EGO the Living Planet: This interview is for StonerRock.com so I need to ask something “70`s.” Which would you rather have: a van conversion with a water bed and a painting of a topless chick slayin` a dragon on the side, or a muscle car?
Buzzo: Muscle car. Let me qualify that. I don`t really care about cars whatsoever. I just want the work. If I was rich, I`d buy a brand new fully loaded Cadillac every two years. That`s what I would do. Then I`d turn it in and get a new one. Fully loaded.
EGO the Living Planet: A friend of mine wanted to know about the recording process for the opening track on Nude With Boots.
Buzzo: What`s the opening track? "The Kicking Machine." Well, not anymore unusual than what we normally do. I`m not sure what he`s referring to. We`re not afraid to do whatever we think sounds good. If we like it we think everybody else should like it too.
EGO the Living Planet: When you die and your widow sells your image to Rock Band and videos surface of a digital Buzz signing along to Blink 182`s “All the Small Things,” are you going to roll in your grave or laugh from beyond?
Buzzo: I`m gonna have my carcass incinerated. I won`t have a grave. I`ll be ashes.
EGO the Living Planet: Are there any plans for more vinyl releases of your recent albums?
Buzzo: Yes, well, the only one that hasn`t come out on vinyl yet is Nude With Boots. That`s coming out on vinyl pretty soon. We have some weird plans for it.
EGO the Living Planet: Big special edition thing?
Buzzo: There`s going to be, yeah.
EGO the Living Planet: Are there going to be more regular editions of the stuff on vinyl?
Buzzo: Well, the (a) Senile Animal one, we haven`t even sold our copies yet. When we go on tour again we`re going to have fresh copies of our own to sell.
EGO the Living Planet: What`s going on with the reissues of the Boner albums we heard about a while ago?
Buzzo: We just haven`t gotten around to doing them yet. We`re still going to do that.
EGO the Living Planet: Bonus tracks, anything like that?
Buzzo: Oh Yeah, all kinds of weird shit. Pictures, bonus stuff.
EGO the Living Planet: What about the box set?
Buzzo: That`s going to happen too. Just as soon as we get it done.
EGO the Living Planet: You guys have a number of rarities and non LP tracks in our catalog.
Buzzo: No there`s not actually. There`s not a whole lot. Most of the stuff we`ve recorded has come out.
EGO the Living Planet: Any plans for a compilation of rare tracks?
Buzzo: Well maybe, if it made sense.
EGO the Living Planet: Is there any chance you guys will be taking advantage of new technology to find new ways to present music, like an iPhone ap?
Buzzo: Well you know, in order to do those sorts of things you have to have an interest. Someone has to have an interest in us doing that. So far that hasn`t happened. I`m not too worried.
EGO the Living Planet: What`s coming out soon? An album next year?
Buzzo: We have a new remix record coming out in about... a few days. Nine days. Called Chicken Switch.
EGO the Living Planet: After that a new record? Next year maybe?
Buzzo: Yeah, we`ll be recording a new record real soon. I can`t wait. It`s going to be different than what you might imagine. And not in the way you might imagine.
EGO the Living Planet: What inspired Chicken Switch? Was it the opportunity to work with the collaborators, or the chance to revisit old music?
Buzzo: Well, both those. Absolutely. We actually had this done quite a while ago. We were just waiting for the right time for it to come out. That`s all. We`ve always got something else. It`s not coming out because we`ve got this thing coming out or we`ve got this tour or we want to get this record done, you know. We`ve never found the right spot for it. It seemed to work out perfect.
EGO the Living Planet: Will you be attempting to recreate any of the mixes live like recreate them in a live setting?
Buzzo: Oh God, wait to you hear them, and then you tell me if we can do `em live.
EGO the Living Planet: Where there any proposed collaborations that didn`t happen?
