ELECTRIC WIZARD. Interview with Jus Osborn. Probably one of the most interesting email interviews I have ever done, I had the results mailed back to me from England, wherein resides one rather angry group of musicians. I guarantee you've never heard doom metal as ferocious and pissed off as this three piece, and the interview below will reveal some of the reasons for their hostility.

As our readers know, your newest album "Come My Fanatics" has been re-released along with the first album remixed. Why was the decision made to offer this as a 2 CD set and why did you feel the need to remix the first album? What was done differently on the re-release?

We re-released "Come My Fanatics" because the first time it was released the distribution company went bust about 2 weeks after it came out, so hardly any copies made it into the stores, which was totally annoying because we got all these amazing reviews but nobody could find a copy. The 2 CD set was the idea of the new distributors and we thought it was kinda cool because it would come out as the price of a single disc. Also we got a chance to release the original Electric Wizard mix of the first album. This is the original rougher, heavier mix that we did in the studio but was originally rejected by Rise Above and remixed by Paul Johnson. But now Rise Above have realized that the Wizard are the only ones who decide what mix to use.

Making an observation then, between the first and second albums it sounds almost entirely like a different band. Were there things done on the first album that you didn't want to repeat the second time around? Lots of the guitar riffs on "Come My Fanatics" were much heavier and more distorted, is this the result of the band trying to attain a different sound?

I don't really know what happened, maybe we got too fucked up! Though the first album was mostly crappy old songs from my first band but "Come..." was 100 percent Wizard. Also on the first album we had it all rehearsed before we went into the studio but on the second one we decided to record it all live and write the songs and jam them out in the studio. I think we were also very screwed with drug abuse, on the first day we couldn't find Mark so we had to drive all over trying to find him and some of his mates said he was lost on acid somewhere but we found him in the woods and he was just messy. So we dragged him down to the studio to record his parts which led to all three of us going on a three day binge of acid, grass, speed and vodka, these three days produced all the basic tracks for the album and has now become the routine for all Wizard recording sessions. We always wanted to be the heaviets and loudest band in the world but not in some cliched way, but a genuine outpouring of total doom and hate.

I noticed that several songs are played slower on the second disc than on the first one. In an interview I did with Sleep some years ago, they said it was a lot harder to play slower live than at regular speed. Do you find this to be true, and what is an Electric Wizard live show like?

To most people's horror we play even slower live. I love totally crushing riffs live if you hold the notes long enough you get this kinda massive swell which threatens to crack the venue walls. I remember seeing Candlemass when I was younger and I was just amazed at how awesome the slow riffs sounded, it seemed like a sonic deathray! Yeah, it is harder to play slower live but it just proves we can play better than everyone else. The main thing that surprises people is that we don't play the tracks the same way as on the album, which no other bands do but when you listen to all the old seventies bands they used to jam out the songs for hours because they were so shot on drugs which we are as well. The better the drugs the better the concert! And it is true that sometimes we don't play if we can't score any decent weed. An Electric Wizard show is baiscally unpredictable, but always very heavy. Sometimes people say we come across like a punk band because of our attitude on stage because we don't pu on a proper rock show, so because of our reputation we get punks, metallers, skaters and all sorts of freaks at our gigs. Do you remember the British punk band Doom? They always came to our gigs because they think we kill live with no rock star poses. We did a gig with Chaos U.K. once and they were pissed off because all their punk fans thought we kicked their old punk asses, ha ha!

Many of your songs tend to be quite lengthy, which is perfect for the stoner that wants to concentrate on the sounds, do you feel that only stoners can appreciate a long tune? Personally, if a song has great instrumentation the longer it gets the more I get to enjoy the music. Especially with Hacienda, their instrumental songs are written so well I almost never want them to end! Going way back, the Beatles did that same thing with the endless riffs on 'I Want You (She's So Heavy)' from their Abbey Road album.

I agree. Our songs are so long because we're so stoned when we play them. I think it's definitely a stoner/drug thing because straights think we're too boring and too slow but only dopers come to our gigs now and they love to hang out for hours on extended 20 minute jams. When we rehearse we just play hour long jams and the more it goes on the more you become lost in the music until eventually reality ceases to exist and only the Wizard is real and life is gone. Death to reality!

Speaking of the herb though, there wasn't much mention of the green leaf in any of the songs. As many of our readers know, we here at V.O.D. are very pro- hemp and we were curious about what good herb is floating around at the time? Do you prefer using the bong, pipe, or papers, and what do you guys think of High Times Magazine? Also, on the latest Iron Monkey CD, some guys mentioned that some English people couldn't grow very good pot because of the climate; something to do with lots of cold and dreary days (though I assume they were also half joking). Care to put any of thoe rumours to rest?

