Brant Bjork - Vista Chino (14/01/2014)
In one of the coolest interviews this writer has ever had the pleasure of undertaking, Kyuss/ Kyuss Lives!/ Vista Chino songwriter, drummer, and founding member Brant Bjork was kind enough to chat to The 59th Sound about the band’s polyonymous history, which involved a legal battle with QotSA frontman Josh Homme.
The lawsuit in the spot light resulted in the members of Kyuss and Kyuss Lives! being told to cease using their original band name in most every fashion led to the emergence of Vista Chino, and their awesome 2013 album Peace, as well as an impending Big Day Out tour, and the balancing act between business and creativity in the music industry. In a chilled Californian drawl, Bjork is philosophical, level-headed, and friendly in equal measure.
“You’ve got the music business, y’know, which is two things and it’s just what it says; music and business. I’m a musician first and I maybe understand the art form of business, but I don’t know that I would call myself a prolific business man. I’m an artist, so making music and creating art within the world of music, that’s where my passion and strength lies. I just accept the fact that in order to support what I do and make a living, I have to add the element of business to that craft.”
“When you combine the very ambiguous world of music with the very black and white world of business, it gets really interesting. To go in and start the creative process of something that I truly love and make something like a record, then simultaneously have to deal with something like this business conflict like having my name pulled out from under me, that’s a really frustrating thing. If I was a businessman it might have really buried me, but because I’m a musician I was able to just focus on what it is that I love; making a record. Then I just had to change the name, man. We just moved forward. It was an experience where I learned a lot, y’know, but I just make music, man. That’s what it’s all about.”
Explaining the moniker Vista Chino, Bjork illuminates how naming the band after the main drag “in the desert where we’re from” was an organic and easy decision. Meeting his own expectations – and especially those of the fans - with Vista Chino’s first album, however, proves a trickier thing to consider.
“It’s one of those situations where you just make the best of it. For me it was all about getting closer to the root of the fruit. It’s like, okay, if you’re going to try and compromise something that we do, then we’re just going to get deeper in to what we do.”
“I have my own personal expectations of what I want to accomplish as a musician, and we have expectations as a band. Those expectations were met, and as far as the fans go I’m very grateful people enjoy, support, and participate in the music I’m involved with. I’m very grateful people have embraced the Peace record, but as far as fulfilling their expectations, that’s a pretty serious thing to pursue. I never really got in to music and being in bands to fulfill individual expectations, it was about fulfilling my own. So I’m very grateful people back it.”
“I don’t know exactly what (the fans) want, and it’s not for me to know. They’re fans, and fans have a responsibility to navigate and deal with their relationships with some outer-entity. That’s a full time job for them! Just like I had to deal with my relationships with bands that I loved growing up, and even now with all the artists I love. You got to constantly navigate yourself through that, and it’s cool we have a relationship with our fans. It’s all about letting them be what they are and let them have their expectations, and we need that as well.”
In characteristically thoughtful fashion, Bjork ruminates on how the album title and cover art of Peace came about, and whether there was connotations between them and Vista Chino’s recent legal unpleasantness surrounding Kyuss.
“In the end you got to give your record a name, and going through that experience I just though it’d be appropriate to have a title where when we look back in twenty years from now it takes on a whole new and fresh meaning. It’s so we’re not just hung up remembering the experience had something to do with conflict.”
“There’s some artists where we’re from; Carlos Ramirez, and Armando Verma. They call themselves The Date Farmers, and they’re an art collective that comes from Coachella. They’re kind of Chicano artists that represent the desert where we’re from artistically, so when it came time to get album art I asked them if they’d be interested. I gave them some very, very loose – if any – concepts for images and ideas, and they kind of ran with it.”
“They understood what was going on and they understood the struggle we were going through, and that’s what they came up with. I think it’s a very beautiful piece, and I think it’s very telling and appropriate, y’know. It says a lot.”
Being a comprehensively talented hand at a variety of instruments has led Brant on a successful solo career far beyond the drum kit of any of the bands with which he has been associated. When queried, the multi-instrumentalist easily dissects the approach he takes to writing all music, in a band or otherwise.
“Maybe there’s subtle differences, but I approach the writing experience as a kind of relationship I have with my muse, or my inner inspiration, y’know? How I filter that creative experience in to a particular band or record is where it gets kind of fun and challenging at the same time. Getting out an instrument and creating music, or getting on a guitar and writing a riff, it’s all coming from the same place. It’s all the same inspiration. In a lot of ways I’m just kind of the messenger.”
