Belzebong Interview!

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to sit down with the almighty Belzebong and talk about their music, tour, weed, Satan, and more. This was a frankly hilarious interview with a lot of strange pauses. These guys certainly bring the riff, and there dedication to their craft is admirable. Oftentimes vaguely disturbing, this was definitely an interview to remember. Belzebong are shaping new worlds with their bong loaded goodness, and there is no guessing where they will end up next.

Find them on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/BelzebonG/67860307012

How has the tour been going so far?
Alky Dude (A): It's been okay. We've played like three shows so far I think.

How did you hook up with Conan and the Moth?
A: Our Sound of Liberation booking agency wanted a tour with us and Conan.

It's been a long time since you put out a full length, have you made any progress on a sequel?
A: Yes there is progress.

Sheepy Dude (S): Shit is on man!

C: We have three new songs we're working on, and we're doing the last song for the new album, it will come out in the first few months of 2015, so there has been progress.

When will you record?
C: We will record it in autumn probably, somewhere in Poland. The name will be Drug Me To Hell probably.

A: The cover is ready, and expect some funny shit from the cover.

The other covers have kind of been parodies, is this a parody?
A: No, it's not a parody.

C: It's completely new, Sheepy Dude made it, he's making all of our cover art now.

A: He did the poster for the tour too.

One of the things I was curious about, where does the 'dude' moniker come from? The Big Lebowski?
S: We love the Big Lebowski, it's one of my favorite movies, but it's not that/

A: We started to call ourselves 'the dudes' at one point, and so we took our old nicknames and added the word 'dude'. You know how Ghost has the Nameless Ghouls? Belzebong has the Faceless dudes.

You've done European tours a few times now, do you have a US tour coming up?
C: Maybe after the new LP, but now just Europe. That's Sound of Liberation's decision, so we are waiting.

I know you met in the woods, how did that work out? Was it a giant pot party or what?
A: There were strange gatherings of strange people in the woods.

S: We didn't even smoke weed yet.

A: When I met him the first time he was puking and having diarhea.

S: We were maybe 15-16 years old.

A: The part of our origin with the toothless midget fairy is also true. The mountains outside our home city are weird.

S: The mountains of the Witches Sabbath.

That pagan culture is deep in Polish culture, does that impact your music?
A: Witches, magic mushrooms. I am like the alchemist, I do these magic potions for the band.

Are you a shaman?
A: Sometimes. I am a voodoo shaman. "Weedoo" even.

What got you guys into smoking weed?
A: Satan

Does that have a spiritual element?
S: Sure man.

A: We can't think without it.

Belzebong is sort of an instrumental Black Sabbath. What inspires these riffs?
S: Stoner bands, weed, witches, occult stuff, and Black Sabbath obviously.

A: Aleister Bongley (Laughter) He was the brother of Crowley, his twin alter ego, he smoked weed. We are inspired by goats too (Laughter)

Where did Sheepy, Alky and Cheesy come from as nicknames?
S: Long story man. I shagged a sheep only once, and it sticks to you for life.

A: Cheesy Dude shagged cheese.

C: My nickname is cheese in Polish, so it works in English too. It was a long time ago, you need to ask the people who lived there man.

S: The cheese has holes you see... and it's convenient.

A: I'm like a mix, because I'm a chemist, but also I like alcohol and alchemy so it comes together. I also work in pharmaceuticals.

I saw you lived pretty far apart, how does that work?
S: Well, I recently moved so now it's only Alky who lives in Krakow, while we're based in Warsaw.

How often do you rehearse?
A: Once a week.

How far away is Krakow?
A: It's like 200 kilometers, but we have really crappy roads so it takes 5 hours by car. You can take the train but it's too fucking expensive.

S: It can just stop in the middle of nowhere too.

A: They will stop for forever. Once we had a trip to play a gig and the train was from Krakow, to Warsaw then to other places, then Sheepy got in the train like two hours after me, and then we fell asleep and wake up and we're standing in the middle of nowhere, so I fall back asleep and wake up again, and we're still standing in the same place in the middle of nowhere. The trip took 17 hours by train and then we played the gig and had to get in the train to go back. It was shitty.

Finish this sentence for me, "I've never told this story before and probably shouldn't but..."
A: Sometimes I play sober!

What do you love so much about music?
S: Everything man.

A: The sound, the good sounds of music, sitting and listening and sometimes sleeping and listening to the sounds.

C: Structures, grooves.

S: Psychedelic trips man.

A: and Satan and weed and goats (Laughter)

Last words of wisdom?
S: No wisdom, just stupidity and riffs.