“When most people come out to the desert they just think about how isolated, barren and maybe lifeless it is. But I see the complete opposite.”
The man waxing philosophical is none other than John Garcia, and for him and his bandmates, the desert of Southern California has captured the imagination, just as it has for those around it for generations.
Books have been written, movies have been made and in the early 1990s, a new movement of rock was being thrashed out by four kids from the Palm Desert.
“Look,” Garcia continues in his gently, ever-present husky tone. “I’m not going to get philosophical on you and talk to you about me tripping on peyote and mushrooms and seeing a bunch of life in the desert. I don’t do that.”
“The desert is something that I’ve known my whole life and it’s exactly that that draws me to it. It is the nothingness, the lifelessness but on the flip side to that coin it is all the life, the beauty, and the barrenness that makes it alive. It’s just home to me,” he states.
“I once tried to move out to Los Angeles for a job of mine and immediately upon unpacking my first box I told my wife that we were going to go back home. About a year and a half later we did. The desert is really a no stress, no frills life and it’s a really cool place to raise a family away from the rat race.”
For Garcia as a Californian kid growing up in his arid home, he felt that writing and playing music was a ‘necessity’, something he could not escape, something that made him feel complete.
“You’ve got to get that shot in the arm of whatever it is that you need that fix of… I’ve got a fix for music.” – John Garcia“If I’m growing up in South London and I’ve got a void in my gut then that void’s gonna be filled one way or another,” he explains holistically. “If I grow up in the slums of Los Angeles or wherever it may be there’s a thing called necessity. Kids will find a way to fill that void and necessity comes out, it’s like that old saying that necessity is the mother of invention.”
“If you’ve got an urge and an itch,” he contemplates, “you’ve got to scratch it! …You’ve got to get that shot in the arm of whatever it is that you need that fix of. A lot of people have fixes in different ways and I’ve got a fix for tunes, I’ve got a fix for music, I’ve got a fix for creativity.”
It’s a fix that Garcia has had for quite a while now and luckily for his fans he doesn’t look like stopping for anyone or anything.
Through all the trials and tribulations of the final year of the Mayan Calendar, he has landed in the year 2013 with a new focus and a genuine love for those around him.
After much litigation surrounding the ownership of the legendary stoner rock group’s name, involving previous Kyuss members Josh Homme and Scott Reeder, the remaining members have decided to wipe the slate clean and begin writing their own story.
The final live appearances of Kyuss Lives! will take place on Australia’s very own sun burnt shores early this year.
The band has joined the ranks of this year’s Soundwave festival for a final farewell before rebranding themselves the ever-so Southern Californian moniker, Vista Chino.
“I’m in a good spot right now,” Garcia says sincerely. “I’m spending a lot of time with family and spending a lot of time writing this next record along with Brant Björk and Bruno [Fevery]. I’m real excited about coming down there and doing what we do.”
“I’m really appreciative of the birth of a new band,” says Garcia of the rebranded Vista Chino, “and we’re stoked and really looking forward to a nice fresh beginning.”
Alongside Garcia is previous Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age bass player Nick Oliveri, Belgian guitarist Bruno Fever,y and long time comrade and founding member of Kyuss, Brant Björk.
“I don’t see Brant holding down a nine to five, you know what I mean,” says Garcia of the talented multi-instrumentalist.
“I myself am a little curious of how the record is going to sound.” – John Garcia“He’s a musical lifer and he’s a very hard worker. That guy has more integrity in his little finger than most musicians have in their entire body. He’s done this his whole life and he’ll do this for the rest of his life, and that’s just what Brant does.”
Garcia labels his bandmate as “somewhat of an enigma too, just when I think that this is the direction that Brant wants to go he’ll turn it around and go, ‘no, it’s not the direction I wanna go’… it’s a good enigma.”
You can feel Garcia’s love for the man that has loyally stuck to his guns in every assured syllable he sends through the phone line.
“Brant has so much heart and so much feeling,” explains Garcia. “His ideology of this band means a lot to him.”
“Just to share the stage with someone like Brant Bjork again is really, really cool. It’s a cool vibe and I’m just very, very lucky so it’s a good time for us.”
So after collaborations on too many classic records to even count, what can the world anticipate from the guys from Palm Desert in their new guise?
“I think that we’re going to go off on a few different avenues and do a little bit of exploring on this record but for the most part I think that Vista Chino really has no choice as to what it is.”
How so? “Even if we do go off in a different direction,” ponders Garcia, “I think we’re going to have that certain vibe of – firstly the desert, secondly Kyuss, and thirdly the spirituality of a band like Kyuss… I myself am a little curious of how the record is going to sound.”
Kyuss Lives! play their final shows under that name with Soundwave 2013 around the country from Saturday 23rd February, playing times here. They also play Sidewaves shows in Melbourne and Sydney with Red Fang, dates and details below.
Kyuss Lives! Soundwave 2013 Sidewaves
w/ Red Fang
TUESDAY 26 FEBRUARY
MELBOURNE, THE PALACE – 18+
www.ticketek.com.au & www.oztix.com.au
WEDNESDAY 27 FEBRUARY
SYDNEY, THE METRO – Licensed All Ages
www.ticketek.com.au
