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Jimmy Marinos from the Romantics is Brandt Bjork's favorite drummer.
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Interview
Brandt Bjork
By Josh Tyson
Because I am customarily a tepid interviewer, my wife helped me keep the wheel greased with this one. This was good because once you get Brandt Bjork talking, you kinda don’t want him to stop. These days, rock and roll resumes don’t get much burlier or respectable than his. Drumming for Kyuss, Fu Manchu and Mondo Generator should get you just about any job you‘re after, and if you’re looking to become self-employed, chances are your solo album is going to rock ass too; which the self-titled album by Brandt Bjork and The Operators does. So without further ado, hobbits, malt liquor, skateboarding, nudity, and Prince! Wait, sorry, no Prince.
You’ve been playing with a lot of the same people since high school, is that right?
Josh (Homme, Queens of the Stone Age) and I have been jamming since an earlier age. But nothing serious.
What was the first song you guys tried to learn?
The first song I think that Josh and I did was “State Control” by Discharge. Nick (Oliveri, formerly of QOTSA) and I jammed around the same time and we were doing like, “New Rose” by The Damned, and like Black Flag and The Ramones and shit. We were writing our own shit too, but we’d jock-out out some covers. Josh and Nick and I all grew up through punk rock.
Did you find the more you played, that musically your tastes started diversifying?
No I had a pretty eclectic palette, from an early age. When I was younger I was pretty pro punk just because it was such a statement to not like other music and only punk, but I got out of that pretty quick. Especially out of the clique of dudes that I hung out with. I traded my Exploited records for Kiss records again in the eight grade. I was already over it by then, I was like, ‘I like the rock.’
Do you find that the amount of collaboration you do is crucial to staying inspired musically?
I think so. Like I’ve said before, as a musician I relate to the jazzers, man. Where you were in a world of music and what you had was your style and your name. What good do you get by hoarding your style? It’s all about jamming. Bud Powell might do a record with Charlie Parker and a bunch of other dudes, and it’s a Bud Powell record, but then Charlie Parker might do a record and have Bud Powell jamming under him. I just relate more to that than to getting in a band and staying the course. Then again the Ramones were my all time favorite rock band as a kid, so I respect that conservative approach. They were more on a mission. I’m more into discovering music. I wanna be able to just trip out and evolve.
Did you have people in mind that you wanted to play with on your record?
No, I didn’t. I knew it was going to be pretty hard for me to find a group of guys that would be able to understand where I’m coming from with my solo stuff. It took me quite a while. About a year-and-a-half, two years. This is what I’ve been wanting to do since I left Kyuss. This is ultimately what I’ve wanted to do. I’m telling my story now. These are my songs and this is my trip, so I don’t want to be behind the drums.
Has it been a big leap from being the rhythm of the band to fronting one?
Obviously it’s different, but I approach it the same way. I just look at it the same way. Just get up there and feel it and get people to move.
Is it true that you’re being trailed by hobbits?
You must be referring to the Elijah Wood guy. He’s come out to some of our shows. He’s a fan. He digs underground rock. I’ve never met the guy. I’d be excited to meet him, I really dig the Lord of the Rings movies, those are bad ass. It’s pretty flattering actually.
What kind of cheap beer do they have in the desert?
You guys drink a lot more Pabst here. We don’t drink a whole lot of Pabst. When I was growing up it was mostly Schaffer’s. Then there in the late eighties we started tapping into the Malt Liquor thing; the Olde English and the St. Ides. That shit’s bad news though. Keystone. Remember Keystone?
Oh yeah. There was Keystone Light, Keystone Ice, and that weird Premium shit that had kind of a fucked up taste.
What’s funny about that was that it was beer in a can that tastes like beer in a bottle. I didn’t get that. I had a Michelob last night.
The Malt Liquor I’ve kind of made a return to.
You’re back on the Malt?
The corner store by my house sells forties. It’s the perfect measure. You know exactly how you’re going to feel after a forty.
Mickey’s used to put out this forty that was pretty rad.
Nicole: That’s what he gets!
They taste good.
Yeah. Lucky Lagers, remember those they came in those squatty bottles and had the riddles on the caps.
