He played his first gig when he was thirteen, pressed his first record at sixteen and his high school band, Kyuss, is often credited with creating the stoner rock movement.
Brant Bjork is a self-confessed product of his environment, fans can be grateful then that he grew up in the middle of nowhere in a small town in the desert.
“The kids that are growing up there have pretty big imaginations and when they get into something like skateboarding or music, something that’s really accessible, they really latch onto it with everything they have because that is all they have,” says Bjork.
This is not the sound of your run-of-the-mill high school band and Kyuss, unlike a lot of other school bands were not just fooling around.
“You start at a young age and you take it very serious,” says Bjork.
“We took having a good time very serious.”
He also seriously gets around – after Kyuss he joined Queens Of The Stone Age for a while.
Then Fu Manchu for five years.
Now he has moved forward from his drum kit into the strap of a guitar and is concentrating on making his own music.
“I decided I had to do my own thing and at that point decided I had to pick up the guitar and kind of tell my own story,” says Bjork.
Bjork is touring his latest album, Punk Rock Guilt.
The term has been defined as the reason a musician leaves a band before they hit the big time – less they become commercialised.
Bjork says that although he understands the benefits of success, he has been guilty of jumping ship before it kicks in.
“Authenticity is most important to me when it comes to the arts, so I would hate to dedicate my life to the arts and then compromise in the most important moment.”
Brant Bjork and the Bros play Wellington’s Bodega tonight and follow it up tomorrow at Auckland’s Transmission Room.
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