Outlaws Nation Joint Interview: An Interview with CHILD

It's been a while since Matthew over at Taste Nation LLC and myself participated with a joint interview. We decided to interview rising Aussie Hard Rock/Blues/Stoner Rock Trio – CHILD.

CHILD first burst onto the scene in 2014 with their celebrated and acclaimed self titled debut album. It won a wide range of praise from fans and critics alike. CHILD have just released their incredible new album – Blueside – which has seen their reputation enhanced further.

CHILD play a soulful kind of Blues/Stoner Rock with a lot of room for heavy riffs amongst the tender moments. CHILD have kindly agreed to doing this interview. So lets get started.

OOTS – Outlaws Of The Sun

TN – Taste Nation

OOTS – Hi guys. Thanks for doing this joint interview with myself and Matthew from Taste Nation. How things with you all today.

Very well! Looking forward to talking with you

TN – There seems have been a lot of albums released this past year (2016) that are rock albums with various levels of blues mixed in. On the contrary, you fine gents have produced a stellar BLUES ROCK album!! That said, where/who are your sources of influence?

In our case influence comes from anywhere that turns us on. Apart from the obvious, we draw a lot of good feelings from late 60’s early 70’s Australian Music. Acts Like Billy Thorpe and The Aztecs, Masters Apprentices, Coloured Balls and Chain to name a few.

OOTS – Congrats on your excellent new album. What can people expect from the album.

We tried to be as honest as we could with this record. We hope it gets listened to and felt as opposed to just being heard.

TN – The progression from your debut to "Blueside" is pretty significant. Was your approach to this album different?

For this record we took more time to utilise pre production and played the songs live as much as we could before recording them. 

OOTS – It seems you guys have came out of nowhere over the last few years and created quite an impact within the Stoner Rock community Has it surprised you the way people have enjoyed your music and the Stoner Rock community in general.

We are really happy people are enjoying what we do. We like the idea of appealing to whoever feels it. Can’t thank all the supporters enough.

TN – What comes first, lyrics or music?

Whichever feels right at the time.

OOTS – What is the songwriting dynamic within the band. Is it a group collective or is it down to one individual.

Some songs come from preconceived and others come from jams. No song is completed without the whole input of each member of Child. It has always worked out best for us when we play and write as a unit.

TN – "Blueside" is garnering quite a bit of positive praise among the Independent / Underground community. Has this bled into any commercial attention like radio airplay?

There has been a great show of affection for ‘Blueside’ so far but no commercial attention that we know of as yet.

OOTS – Has touring Australia on a regular basis helped you prepare physically and mentally to do a more gruelling tour abroad. And will you be touring Europe anytime soon.

It definitely has because Australia and Indonesia aren’t the easiest places tour. By the time we got Europe at the end of 2015. We had developed a good enough work ethic to tour at length without too much problem. We are looking to get back to Europe in mid 2017.

OOTS – The album is being released on Kozmik Artifactz again. How did you hook up with them. Did you have any other offers to release your album.

Kozmik Artifactz produce top notch releases and we had no reservations working with them again.

TN – Why did you call the album “Blueside”. Any specific meaning to you as a group.

It’s a combination of words that we used to describe the mood of the record.

OOTS/TN – Well guys thanks for doing this interview. Much appreciated. All the best with your new album and future endeavours Hopefully we will see you both in concert if your ever near our respective home–towns in the United States and United Kingdom. Do you have anything else you wanted to say to your fans.

Thanks to all of you for the support. Cant wait to get back to Europe and over to the states to play for you.

Words by Steve Howe, Matthew Thomas and CHILD

Thanks to CHILD for doing this interview. Blueside is available to buy now on CD/DD/Vinyl from Kozmik Artifactznow.

Links:

Official | Facebook | BandCamp

Taste Nation LLC - A Music Consortium – Links

Official | Facebook | Twitter

Outlaws Nation Joint Interview: An Interview with PAT HARRINGTON from GEEZER

My good friend Matthew from Taste Nation thought it was time to do another joint interview. We thought who could we ask this time. The answer was pretty simple when we listened to GEEZER's incredible new self-titled album.

