BONGZILLA
The Grim Reefer
By: Jumbo
Since the seeds were planted in the mid-'90's, colossal stoner-rock kings BONGZILLA have been sowing their own style of homegrown, psychedelic sludge-core. With a Sabbath-on-downer-encrusted sound that blends billowing rock, clenched-teeth blues and an underground punk attitude, BONGZILLA fire up thunderous mega-rock with a pronounced emphasis on the "big riff". Gateway showcases a BONGZILLA sound fertilized tenfold -- simultaneously aggressive and mellow – with thunderous percussion, smoke-seared vocals and infectious, fuzzed-out riffs baked to perfection.
- Originally translated by: George Seki
- From the pages of EAT! Magazine (with kind permission and compliments).
- Interview with Mike-ZILLA / BONGZILLA
Mike-Zillah: How's it going?
JUMBO: Pretty good. How about you?
Not too bad. Sitting' back stoned. He he.
Heavily?
We've been smoking for an hour, almost. We were out at a friend's tattoo shop before that, then we had to do an interview for a local paper, so we smoked during the interview. Spanky and Cooter Brown are here too.
OK, on with the interview. First of all, we heard that your gear was stolen and all -- what happened?
Well, we played a gig on Thursday night, and we parked our van where we always park at our guitar player's house, and we didn't unload our gear. They came and took the whole van. We kinda think we know who did it.
So your van is also gone...
Yeah, we just bought a new van, and our gear is going to be sent from England soon, and I need to get a guitar, but otherwise everything's pretty tight. Our drummer got a set. It's not quite what we want to do, but we'll be back going, stronger than ever! We start October 29th in the States with TODAY IS THE DAY for like, 2 months. We hope to get our gear back, but (even) if we don't, we're going to be fine. We're about to tour for almost 3 months straight, probably. And hopefully come to Japan and Europe. We want to, bad. We're itchin'.
The new album Gateway is the best material ever by BONGZILLA, but do you feel the same way too?
Oh yeah, 100%. I still like Apogee a lot, but those 2 records are where I've wanted to be for the longest time. I like Stash and Methods..., but those are where... you know...that's like where I want to be for sure.
What in particular do you like about Gateway?
It's just groovier, and like, a lot more riffs, and it's just heavier than ever... there are no parts on it that I don't like. I like that whole record.
Yeah, like you said the basic musical direction and all is the same, but the sound is definitely groovier than before. Did you have that in mind while writing the songs and during the recording?
Yeah I think so cuz we had recorded Apogee with the same woman -- the record we did for Howling Bull America. We knew she could get the sound. We just wanted a little bigger than it was the last time, and it was. Yeah, I think it's incredible.
Could you tell us a bit about the producer?
She is a woman who lives in Madison, and she owns her own studio. She used to work for Smart Studios that did that NIRVANA record and SMASHING PUMPKINS record, and they worked with GARBAGE, this big band from Madison. She had a lot of experience from there, and she started her own studio. She is very mellow, and a good friend of ours. Whereas when we recorded with Billy (Anderson) in San Francisco, we had to be on the road for a long time. It was harder...crashing at people's houses, you know. So I figured it's easier cuz we're at home, and people stop by with weed, and we have a lot more weed cuz we're at home. Just a little better process, because we are at home. So once we found her in the production, it's incredible. She's done the last 2 records. I think we're going to do the next one with her too.
So, this Smart Studios is also in Madison?
Yeah, it's the biggest studio, and Butch Vig owns it He did all that production on all those records. He's in GARBAGE. It's just a beautiful studio, with all this old gear, old mics, processors. Anything you could think of, they have it there. Top of the line. Wendy's studio is a great basic track place cuz it's got a huge room. That's where that big guitar sound comes from. It's easier to do with a huge room.
Right on. We feel your taste in music has widened a little bit, it's not only based on slow and heavy riffs. Were there any musical elements you meant to incorporate in your music for Gateway?
I don't we did consciously, like for us I think it's just like... we were listening to a lot more like LYNYRD SKYNYRD and like old Southern stuff... and in general, we're listening to a lot of old 70's music like MOUNTAIN, BLACK OAK ARKANSAS, JAMES GANG... It's a lot more rock n' roll record than we've ever done. And that's kind of what we were listening to, old rock n' roll. I mean, it'll include SLEEP, and BLACK SABBATH of course... and I've always been into LED ZEPPELIN, EYEHATEGOD, CAVITY, CHURCH OF MISERY... I've always been listening to shit like that. But then, I got into the 70's kick, and I think everybody kinda just... that's where that came from -- a little more of that rock n' roll / 70's sound. Especially the song "Greenthumb" on the record.