Olympia too. They came in the little eleven ounce bottles with the rebuses on the inside of the caps.
We don’t get Olympia. Now we drink mostly Mexican beers.
Did you do much skateboarding growing up?
Oh yeah. Fuck yeah. I wanted to be a skate pro until I started getting more into music ... by like eighty-six, I was like, ‘this is starting to get really lame man.’ The whole flavor of the culture was getting really cheesy.
With all the spandex and the neon?
Yeah it was lame for a fourteen-year-old kid. When I got into it around eighty-three, it was like, no one skateboarded. I had to drive around Southern California to find places that sold certain wheels. And punk rock was happening and that was like the soundtrack for it. It was a really lowbrow thing. Then it started getting popular and making a lot of money and got watered down. By that time I was so into music that I just got out of skateboarding.
When I really started skating again, in the early nineties, it was kind of the same way. It wasn’t very popular and was in the strange phase with the big clothes and the shitty little wheels.
Yeah, that was weird too. I’ll always be a skateboarder. When I was a kid I’d always talk to dudes that were older and they were stuck in their era. They’d talk shit about my era.
It’s all cycles. I mean, it’s really big now, which is cool, because there’re all these great places to skate whereas before all we had were shitty parking lots to get thrown out of.
It’s awesome now. There are three skate parks in the desert where I’m from. I remember how we wanted a skate park so bad, but it never happened back then. We used to drive up to Pipeline and Upland.
N: So did you do that stuff like break into peoples’ backyards to skate?
Yeah, of course.
N: I think it’s fascinating that the drought in California that caused everybody to drain their pools was what led pool skating take off.
Yeah, it’s cool when you go to skateparks and there are these concrete pools that are modeled after seventies-era swimming pools and that’s why.
When I first got into it, we got our boards and skated pools. Backyard pools. We’d get busted and the cops would pick us up and take us home in the cop cars. But that’s what we did. When there weren’t pools to skate we just scooted around town all bummed. It wasn’t until Tommy Guerrero and Lance Mountain in the first Bones Brigade video that we thought about street skating. We’d never thought to do that … that video changed our lives. We’d watch it until we couldn’t take anymore and had to go skate … To me it’s not a sport, it’s art, that’s what it is. Like in eighty three, there was no money in skateboarding. It was very underground. Four kids in my town skateboarded, and then it grew. But it was awesome at that time. I’ll never dis like skateboarding. I love skateboarding and I’ll always be a skater. I sill skate. I was skating a pool eight months ago.
It’s kind of a catch-22 now. Because it’s so popular that cities will put up the money for all these parks, but at the same time because it’s so popular it’s true outlaw nature has been somewhat smothered.
It’ll come back around, and there’s always those dudes that have the soul. Like Tony Alva. He was the most popular most recognized skater in the seventies, and that dude’s fuckin’ awesome, he’s still gnarly, he still skates fuckin’ pools. He’ll come to my shows and start shit and get thrown out. He’s a punk. He’s like forty-five years old and is still a radical dude. Those dudes just have a different mindset.
Yep.
Have you heard of the Nude Bowl?
No.
It was a really popular skate pool in southern California. That’s basically my local spot. It’s in the middle of the desert up on this hill overlooking the whole desert. And there was this nudist colony there in the sixties. We’d throw desert parties. There’d be like three or four-hundred people there, Kyuss would play, and Unsound. We’d put generators and lights and dudes would be down skating in the bowl and fuckin’ bands would be playin’. It was pretty fucking rad.
N: Were people running around naked?
Sometimes.
N: Was it in the nudist colony or was that over with?
The nudist colony had shut down.
There are probably spirits of the nudists.
I saw some freaks running around, probably high on acid.
Who is your all-time favorite drummer?
Jimmy Marinos from the Romantics. Favorite all-time drummer. He left the Romantics in 1983, and I was so bummed. He sang and played drums … I’m gonna meet him for sure. I gotta hang with that dude. He’s the baddest drummer of all time. That guy slays. Left-handed, big old Ludwigs; he had the best style. He slammed! And sang! And had an amazing voice! The guy had pipes! He’s a fucking god, dude. Next time you hear “What I Like About You,” think about it. That’s like a twenty-year-old kid.
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