5 years ago guided by the euphoric powers of THC and sickened
by the lack of attention the decriminalization movement seemed
to be getting from most pro-marijuana bands, Bongzilla laid
down the sludgy devil weed worshipping doom and the protest
was born. Hell bound and weed-bent from day one, Bongzilla has
been on a stoner rock mission to expose the hypocrisy and stupidity
that plagues America’s anti-marijuana stance. Their latest
release, ‘Stash’ (Relapse Records), is every hessians
wet dream come true. Think back to the 70’s when all you
needed was a beer, a few bong rips and the slowest, heaviest
riffs that Black Sabbath could produce to do you right. Keeping
the dream alive for those us of us who were too young around
the first time,
I give you Satan’s most fortunate smoking sons, Bongzilla.
King Kola Killer, The Big “Bud” Man, Magma Mota,
and Sensi Spanky. Why does everyone in the band go by their
superhero alter-ego?
King Kolla Killer: We all go by alter-egos because of the pro-marijuana
stance we take. It kind of started as a joke and then we felt
a lot safer about it-nobody knows our real names. Recently we
played a concert in a park in Madison and the police had showed
up to give us a $100 noise violation. I totally had my back
turned to the cops and was puffing a bowl when they walked in.
Luckily, I was able to toss the pipe behind the drum kit. They
were like, “Where’s King Kola Killer?” and we
were like, “Uhh, that kid already left” So, it’s
actually helped us out quite a bit not associating our names
with the band.
What’s Madison like?
Madison’s pretty mellow - it’s a college town. Madison
is a God of sanity in an otherwise really insane state. Wisconsin
is pretty hick - a super white trash state.
You think Wisconsin is a white trash state?
Kind of, It kind of reminds me of Northern California times
ten (laughter). Northern California kind of gets trashy as you
get
past Chico.
(Laughter) Yeah, but no one will admit it.
I grew up in it, I know what it’s like.
You grew up in Northern California?
No, I grew up in whitetrashville. I grew up in a town of 2,000
people in Central Wisconsin.
What got you into metal?
I totally grew up on Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, ZZ
Top - bands like that. I went off to punk rock for awhile, listened
to a lot of Dead Kennedys. Then I really got back into Sabbath
again - that and bands like The Melvins really influenced me
to play really slow metal.
What came first - marijuana or the music?
I was smoking reefer before I played music ever. Now, it’s
more about playing music for people who are high. It’s
high people playing music for high people.
Do you find it troubling winning broad appeal outside of marijuana
enthusiasts?
It’s kind of both. I’ve always noticed that people
either hate us, or love us. There’s really not a lot of
in between. It could even be a straight edge kid loving us.
You’re going to tell me that there are straight edge
kids into Bongzilla?
There’s this kid we know in Providence, Rhode Island who
is straight edge and way down with Bongzilla. After we played
a festival there we went and raged at his house. He didn’t
care if we smoked or anything, he just sat, watched, and laughed
at us.
Have there been any Bongzilla run-ins with the law?
Knock on wood, we have never gotten pulled over on the road.
About 5 years ago the drummer and I got arrested for possession.
We were smoking in an alley where we shouldn’t have. Our
drummer also recently got arrested for possession while he was
on the road with his other band, Pachinko. They got pulled over
coming back from Milwaukee. As a band, we always expect the
Madison police to show up at our shows, but they never do.
Marijuana is America’s biggest cash crop. It’s
grown in every single one of the 50 states. Does it blow your
mind that it’s still illegal?
Yeah, imagine if you didn’t get hassled. There’s just
so much money on the other side. So much lobbying going on,
and just corporate bullshit keeping it from being legalized.
They’re too good at the game. Look what happened in California,
how Clinton tried to deputize local sheriffs so they could federally
arrest people for marijuana usage. The people in the state just
voted it’s okay to use marijuana for medicinal purposes,
this is what we want, and basically Clinton told them to fuck
off. Marijuana activists have to be better at the game if it’s
going to be legal.
Is Bongzilla involved in any efforts to help decriminalize marijuana?
We play hemp festivals, but we’re not out picketing. I
think every gig we play is a protest to me. I think one of the
reasons we play slow, angrier music is because we want people
to be angry about this. All those other stoner rock bands out
there are trying to make people happy about this, and I want
people to be angry about marijuana still being illegal.
What made you sit down and go, “all right, let’s
do a band all about bud?”
At the time when Bongzilla started 5 years ago it was really
the thing that pissed me off the most. I’ve always been
the type of person to do something almost idiotically extreme.
Everyone I talked with thought it was the dumbest idea, and
you know, we like live that lifestyle. Everyday we’re running,
smoking, trimming, planting - everyday. Just about every second
it seems (laughter). When I started playing music that’s
what drove me - the weed, and it’s the same thing that
drove me to start this band.
Your album, ‘Stash,’ has tons of interesting samples
of people talking about their feelings on marijuana. Where’d
you get those?
Those are all from a PBS special all about marijuana. I probably
shouldn’t be saying that. The show was actually all about
productive, intelligent people who got busted for growing pot.
It’s a really interesting show - I recommend everyone see
it at least once. It’s a real eye opening experience -
they talk about this one scientist who got busted for growing
and how it just really ripped apart his family.
Anything else you’d like to leave with the impressionable
youth of America?
For me, I don’t ever have a lot of shit I want. I’ve
got my amp, my guitar, a place to live, my BMX bike, and then
I’ve got my ganja. What else does a man need? That’s
it, live life simple and keep fighting. One day it will all
come around for us. You can’t arrest everybody can you?
And we’re getting closer to being everybody.
