FU MANCHU Frontman Scott Hill - Stoner Rock Is "Kind Of A Lame Term"
May 4, 2007, 17 years ago
The following interview is courtesy of MTV.com:
FU MANCHU frontman Scott Hill has never been a fan of the label "stoner rock." But that hasn't stopped scores of music journalists and metal fans the world over from ascribing said tag to his Southern California fuzz-rockin' combo.
Not that Hill minds being lumped together with like-minded rockers QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, KYUSS, MONSTER MAGNET and FIREBALL MINISTRY. He just doesn't dig on labels, period. Fu Manchu, he claims, have always "done what we wanted," regardless of what anyone wants to call it.
"The first time I heard the phrase 'stoner rock' was in 1994," he recalled. "We were playing in Texas, and a journalist from England came over, and we're doing the interview, and he mentioned the term 'stoner rock.' ... To me, 'stoner rock' means, like, the Grateful Dead — hippie garbage. I've just never been into that mellow, hippie kind of stuff. But now it seems to be associated with a heavy guitar and fuzzy-sounding guitars, and in that respect, whatever, that's fine; it's kind of what we are. But it's kind of a lame term."You never want to get labeled anything," he continued. "But as long as it's not associated with hippie, mellow nonsense, we can deal with 'stoner rock.' It's better than a lot of the things we could be called."
Back in late February, Fu Manchu released their first album in three years, We Must Obey, which they co-produced with Andrew Alekel (WEEZER, RANCID). Hill said the Fu began writing material for the effort in 2005, at the conclusion of the band's touring cycle in support of 2004's Start the Machine.
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