Original SAIGON KICK guitarist Jason Bieler has launched a new project dubbed OWL STRETCHING, which he told BW&BK; first-hand is "a constantly morphing project with different guests that I use as a vehicle to release new music." Bieler is now offering the song 'Satellite' as a free download via the project's official Facebook page or using the player below:

"If you should happen to feel like donating to the effort, awesome, but in no way expected or needed."

During an exclusive interview with BW&BK; discussing the rumours of a Saigon Kick reunion - due to be published soon - Bieler shed some light on Owl Stretching:

“I’m writing a lot more lately," Bieler reveals. "I’ve been spending more time in the studio. I’ve spent a lot of time producing, but I’m getting away from it because at some point I felt I needed to do other things. For the last five years I’ve done nothing but play hockey (laughs), but once I realized that I wasn’t going to get into the NHL and that I should probably focus on something where I have a degree of talent, I started writing again and working with different musicians. It’s been cool.”

Which led to the formation of an oddball project called Owl Stretching, which has seen Bieler go so far as to re-record Saigon Kick's ‘The Lizard’ with some industrial tweaking. All in the name of having fun with the music.

“Owl Stretching is me working with different musicians, some of them older and more experienced, some new guys, and constantly messing with it and evolving with it. Because I own a label and a studio, I don’t really have to do anything. It’s been the most fun, and the most dangerous in a sense, because I really don’t care. I can do what I want with whoever I want and how I want along with the people working with me, with no real justification for it. I’m not concerned about whether radio will like it or being able to tour with it. We’re just making music that we think is cool for that moment. We’ve only done a few things so far, but the diversity of Owl Stretching makes Saigon Kick look like a death metal band (laughs).”
“There are about 12 songs almost done that are completely different from each other. There’s some heavier stuff, and some other material that may be more on the alternative side. My goal is to release music every month or so. I’m not too concerned about making an album because the music isn’t geared that way, and I think that in this day and age people don’t really listen to albums anymore. I’d love to do something with Benji from Skindred, I think the guys from Sic are amazing, and people that came out of the woodwork over years that are in really big bands now. I just want to keep it fun and different and see where it goes.”

The original version of 'The Lizard' is the title track of Saigon Kick's second album, released in 1992, which featured vocalist Matt Kramer on lead vocals.

As previously reported, Kramer is featured in a new interview discussing ongoing rumours of a full band reunion, and what it would take to make it happen. An excerpt from the story is available below:

Kramer: “We actually almost got together a couple years ago, and I don’t think anybody’s really talked about it publicly. I actually spoke to Jason Bieler (guitars) on the phone and we didn’t try to kill each other (laughs). It was a very gentlemanly conversation. I went in with my concerns, and I went in saying that I would like an equal share, of course, all the way down the line, even if I wasn’t in the band. We couldn’t come to an agreement on that, but that’s what I’m looking for. That’s the only way I can build up the brand again, because it isn’t doing very much right now. I’m always the singer of Saigon Kick, I don’t have to go out there in order to be the singer of Saigon Kick, but everybody seems to want to get out there. Can we come to terms? That, unfortunately, is the political bullshit of the matter, which definitely sucks because it would be cool to get back out there and rock again. I’m certainly in vocal shape, because I’m training singers now. My voice has never been better; it’s way better now that when Saigon Kick was active because I train every day. The band would definitely tear it up.”