This is an album that impressed Matthew and myself straight away. We were blown away by the different sound and dynamics that Geezer have included on their new album. We both agree that this is one of the best Stoner Rock albums of the year and we had to find out more about the making of the album.

I'm happy to say that the Diamond Geezer himself – The Electric Beard Of Doom aka Pat Harrington (Guitars/Vocals) has kindly agreed to do this interview. It's always a blast catching up with Pat. I've had the pleasure to interview him previously and he's always a great person to interview and this is no different. Well apart from doing a joint interview with Matthew.

Anyway. I've gone on long enough. Lets see what Pat has to say....

OOTS – Hi Pat. Thanks for doing this joint interview. Congrats on the new album. You already know my thoughts on this. How are things with you today.

Pat (PH):Excellent, thank you! Thanks especially for your great review! It actually took us rather off guard.

TN - A huge Congrats on this beast of an album. Bands would be jealous to release a "Best Of" album of this caliber. Super tight percussion that keeps the album progressing seamlessly, thunderous bass-lines that provide massive Groove that one's head bobbing. The aforementioned allows for the fine (and diverse) guitar work to roam and offer the listener something fresh and new from start to finish...............Again, Congrats!!

PH: Thanks! Again, very kind words. It’s only been a week or so since it’s been released to the press, but we’re already pretty shocked about how well the album is being received.

TN - After that diatribe, what was your recording process like? Was it spread out over days, weeks, months…….?

PH: It was a quick process actually. We did all the basics over the course of two days, then I took a couple of days to do some guitar overdubs at home. Vocals were recorded shortly after that. We’ve been basically finished since late March, so it’s great to FINALLY have the album see the light of day. Even though we still have to wait another month or so for it to be released publicly… sheesh!

OOTS – Did you do anything differently when recording this album compared to your other records. Was this an easy album to record for.

PH: It was very easy. We recorded with our long time engineer/mixer, Matthew Cullen (who also recorded and mixed the new Shadow Witch album) and we did it at a friend’s studio, The Isokon in Woodstock, NY. It was the first time we recorded there and it was a fantastic experience, good vibes all around. Because of the way the studio is set up, we were able to get much more separation between all the instruments and therefore, we were able to manipulate them more freely.

This is also the first album to include Richie on bass. He is a completely different kind of player than Freddy (our original bass player) and our sound and approach to songwriting changed because of that. The other difference is, for really the first time, these songs were developed over the course of a year and were road tested pretty heavily, so we all had a solid grip on what we were going to do in the studio. Which is, with the exception of our first album, pretty unusual for us.

TN - Did you "test" the new tracks at live shows to 'Gage' people's response?

PH: We did. We played more shows last year than we’d ever done before. We also focused on developing the new material so we were really able to figure out what worked, what didn’t, etc. With the exception of “Dust”, every song on the album had been played numerous times live. The bonus track on the CD, “Stoney Pony” is actually a re-working of our song “Pony”, which was on the first album. So that one’s been around for years.

OOTS – The album is being released on STB Records and Ripple Music. Perhaps two of the best independent record labels currently out there. Did you guys have offers from other labels. Or was their no hesitation in signing for anybody else.

PH: They''re both amazing labels to work with, so we didn’t even consider anyone else. I mean, Ripple has become a force of nature over the last few years and nobody does vinyl better than STB. In addition, everything we’ve done up to this point has been building up to this album. We wanted to make sure both labels were involved, so we can all enjoy it together.

OOTS – Can you give any details on the Vinyl release from STB Records. What kind of editions will be released and did you have any involvement with the final design. Or was this left down to Steve STB.

PH: As usual, the STB release will be complete with their now legendary Die Hard and OBI versions as well as a Standard and World Wide distro versions. We went a little long with this one so it’s actually going to be a 3 sided double album which will include a bonus track that won’t be available anywhere else. Josh Wilkinson from The Company Design did all the artwork and layout. Steve and I contributed to the ideas, but Josh took the lead in putting the package together.

