Special Report By Martin Popoff

KYUSS and FU MANCHU legend BRANT BJORK is bringing a little more desert heat to the summer with Somera Sol, recorded under the auspices of BRANT BJORK AND THE BROS. The album’s a tidy little digi with songs that recall the minimalist jag of select QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE moments. But it’s fat and rhythmic and warm, actually quite charming… good to see Brant continuing his quest for the perfect groove, even if he’s not drumming to get there, but actually singin’ and guitarin’.

“To bring Fredo in and to make a good solid rock record,” comes Brant’s two-pronged answer, when asked to lay out the mission for this intimate album of modest stoner songs, Fredo being drummer Alfredo Hernandez, a bro that Bjork can’t seem to praise enough. “And really allow him to express his natural abilities on the drums and our history together, and each other as musicians. But yeah, really, just make a good solid rock record.”

One wonders if it takes a lot of drummer to impress a drummer turned front man. “Um, that's a good question,” ponders Bjork, furthermore asked what Fredo brought to the table that he himself didn’t have. “I've never really thought about it. We're actually quite different. I think we just express our personalities and musicianship differently. He's very solid, and I think he's very centered and concentrates on the pocket, and that seems to be his driving force. He's just very precise, almost mechanical. We're all self-taught. We have our own natural styles and playing – we’re both musical, but we’re very organic too.”

Asked about strange creases to this album, one that is actually quite steady-Freddy with its arrangements, Bjork says that, “The last two tracks on the record I incorporated some horns and some flute, and got creative on some interesting sounds in the mixes. The last song has kind of a funk vibe; it's really groovy, but to me, it's nothing I wouldn't... I'm not venturing into a world I wouldn't dare ago, but it's fresh.”

“Conceptually yes, but musically no,” answers Brant with respect to where the Bros might dare go with their next album. “Musically, I never stay focused on one specific direction. As soon as I do that, my intuition takes some other route anyway. So I've always just allowed music to just naturally evolve in whatever direction it needs to go. Conceptually with the Bros, yes, it's all about the chemistry, and us knowing that we are all down with what this is, and really concentrating on our on-stage chemistry, and off. Just make sure there's a lot of vibe and understanding. Lyrically… my lyrics usually evolve around reality and fantasy, a world I would like to live in, and the world that I do live in. It's usually just day-to-day things; life in America these days is kind of trippy, so I do touch upon certain topics that are certainly not political, but definitely social. But I don't have a strict formula on lyrics. It just kind of mirrors my whole trip with the music. I don't set them too far apart, as far as letting it all kind of flow.”

And so the next album?

“I have thought about it a little bit,” ventures Bjork. “I'm already interested in dipping in and creating again, especially since Fredo is aboard. But I'll probably just concentrate on the new chemistry that is evolving with Fredo; just pursue that. You know, going back to your questions about our differences, in a certain way, his drumming is very lyrical, very musical. It's very specific. He plays each drum a specific way, whereas I'm probably a little more freestyle, and probably not really thinking about it in terms of that. He's very serious about his drumming, and what he wants to do with the song. So in some ways, what I've always loved about his drumming is that he brings a character to the song that could almost be considered a part of the song, a part of the writing. I mean, if there was ever… if rock drumming was ever considered part of the songwriting process, I think Fredo would be at the top of the list (laughs).”

Is it a challenge being up there as front man, laying it all out?

“No, but in the beginning the transition was a bit of a challenge. I've always looked at myself as a musician first, and a drummer second. I like to write songs. I've been playing guitar as long as I've been writing songs. Because I'm so involved in songwriting, I have a vision, and in order for me to express my vision, up to its most potential, I've got to get up there and spearhead it. And that was the struggle I had in Fu Manchu, and of course in Kyuss. I had a vision, and it was hard to really express that and deliver it behind the drums. So I was willing to sacrifice a position of an instrument where I was very confident and comfortable, to get something else. And just for the greater good of delivering the music, in my own band, I knew it was something I eventually was going to do. I was just patient and waiting for the right time.”
“I could probably be better in maneuvering myself in the business,” says Bjork in closing, stuck within the dichotomy of being an artist really into following the muse, and the day to day of being a band. “When I was younger, I wasn't motivated by fame and money, and it wasn't really an act of righteousness, it was more about the love of music; I wanted to concentrate on that. I wasn't really aggressive in positioning myself and putting myself in a better place as far as the business and marketing and stuff like that. I feel that if I was more aggressive in that way, I might be able to get myself and my band in a more comfortable place (laughs). But I'm more… I can't say I'm lazy or I lack of ambition on that point, I think I'm just a right brain person, I'm an artist, and I focus my attention more on my where my natural talent lies, and I've yet to find someone to ally with, in the states of least, who can help me get more support for the band. But I wouldn't say I'm… it’s not a concern of mine, but it's something that I have yet to really achieve.”

For more on the classy yet simple and slinky Somera Sol album, check out www.dunarecords.com.