude, people would go, man. 170: that's what I'm thinking too. Like I have a lot of friends in Italy, mostly from the north, like punk rock is quite big there, there's scandinavian bands playing there but still...it's very difficult to explain. What I'm planning on doing is... I wanna do it in the south, where nobody goes to the south cuz it's just so far away. Like you're touring europe, you're touring Germany you can't go to southern Italy for one show. It takes you a day to get there and a day to get back, you're loosing three or four days. But if you'd do, on the way to get there, you'd do a show in Bologna, one in Rome and then you're there and on the way back you do an other one in Genova and Florence or Venice. BB: we're
on it, yeah! 170: It's possible, some one's gotta do it. BB: yeah. 170: It's like you just gotta do it, like do it yourself. And that's why I wanna go to Australia for a while and think about all this. BB: I would tour Italy, I'd love to. I wanna hit the countrys like Spain, Italy, Greece I even wanna go to Istambul. Play rock there, man, that would be cool man! 170: do you know the Red Elvises? BB: no... 170: I did put a song on those CD's I gave you. They're russians, they're living in California now. BB: really? 170: yeah, they do like surf rock, but twisted. There's this song, it's called "rocket man", it's about some astronaut, that is like in the space station for days and want's to have sex, stars are turning him on and "be bop a lula" and it's just great. BB: hah hah hah! That's awsome! 170: and they did that song also in russian (cosmonaut petrov) but I didn't put the russian version on it. They have a song about Istambul, there's no snow in Istambul but the people are groovy, or I don't know, it's a very cool song. BB: gotta go to Istambul... and Russia. 170: yeah Russia must be great. BB: would be awsome. 170: I think Nebula toured Italy extensively when they where about to form. Cuz they have some friends from, I don't know, Bari or somewhere in the south there's a band called "That's All Folks!" and they're friends with Nebula and they did like ten shows in Italy, all over the place, even in Naples. BB: wow! 170: it was, you know right after they left Fu Manchu, must have been 1998. BB: yeah 1998, I'd love to do that. 170: how's your relation to the guys from Nebula? Like Ruben Romano and Eddie Glass and Mark Abshire. BB: well Ruben was actually the first guy I met. I met Ruben in 1990. Ruben and I were close, very good friends and that was before Eddie came into Fu Manchu. And Fu Manchu was a three piece Scott, Ruben and Mark Abshire. 170: Scott? Scott played in, Fu Manchu? BB: no! Scott, Hill! 170: ah, Scott Hill. Scott is always Scott Reeder to me. BB: yeah, hah , yeah and that was my favorite version of Fu Manchu. The three piece was great. Then Eddie Glass came into the picture, it was cool. 170: but there was an other guitar player before Eddie? BB: yeah, that was Mark Voltar. Classic, awsome. He was great too. 170: Eddie was a drummer, wasn't he? BB: yeah, he was a drummer for "Olive Lawn", San Diego band. And he came in, and that was right when I produced that first "No One Rides For Free", that was a good record. 170: yeah, I love that. "Free and Easy", how did you come up with that? BB: well it's all Fu Manchu, I had nothing... all Fu Manchu... 170: heh heh, there's nothing like that afterwards. BB: they were one of my favorite. I had loved Fu Manchu, they will always be one of my favorite rock bands, they're such a great band. Ruben and Scott Hill were the partners of that band, they just worked so hard for so long and they eventually just parted. 170: yeah, it happens. BB: and Scott and Brad Davis went to the right and Ruben and Eddie went to the left. Yeah, and you know, I mean I've always remanined friends with Ruben and Eddie, I see 'em and say hello, it's always cool to see those guys. 170: he also plays sitar? BB: Eddie? Ruben, he might, yeah. 170: there's a lot of indian music on those CD's, tablas, you're a drummer and I think you're gonna like that stuff, it's crazy. Heh heh, it's sick! On one song it's just tablas and some kind of box, just in the background, I've never heard anything before like that. Anyway, there's one song that Nebula did and... Eddie plays those drums, tablas and Ruben plays sitar. It's not indian classical music but it's still great. BB: yeah! They're talented guys, no doubt about it! 170: what have you actually been doing between Fu Manchu and... ah, your glass is epmty. BB: mas vino, or as in italian you say molto più vino, ah? Is that how you say? 170: heh, yes. BB: you guys don't really look italian. Well maybe northern italian. You're half right? 170: yes, my mother's austrian. We're brothers, although we don't look the same. he's more like my dad and I'm more like my mother. BB: yeah
he looks more italian. Well you both look italian, but northern italian.
