For those who haven’t heard of boWsER before, how would you describe the band?
Bowser has always been such a fun project, the music that we produce is edgy rock usually with a cool catchy hook but always some sort of edginess and a big heaving riff somewhere in the song. We came up with the term volcanic rock as there’s always some sort of level of explosion and dynamic within the songs. It’s quite high energy and a lot of fun to play and produce. When we started out like any other band we always wanted to be original and come up with riffs that we hadn’t really heard before by any other bands, that of course is quite hard to do because music has been recycled so many times now but I still feel that boWsER has quite an original tone about it which definitely stands out and that’s why we’ve had such great feedback and interest in what we’ve done so far.
Who is in the band and how did you all meet?
In its current form boWsER is a 3 piece comprising of Brad Weynton (vocals, guitar) Nathan Williams, (drums)and myself Otto Mitter (Bass). We actually met on the Gold Coast many years ago, there was quite a cool band scene at the time lots of different music coming out of that area ranging from punk, rock metal to funk and jazz and quite a tight-knit scene of amazing musicians. Everyone knew everyone and a lot of the different bands started meshing together to form new bands, boWsER came about this way. boWsER actually started with different band members to now, the band played a show or 2 but then took a hiatus. Brad Weynton is the main singer songwriter for the band and Brad, Nathan and myself have been really good friends over the years and played in various bands together, at one point Brad needed a new bass player for a gig that was coming up so I jumped in we haven’t looked back ever since. Brad, Nathan and myself started working together a lot jamming co-writing songs together and really forming the band in it’s true element to what it is today. We had a dear friend of ours who was in the band on guitars Grant Wallis, he also added some really nice flavour to the band and the songs we were doing at the time, we did some epic tours on the East Coast of Australia a few years back and recorded our debut ep Modus Operandi. Life started to get in the way at that particular point and we all had a lot of projects that took us away from the band, so we gave it a rest and focused on other things that we were doing. It’s funny how the universe works but last year we decided that everything just felt right to go in and do our full-length debut album Whispers from The Wicker Man. They say everything happens for a reason and I couldn’t agree more, the album is the most solid thing that we ever done maybe because we’ve all matured musically and because we are now in the right headspace to send this thing out the world.
If I was to use the phrase “for fans of”, who would you best compare yourselves to?
The sounds of Bowser would definitely appeal to fans of Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters, Faith No More, Tool, Muse, Nuns of Tundra, Mutemath, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, bands that fit into this kind of genre. It’s rock music but it’s cryptic, volcanic and always some kind of hook that pulls you in.
Who produced People In The TV? Have you worked with them before? How was it working with them?
People in the TV was produced by Steve James, he is now a good friend of ours, he is critically acclaimed working with some amazing bands over the years such as Shihad, Skunkhour, The Screaming Jets, Superjesus, Mental As Anything, Sex Pistols, Electric Mary, Airbourne and the list goes on, its incredible the amount of amazing people this man has worked with. To have him as part of the project has been a real honour for all of us and the best thing about it is he really loves the music. Steve has produced the whole album that’s coming out next year, it’s a cracker and we are so proud of it.
Where did the lyric and music inspiration for this song come from?
Brad wrote this one from scratch, I believe he got his inspiration from the song Strange Brew from Cream and the lyrics touch on the issue of people that deal with isolation and mental health issues. I think the actual lyrics themselves are quite simplistic but yet they have this cryptic approach to them which Brad is so good at doing, he would have to be one of my favourite lyricists out there haha but of course I am a little bias, but it’s like every time he writes a song the words have two meanings and it really gets you thinking about the story behind the lyrics. Nathan is an incredible drummer and musician and adds that percussive flair that gives boWsER’s sound a very interesting twist. Brad usually will demo up a song and then bring it to Nathan and myself and then we add our flavour to it which turns into that crunchy behemoth groove which is boWsER’s signature sound.
You recently released the video for ‘People In The TV’. Is this a hint at more new music on the way?
We have our new album coming next year so the answer to that one is a big YES and we are really excited about it, we plan to have another single coming in the new year and then the release of the full-length album a little after that, stay tuned
Where was the video shot and who produced it?
The video was shot at a studio / Warehouse at Gold Coast studios, they do a lot of treat photography and production there. I got a friend of mine Tyson Leith from Timberwolf films to produce this one. I wrote a script for it which was quite basic really but it was able to give us the dynamic of black and white through the verses to red dark and edgy in the chorus, a simple approach which was quite effective considering we shot everything within a few hours in one day. I also got my son Cayden to appear as a cameo, he played the part of a kid who’s affected by the propaganda that is spread in the world of social media and video. we’re all really happy how it turned out, Tyson is incredibly talented he lives in New York and I work with him on various other video projects and we just knew that he was the guy to do this one for us.
It’s been a little while since you last released any music. What were you doing in that time?
Life is a crazy journey and sometimes you just don’t know what it’s going to throw, you can always have a plan but generally you have to change that plan quite a bit along the way. We all had other musical projects and work interests that we pursued for a few years but sometimes you have to follow your heart. The reality is playing original music that is your own and trying to live off it can be a tough gig. I myself become a cosmetic chemist and produce and manufacture cosmetic products for the beauty industry which keeps me extremely busy, but once you’re a musician it is always in your blood and you can never really let go of it.
When are you next on tour, and where can we catch you?
We have been discussing doing a show but at this point we are not sure exactly when that’s going to happen we are actually really content just doing digital releases and video clips and thankfully because of this day & age it’s so easy to share our music now this is a great platform and project for us. When you listen to boWsER and especially this up and coming album it is a great representation of what we sound like live, so when we do go and do a show at some point, people will definitely have a good idea of what we are going to sound like.
And finally, where can we find out more about you?
We tend to be a little underground in the world of promoting, but we’ve started building the social platforms more now with the release of People in the TV, and the best places to follow us would be Facebook at Instagram @bowsertheband
Anything else you would like to tell us?
Thanks so much for having us on board for this interview, it’s such a pleasure to be able to share our music now and we are really looking forward to 2020 and releasing Whispers from The Wicker Man. The volcanic cryptic beast is about to be unleashed.
I’d like to thank the band for taking the time to answer my questions and wish them the best of luck in the future!
TrueStyleMusic 