In addition, and I’m letting the cat out of the bag here, the Die Hard version will include a separate live album which consists of one 33 minute instrumental (and mostly improvised) track called “A Flagrant Disregard For Happiness”.

This was recorded back in April at a venue called BSP here in Kingston at this years Hudson Valley Psych Fest. The show included It’s Not Night: It’s Space (who curates the show), Ecstatic Vision and Turco’s other project, Ultraam. Due to these circumstances, we wanted to do something different and Turco was the one who really set the thing in motion. As the ideas developed, he decided that he wanted to play baritone guitar for this, so we got our friend Dan Goodwin (who owns The Isokon) to sit behind the drums.

It was basically a one time thing and came out beautifully. It’s unlike anything we’ve ever done before and we’re extremely excited for people to hear it. Much more information about this will start to trickle out in the coming weeks.

TN - Pat, you're one Hell of a Storyteller!! To quote you in 'Superjam Maximus', "We lay it down with the Thickness....." I couldn't agree more. A major component of the thickness, is the effective use of your trademark Raspy, Tom Waite's like vocals and the subject matters you sing about keeps the listener engaged and 51+ minutes fly by. Do you have a set writing process? Do you write the music and then do the lyrics follow?

PH: Thank you! The vocals almost always come after the music. I consider myself a guitarist first, so my writing process is very centered around that perspective. Usually the mood of the song will dictate the melodies (if you can call them that) and lyrics. Many times lyrics will spring up from a single phrase or word association. Sometimes I don’t even know what the song is about until after it’s done.

OOTS – Was this one of the hardest albums you ever written or recorded.

PH: Not at all. These songs were almost always born out of jams, we were all standing in the same room when we recorded them and we usually only had to do two or three takes to get them down. With the exception of a punch or two, “Sun Gods” was actually done in one take. That being said, we definitely put a lot of time and effort into developing these songs. By the time we got down to recording them, we pretty much knew them inside and out.

TN - The album crossovers and melds many genres from Space & neo-Psychedelia to guitar heavy, riff Rock. How would you classify the album's sound? What your opinion of all the genre and sub-genres that exist and your thoughts on what defines an a song or album as Stoner Rock? Your thoughts on the use of the Stoner Rock designation which many describe your album as?

PH: Honestly, I don’t get too hung up on genre labels, it’s way too exhausting. I just dig heavy, trippy, groovy shit. It’s what I like, it’s what I’m good at and I’m too old to care at this point. As a band, every album has been different simply because we like to be creative and try different things. That’s what makes the whole thing fun. I will say, however, that early on in the song writing process, when it was clear that things were yet again going in a different direction, there was a moment where we took on the mantra of “Fuck it”. Let’s just do what we want.

OOTS – Was that an easy decision to make to release something different. Did you think you would alienate your fans with this new sound.

PH: Yes it was, but honestly, I don’t see it really as that different. To me it’s just an extension of ideas that we’ve touched on before. I still think of the band as a heavy blues band at our core. A lot of the bands I grew up on (Sabbath, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, etc…), they all changed as time went on. That is one of the things that is so exciting to me about the “Heavy Rock Underground”. No one is dictating to us who to be or what to do, nobody is harassing us for a “radio hit” (whatever that is).

As far as the labels go, they’ve never second guessed anything we’ve sent them. We’ve had the time and space to take a journey with our music, just like bands used to do back in the 60’s and early 70’s. As someone who’s had some varying success in the “mainstream”, I can tell you personally that there is nothing worse than trying to write a radio hit or writing music to fit a certain mold. I like to write different kinds of songs and let them stand on their own. The fact that so many people are responding positively to what we’re doing? That’s just validation that we’re on the right track.

TN - What contemporary Bands do you like? Do you have any guilty pleasures like Foo Fighters or Debbie Gibson that you would like to share with us?

