Now on Sludgelord it's my pleasure to be interviewing - WEEDPECKER - the brilliant Stoner Metal band who are causing a mini-storm in the Stoner Rock world with their excellent S/T debut album.
I recently described the album as:
"Ignore the weird sounding name of this band and embrace the brilliant riffs the band has on show. You can tell by the excellent album cover you are in for one heck of a wild ride. Stoner Metal and Grunge combine for one of the best début records of the year.
Influenced by a bands such as Alice In Chains, Baroness and Elder – Weedpecker take you on a cosmic spacey atmospheric journey piloted by some killer Stoner Metal/Grunge riffs. Weedpecker throw every thing at you. Loud epic riffs right from the start. Their S/T album has the perfect balance of 70s Psych Rock mixed with excellent modern Stoner Metal riffs."
The band have kindly agreed an interview with me. So lets see what these cosmic rockers have to say to ourselves here at Sludgelord.....
Q1 – Hi guys, How are things with you today. Thanks for doing this.
Wyro: Hi Steve, it's pretty good man. Thank you for your support and great work.
Q2 – For people not in the know can you give a brief history on how the band came about,
Jeso: Wyro and Bandos started with the idea back in 2012, as both are guitarists they recruited Falon for drums, recorded a demo which I fell in love with and joined as bassist around October 2012.
Q3 – Where did the name WeedPecker come from. Obviously being a Stoner Metal band you had to include the Weed term somewhere.
Wyro: A Little toothless dwarf told me in dreams…
Q4 – How would you describe your sound
Wyro: I really wanted it to sound pretty hard, juicy, dirty and no matter of that selectively, but sound of weedpecker it is still evolving.
Jeso: Yes, I would say that it is warm, surrounding and fat.
Q5 – So congrats on your début album. A brilliant record which we rate very highly at the blog. Are you happy that your album has finally been released to the world.
Wyro: Thanks, we are very happy. This album is good, but next will be brilliant ;)
Jeso: Thank you, we are really happy that finally people can enjoy our songs not only in the live shows, and we are really glad that you rate it so high, is a pleasure to share it with everyone.
Q6 – Was it a hard album to record for.
Wyro: Yes it was hard and we did it in a shitty place. Unfortunately we did not have almost cash for the recording. We knew that the material we had was something different and we loved to play it so we thought that we should record it in the best way we could with the little resources we had, and then wait and see what happens. Our recording man was our friend Adam “Burning” Ziolkoski, with who we put together some basic equipment to record. We recorded everything in our little rehearsal room in a basement and it took us around 12 days but I don’t remember well…It was hard but also funny, we finished with all our herb stock hehe...
Jeso: As Wyro said we could not afford a proper studio, so recording in that shithole has been a very exotic experience for me with all that hallucinating atmosphere. All has been a pretty psychedelic experience, but very funny and satisfying at the end. Wyro had the hardest work in this recording, not only playing and directing all but also collaborating in the mixing process.
Q7 – Does the album have a common theme or is it just a bunch of tracks put together for people to rock out to.
Wyro: We wanted it to be to be cohesive and consistent, and the whole album consists of one big and strange trip.
Jeso: Indeed the whole album is a big musical trip. It is a dose, with its highs and downs.
Q8 - What is the song writing process in the band. Is it a collective partnership or down to just one individual.
Jeso: Wyro uses to come to the rehearsal room with most of the ideas, Bandos adds his licks here and there surprising everybody with great stuff, sometimes I come up with some riffs in order to complete some of the Wyro’s ideas, or bring some ideas which Wyro helps me to complete. Falon provides the rhythmical patterns and closes the songs with a strict critical point of view. Other times we just jam in the room and try to remember the parts which we enjoyed more in order to build structured songs out of them.
Q9 – Which bands and artists influenced you as musicians.
Wyro: Lots of them of course but lately I am listening Colour Haze, Tame Impala, Causa Sui, Crowbar(as usual) and some drones.
Jeso: In my case every single thing I listen and listened in my life influences me, but mainly some particular albums. Lately I am listening Grand Funk Railroad Live album, Pink Floyd’s Ummagumma live parts, and other seventies classics, Zepps and Sabbaths of course. About more modern bands I like Elder and I am also into some Mastodon stuff ...
Q10 – Is there a thriving local scene for you guys to perform regularly. Or do you have to travel further afield to perform regular.
Wyro : We have a couple of places for playing hereand the polish scene grows day after day, each time more bands are coming to play to Poland and more people are coming to the shows. We have a group of real maniac fanatics who are making a great work for the scene to stablish here. We really don’t play too much, we did a couple of shows in Warsaw supporting first show of Elder and also supporting NAAM in the second show. We have also planned two next shows, one at Stonamite Festival in Gdansk and another one with fellows Belzebong in Kielce. We expect that at some point we could do some European tour but we are taking it easy for the moment.
Q11 – Do you all have regular jobs or is being a musician your main job.
Wyro: We all work. Myself work since 8 months ago after being a couple of years unemployed so I had time to think about Weedpecker.
Q12 - What are your favourite bands you are currently listening to. Any bands that myself or our readers should check out.
Wyro: Lately were playing here Blues Pills and they caused me a great impression but for sure you all know them already.
Jeso: I don’t get tired of Elder’s “Dead roots stirring” , what an album, man!
Q13 - What are your views of bands using websites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo to fund their new album releases. Some people and bands are for it. Some are not. Would you consider doing some thing like that yourselves.
Jeso: I respect other bands to do it, but personally I am not into that. Artist patronage is ok but asking the fans to fund your new album is too much under my point of view. I am grateful enough that some fans choose to spend their time and money coming to the shows and helping the band go forward buying some cd or merch.
Q14 - What are the most and least rewarding aspects of participating with the band? Obviously, the reality of how expensive it is being in a band could be considered as a negative aspect
Wyro: Getting high and playing together of course.
Jeso: I agree. The only minus is the weight of my Ampeg SVT CL bass head, and its weird behavior lately...
Q15 – Your album seems to be getting some major praise within the Sludge/Stoner Metal community. Have you been happy with the responses so far. And did you know you had a great album on your hands.
Wyro: We are very happy. The suport from the people gives us great energy for going further with the band.
Q16 – How big of a help has BandCamp and the Stoner Rock Community in getting your music across to the masses.
Wyro: Without the stoner community nobody would listen these bands. In Poland there is not a good musical scene, there is only crap to choose in the mainstream. Only underground gives something good and worth to listen to.
Q17 – Is there a chance of you guys releasing your music onto physical means like CD or Vinyl.
Wyro: Sure, the CD will be ready around September 15th.
Q18 - If you could provide words to wisdom for people wanting to start a band – What would they be.
Wyro: For fuck's sake start smoking and playing!
Jeso: Find the right people and let it flow, have fun playing
Q19 - Finally do you have anything to say to your fans
Wyro: peace brother's and sisters, we love ya!
Jeso: Thanks for your support, we love to make you spend good moments with our music.
Well guys thanks for your time. Good luck with your new album. Hope you have a lot of success with it as you guys deserve it.
Check The Band From Links Below.