Buzzo: There`s a couple, I don`t really want to name names. A couple of people, one of them in particular, took the money and just never delivered anything. I`m just not gonna say who. By and large, everybody was cool. Other than that kinda thing, which is, you know, pretty much a direct rip off.
EGO the Living Planet: That`s probably a little bit par for the course for something like this.
Buzzo: Yeah, for this many. ...and these people are real eclectic weirdos. It`s not like we got Trent Reznor to do it. These are left of left of center.
EGO the Living Planet: One guy from Sonic Youth was probably the biggest name.
Buzzo: That`s the most normal person. Unless Merzbow could be considered “normal.” In some circles he might be.
EGO the Living Planet: You guys just played another ATP festival or are about to.
Buzzo: Just did it. About a week ago.
EGO the Living Planet: You guys have also curated one. Or co-curated one.
Buzzo: Yes. And we`re gonna play again in December at the all curators one.
EGO the Living Planet: From the band perspective, was there a big difference between curating one and performing as a part of another band`s festival?
Buzzo: Yeah, curating it it`s all bands we like. As opposed to bands we don`t like.
EGO the Living Planet: Did you get turned onto any cool new stuff?
Buzzo: No. We were only there one day at the one we just did. The one we curated no, we weren`t surprised, we knew all those bands.
EGO the Living Planet: Were you surprised by the invites you got?
Buzzo: Sonic Youth invited us one year. Slint invited us to do it one year. And then we did...
EGO the Living Planet: The Flaming Lips this time?
Buzzo: They didn`t invite us. ATP did. No. I want you make sure you say The Flaming Lips DID NOT invite us. They had nothing to do with us playing. I`m sure if it was up to them we probably wouldn`t have been doing it.
EGO the Living Planet: I`d heard they attended one of your shows or something.
Buzzo: No. The new drummer`s always been a fan. He brought the old drummer with him to one. Other than that, none of the rest of them have ever attended any of our shows. We did a show once with the Flaming Lips a looong time ago and I mentioned it one time when I met Wayne... and there was nobody there it was probably about `85. There was nobody at the show. I mentioned it to Wayne years later and I said, “That was fun” and he said, “No, it wasn`t.” There you have it.
EGO the Living Planet: At this point you guys have been at it for long enough that very few bands can match your longevity. Do you have any particular role models?
Buzzo: John Huston. The Filmmaker. As far as work is concerned. Do you guys like John Huston? My all time hero.
EGO the Living Planet: My seven year old daughter wanted to know, what`s your favorite animal?
Buzzo: The Thylacine, the Tasmanian Tiger. By Far.
EGO the Living Planet: There`s a lot of talk these days about health care. A lot of people don`t realize it`s sort of a big deal for a lot of bands. Generally you don`t earn health care doing it.
Buzzo: It`s interesting that they don`t have money for health care, but they have money for cocaine. I`m not buying it. That`s always the interesting thing. All they money they have to spend on blow, drugs or alcohol but they don`t have money for insurance? I`m not buying that particular brand of jive, you know? Nobody ever brings that up. I always love when people bitch about the price of CDs or t-shirts with a beer in their hand high on weed, you know? Give up beer and weed for a couple of months. You`ll have plenty of money for whatever you want to buy.
EGO the Living Planet:...or do what I do, work a second job.
Buzzo: Yeah, absolutely. The rest of us pay our own way. We know much stuff costs. How much does it cost for two people to go see a movie? 18 bucks? And a t-shirt cost $20. That you`re gonna have forever, or for a long time anyway. No, it`s not a big deal. It`s not a bunch of money. Concerts are $15 - $20. That`s good deal. For a band I really want to see $20 is not too much.
EGO the Living Planet: That varies widely according to the band...
Buzzo: Well, of course. That`s the way it`s always been. There was never an era where I`ve went and seen every band. Quite the opposite actually. But you know, music is a wonderful thing. I would probably go to a lot more if I didn`t do it all the time. It`s about half my life. If I was home all the time and not playing I`d probably go to more live shows.