PH: I’m weird, I go through many musical phases. I tend to focus on a certain band or genre for extensive amounts of time, almost like I’m studying it. There was a time during ’08-’09 where I literally only listened to the Melvins for about a year. After that, I spent about 3 years listening to and learning how to play old school blues (Charley Patton, Son House, Blind Willie Johnson, etc.). Eventually these influences get incorporated into the way I play guitar and the way I think about music. Nowadays, especially because of my involvement with the Electric Beard Of Doom podcast, I listen to a lot of the heavy underground stuff. For me, it just feels like home (for now).

Some of the current bands that are inspiring to me are Wo Fat, King Buffalo, Egypt, Sinister Haze, Sons Of Otis, Acid King… I could go on and on and I know I’m forgetting some. The new Brant Bjork album is friggin outstanding! He’s a great example of someone who just does what he pleases and it all kicks ass. One of the coolest cats on the planet!

Guilty pleasures? I dunno… Like I said, I dig heavy, trippy shit. I did a stretch as a Deadhead back in the late 80’s/early 90’s. That was my backlash against metal, I guess. But, that is also where I learned how to improvise. I used to play along to live Dead albums all the time, just learning the fretboard. That stuff is still with me today. I’ve been on a big ZZ Top kick lately. The real early stuff… I know, shocker!

OOTS – Pat you're always busy with your excellent show – Electric Beard Of Doom. Is that a hard process for you to be involved with along with your commitment to Geezer.

PH: The Beard is a labor of love. I’m about to close out my 4th year doing it and it’s more popular than ever! For that, I am very grateful. It can get tough sometimes because there are only so many hours in a day. I’ve been known to take a few weeks, even months off at a time from doing the podcast. Many times this is because I’m busy with Geezer or other things. It’s all about balance and keeping it fresh and exciting. I still dig the creative process of making the show, but it can be very time consuming. As long as people keep listening, I’m gonna keep doing it.

OOTS – Do Richie and Turco have any other commitments outside of Geezer. Any other bands.

PH: Turco is involved in a few other projects. He has a band called Chron Turbine, which lately has become more of a one man kind of thing. He actually just released a tape through Peterwalkee Records called “II”, I highly recommend you check it out.

As I mentioned before, he is also involved in a project called Ultraam, which also includes Matthew Cullen (who by the way, did that crazy guitar solo at the end of “Sun Gods”). He’s an incredible guitar player and musician. Dan Goodwin is also involved. They do purely improvisational pieces that gravitate between kraut rock/free noise and any other number of genres depending on what day it is. They’re more of a collective than a band and are truly amazing to watch. Richie and I are both just banging away with Geezer at the moment.

TN - Will the Geezer be hitting the road on an extensive tour to support the album or have multiple, shorter outings? For selfish reason, will you be coming to Southern California to play??

PH: Extensive touring is not really in the cards for us for various reasons. That being said, we are really gunning for Europe in 2017. We’ve been working with Total Volume Booking on putting something together and hopefully we’ll hit some of the festivals next year. There is some talk about doing more stuff in the US, I guess we’ll see how things play out with the album. If there is enough of a demand, we’ll try and do as much as we can.

TN - Thanks again for your time and congrats on a Ripper of an Album. It will surely be on people's End of the Year lists. Cheers!!

PH: Thanks so much for your interest in the band and your very kind words about the new album! You guys put together a very enjoyable interview.

OOTS – Yeah I concur with Matthew. It's a brilliant album. I wish you every success with it.

PH: Steve, it’s always an honor and a privilege to talk to you. Thanks again!

Written by Steve Howe, Matthew Thomas and Pat Harrington

I want to thank Pat for taking the time to talking to both Matthew and myself. Thanks to Richard at Sheltered Life PR for arranging this interview.

Geezer will be released on CD/DD via Ripple Music and Vinyl via STB Records from November 18th 2016.

Geezer Links:

Facebook | BandCamp

Electric Beard Of Doom Links:

Facebook | Mixcloud | Twitter

Taste Nation LLC - A Music Consortium – Links:

Official | Facebook | Twitter

Outlaws Of The Sun/Taste Nation Joint Interview: ZED - Back From The Dead And Causing Trouble In Paradise

Matthew and myself had a great time doing our previous joint interview with SlowGreen Thing. We decided to do another one. We thought who should we contact. The answer was pretty simple. We both decided pretty quickly on San Jose Blues/Hard Rock/Stoner Rockers – ZED.

