Fu Manchu: Looking California.

California Crossing is in stores now.

With a name drawn from Sax Rhomer’s mysterious literary character and a sound straight from the heart of seventies metal, Fu Manchu would have little excuse not to rock. With that in mind, the new album California Crossing will certainly not disappoint. The band’s eight long player, California Crossing drips with fuzz laden guitars and an almost lazy sense of the band wallowing in their own heaviness. Because they can, right?

Bassist Brad Davis is in Colorado, where the band are due to take to the stage. And what better place to start an interview than with the blatantly obvious…

“You’re going to ask me what I think about the word stoner rock?” he questions.

Actually, I was going to ask why drummer Brant Bjork had left the band.

“Oh that, he wanted to work on a solo project and some other stuff. It was a surprise, but he had been working on his solo stuff for a while and he was getting pretty excited about it, and it was definitely what he wanted to do. We didn’t really have a problem with that.”

And the new guy?

“His name is Scott Reeder. We’ve known him for a while. He used to be in another band in Orange County. Once the opportunity arose to jam with him he was the first person I called, and he was interested. We did a lot of rehearsals, and all the shows have been great so far.

Ho do you think California Crossing relates to the rest of the Fu Manchu catalogue?

“The only real conscious decision we made with the record was to use a producer and to be a little more open to outside influences. We’ve never really let other opinions come into the band. We wanted to make an album that was a lot better arranged. We spent a week and a half doing demos before we recorded the record, getting things working the way that good songs operate. We wanted to make a record that people could listen to over and again without getting sick of it.”

“We spent a bit more time in the studio that we usually do, but compared to most bands it was pretty quick. I think it was about three weeks for recording and two weeks for mixing. When you’re playing rock music like we do, it’s good not to put too much crap all over the recording. We like to get in and get out without putting on too much stuff that clutters up everything.”

It seems the band have also succeeded in putting together a heavier record that it’s predecessors.

“Yeah. We never really though about that, but there’s some heavy stuff on there. I think Dogtown and Wasteoid are some good examples of that. We just go in and write the songs. If you think about things too much it just sounds contrived.”

You’ve always featured some fine automobiles in your cover artwork. What do you guys drive personally?

“I can tell you what Scott drives. Scott’s car is on the cover of the new record,” he laughs. “When we sell a lot more records and get some cool cars, come back and ask me then. Until then I’m going to shroud that in mystery for ya.”

What do you want to be driving?

“Probably like a Dodge Challenger. A Superbird would be insane, but it might be a bit crazy to be driving around in.”