But austrian, italian... 170: yeah, there's a difference. My dad is from Naples, but his family was originally from Venice and it's a long time ago they moved south. On the other hand, in Naples it's strange, there's a lot of people with dark skin, but there's also people with blond hair and blue eyes. The normans have been there, vikings and germans, long time ago, they must have mixed it all up, heh. That's a good mix though. Yeah what I wanted to ask you is what have you been doing between "Kyuss" and "Fu Manchu", cuz "jalamanta" that was after "Fu Manchu" or during "Fu Manchu"? BB: during! I left "Kyuss" in 93 and I moved to Humboldt County in Northern California. It's on the coast, it's the biggest production of marijuana in North America. 170: heh heh heh... BB: ...heh, and I lived there for a year and then I moved back to the desert and started playing punk rock in a band called "Decon". 170: that
record is on your label now. BB: yeah, and then I started playing guitar in "Fatso Jetson". 170: yeah I read about that, but there was no record of that. BB: there's one recording on a 7" but I don't know where that's at. 170: ah. cuz there's a 7" split "Fu Manchu" and "Fatso Jetson" on sessions records BB: that's the one! 170: that's
the one? I love that one! BB: yeah, I play guitar on that. 170: yeah and you play drums in Fu Manchu. BB: yeah, yeah 170: heh, great! That's a great song, what's it called again? BB: I, ...I don't... 170: heh... BB: and then I was working construction. 170: you were working construction? BB: yeah, in the desert, that's what I used to do, concrete... cht cht cht cht... and Scott Hill called up and asked me to go and join Fu Manchu, I was like yeah that's fine. But actually before that Josh and I were jamming on "Queens" stuff.
170: yeah, early "Desert Sessions" BB: yeah, well not even "Desert Sessions", well, yeah not even "Desert Sessions" yet. It was "Queens", "Queens Of The Stone Age", Josh's. 170: what? "Gamma Ray"?
BB: yeah! Yeah, ...I've got this idea, let's jam. I said ok. We started jamming: tara ra, ra raa - tara ra, ra raa... we started doing all that shit and it was cool but I'd rather play with "Fu Manchu". You know more fun, more relaxing. I knew Josh was gonna make great music and go on and sell records, but... I had already jammed with Josh, heh heh heh... 170: ...heh heh, but with Josh it's still good. BB: yeah it's alright, yeah it's fine. 170: he's a, I think, I never, well I met him once, I never talked to him, just shortly... but I think, well obsessed might be the wrong word, but he's so concentrated on his music, he want's to do it all right and perfect that it's very difficult to have partners in that. He wants to do it, well he doesn't wanna do it all alone, but it ends up like that. Is that impression wrong? BB: no no... well... hmmm... Josh is a very interesting person. He's just a very ah... yeah, musical dictator. Wich is not a bad thing. 170: no. I think it's alright. BB: it's ok. It's just that it is difficult to collaborate... and the music with Josh has always been great. 170: yeah! BB: I mean I made beautiful music with Josh, I love making music with Josh. 170: but you wrote a lot of the "Kyuss" song. BB: yeah, we worked together... heh heh... it's a good wine. 170: oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. my friend, he should show up, where is he? TIBERIO: stuck in the traffic. 170: stuck in the traffic? Hmm, he brought like a big bottle of that wine, five liters. It's from a farmer from Sardinia where he is from and he knows that guy. And it's for you, it's like five liters... BB: dude we brought wine back from Milano, from my girlfriend's family. On the plane, here you go, heh... And "MC5" played in Los Angeles with "Mondo Generator" and we had that wine for like months just stashed, like we didn't wanna... like leave it alone! For something you know... MC5, Mondo Generator, finally cracked it and huuuh... it was fucking killer man! Delizioso. So, parla italiano? You guys all speak italian? 