We are both huge fans of ZED and their blend of Hard Rock/Stoner Rock riffs. They have a new album coming out soon called – Trouble In Eden. For this album, they've teamed up with Powerhouse Record Label – Ripple Music – to release the album. Trouble In Eden is a stunning album on every level and it's only going to enhance ZED's already great reputation.

We wanted to find out what's changed since their last album – Desperation Blues and why did they sign with Ripple Music. (Yeah, stupid question I know but I wanted to find out more).

ZED have kindly agreed to this interview with Matthew and myself. So here goes...

OOTS – Outlaws Of The Sun

TN – Taste Naton

OOTS – Hi guys. Thanks for doing this interview. How are things with you today. So what can people expect from your new album.

Things are going great, thanks! We are excited and gearing up for the release of our new album “Trouble In Eden” on August 26^th through Ripple Music! I think that when people hear this album, whether they are familiar with us or not, they will really latch on to the big grooves, which is our signature. We approached this record with two things in mind, big grooves and solid song structures. Those familiar with our previous albums will see a noticeable growth in musicianship as well. We spent a year banging the songs around and working out the kinks and it shows! It was a year of blood, sweat, tears, laughter and fights!!

TN - Congrats on a tremendous album in 'Trouble in Eden!' This is a beast from start to finish.  What was your approach in writing this album?  Was it the same or different from your previous two releases?

The writing process for this one was a little bit different because we as a band are always so riff-driven or riff-focused, playing from the gut, which in itself isn’t a bad thing, but we have a pattern with our writing where we would slap riffs together and call it a song. What we started doing with our previous album, which really came into fruition on this album was approaching a song from BOTH a gut/feel perspective and a cerebral perspective where we still find and ride the big grooving riffs but we piece them together and arrange them in a more thoughtful way to hopefully create a better song experience.

TN - I may be biased because I'm a huge fan of the band, but it seems you guys pay attention to the details.  Ranging from the interplay of the double guitars, heavy bass lines and drums that keeps the album moving at it's fast tempo, 'Trouble in Eden' will no doubt raise your status in the world of heavy rock!!  With the millions of Genres & Sub-Genres out there, how would you classify your music?

Good question! The funny thing about our music is that when we first started out in ’07, the listeners who really got and understood us were the people in the Stoner Rock scene, who have opened their arms and accepted us above and beyond any other genre or scene. However, when you hear us, it’s apparent we are not your textbook stoner rock band. We are influenced by the big classic rock bands heavily as well, but we also incorporate other styles as well as more contemporary influences. Our stated purpose when we started out was to write what we felt were just great rock songs, and not worry about genres or labels. The only concern was asking ourselves what does the song call for and does it make the song better, even if it’s a cliché. Song is king with us.

OOTS – What did you differently when recording Trouble In Eden compared to your last album Desperation Blues.

When we did Desperation Blues we recorded it all at once in one studio. This time around we got the opportunity to go down to Southern California and record all the drum tracks in the home studio of Eric Kretz, the drummer from Stone Temple Pilots, who has an incredible drum tracking studio on his property. We got to spend about 4 days at his compound working with him and his engineer to make the drums sound HUGE! That was an amazing experience being there and even just hanging out with Eric and hearing some amazing stories about the music industry. Then we brought the tracks back home and finished the rest with our producer/engineer Tim Narducci who did an amazing job on this one as well as Desperation Blues.

OOTS – Did you learn any difficult lessons when recording your last album that you didn't want to repeat with the new album.

Whenever you go in to record an album, there will always be new things that crop up and challenge you in some way, and they are usually things that are completely unexpected, while the things you anticipated as being difficult, you end up just blazing through. Due to a medical emergency that hit our producer, we had to wait about a month between doing drums and recording the rest of the instruments, so the challenge was making sure we played the songs correctly as they were a month before, because sometimes songs are like living, evolving things that continue to change even after you record them! Just doing our due diligence was probably the biggest thing.

