| BAND CONCEPTION
AND HISTORY SHOWS WE'VE PLAYED |
SONG CONCEPTIONS +
MEANINGS COVERS WE'VE DONE |
CLICK A TOPIC.
| BAND CONCEPTION
AND HISTORY SHOWS WE'VE PLAYED |
SONG CONCEPTIONS +
MEANINGS COVERS WE'VE DONE |
CLICK A TOPIC.
Actually, that's not the real
legend of Ozma. The real story reads a little less fantasy and more... teenage
boredom. It begins on a chilly day in suburban Pasadena, California...
F O R C E S _ A L I G N
.....In late 1995, Daniel Brummel, a pudgy,
long-haired, Stephen King-reading teen, bought a Macintosh Classic II from
his uncle, plugged it into his phone jack, and connected to the internet for
the first time. Around the same time, Jose Galvez was a mere mile away, in
the same town, searching for "bass player, Pasadena" in the AOL member
directory. Daniel's e-mail address came up in a search, and Jose made the
first move, writing to Daniel about a recently disbanded rock band ("Paper
Or Plastic" broke up in early 1995) that was looking to form again with a
new bass player and a new sound. He spoke of an otherworldy lead guitarist
by the name of Ryen Slegr who had played and sung in several bands including
Saap, and a rocksteady drummer - Patrick Edwards - with a bedroom converted
to a practice space. Daniel, previously a guitarist, happened to have a bass
and an amp lying around from his previous band, Porcelain Dream (with Jes Painter now of Poseidon).
Jose and Daniel arranged a day for the four kids to convene, and, that
quickly, Ozma was an existing entity. The first day, Daniel learned three
songs the band members had written that summer (Trucks and Cars, Stuck In
The Ground, So Down) and from then on the songwriting was a group
process.
E A R L Y _ P E R F O R M A N C E S _ A N
D _ R E C O R D I N G S
-----The infamous first show was at a Halloween party for a high
school friend. The band was unnamed at this time, and the set consisted of
the previously mentioned three songs and about 10 other Weezer covers,
including a 20-minute jam on "Only In Dreams" which never actually included
the chorus. The next year, 1996, was filled with performances at talent
shows, birthday parties, and coffeehouses, and over this year several
"classic" Ozma songs were written, including If My Amp Had Wheels, Just Tell
Me When (along with now defunct sister song Hopeless), and Rain of the
Golden Gorilla. The new songs were written as collaborative efforts, and
early demos were made using 4 track machines and dubbed at home. Upwards of
200 of these preliminary tapes called "cuatro" and "ocho" (the names
correspond to the Spanish word for the amount of songs on each tape) still
exist in the hands of friends, family, and booking agents. Also in this
year, Daniel was able to attend the California State Summer School for the Arts on the CalArts
campus in Valencia, CA, where he actually got some real classical music
schooling and returned extra-pumped for some hard rock music. He also met Katherine Kieckhefer, a pianist
from Burbank, who later agreed to join the band as a synthesizer
player.
B L E M I S H E S _ B E G I N _ T O _ A P
P E A R _ O N _ O Z M A ' S _ F A C E
-----1997 was the year of Ozma's adolescence. It was then that
they settled on their current moniker. On a sunny day in Pat's living room,
Daniel sat at a typewriter spewing nonsense onto paper trying to come up
with a fitting band name. The band had gone through several temporary titles
(one they held extra long was "Sochi," from the song If My Amp Had Wheels)
and needed something permanent. Band members paced for hours, and then
finally noticed some books by a man named L. Frank Baum on Pat's bookshelf.
The books featured fantastic depictions of imaginary worlds full of glory
and excitement. Ozma had found it's name. With the new band name, they were
prepared to head out to the Hollywood clubs, and began playing regularly
(the first club show was on February 21st, 1997, at the Whisky on Sunset).
