Matt- G'day guys, how are you going? Can we start with a brief description of how Truckfighters formed and what's been happening to date?
Ozo - Yeah sure. It all started with me and Awe the drummer from Firestone that felt like doing some more stoner oriented project so we did a couple of songs and recorded a demo. Nothing really happened though until me and Dango got together and wrote Desert cruiser. That was the start of the "band" Truckfighters. Shortly after that Awe left the band and Pezo joined and the story begins with the recording of the Desert cruiser demo 2001, and you all know the rest;)
Dango - The rest is; Paco joined in 2004 after Pezo left the band. Paco left end of 2008 due to medical condition (very bad wrist pains). Fredo joined 2002 left 2008 due to medical condition (insomnia deluxe). Pedro joined in 2009.
It's like a movie about a rock'n roll band. He he he.
Matt-Mania is your 3rd record right? Where was it recorded and who recorded it?
Ozo- It was recorded and produced in Orebro in our own studio Bombshelter studios. Me and Dango did all the recording our self as usually. We did record the drums together and then we did our parts on our own except for some minor takes here and there.
Matt- Tell us about the mix? It feels a lot more warming this time around, seems like you guys took your time with this one?
Ozo - We felt like doing a warmer album with bigger drums, more room and so on. Like really distinct drums but not without compromising on the sound with too much "trigs" and that kind of metal stuff on the drums. Maybe also the Hi-watt endorsement gives the album a different sound? We used other amplifiers last time.
Dango - I think I spent just as much time mixing the previous albums... he he. Don't know why you like this one better but it's good to hear. We do it the way we want it at the time when we do it if you know what I mean. When we mixed Gravity X it was the "perfect" sound, now Mania is the perfect sound. Sound is very much personal taste but I can agree that Mania sounds great .-) I think the previous albums might sound a bit more extreme in the way of the amount of bass frequencies while Mania is more balanced and up front. Modern mixed with classic.
Everytime we recorded an album or demo we have had an idea before the start of how we'd like it to sound. We really care of our the fuzzy sound.
Matt- Was it costly?
Ozo- Hehe, as you might guess by now, NO. But it all depends on how you mean. We didn't "spend" any money, but hey man it took us 2 months of fulltime in the studio so... But it was worth it. I really love recording new songs and hear how it is built from nothing to something really cool.
Matt- What equipment do you guys use?
Ozo - On this recording I used my Hiwatt 200W amp along with my Hi-watt cab 4*10+1*15. That's absolutely the best rig I ever tried. For the distortion I use mostly a modified Ibanez Tubescreamer. Also for recording we have plenty of cool michrophones and tubepreamps that we use. Used my Gibson thunderbird
Dango - I recorded with my Rickenbacker 481 guitar from the 70's. And a hiwatt amp and cabinet. Pedalwise I use a russian big muff, a cry baby wah-wah and nowadays I also have a delay and a flanger and an octave pedal and a booster...
Matt- What's the Truckfighters writing process?
Ozo - I think almost every riff or/and song is made out of jamming. We usually record some rehearsals, sometimes we do something that we feel is worth doing something with and that's what we do. To this new album me and Dango wrote the whole album consisting of some jam parts and some parts that we created in the studio. Pezo then played his drums just like we told him as he wasn't actually in the band anymore. We now have a new really, really good drummer
Dango - This album was very different writing wise as we didn't have any drummer to complete songs with in rehearsal. Me and Ozo did lots of composing just plugging in the guitar and bass into the computer. On the previous abums most songs were finished before the recording started. On Mania no song was finished, we just had lots of ideas the we put together. Then Pezo listened and did the drums.
Matt- What's Truckfighters Influences?
Ozo- Hmm, that's difficult. I think music wise we influences a lot from things we hear or see, not that it's always an album or song. I can be influenced by doing a cool snowboard trip to the mountains or whatever. When I write the lyrics it is almost always things that happened in real life, not necessarily to me but to people in general or a specific event or actions that happened in the world.
Dango - If you mean music wise I am very influenced by 90's rock, as well as modern bands like TOOL for example. (Though they existed in the 90's too I think.) But it's very different and all members of the band have always had different influences. I think that is a contributing factor to make good fresh music.