TN - Did everyone start playing and singing in the womb or start a little later in life?

I wish I started earlier!! I think we all started playing music seriously in our teens, and it just grew from there. I had piano lessons as a kid but was never really into it. When I was about 12 I saw Back to the Future and suddenly wanted to be Marty McFly with a red strat and I was saving up my money to get one, but then I discovered Iron Maiden and was immediately fascinated with Steve Harris as a bass player and decided to go to bass! I haven’t stopped since!

Matthew with his ZED collection

TN - Title Track 'Trouble in Eden' & 'High Indeed' stand out to me as both are superbly written both musically and lyrically? They both seem to have a similar theme?  Where/How/Who is Eden?

Glad you picked up on it. The album as a whole has something of a running theme, which the album and song title, Trouble in Eden, represents. That being that this world, which was once Eden, a place of paradise, is in serious trouble, at the hands of humankind. Whether it be the ecological disasters that have happened and will happen because of humanity’s abuse of land and resources, the manmade plagues of war and poverty driven by people hungry for power, or our own internal struggles and battles we fight daily. Just look around and see there IS trouble in Eden. And we wanted the cover art to convey the same thing, which is why we chose a representation of the Hindu goddess Kali, who in her duality is the goddess of destruction as well as a gentle mother, and in her hands are things that represent life and death, good and evil.

OOTS – The album is being released by the fine folks over at Ripple Music. How did you hook up with them.

Funny story! The first guy to ever write a review of us was Bill Goodman, The Evil Engineer, who gave our first album its very first review back in 2010. He had told me about Ripple Music and how we should hook up with them way back in the day, but for whatever reason, I never followed up on it. Apparently, he had also told them about us, but they didn’t follow up on it either. Fast forward 5 years and our album Desperation Blues has been out for awhile and I start looking at online record distributors and see Heavy Ripples, which is Ripple Music’s independent distribution vehicle.

So I reach out to them about our album and we make an agreement, so when I send it to them, Todd Severin, who is the label owner, listens to our album and luckily dug it enough to make his partner, Pope, listen to it and finally after Pope listened to it, he dug it too. Then they came out to a show we played in their area and said they wanted to work with us! We were stoked! So then a few weeks later, we signed a deal, and then had to start busting our asses because we had no new songs written, and a record to deliver in a year! We were a little late, but hopefully worth the wait!

TN - How is the local music scene in your hometown of San Jose?

The scene in SJ I’d say is recuperating. Back in the late 90’s and early 00’s it was a really vibrant and thriving scene, but the city ordinances as well as both the gentrification and influx of tech workers who are just not rock oriented, caused the closure of some key venues. So from then until the last couple of years, it was very hard for local bands to find an audience, however I feel that has really begun to change over the past couple of years with a renewed interest in live music and live rock for that matter, San Jose is definitely on the way up again. I’m very optimistic!

TN - You guys are touring The West Coast in support of the album.  I look forward to seeing you guys play Los Angeles at The Viper Room.  What can we expect with a live ZED show?

ZED live shows are usually pretty energetic. We try to bring the energy AND the volume to the stage and really punch the audience in the gut sonically! We also have a lot of fun with it!

TN - Will there be a bigger tour that hits other parts of America?

Yes that will be in spring or summer 2017 once we’ve marketed the album a little bit.

OOTS – I'll add in another touring question. Will you guys be coming over to Europe soon as you have quite a few fans over in Europe.

Absolutely! We are planning to come over summer 2017 to try to hit the festivals and do some touring city to city! We love Europe and the rock fans there are amazing!

TN - Who did your album artwork?  It's pretty amazing!  

I usually do all the artwork for the band myself, but this time I wanted some outside input and an outside perspective on our vision, so we collaborated with a good friend of our named Kiren Bagchee of Kiren In Digital Studios. We basically told him our ideas and the vibe we wanted and he hit it out of the park! His work is beautiful and organic and he has a great eye. We are totally stoked on what he did for us.