Also in 1997, the Ozma songwriting process was refined and the songs being
written began to have a new, unique feel to them. Some of the songs out of
this period were Iceland and Lately. In June, Ozma entered the studio for
the first time (Skratch Pad in Arcadia, with John Gaudesi engineering) to
record the four song "First Strike" E.P. which featured Iceland. Later in
the year, friends Mykel and Carli Allan, who ran fanclubs for rock bands
including Weezer, that dog., and the Rentals, died in a terribly unfortunate
car accident. When asked to participate in a tribute compilation for the
girls, Ozma gladly contributed Iceland to the CD, titled Hear You Me!, which
was released in early 1998 by Vast Records.
K E Y B O A R D I S T
_ E X C H A N G E _ & _ F I R S T _ Q U A L I T Y _ R E C O R D I N
G
-----As Ozma's audience began to grow, they became even more
aware as to the type of music they wanted to write. 1998 brought songs like
Lorraine, Maybe In An Alternate Dimension, Baseball, and Natalie Portman. It
also brought the beginning of the PoP RoX series of rock shows, established by visionary Damien Bueno, a
college friend of Ozma's. These events, which are still taking place today,
are showcases of various rock bands (of which Ozma is the only constant).
Bands which have participated include Teen Heroes, Space Twins, Bank of
Brian, Tom Racer, and Radio 4. After the 2nd PoP RoX, Ozma parted ways
amicably with Kieckhefer, and began a search for a new keyboardist. In the
mean time, they returned to the studio (this time at Magnetic Sound
Recorders with Rod Cervera of the Rentals and Supersport 2000 producing) to
track the Lorraine/Los Angeles single (which incidentally has keyboard
tracks played by Daniel, not Katherine). The keyboardist search soon ended
online (just as the band was begun) with Star Wick, a
fan-turned-band-member. Star's first show with the band was PoP RoX 3 at the
El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles.
T R U C K S _ A N
D _ C A R S _ F O R _ S A L E
-----In January of 1999, Ozma began selling a 10 song collection
of demos & singles called Songs of Inaudible Trucks
and Cars. It was burned at home, featured xeroxed artwork, and contained
the 6 professionally-recorded songs Ozma then possessed plus two live tracks
(Shootingstars, Baseball) and two home demos (Natalie Portman, Maybe In An
Alternate Dimension). It was sold at shows for cheap, and to support it they
performed at respected venues across Southern California with other
established local bands such as Kara's Flowers, Phantom Planet, Ridel High,
Smile, and Nerf Herder.
T O O _ M U C H _ M E T A
L
-----As Star and Daniel geared up for their first year of
college in the summer of 1999, Ozma finalized what would be the material for
their second release, Rock and Roll Part Three [Tornado Recordings]. The
album was recorded, mixed, and mastered during October and November (very
first semester of school) at Pop Squad Studios, Hollywood, with Bruce "Too
Much Metal For One Hand" Witkin engineering and co-producing.
I N _ T H E _ Y E A R _ 2 0 0 0
-----On January 1st, 2000, the day the world was supposed to
implode because of a computer glitch, Ozma had other plans. They released
Rock And Roll Part Three and began booking shows to promote it, winding up
on fantastic bills with Nada Surf, Jimmy Eat World, Nerf Herder, and Weezer.
After doing three dates as an opening band for Weezer, Ozma was asked to
sign on as the opening act for the Yahoo!-sponsored Outloud Tour in
February/March 2001.
T H E _ D O N K E Y S _ P L A
Y _ T H E I R _ B A L A L A I K A S In late December 2000, with their
first US tour on the horizon, Ozma went back to work in the studio on The
Doubble Donkey Disc [Tornado Recordings], a CD of two 5-song concept EPs, the
"Russian Coldfusion EP" of Russian influenced songs, and the "Bootytraps EP"
in which each member of the band has their own "bootysong." Ozma hopes to tour
again in support of The Doubble Donkey Disc in the summer of 2001.
----- T O _ B E _ C O N T I N U E D . . .
attempted explanations:
DISCLAIMER: it's preferable to listen to the music
before you read these. the songs are written with the hope they encapsulate
something we can't write about. we always love to hear different
interpretations of our stuff from listeners. the explanations below are for
those who've heard all the songs 20 times and now want to know where they
came from. that being said, enjoy.
