Brant Bjork Is Still Trying To Find 'Brant Bjork'

Brant Bjork is a living legend, especially in heavy music circles. For over a quarter of a century he has contributed strongly to some of the greatest and most important heavy and stoner rock bands and releases ever. From the seminal Kyuss to Fu Manchu to Vista Chino to Mondo Generator and his superb solo works, his CV is untouchable. It seems inconceivable that he is still searching for the defining music and moments of his career. But according to the man himself, as he speaks to us while driving through Santa Monica, California, this is indeed the case.

"I'm just feeling like I could give more," he states vehemently, "I'm not content with what I've achieved. I'm just being honest, I'm still searching for the holy grail."

He still feels as though he has plenty of creative juice left in the tank, and that the journey is just as important as some intangible end point or the reaching of an ultimate goal. "As I've said many times before, I think of myself as an artist, more than a musician," he says, "and I've lived the life of an artist, I'm in pursuit of something, and there's a good chance I just might not find it. But the joy is the process, as silly as it sounds it really is just a voyage of self-discovery, I'm still trying to figure out who the hell I am, obviously I make rock records." He laughs.

"I'm still trying to figure out who the hell I am, obviously I make rock records." 

So do you feel that if you ever did find that musical 'holy grail', would that be the moment you hang up your guitar, your mic and your sticks? "Well, that's just it," he agrees, "if I was able to make a record, or perform or make some sort of musical contribution that was exactly what I needed and wanted to do, then maybe I would hang it all up and go fishing."

In the meantime, while he is still searching for that elusive defining moment of his career, he is bringing his awesome solo band out with him for another tour of Australia. He is absolutely no stranger to our shores, having been here many times in the various iterations of his career. In fact, he has actually lost count of the number of times he has toured our shores. "I feel great about it, I always love to go to Australia," he enthuses, "I've never bothered to keep count of how many times, it's a lot. As long as I can just keep coming down."

And for followers of Bjork's solo career, he promises a very crowd-pleasing setlist for the fans coming to see the shows in May. "We released our first record with this current line-up last year, called Tao Of The Devil," he says, "so we're going to be coming down and playing quite a bit from that record, plus a whole bunch of oldies, and we're just going to come down and have a good time."