TN - Thank you for your time.  To the readers in Los Angeles/Orange County come party with me October 20th when ZED plays The Viper Room!!

Thanks Matt! We Cant wait to see you all and party!! Its gonna be a rager! Thank you for supporting underground music!!

OOTS – Well guys thanks for doing this joint interview with Matthew and myself. Best of luck with the new album. It's a great album. Before you go, do you have anything to say to your fans.

First, thank you Steve for being a longtime advocate for us heavy rock bands in the underground. We appreciate all you do!! Secondly, thanks to everyone over the years who has taken the time to listen to, purchase merch or see the band live! The friendship, feedback and good vibes you give us really make it worthwhile, especially when to going gets tough!! We hope to see you guys soon!

Words by Steve Howe, Matthew Thomas and ZED

Thanks to ZED for taking the time out to talking to us. Trouble In Eden will be available to buy on CD/DD/Vinyl from Ripple Music on August 26^th 2016.

ZED Links

Official | Facebook | BandCamp | Twitter

Taste Nation LLC - A Music Consortium – Links

Official | Facebook | Twitter

Outlaws Of The Sun/Taste Nation LLC Joint Interview with SLOW GREEN THING

Matthew over at Taste Nation LLC - A Music Consortium, has been harassing me for a while to do some interviews together. I said sure, why not. We're both admirers of all things LOUD & HEAVY. The next part was deciding who to interview. Matthew suggested German Sludge/Stoner Rock collective – Slow Green Thing.

I thought that was a great idea. I had just listened to their new album – II, and thought their new album was superb. It's potent mix of Stoner, Sludge, Doom, Psych and Grunge that will hopefully gain these guys a wider fan-base.

If you haven't heard II yet then I recommend stop what you're doing and listen to the album now. It's a thrilling and exciting album from the band. You can read my review here.

Matthew and myself contacted Slow Green Thing and they kindly agreed to do this joint interview which we are both grateful for. Anyway, here's the interview with Slow Green Thing.

TN = Taste Nation

OOTS = Outlaws Of The Sun

OOTS – Hi guys. Thanks for doing this interview. How are things with you today? Welcome to the first joint interview between Taste Nation and Outlaws Of The Sun.

Thanks for the invitation, we are very fine, just released our LP and everyone seems to like it.

TN - Why the name Slow Green Thing? Any connection with the movie "The Blob"

The name was a crackpot idea – we preferred the name “ooze” because it made the teenage mutant ninja turtles mighty - but 1000 other bands like this name too. “ooze” is a green slime. Once our former bass-player said a little depressed in German: “lasst uns doch einfach langsames, grünes etwas als namen nehmen!” (Let’s take a name with words like slow green something in it). So the quick translation of this monologue is finally our name – SLOW (langsames) GREEN (grün) THING (etwas). …...

What the hell is “The Blob” - a must see movie?

OOTS – You've just released your new album – II. Congratulations on such an awesome album. It seems it's becoming quite a favourite amongst the Doom/Stoner Metal community. Have you been pleased with the response it got so far?

After releasing “I” and the very unexpected, positive reactions all over the stoner-world – we had a little clue what could happen, but the reactions for “II” in this very short time after releasing are overwhelming – no one expected that.

TN - I hear the late Layne Staley of Alice in Chains in your Vocals. Are they an influence?

Yes Sir – Alice in Chains are big in influencing the vocal-style and in some riffing (but riffing is more influenced by hard rock from the 70's) – but actually more the last 2 records without Layne, but I still love the Layne records. But “Black Gives Way To Blue” and “The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here” are great records and even darker than all AiC stuff before. It was the main reason to work with harmonies.

OOTS – For a first time listener. How would you describe your band’s music and what surprises awaits them on your new album – II?

It is always difficult to describe your own music. I think to compare it with other bands makes it easier, or to tell the influences – better a third party describes the music – so what would you say if anyone asks you to define Slow Green Thing? ;)

I guess, the unexpected moments for stoner-doom listener could be the solo guitar that is not a classic doom solo-guitar but more Blackmore-style – the other thing is maybe the singing... so SGT mixes a very lot of influences without sorrows about irritating the listener – because we do it all for us in first place – the result seems to be liked by some more people, too ;)

TN - I've noticed you are not signed to a label. Do you prefer the DIY route or are you looking at labels to Partner with?