It’s no secret that many established artists tend to be super particular about everything from which instruments they use, to the type of organic fruit that will be on their rider (not to mention the ethnicity of the animal-costumed midget that will feed it to them backstage). Brant Bjork is the complete opposite of one of those artists, as is conveyed by his answer to a question regarding the hardware used to record Peace.
“I kind of use whatever’s around, and what’s around is what I’ve got to use. What I had to use on this record was my old original 80’s Ludwig kick I used on all the Kyuss and Fu Manchu recordings. I used that for the majority of the record, but some of the tracks I used this 1961 Rogers jazz kit that I picked up a couple of years back.”
“If you get too particular in the recording process, you kind of deplete the odds of magic, y’know? I’ve found that if you don’t think so much and are kind of spontaneous and just roll with what’s going on at that particular time, you’re more likely to catch lighting in a bottle.”
With an impending string of Australian shows as a part of Big Day Out ‘14, Brandt allays any worry that the Vista Chino may have lost their old name, but not their reputed ability to perform a live show on a whim.
“Because we’re a band that is built of guys that don’t even all live in the same state - with the exception of (Vocalist) John and I - and (guitarist) Bruno’s in Belgium, off in a completely different country (laughs). (Bassist) Mike is on the other side of the country out in North Carolina, so we don’t really rehearse (laughs), I mean we just rehearse at sound check then perform! Instead of kind of mixing things up with the set list, we have a kind of conservative approach to the set list and then get more liberal with the actual songs. It’s kind of a happy medium for us in terms of the reality we have to work in.”
Todd Gingell
Vista Chino play all dates on the Big Day Out, and sideshows in Sydney and Melbourne.
VISTA CHINO
Big Day Out 2014 Sideshows
+ special guests
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 22 – MELBOURNE, 170 RUSSELL (18+)
www.oztix.com.au and the Corner Hotel Box Office 1300 724 867
TUESDAY JANUARY 28 – SYDNEY, THE METRO (Lic/AA)
www.ticketek.com.au
BIG DAY OUT 2014 DATES
Sunday 19 January - Metricon Stadium & Carrara Parklands, Gold Coast
Friday 24 January - Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne
Sunday 26 January - Sydney Showgrounds
Friday 31 January - Bonython Park, Adelaide
Sunday 2 February - Claremont Showgrounds, Perth
Ticket on sale now at bigdayout.com
The lawsuit in the spot light resulted in the members of Kyuss and Kyuss Lives! being told to cease using their original band name in most every fashion led to the emergence of Vista Chino, and their awesome 2013 album Peace, as well as an impending Big Day Out tour, and the balancing act between business and creativity in the music industry. In a chilled Californian drawl, Bjork is philosophical, level-headed, and friendly in equal measure.
“You’ve got the music business, y’know, which is two things and it’s just what it says; music and business. I’m a musician first and I maybe understand the art form of business, but I don’t know that I would call myself a prolific business man. I’m an artist, so making music and creating art within the world of music, that’s where my passion and strength lies. I just accept the fact that in order to support what I do and make a living, I have to add the element of business to that craft.”
“When you combine the very ambiguous world of music with the very black and white world of business, it gets really interesting. To go in and start the creative process of something that I truly love and make something like a record, then simultaneously have to deal with something like this business conflict like having my name pulled out from under me, that’s a really frustrating thing. If I was a businessman it might have really buried me, but because I’m a musician I was able to just focus on what it is that I love; making a record. Then I just had to change the name, man. We just moved forward. It was an experience where I learned a lot, y’know, but I just make music, man. That’s what it’s all about.”
Explaining the moniker Vista Chino, Bjork illuminates how naming the band after the main drag “in the desert where we’re from” was an organic and easy decision. Meeting his own expectations – and especially those of the fans - with Vista Chino’s first album, however, proves a trickier thing to consider.
“It’s one of those situations where you just make the best of it. For me it was all about getting closer to the root of the fruit. It’s like, okay, if you’re going to try and compromise something that we do, then we’re just going to get deeper in to what we do.”
“I have my own personal expectations of what I want to accomplish as a musician, and we have expectations as a band. Those expectations were met, and as far as the fans go I’m very grateful people enjoy, support, and participate in the music I’m involved with. I’m very grateful people have embraced the Peace record, but as far as fulfilling their expectations, that’s a pretty serious thing to pursue. I never really got in to music and being in bands to fulfill individual expectations, it was about fulfilling my own. So I’m very grateful people back it.”