170: yeah, yeah. BB: I love that. Italians are rad! 170: I don't know, I don't know, it's difficult. I love Italy, I am italian. But you know beeing italian you can criticize it. And I have a lot to criticize. BB: heh haah heh, you gotta be proud, hah... 170: I don't know if proud is the right word. I don't know, I get along better with spanish people, they are also laid back but they don't try to like... italians try to , they're very friendly and everything, but they want something back. They... not all of them, but generally. And that's , I don't like that so much. BB: they're like... paesano. They wanna get over it, what's in it for me. You know what I mean, what's in it for me. 170: yeah, yeah right I don't dig that. BB: can I do something for you? It's like no! Becouse then you're gonna want something back, heh heh! It's like no, I don't want anything from you. That's how italians are. There's always a string attached. 170: that's what I'm saying. And the spanish don't have that so much. BB: the spanish aren't quite as masculine as the italians. Italians are very masculine. But see your half, so there's a difference there. Like I'm half mexican. I'm mexican - irish and so... uhm... I think that's why I get along, with like... for some reason all my friends growing up have been mostly italians. 170: oh really? BB: yeah and in the United States I think it's becouse I'm only half mexican and half irish, so it almost like equals the mindset of an american italian. You know what I'm saying. Cuz I was always... with the mexicans... I had alot of mexican friends but I'm only half mexican. You know what I'm saying, it's only half wich is important. Becouse a full mexican is very different than a half mexican, very different, in Southern California. And you know it's just intresting culture like that, when you're not full. 170: yes, it's also difficult at times. Like my childhood was a bit weird. I grew up in a military base, like mostly italians there, but it was in a part of Italy where all the people there and the kids were germans, but I didn't really get along with them cuz like I was a foreigner. Whatever... so I grew up in italian surroundings but like sort of a colony, was weird. Then we moved to a bigger town, where it's half italian and half german. So there it was different, it was a bit easier, still it was a bit weird cuz I was coming from somewhere where they would speak german but I wasn't... i didn't live that culture cuz I was living in the military base, so it was strange. BB: you're always in the gap, and that's how it was. Always in the gap, that's how I am. 170: it's cool, it makes you tough, somehow. BB: it's difficult, but it's important. Becouse we link it together. We're the messengers. 170: heh... yeah, I like that. BB: serious! There's gotta be the ambassadors... 170: ...I love scandinavia. I think it's my favorite part of the world. Like most of my friends are scandinavians. I don't know they are just... BB: nice people. My dad had raised me in swedish. that's why I have Bjork, but he's not my father by blood. He's swedish and he's just...mmh! Good people, the swedes are good people. 170: yeah, yeah. But your not touring so much in Scandinavia, I'm surprised. BB: Well we just haven't had the time. We're so busy that we haven't had the time to locate scandinavian promoters. Becouse you see we do all this our selves. We don't have a record label organizing, setting up a tour plan, we do it all our selves. And so, Europe is so big and there's so many countrys that are still yet for us to meet promotors, to go up there. You know and getting into Sweden and Norway it's a lot of money, to drive that far. 170: oh, but you could play a gig every 30 kilometers, heh... BB: ...heh, yes this is true. But we're just concentrating, we're breaking Europe into markets. You know, just to organize the touring effort we don't have the money to aimlessly tour Europe we have to be very specific with the budget that we have to work with. So Germany, Switzerland, we do well in Belgium, London is always good and then we're tapping into Italy, I'd like to go to Austria. And then when we come back we'll start tapping into Sweden. You know just slowly start, gotta tap into these markets, I'd love Sweden. I wanna go bad, you know, next year, next year we'll go to Sweden. 170: one