We also heard some psychedelic elements in your music besides just being heavy, but that was also purposely done?
Oh yeah. I've always wanted to add those more of almost in the CHURCH OF MISERY kinda sound -- you mean, like that kind of vein of just jamming out and making it a little trippier than normal. Yeah, I've always liked that aspect. That's definitely in the old 70's music. I think it was purposely done, but not as a conscious level but just came out because that's where we were at.
The overall sound production also seems to be perfected in Apogee and Gateway, but would you agree to that?
Yeah, I definitely do. I think she knows what we want, and she did a really good job on it. And I think our tone as a band has got a lot better on those two records, especially adding Cooter Brown -- our new bass player, whose first recording was Apogee. But yeah, I full heartedly agree.
Your vocal style is mainly sung in the "dirty voice" which seems to be your trademark so to speak. Would you ever be interested in singing with a mellow voice, or a melodic vocal patterns?
Yeah, I mean, there's been other stuff that haven't been recorded that I sing. But I think for BONGZILLA is about trying to get people a little angry about pot being illegal, that's where that singing comes from. Like, we're really groovy a lot of the time, but that's kind of a harshness of the general music. The whole package.
What was the biggest and the most primary reason you got into heavy and slow music?
I don't know, it just got me off compared to other styles of music. Slow and heavy music is what I listen to all the time... just makes me happy.
Did BONGZILLA ever get into doing up-tempo songs?
Umm, I mean there's parts, but I don't think anything like a super-fast tempo. I mean, up-tempo for us is like BUZZOVEN-fast. But if you mean grind or anything like that, I don't think we'll ever work that in. We're ol' rock n' roll guys. We play with a lot of grind bands, but I don't listen to a lot of grind.
We get the impression that, when you write songs when you're stoned, the listeners also have to be stoned to like, appreciate the music to the fullest because I don't think they can link themselves with you and your music if they're sober.
I kind of agree... We've met people that have definitely got what we're doing. We've met a straightedge kid from Providence, RI that totally understands. To this day, he's way into BONGZILLA but never smokes and never will -- but still digs the music. Usually when we play in Madison especially, people are smoking straight during the whole show.
Don't people at the clubs say anything to those people who're smoking?
In Madison? No, not at our shows. It's weird... it's one of the weirdest things. When bands, my friends come from out of town, they're always commenting on how people are smoking straight during our shows. Ralphy from DISASSOCIATE was like "What goes on man... that's crazy and great!" That was when DISASSOCIATE and HELLCHILD were in town for Halloween night or something.
When playing a show, did you ever get too stoned to play properly?
No, I don't think any of us could ever say we were too stoned to play. Sometimes we drink too much... if there's not enough weed, we may become too drunk to play, but we're never too stoned. You guy's ever been too stoned to play? .No. He just agreed with me. Too drunk, yes. Too stoned, never.
Who's in the room, now?
Spanky and Cooter Brown, and couple of my roommates.
Which bands are you favorite bands that you enjoy smoking together with?
Oh wow, HIGH ON FIRE, MASTODON, WEEDEATER definitely, NOOTHGRUSH when they were still around, DYSTOPIA... those kids man... the UNSANE boys when they're still together, NEUROSIS, TODAY IS THE DAY... Steve (Austin) loves to smoke, HELLCHILD, DISASSOCIATE...
You clearly point out that you support weed through your artwork, lyrics, song titles, and of course the music itself. Isn't there any danger that cops might mark you because you show in public that you support weed?
Well, it's never happened. We've always kinda thought that the police might show up at a gig or somebody would be, you know, paying attention, but it doesn't seem like we're big enough, at least in the States that anybody has really cared. I mean, there's been a couple of cases that seems like the police paid attention to our name. We played a fest called Stoner Fest in Ohio, and guitar player got arrested for possession.
How much was the fine, can I ask?
What was the fine you got, Spanky, for possession in Ohio? $175.
Do you think maybe talking about this over the phone may not be too good?
That reminds me, I did another interview for a Japanese magazine, and was with a woman, and she was a translator and had nothing to do with it, and she was literally FREAKED OUT, asking me these questions they (the journalist) had written. Everything was like, marijuana this, marijuana that, and freaking every time she said it. (laugh)
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