Matt- Are you guys only playing together or do you have side projects?
Ozo - No, I also sings in Greenleaf, a band together with Tommi from Dozer for instant. Check out "Agents of Ahriman", a cool album;) And I also have a little blues project, but that's just for fun and we have no intention to release anything.
Dango - No nothing serious. Check out www.myspace.com/startrail if you want to hear an old project.
Matt- Who you guys listening to at the moment?
Ozo - At the moment I try to listen to some of my really old cd's I haven't listened to for a while, since my Ipod is broken I have no mp3's to listen to. I did listen to our own album Mania a lot the last weeks aswell. It was finished like 2-3 months ago and the first weeks after finishing the album you're almost ready to puke, but when you get some distance from it you actually starts liking it a lot;)
Dango - Don't know I've been working too much lately so I am kind of fed up with sound when I have free time. I was on a week of vacation in April, then I listened a lot to Mania, ha ha ha.
Matt- Given the chance to jam with anyone dead or alive to form a super group who would the band consist of?
Ozo - That is a really tough decision but I have to choose some; The drummer would be Matt Cameron (Soundgarden/Pearl jam), on guitar would be Dave Grohl (foo fighters/Nirvana) and Nicke Andersson (Entombed/Hellacopters) and last but not least I would add Jon Lord on the Hammond (Deep Purple and more). I would of course play the bass in this superband;)
Dango - Fun question... Dave Grohl or Matt Cameron or Mr.Paco on drums. J.Mascis on guitar from dinosaur Jr. Chris Cornell on the vocals. Then I'd add the bass player from *brain flicker* can't remember the name right now.
Matt- Fuzzorama is your very own Label correct?
Ozo - Yeah, you could say that;)
Matt- What's plans for upcoming bands on Fuzzorama
Ozo - We have some discussions with a few bands but nothing is settled so I won't tell you anything at the moment
Matt- You guys tour a fair bit and have surely seen some great bands, any bands that you really took a liking to?
Ozo - Yes, a really underestimated band that plays a super sweet cool music is Hypnos 69. Maybe they are not the funniest band to see live but they are extremely good musicians and worth checking out. I can also of course recommend all Fuzzorama bands; Dexter Jones Circus Orchestra, Asteroid and The Durango riot.
Matt- Any bands you have seen lately that you could recommend that are just starting out?
Ozo - Not really, The Durango riot is a really young band that I believe can make it really big someday, hopefully.
Matt- Sweden produces so many fuzz styled bands, yet the scene to play live is actually quite shitty! Why is that?
Ozo - I think we can blame the government for that, or at least they are part of it. To be able to start a live venue there are so many recommendations and rules to follow so it's almost impossible. In a lot of countries in Europe it is almost enough to have a warehouse and power and you're up and running.
Matt- What's the best gig you have ever played and why?
Ozo - Definitely the gig with Fu Manchu on a sold out London Academy! It was packed with people when we played, and the strange thing was that the audience knew a lot of our songs and sang along and was in general totally crazy and mental. You don't expect that when you're a support band. On a good second place is the festival "Stoned from the underground" in Erfrurt! Awesome festival that is worth more attention.
We played a huge festival in Estonia last year too, it took like 10.000 people but I guess everyone was not in front of the stage when we played , he he.
Matt- What was the worst?
Ozo - The first! The tempo was up and down and we we're not focused at all. The cool thing though is that we had like 4 songs at that time, really long songs of course;) And we hooked all the songs together and played it without any pauses at all, 45 minutes of non-stop music, haha. Crazy. I think 95 per cent of the audience thought it was the worst thing they ever heard, but the rest totally adored it!
Matt- What's the plan for Truckfighters now tours etc and will Australia ever see you guys live?
Ozo - We have both thoughts and some plans to come to Australia, but you know how it is. To go from planning and wishing to actually have all the flight tickets and gear booked, it's a long way. But I really wish we can do it soon, because that is a dream I had for years.
Matt- Thanks for your time and I wish you all the best with Mania and hope to be sharing many beers with you when you guys finally visit Australia cheers \m/
YES!!! Someday Matt, someday.... :=)
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