R O C K _ A N D _ R O L L _ P A R T _ T H R E E
shootingstars
- "there are a lot of things you could probably get out of this song. on the
surface, a song with a story line about a soldier come back from war who
finds that his lover has left him. the chorus 'every night i see a shooting
star and wonder if it's landing where you are,' deals somewhat with
memories, looking for people you miss. the sad thing is that the soldier,
while in battle, was probably dreaming of his lover every night (while she
was obviously not dreaming of him). it's also possible that his memory of
her helped him to make it through his difficult circumstances. so again, i
notice that the things that improve you also hurt you. 'everytime i take a
look around, i find myself looking down, to a place that looking much more
round...' for me it's about trying to look at yoursef objectively and
noticing that you aren't seeing the world that is, but rather, a world you
dream about living in." - ryen
natalie
portman - "this song is just about a jewish girl who uses a stage name."
- daniel
the ups and
downs - "as i said before it's first performance ever, at the el rey...
'this is a song about being pathetic.' i'm sure we all are at least twice in
our lives... and relationships seem to be the main cause. the lyrics are in
story form... dan, jose, and i wrote the lyrics together... and it was fun
to take the worst of our experiences and put them in one condensed
worst-case-scenario." - ryen if i only had a
heart - "my mom always used to say 'your room... looks like it's been
hit by a tornado.' also, a girl i had it pretty bad for got the role of tin
man in her high school play, senior year. also, one of the many ozma songs
with titles from t-shirts i own." - daniel
baseball -
"some of my fondest childhood memories are of little league and of days with
dad at chavez ravine watching fernando and mike scioscia play. a lot of that
nostalgia got compressed into a love song somehow." - daniel
in search of
1988 - "i was thrift-store-shopping in 9th grade with my dad and my
friend jessica painter. jess and i found a blue shirt which read, in gaudy
white writing, 'in search of 1988.' we fought over it, and she ended up with
it. december of 1998, jess returned home from SFSU and gave me the shirt as
a christmas gift. i got all sappy thinking about the easier times, early
high school, goofing off with jess. then i thought about the year shown on
the shirt, 1988, and got even sappier thinking about how much easier things
were when i was 7. the song, for the most part, is very uptempo. then in the
middle, there's an extended breakdown with the line 'i want to make a motion
to stop the commotion.' basically about just chilling out and remembering
how to have fun." - daniel S O N G S _ O F _ I N A U D I B L E _ T R U C K S _ A
N D _ C A R S
lorraine -
"up watching the superstation late at night, seeing lorraine baines mcfly
hit on her own son while a really great guy with a really good uppercut is
trying to tell her he's in love with her but his words are just coming out
jumbled. i think the classic romantic ideal is longing for a girl you don't
have, who won't give you the time of day, and still believing it's possible.
i wrote like 10 stupid verses to this song before i picked the two i hated
least." - daniel
just tell me
when - "touches on issues of rejection, separation, and memories. 'i saw
you today, you blew my mind away, and drove the car right off of the cliff.'
i didn't know it when i wrote it, but i've come to find out that the people
that have the power to make you feel wonderful, can also make you want to
drive off a cliff." - ryen rain of the
golden gorilla - "the main keyboard melody in this song is lifted from
the javanese
gamelan piece 'hudan mas,' which translates as 'golden rain.' i went to
a 4 week residential arts program one summer and fell pretty bad for a girl
who somehow ended up with the gorilla nickname. she always sat in front of
me in the gamelan orchestra. the song basically recounts that period in my
life." - daniel
los angeles
- "last new year's, i started writing parts to los angeles... i started
writing the night i got back from my trip to new york, where most of the
preparation thoughtwise for ther song took place. of course, i didn't have a
guitar on my trip, so as soon as i got back, i started singing about what i
had spent the whole trip thinking about and being depressed about... which
is too much to go into." - ryen if my amp had
wheels - "la salle high school, suburban pasadena. early 1996. a long
while ago, before the song was written, ryen was lifting up an old heavy
gallien krueger amp that i borrowed from my neighbor that we used for vocals
at the time. as ryen was carrying the enormous 4-ton amp, he mentioned that
one day he wants to write a song entitled 'if my amp had wheels,' from the
frustration of transporting the heavy non-wheeled amp. he also mentioned
that he wanted to write a song called 'momma's blue jeans,' for what reason
i do not know, maybe someday we'll write a song called momma's blue jeans.
