Interview: Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard
With new album Y Proffwyd Dwyll coming just nine months on from their debut full-length, Welsh outfit Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard have shown themselves more productive than most. Despite a lack of a wait between releases, the new album doesn't sound rushed in any regard, and provides the kind of devastating, crawling riffs that all doom fans crave. Smatterings of experimentation with the likes of synths, as well as the soaring vocals of vocalist Jessica Ball, set them apart from the crowd however, and provide a much needed fresh take on a genre now rammed with an influx of new artists. Ahead of the release of the brilliant new album, reviewed here, we spoke to guitarist Paul Davies about doom, standing out and the new album.
How did the band form? How many of the band were in Mother of Six?
We wanted to always to do a very heavy thing and in the last days of Mother Of Six we recorded a really heavy track that was a kind of inception of Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard. Three of us were in Mother Of Six - Me, Wez [Wez Leon, guitarist] and Carrat [James ‘Carrat’ Carrington, drums].
Your name pretty clearly gives you away as a doom band, was that the intention?
Yeah. We wanted to be in a doom band, end of story. We wanted a massive doom name.
What do you think sets you apart from others in the genre?
We don't listen to much modern doom. Loads of other doom bands just sound like each other, they seem to be too concerned with their fuzz pedals and amps to write interesting stuff. Most doom albums are just adverts for gear - very boring. Most doom bands play it safe and all sound like each other. We can't be bothered playing it safe. We listen to loads of different stuff and we aren't trying to sound like Sleep so some doom fans don't like us, but you cant win 'em all.
Did you aim to be a bit different from other bands in doom?
We just write what we write, there is no plan behind it. I suppose because we don't listen to much contemporary doom we are not going to sound like everybody else. That makes us different. We love doom. We love good doom. So we wanna take doom to different areas - it's got great scope for variety and evolution so why sound like every other doom band?
Doom probably has more emerging bands than ever before, does that make it hard to stand out?
Yes. There are loads of doom bands now. It's mind blowing - some great, some shit. But as I say, we do what we do. Hopefully people get it.
With just nine months between releases you've proved a productive band, can fans expect another new album in nine months then?
If there are no work commitments then a new release is probable. I’m on the last year of a degree in network engineering so its gonna be hard to juggle work, studying and the band. But we'll see what transpires...
You've said before that the album title means 'False Prophet' or 'The Profit Fraud', is this a theme you explore in your music?
The themes in this album are open to interpretation. Me and Jess [Jessica Ball, vocalist/bassist] had ideas for songs but she never tells anybody the finished lyrics, so the listener is free to use their imagination. Music is sometimes a personal thing. We just give the listener hints, the rest is up to them.
How have you found reception to the new album so far? Are you excited for its release?
It's been mind-blowing! The blogs and websites have been very kind. Blogs and websites are done for the love of music by guys in their spare time and I find the reviews are better done by guys doing it cos they love it. The music press reviews are good but if you aren't Slipknot or Metallica they think doom is the weird cousin of metal music and if you are new they are kind but don't go overboard with praise.