For “II” we joined FUZZMATAZZ RECORDS and we are very happy with the work of Marek. Without him we would not have done the vinyl.

OOTS – Was it a hard or easy album to write and record for? Looking back would you change anything about II? Or are you happy with the final result?

Song writing is very fast, always – I got some riffing ideas and after 30 minutes with the guys in the rehearsal room, the main framework of the songs is done. It is so much fun with these cool band mates, because it's so easy to make music with'em or it is easy because they are so fine....

For me the record is perfect if you consider the fact time and the money .... of course the sound will never be heavy enough – a production like you can hear from AiC or Monster Magnet is perfect, for me … but for us, everything is fine and we are very proud.

TN - Your favourite band(s) you have shared the stage with?

DOZER (with my old band), GREENLEAF, FARFLUNG, GLOWSUN and on 8th July we will support MONOLORD.

OOTS – What's the song writing dynamic in the group? Is it down to one individual or is it a group collective?

It is a mix – I create the riffing and the vocal base at home. After that in the rehearsal room we fit the stuff together and create the bridges, solos and some other specials and think about the arrangements – in the end every song became a full-band-song.

TN - Are you planning a major Euro tour to support your stellar new album "II?"

No – 3 of 4 have family with very young kids, that and fucking work makes it hard to tour for a longer time – but not to misunderstood – we all love our families and like it very much to spend time with them ;) - work is bullshit, even more… but in the end, we are lazy boys… for me - music would be like work too, if I had to do it too often in row. But I guess 2 weeks of rocking would be OK - I hope you all know what I mean.... but we will see, maybe someday, when people cry for a tour, we will do it. Till now no one asked us for a tour.

OOTS – You're releasing your album on some lovely looking vinyl. Did you have some label help with that or are you releasing it by yourselves?

FUZZMATAZZ RECORDS. It’s actually a small label in middle Germany with some nice bands, so just have a look at it.

TN - Your wide stylistic range can put you on the stage with a wide variety of bands. Do you have a wish-list of who you would like to play with or what festival(s) you guys would like to play?

We rocked the Stoned from the Underground in 2014 and would like to play there again. Also every big Stoner/Doom/Hard Rock Festival (like ROCK IM WALD, DESERTFEST, ROADBURN…), where you can find a big music interested crowd, is always interesting for everyone.

What about bands, we would love to play with... that list is actually never ending - let me dream: Black Sabbath will not end up after “the end” and would ask us…

TN - Just so you know, the Dixie Chicks are making a comeback and are touring.

Oh, really?

TN - From your touring to date, what Country / City has the hottest girls?? Dresden ;) Actually, we don’t see too much chicks on our gigs or festivals, mostly we meet long haired, drunken and stoned dudes with strange habitants.

OOTS - You're from Germany which has a well-respected and vibrant Sludge/Doom/Stoner Metal scene. What is the scene currently like in Germany? Do you have regular opportunities to play gigs in Dresden or do you have to travel to other areas of Germany to perform regularly? If you could change anything about your local music scene, what would it be and why?

It is awesome to live in Dresden if you like that kind of music, almost every week there is a concert in the neighbourhood. A lot of them are stoner/doom/metal stuff. I really hope it will go on this way. I really enjoy visiting concerts of my favourite bands just 5 minutes away from my home.

And our local scene is fine as well – a lot of talented and nice bands to play with, having fun and some beer. We sure travel to some nice gigs and festivals, but then it’s a bit hard to do it work. There are many factors that should be fine…

TN/OOTS – Well guys thanks for doing this interview. We both thank you for taking the time out in doing this joint interview. All the best with the new album. It's a stunning record which we both rate very highly.

Thank you for the request – interesting questions – it was fun!

Cheers from Slow Green Thing and Sven

WEED ON!

Words by Matthew Thomas, Steve Howe and Slow Green Thing

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