Daniel Brummel, Ryen Slegr Interview, Fall 2001 (on signing to Kung Fu, etc)

[Not Jason]

Quoted from http://www.no-nothingrock.com/interview/ozma/

it always seems that when i go to do an interview with a band something goes wrong. so, as history could have predicted, a problem arose with this interview, also. it seems that ozma's publicist and i had some tough communication problems and couldn't get a hold of eachother, and the interview was never confirmed, which = no michael on guestlist. so i try to think of what to do, and walking down the street, comes pat, ozma's drummer. i tell him the situation, we get things worked out. i still can't get backstage, but i do get an interview. and like always... it's in some awkward locale. the setting for this scene: a little hole in the wall next to the Metro in Chicago. so let the good times commence:


no-nothing rock!: well we'll start with a roll call...

ryen: my name is ryen, i play the guitar and vocals.

daniel: my name is daniel and i play bass and i sing.

NNR!: well i'll get to the beginning of things, you guys just signed to kung fu records, i was wondering if there was any stigma to signing to a predominantly punk rock label, and you guys not being like that at all?

daniel: i think they are trying to branch out into other genres and we are sort of a test...

ryen: i think it's because we have a certian punk element to us, but not very much, but certian punks like our music so they think that we would be good for the label...

daniel: ... i mean, we're more punk than the eagles...

ryen: yeah we're more punk than the eagles... but i mean as punk as the other bands... but as soon as dan gets a facelift, it's going to be all over from there.

daniel: i'm not planning to get a facelift...

NNR!: was there any time when you thought about not going with the label beacause of the situation?

daniel: yeah, i think so, i think there was, just thinking about it... but we thought about a lot of things, but what drew us to the label was distribution. they just have really good distribution, and we could tap right into that, like the store right next door, i just checked, and the had our new album.

NNR!: you can find find, like the ataris, anywhere, and there's just eight of them sitting in there.

daniel: yeah, it's perfect for us.

NNR!: i also noticed that you are going to re-release "Rock And Roll Part Three"... why did you do that, instead of releasing all new material... or is there no new material?

daniel: that is what the label originally asked us to do, and i'm pretty proud of that record. "Doubble Donkey Disc" is kinda more interesting musically, for me to listen to, but just as a whole, i really like "Rock And Roll Part Three."

ryen: they cought us... they were sort of interested in us when we were sorta touring LA supporting that album and it was just at the point where we were going to do our second album and we were working on finishing the material for that, so we didn't really have it ready for a label to look at, so they just wanted that one, because it was already done, and a sure thing.

NNR!: is there anything new coming out anytime soon?

daniel: we have one more album on kung fu, that we'll probably record when we finish the material... we're getting close but we're not done yet.

NNR!: not in the studio yet...

daniel: i don't know, maybe this year, but we'll see, maybe early next year...

NNR!: i noticed on the new cdep that there's a lot of talk about "booty"...

daniel: yeah.... good booty and barbeque....

ryen: good booty and barbeque... yeah... actually when i was a senior or junior in high school, i had a crush on a girl, and... ..... no that doesn't have anything to do with it... we named the song "bootymaster" that i wrote for that girl, and that was my sorta alter-ego DJ name. i went to a private catholic high school... and we were just a bunch of stupid kids...

daniel: "i'm the DJ, I'm DJ Bootymaster!"

ryen: and we thought wouldn't it be cool if all of us had one of those...

NNR!: hence, "bootymaestro" and "bootymaster"...

daniel: like the kiss albums, "ace frehley" blah blah balh... that's like our version, on half of an ep.

NNR!: did you just give a name to each one, or did you each have specific writing duties in each one?

daniel: originally i wanted to have everyone write a song but it totally didn't work out...

ryen: but pat and starr don't write songs... so dan wrote a couple more songs and we finished it up.

NNR!: i know it happens a lot, but it i don't hear it so much when i listen to the band, but a lot of people come you to weezer... like "that's weezer jr." i have heard.

daniel: weezer jr.? ... that's a tough stigma...

NNR!: does that ever bother you, or do you think you'll ever get through that?

daniel: i hope... i think re-releasing "Rock And Roll Part Three" is sort of a step back in that sense... but that record is way more us and more contrived. that is what we wanted to do at that time and we're getting another step now, which i just really hope people will listen to.

NNR!: are you afraid that when you release this new album that people will hear that sound and like it, but if you move on from that anytime soon you might lose that fan base.

ryen: i definately... yeah... i'm even sort of writing a song now about how people are so picky about their musical styles and how most music fans are just like "geek rock. it must sound a certian way." it's like, i mentioned to him we're thinking of adding a saxaphone to one or two tracks on the next album because we think it would sound really cool and their like "as long as you don't turn into chicago" and i was like "screw that."

daniel: but that song doesn't sound like that, it sounds like a geek rock song, mostly. it's getting into classic rock...

ryen: daniel is in denial, the rentals are extreme geek rock, weezer is geek rock...

NNR!: you're on the fringe?

ryen: we're on the fringes of escaping the geek rock genere/label.

NNR!: do you like being in that kind of genre?

ryen: no... if i had my own band, that was just like another band other than ozma, it would only be geek rock... but i think that as a really good musical band, we're moving out of it, because geek rock is sort of limiting.

NNR!: you have to grow...

ryen: yeah.

NNR!: we'll ... i seemed to have run out of my questions pretty quick...

daniel: it's all right, ask some more. (to ryen) what are some of the other really good questions that some other people have asked us?

NNR!: plagiarism!

ryen: plagiarism?

NNR!: i was just joking.

ryen: people should really cite their influences on indivduial songs on their albums like: "this part was influenced by this song 20 years ago..." i think that would clear up a lot of confusion. so haters can say "they ripped this off" and we'd be like "no, you're right, we listed it already."

NNR!: there's only so many times and ways you can do something, four chords can only go so far.

ryen: i'm a believer in an infinite variety of combinations of things that you can do with music.

NNR!: i was listening to the albums the other day, and i was noticing almost all the solos, are they always played with starr [keyboards] and you playing at the same time? because it's a cool sound... and sometimes it's hard to discern.

ryen: the first song that we ever wrote that used that combination of lead guitar and keyboard was "Maybe in an Alternate Dimension"... and i was trying to teach the lines to old keyboardist, and we did it together and we thought "this sounds really good." so after that we're like let's keep doing this...

daniel: over and over...

ryen: and over and over again, but i think it's become part of our signature sound.