of my friends, he's norwegian, he knows Turbonegro very well, he's BB: they're from Oslo? 170: yeah, it's a town not far from Oslo, he's working for volcom now. And, yeah, well anyway, I gave him your record, "jalamanta"... and he loved it. BB: yeah scandinavia is great, great bands too, "Hellacopters"... 170: "Euroboys"! There's so much diverse music coming from there. It's almost unbelievable, like Sweden, it's just eight millions of people there and... there's gotta be something in the water over there. BB: they... the swedes, they attach themselves to a specific... like rock and roll, american rock and roll and they'll learn everything about it. The coolest, like you know what I mean, I don't know how to explain it. 170: professionalism? BB: professionalism! Perfectionists on a colture. Like you have prfectionism in math, in engineering, you know. The swedes are perfectionists in rock colture! Know what I mean, they're like MC5+Stooges+Funkadelic plus fuckin'... the Doors equals, you know what I mean, and like... and they wear the... and the sounds and amplifiers and the moves and they got it down and it's fuckin' great, you know what I mean it's very cool. 170: you just mentioned Funkadelic. I bought "Maggot Brain". BB: wowyeah! 170: becouse of you! BB: oh yeah? 170: I found it on vinyl and I read an iterview with you where you said you're very into reggae, you're a big reggae fan? BB: yeah,
yeah! 170: but not only reggae, you also like George Clinton's stuff. So, Funkadelic I remembered that and as I saw the vinyl "Maggott Brain" I bought it and it's great. BB: did you like it? 170: yeah, yeah, yeah! BB: they're fuckin' bad! They're from Detroit, early '70s, very heavy! 170: it's also political, that record. BB: oh yeah, yeah. Very mental, they're very mental. Black dudes you know oppressed black dudes in Detroit. Detroit is a hard town, very very oppressed city. Ah, Rock Action the drummer of the Stooges, he used to go see Funkadelic all the time. 170: oh you mean from the new, from the reunion, no that's the real one... BB: oh no, he's the original drummer of the stooges. 170: oh, Ashton! Yeah I got it. BB: well Ashton is his... ahm... 170: you said action, didn't you? BB: well, they call him Rock Action his name is Ron... 170: yeah, Ron Ashton. BB: well what's the brother's? There's Ron Ashton and then there's... Scott Ashton. It's Scott Ashton. 170: Scott Ashton, yeah Scott Ashton, I love him. BB: he's, they call him Rock Action. 170: I have the Wylde Ratttz on those CD's. You know who the Wylde Ratttz are? BB: no, I don't know. 170: oh? They did a whole record. It's Mark Arm from... BB: oh Mudhoney! 170: Mudhoney, yeah! He sings, sounds like Iggy, heh! And Ron Ashton plays guitar then there's Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth also on guitar and oh yeah...uhm... fuck...hmmm... I'm not very good at names, but... let's see... he's a legend, of ah... just forgot the band too, I can't beleive it! BB: I'm like that, I'm like that... 170: he's... recently he had a beard, he's from San Pedro, well he lives in San Pedro... BB: Mike Watt? 170: yeah!! Mike Watt, on bass! BB: it's my favorite bass player! 170: he plays in the Stooges now, doesn't he? BB: yeah when I saw 'em it was Mike Watt! 170: yeah, he was playing there. BB: you ever seen him? 170: never, no. BB: (whistles)... the best!! 170: I don't know if he plays now, in the Stooges. BB: I don't think he does, man unfortunately. But he's my favorite bassplayer of all time. Minutemen! He's from the Minutemen! 170: right, that's the band I was thinking of. BB: Firehose and... 170: Firehose and with his wife,yeah. BB: tkz tkz, the best! Yeah, Funkadelic though. The Stooges used to go see Funkadelic, in the early seventies man. Cuz you know, that's what the Stooges are. They're tryin' to , it's just like. White Dudes, you know, fixin' up and like trying to play black grooves and that's what the Stooges is. 170: heh heh, but also after, well anyway, the gutar playing Ashton, after him there was another guitar player. Williamson. BB: yeah, James Williamson! 170: James Williamson, he was just an amazing guitar player, but he quit music altogether, I think he's an engineer now, somewhere in California, read it somewhere. BB: really? They're just wackos, those guys. Wackos! 170: the bass player of the original stooges, Dave Alexander, his bass licks are just... like afterwards Ashton played bass, but it wasn't, well it's still good, cuz the guitar sound is actually better than his own. Even if his own record, or the first two, are great. There's amazing songs on, so raw and primitive.