who knows? months later as ryen and i were bored at our lunch break, he
turns to me and says, 'lets start writing if my amp had wheels.' so i came
up with the bass line (A---F#), singing it barbershop style, and ryen came
up with the main verse melody over the bassline. the only ozma song written
without real music instruments. dan had now joined the group and put in some
valuable contributions to the song. in the chorus, we use the name sochi
(really spelled 'xochitl'), after a girl that both ryen and i knew - we
liked her name so decided to add it to the song. this was also the first
ozma song to include keyboards. if my amp had wheels to me is the first real
ozma song because it was written with our new bassist dan, and thematically
it is a rejoicing, happy song because our band was now finally complete,
with the addition of dan, and lyrically that happiness isnt expressed - but
i believe it is present in the melody, and in the music." - jose
iceland -
"you have to part with someone you love, and your only communications with
them are through a keyboard ." - daniel
E A R L Y _ S O N G S
lately - "one
of the first ozma songs i wrote lyrics to. i was very young, so the lyrics
are innocent. i had made a stupid move in a relationship with a female
friend of mine and i was really depressed about it." - daniel
so down -
"ryen's sweltering house in the summer of 1995. the second and shortest ozma
song ever written - which was still in the pre-dan era. at the time ryen and
i were heavily influenced by lush, the smiths, morrissey, and suede and i
believe it's evident in the strumming and melody on the verses. though the
line "english speaking immigrants just get in my way," has offended people
in the past, it shouldn't, because that was a lyric written by me, an
english speaking immigrant... it's just like in rap songs when they use the
'n' word. no harm no foul. anyway, it was the first song written as a 3
(ryen, pat, and i) piece and quite an elaborate change of style from stuck
in the ground, so down is a fun and simple song with a great condescending
chorus (oh nothing can stop me now, i'm feeling so down). this one not dark
at all and really our first experience writing a melody." - jose
stuck in the
ground - "rainy winter day at my house, 1994. the last 'paper or
plastic' song and the first ozma song (paper or plastic being a band
comprised of ryen on guitar, pat on drums, me on rhythm guitar and matt
herman on bass and lead vocals - dan had not joined up with the group at
this time). i wrote the music and ryen wrote the lyrics, and we showed the
song to the lead singer (herman) and he didn't like it - so we kicked him
out of the band (of course there were other reasons)! this is the darkest
ozma song to date because it was written in a weird time, sort of a
transition stage, when we felt that paper or plastic was going nowhere
(hence 'stuck in the ground') and our relationship with our lead singer at
the time wasn't going well, and somehow i feel that we purposely made this
song so dark and dissonant, to become a rebellion song to the type of
happy-go-snappy music we were playing in paper or plastic. however our
relationship w/herman today is great and he is a now great friend/fan of
ozma." - jose
trucks and
cars - "nightime, pat's house in '94 in the winter. a band called weezer
is now in all of our cd players at this time and has influenced the music in
this song heavily - more experimenting less on RIFFY material and more on
melody and simplicity - coming to the conclusion that power chords are okay.
a lot of the lyrics were lifted from a tiny coffee table book entitled
'mother's quotations' we found in pat's house, i hope we don't get sued.
still in the pre-dan era." - jose
"i wanted to write a song called "the ups
and downs" even before i joined the band, because so many phrases end in
either up or down. jerry seinfeld that did a comedy bit about this, about
how when you're a kid everything important in your life is 'up,' like grow
up, stay up, eat up, shut up... and everything negative to a kid is down:
sit down, turn it down, calm down..." - daniel
also online is the original
lyric sheet we made when writing the song (notated by becky au at
dan's house).
"like when your mom's pouring me a glass of
milk, but doesn't know how much i really want. 'just tell me when.'" -
daniel
"garth brooks gets tired of his town,
leaves for tokyo, discovers rich oriental harmony." - daniel