They may be a new band as far as some are concerned but Vista Chino are anything but the new kids on the block. Comprised of members of the seminal stoner/desert rock band Kyuss, the group’s debut effort Peace (released last week) makes amends with the band’s past while also firmly ensconcing them in the present.
Vista Chino kick off a run of Canadian shows in Calgary tomorrow (September 6) that will see them hit Toronto (September 21), Montreal (September 23), Quebec City (September 24) and Ottawa (September 25).
Here Magazine spoke with Vista Chino timekeeper Brant Bjork last week about the road to Peace:
It’s been a seemingly long road for you guys to get to this point. How does it feel to finally have the album released?
We are really excited about it. There is a lot of history in our bloodlines but we also feel there is a fresh start kind of feeling with Peace as well.
Was it tough to make peace with the past when you guys were forced to change your band’s name from Kyuss Lives! to Vista Chino?
For John [Garcia] and I, Kyuss was not just a sound and a song, it’s a soul and a spirit. We started the creative process for Peace back in 2012 and then less than a week later, we were served with a lawsuit over the use of the Kyuss Lives! name. It was a bit of a trippy experience; it’s like having to rename your child. We had to psychologically separate the name from the music but didn’t want to be disrespectful to our fans and say that we didn’t care or anything like that. We took a week and dealt with it and then got back to making music.
After such a long layoff from the recording studio, were you at all concerned about how things would gel once you were back in there?
When John called me back in 2010 and proposed playing some Kyuss stuff live, I was really super excited. The first day that we jammed with Bruno [Fevery], I was blown away at the musicianship that was brought to the table and also the chemistry that we found. It soon got to the point that we wanted to go beyond bringing the music of Kyuss to our fans. We wanted to challenge ourselves, which ultimately led us to getting back into the studio.
Article published in the September 5, 2013 edition of Here Magazine
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