BB: yeah very primitive! 170: somewhere I read a description of it, it said the Stooges are like a tribal, like an african tribe... african tribal music with jets overhead. BB: totally! Hah hah hah, totally dude! 170: it explain it so much, it's raw, brutal it's wild. BB: it's great dude. Well they like, they remind me of Vietnam, you know. 170: yeah, agent orange. BB: yeah, you know what I mean. Palm trees and war. TIBERIO: there's some messages from Luca. 170: oh, this friend of mine from Sardinia, that is stuck in the traffic he sent me some questions for you, let me see. BB: huh, heh heh... 170: well basically he asks... if there's any new bands, well like bands that are not so popular that you dig. That you could... like say... listen to those bands. BB: hm, that's a good one, uhm... 170: I recently saw a band opening for the Von Bondies, I'm sure you know the Von Bondies, they've been hyped here in Europe. BB: what are they called? 170: Von Bondies. They've been produced by Jack White from the White Stripes. He (Jason Stollsteimer the singer/guitarist of the Von Bondies) had a fight with Jack White, it's been in every paper and Jack White punched him very hard and he had to go to the hospital, there was a legal issue. And anyway Jack White produced their first album. You know there's no big difference between the White Stripes and the Von Bondies, just the Von Bondies have two girls, oh yeah it's not so raw like the White Stripes, just drummer and guitar. It's him playing guitar, actually he plays italian guitars, Eko. BB: cool! 170: think they're not produced anymore, seems to dig 'em, yeah I got one too, they're cheap but he's very proud of them. Heh heh, I was surprised. BB: heh heh, I play mexican Stratocasters they're very cheap too, heh heh... 170: heh, yeah, so that guy played in Munich recently and we went to see that show... and BTW it was good! I loved... there's that girl playing guitar and she's just... wooaw, i fell in love with her. This little blond gal, no actually think she was a red head, she looks very much like irish. And she's so small and she had an SG and this massive Marshall thing behind her, you know... BB: hmmm, hm hm... 170: and high heels and she was dancing there infront of me., oh man! I loved her, though she wasn't really good at guitar. BB: didn't matter, hah hah... 170: and then there was an other girl playing bass and she sang a song too, she's a good musician. The other girl, I don't know about her music but she looks just so hot, she totally... she's got her place there, heh heh... BB: heh hah hah... 170: and (got carried away big time, well gals... you know) anyway, there was a band opening for that band and they're from Los Angeles they're called IMA Robot. BB: oh yeah, I know, I jammed with them. 170: oh yeah?! I've never heard of them, and their show was just so great! BB: their great! They're very like new wave. 170: yeah! BB: like Bowie, Devo, yeah! They're cool I've actually played drums with them, just jamming for one day. IMA Robot they're good! 170: yeah, and this was just a great show. The singer is a total nut case. BB: yeah he's a (whistles)... 170: heh heh! He had a shirt on, he must have had it on for months, during the show. And it said (written on it with a marker) "kill 'em and take their land" and underneath it like signed by "god" BB: hah hah hah... 170: and he had a t-shirt wrapped around his waist, looked like diapers, like little babys have. And then he took out a ten dollar note or something and I don't know he wanted to sell something, 10 dollars for a kiss or something, I don't remember, it was just great. TIBERIO: no, a tissue. 170: oh yeah! He had a tissue, he was taking the sweat off him with the tissue and he was trying to sell it to the audience.
