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Interviews
Hellride Music: Juan, thanks for taking the time out to do this interview. We are very proud to represent the band here in the United States. The FOOZ sound is tough to nail down.... I like to describe the FOOZ sound as a hybrid between Captain Beyond, Captain Beefheart, Pink Floyd and harder rocking acts like Deep Purple with a Middle Eastern touch. How would you describe the FOOZ sound in your own words? Juan Gomez: Well, we're not a usual stoner/doom rock band really. We combine personal influences, and this made our own sound. But we want to say that isn't progressive rock flavor in our music, the Pink Floyd influence came from me... I love sci-fi books, Space Rock and echo machines, bands like Gong, Hawkwind, Amon Dull II, Can... The middle eastern influence came from our country, we live in the Mediterranean coast, near Morocco and we grew-up listening to flamenco and Arabic music. We like a lot 60's and 70's Heavy Rock and early British Pop (Kinks, Small Faces, Beatles). Hellride Music: I like the fact that Fooz combines soft and hard music, often in one song. Is this something you really wanted to have happen in your music, or did it just turn out that way? Juan: Our music has different faces, we work sometimes out of the rehearsal room, with acoustic guitars and eastern percussion, sometimes with synths, and electronic devices ... And this is reflected in our music, you know. Hellride Music: Who does most of the songwriting for Fooz? How about the lyrics? Juan: All lyrics and vocal lines are made By Nacho Luri, our lead singer. He often writes like he's painting a picture. He uses the words for their phonetic sounds more than for their meaning, and are really in a psychedelic vein, he sings about inner feelings. We don't write about cars and girls, we don't live this Rock & Roll way of life. The music came from all people in this band, in any combination of his members. Hellride Music: Was the recording of your first album difficult? Juan: We recorded and mixed eleven songs in six nights. By day, all of us were in our jobs, we slept two or three hours at day. And we didn't take any drugs. In Spain we say "wanted hits don't pain" Hellride Music: Where in Spain does the band come from? How long have you been together and how did you form? Juan: All of us live in Alicante, a small city in the Mediterranean coast, full of sun. We have been together since late 1998, with this line up, but we was a Black Sabbath tribute band since 1995, till we changed the bassist and drummer and started to make original stuff. Hellride Music: What is the music scene like in Spain? Does Fooz play live very often? If so, what are the Fooz live shows like? Juan: The music scene in Spain is dead since the late seventies. Here we only have Techno pop bands in an eighties vein or awful Latin music. Most of the rock bands are in the underground scene. People here don't hear Rock music anyway. We don't have support from any institution, and there are few bars when you can play for, practically, no money. Fooz live shows are full of high volume and energy, is the only thing we can offer Hellride Music: Will Fooz be touring anytime soon? Juan: This summer we have some dates all over Spain, and for this autumn, is possible an European tour. We cross our fingers. Hellride Music: Anything else you'd like to tell the Hellride Music readers? Juan: If you listen to our record, you will want to buy it, sure... hahaha, enjoy it and take us to play in your country, dudes! Purchase Fooz's debut album at the Hellride Music Super Store Listen to a Real Audio sample of Earthwind
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FOOZ
first crossed my ears in Spain, at the home of Alone Records chief Miguel
Gonzalez. We were listening to demos one night and one of the ones that
made it to the CD player was Fooz. We were both blown away.... some of
the most imaginative heavy rock we had ever heard. The Alone Records/Custom
Heavy Records partnership started that evening- we were determined to
get Fooz out and into the ears of the public. Think Captain Beyond meeting
Captain Beefheart at Pink Floyd's bachelor party and you've pretty much
got what Fooz is all about. Hellride Music talks with guitarist Juan Gomez.