The Wizard only smokes the finest homegrown Dorset buds. We grow our own dope under lights so we always have fat buds! Iron Monkey are stupid northeners who can't grow decent weed, ha ha! The south of England produces very fine weed, come over for a smoke sometime and find out! We prefer to use the righteous bong and we NEVER mix it with tobacco as has been rumoured by some American bands, also we use various hardcore devices such as "The Waterfall," "The Lung" and the universally reknown "Bucket." Various bands have tried to challenge us at toking but we always kill those wimpy fags, I've seen Orange Goblin fall to the floor many a time we stoned them up hard! Only Brutal Truth could keep up with us, it's wierd because all these bands in England call themselves stoner rock but they don't even smoke any pot! High Times has some cool growing tips but I don't like the wimpy hippy stuff. They should do a Sleep special every month!

I was curious as to some of your influences, besides the obvious Black Sabbath, on the music you make? I did hear a slight Louisiana sound in the vein of Eyehategod and Crowbar so I was wondering if there were any other styles of music you were into? Also, I'd like to get your reaction on a couple of other bands in this genre, namely Iron Monkey, Roachpowder, and my all time favorites Hawkwind.

We love all heavy and original music, the Louisiana bands too. Electric Wizard's favorite bands are Sabbath, Saint Vitus, Blue Cheer, Celtic Frost, Witchfinder General, Sleep, Darkthrone, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Cream, Slayer, Pentagram, Bathory, Trouble, Earth, Burning Witch, the Melvins, etc. Basically anything that stops the voice in my head which tells me to do bad things. Iron Monkey totally rock and we got trashed with those dudes a few times but they've split up now. I might be doing some project stuff with the drummer soon like the slowest band ever or something. I don't know of Roachpowder so I can't say anything. As for Hawkwind, I love their early stuff with Lemmy but the later stuff is gay. But they are kind of an institution in England and everyone goes and sees them live, they're still cool live and everyone in the crowd shares their drugs around and it's a great party like in the 60's. I've seen them about 6 times.

'Mountains Of Mars' was a beautiful instrumental, but there doesn't seem to be any other styles like this on any of your other albums that I've heard. Was that a one shot thing or will we hear more mellow stuff like this on future works? Speaking of those, are there any plans for a new album and what might it be like? Tell us what type of bands you consider to be perfect bands to listen to "under the influence."

We do a lot of mellower jams at rehearsals but it seems we are always pissed and have a negative attitude when we're in the studio. I think it's kind of a myth that when you're stoned you want to listen to wimpy Led Zeppelin crap, I hate it. We listen to Bathory and Darkthrone even on acid! If I want to relax I prefer ambient music to acoustic stuff. We will record a more mellow track if we think it's appropriate, if it makes you feel like you're lost on some screwed up alien world NOT look at the lovely flowers they're so trippy man... UUUGGHH! Our new album will be called "Dopethrone" and we are working on it now! It's gonna be the heaviest and most original stoner doom album ever recorded in human history! We guarantee that even if you've never taken drugs you'll experience the baddest trip of your miserable life! Electric Wizard are the perfect band to listen to under the influence, if you can handle it!

Finally, any chance you will tour the States? And also, I noticed being on Lee Dorrian's label (from Cathedral fame) your first album artwork looked strikingly similar to a few of Cathedral's and the Lake Of Tears album "Crimson Cosmos." Is it that this artist only does album covers for those doing doom metal or trippy psychedelic music?

We are going to tour the U.S. very soon, it's our total dream! It will probably be with Goatsnake as we did an awesome British tour with them and we really got along well. It was a great show for the fans because we're both total doom live but in a different way. Also, we heard American chicks are suckers for English accents! We used the same artist as Cathedral on the first album but we were sick when we saw it because it's totally weak hippy crap, we asked for a huge dragon dripping blood with naked chicks and stuff like the cover of "Savage Sword Of Conan" or something, not that stuff. I mean she hasn't even got her tits out and there's a queer dolphin on it! (Luckily this is cut off on the re-release). Since then we've used our own stuff! Check out the new "Supercoven" CD on Southern Lord Records out now with new tracks and cover art for the U.S. only. It is SOOOO heavy! If you're into Death, Black, Doom, Stoner, Punk, whatever we guarantee you will get on your knees and pray to the Wizard!

Good band.
Like the interview.