BB: unbelievable... 170: and they're great musicians. The bass player, wow! BB: awsome! 170: also the guitar player! BB: did he have a mohawk? 170: no, he didn't, he had a firebird bass and wooow! BB: he used to play bass with beck! 170: with Beck?! I love Beck, yes. BB: the guy is a great bass player. All those musicians are great musicians. I know those guys I see 'em all the time in LA, they're friends of my girlfriend. 170: really?! They're on a major though. They're on Virgin. BB: Virgin yeah, Virgin. 170: I've never heard of them. BB: yeah don't know that... man, funny band, they're a good band, very good band. I don't know any good... I know a lot of new music that I'm listening too that are great, but they're bands that like don't have records out. You know like "Vic Du Monte's Idiot Prayer". You know it's like Chriss Cockrell, that is my best friend, that I, you know I... 170: oh! I wanted to ask you! What happened with that guy?! Kyuss!! He started with "Kyuss", he's one of the founding members. BB: yes! Me and Chriss, we started the whole band. Well he went on. He's always played music and just live... you know he's a fuckin' freak. But he has a band now called "Vic Du Monte's Idiot Prayer" 170: I gotta write that down... BB: fuckin' wasome man, it's amazing man and that is... 170: a friend of mine just got a hold of the first "Kyuss" record, "Sons Of Kyuss" is he on that record? BB: yeah he was playing bass and Nick Oliveri and Josh Homme were playing guitar ------ editor: unfortunately the battery ran out at this point so 20 minutes of the interview were not ment for you. Basically Brant was telling stories about early Kyuss and we drank some more wine, somehow the last few minutes got recorded anyway. So that's how the interview ended: BB: ------the wine was delicious man! 170: well you'll get a lot of it. BB: it was great man. 170: I'm looking so much forward to the show. BB: yeah it's gonna be fun man, it will be great. 170: I'm so sorry I couldn't make it to Rotterdam, last time. BB: ah, that's ok. Next time we'll play more shows in Italy. 170: hopefully I can set up that show in Innsbruck. Cuz I think it should be a great show. I wanted to do it desperately this time araound.I tryed every thing to make it happen but in the end it wasn't possible. I had like two weeks of time and I needed money from sponsors so I did a flyer, a sketch of the flyer to get something out of volcom. BB: oh yeah volcom. 170: so what do you think of that, can I go on with that flyer or do you think it's crap? BB: no, it's cool man! 170: alright I'll elaborate that one then. I'd wanna do that show. BB: that would be awsome. 170: it's in a place, were the capacity of the place is like 500 people (treibhaus turm) but it's on three floors, there's like balconies. So even if there's only 200 people there, the place would still be packed and if there's almost 500 people it'll be freakin, cuz it's like a tower full of people. BB: let's do it man! Start setting up the show dude, we'll fuckin' play! 170: I will! You know, yeah! See you later. BB: allright guys. Good talking to you. 170: thanx! Eh Misdemeanor, swedish band, chick band (Brant had a Misdemeanor shirt on) BB: yeah, Misdemeanor, good friends of mine! You've seen 'em? 170: heh heh, no, but I have a record of them. BB: they're pretty bad! 170: five wheel drive! BB: heh heh! 170: ciao! BB: ciao guys! editor: the interview was broadcasted on a special edition of the "rancho de las guitarras" radio show (2004/07/27) click here to view the playlist of the show
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170:
Cambodian Rock?!
from the same town.
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