Former KYUSS Drummer Is 'Really, Really Excited' About VISTA CHINO Debut

Music Feeds conducted an interview with former KYUSS and current KYUSS LIVES! and VISTA CHINO drummer Brant Bjork on Sunday (February 24) at the Sydney, Australia stop of this year's Soundwave festival. You can now watch the chat below.

KYUSS LIVES! is performing its final shows as part of Soundwave. Once the festival has finished, the band will begin anew under the name VISTA CHINO.

Comprised of Bjork and fellow former KYUSS bandmates John Garcia (vocals) and Nick Oliveri (bass),along with Bruno Fevery (guitar),KYUSS LIVES! decided to change its name after a lawsuit launched by former KYUSS members Josh Homme and Scott Reeder prevented KYUSS LIVES! from recording and releasing any new material.

On whether there is a slight sense of relief that the legal dispute over the KYUSS name is over:

Brant: "Absolutely. There's always relief when conflict is resolved and people can just let go and move forward. That's where we're at and we feel great. It's always unfortunate to experience differences with specific people, but we feel great as a band. We're really, really excited to move forward into the future and focus on what it is that we do, which is play music."

On whether the change of band's name to VISTA CHINO would have happened had it not been for the lawsuit:

Brant: "That's a good question. The answer to that question is: I don't know. Possibly. We didn't really think about it. We were really just looking at what was in front of us and making our decisions based on what our present situation was. But now we just came to a point where we felt that changing the name was appropriate and was the fastest way for us to get back to playing music."

On whether changing the name has reinvigorated the band after the psychological toll that the lawsuit took:

Brant: "Yeah, it did take its toll psychologically and spiritually and certainly financially, but we are musicians, and I'm not interested ultimately in names or business or things of that nature. I'm a professional musician; music's my passon. It didn't break my musical spirit, and I think I speak for everyone else [as well]. So we just learned a lot from it. It was a strange trip, and now we're just back to rocking."

On the status of the recording and mixing sessions for the VISTA CHINO debut album:

Brant: "The record is… We're mixing it right now. And it's great. We're really, really excited. We can't wait to drop the bomb, so to speak. It’s a good record, man. I think people are gonna dig it. So we'll drop that this summer, and we'll go to work, man. We haven't formally chosen any particular song to be a single, but we are playing one VISTA CHINO track [tentatively titled 'Dragona'] here at the Soundwave, so you've just gotta kind of listen out for it.

Photo credit: K. Campbell