“I don’t know exactly what (the fans) want, and it’s not for me to know. They’re fans, and fans have a responsibility to navigate and deal with their relationships with some outer-entity. That’s a full time job for them! Just like I had to deal with my relationships with bands that I loved growing up, and even now with all the artists I love. You got to constantly navigate yourself through that, and it’s cool we have a relationship with our fans. It’s all about letting them be what they are and let them have their expectations, and we need that as well.”
In characteristically thoughtful fashion, Bjork ruminates on how the album title and cover art of Peace came about, and whether there was connotations between them and Vista Chino’s recent legal unpleasantness surrounding Kyuss.
“In the end you got to give your record a name, and going through that experience I just though it’d be appropriate to have a title where when we look back in twenty years from now it takes on a whole new and fresh meaning. It’s so we’re not just hung up remembering the experience had something to do with conflict.”
“There’s some artists where we’re from; Carlos Ramirez, and Armando Verma. They call themselves The Date Farmers, and they’re an art collective that comes from Coachella. They’re kind of Chicano artists that represent the desert where we’re from artistically, so when it came time to get album art I asked them if they’d be interested. I gave them some very, very loose – if any – concepts for images and ideas, and they kind of ran with it.”
“They understood what was going on and they understood the struggle we were going through, and that’s what they came up with. I think it’s a very beautiful piece, and I think it’s very telling and appropriate, y’know. It says a lot.”
Being a comprehensively talented hand at a variety of instruments has led Brant on a successful solo career far beyond the drum kit of any of the bands with which he has been associated. When queried, the multi-instrumentalist easily dissects the approach he takes to writing all music, in a band or otherwise.
“Maybe there’s subtle differences, but I approach the writing experience as a kind of relationship I have with my muse, or my inner inspiration, y’know? How I filter that creative experience in to a particular band or record is where it gets kind of fun and challenging at the same time. Getting out an instrument and creating music, or getting on a guitar and writing a riff, it’s all coming from the same place. It’s all the same inspiration. In a lot of ways I’m just kind of the messenger.”
It’s no secret that many established artists tend to be super particular about everything from which instruments they use, to the type of organic fruit that will be on their rider (not to mention the ethnicity of the animal-costumed midget that will feed it to them backstage). Brant Bjork is the complete opposite of one of those artists, as is conveyed by his answer to a question regarding the hardware used to record Peace.
“I kind of use whatever’s around, and what’s around is what I’ve got to use. What I had to use on this record was my old original 80’s Ludwig kick I used on all the Kyuss and Fu Manchu recordings. I used that for the majority of the record, but some of the tracks I used this 1961 Rogers jazz kit that I picked up a couple of years back.”
“If you get too particular in the recording process, you kind of deplete the odds of magic, y’know? I’ve found that if you don’t think so much and are kind of spontaneous and just roll with what’s going on at that particular time, you’re more likely to catch lighting in a bottle.”
With an impending string of Australian shows as a part of Big Day Out ‘14, Brandt allays any worry that the Vista Chino may have lost their old name, but not their reputed ability to perform a live show on a whim.
“Because we’re a band that is built of guys that don’t even all live in the same state - with the exception of (Vocalist) John and I - and (guitarist) Bruno’s in Belgium, off in a completely different country (laughs). (Bassist) Mike is on the other side of the country out in North Carolina, so we don’t really rehearse (laughs), I mean we just rehearse at sound check then perform! Instead of kind of mixing things up with the set list, we have a kind of conservative approach to the set list and then get more liberal with the actual songs. It’s kind of a happy medium for us in terms of the reality we have to work in.”
Todd Gingell
Vista Chino play all dates on the Big Day Out, and sideshows in Sydney and Melbourne.
VISTA CHINO
Big Day Out 2014 Sideshows
+ special guests
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 22 – MELBOURNE, 170 RUSSELL (18+)
www.oztix.com.au and the Corner Hotel Box Office 1300 724 867
TUESDAY JANUARY 28 – SYDNEY, THE METRO (Lic/AA)
www.ticketek.com.au
BIG DAY OUT 2014 DATES
Sunday 19 January - Metricon Stadium & Carrara Parklands, Gold Coast
Friday 24 January - Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne
Sunday 26 January - Sydney Showgrounds
Friday 31 January - Bonython Park, Adelaide
Sunday 2 February - Claremont Showgrounds, Perth
Ticket on sale now at bigdayout.com