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Radio X Presents... OZMA INTERVIEW |
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B&W
PHOTOS BY DENNIS HO, FROM WWW.OZMAONLINE.COM
COLOR PHOTO TAKEN BY SOME DUDE AT THE SHOW
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SUPER
RADIO X TALKS TO PAT EDWARDS AND JOSE GALVEZ OF
CALIFORNIAN SUPER ROCK GROUP
OZMA
Interview
by Nick Burgess with Mike Gintz and Sarah MacDonald |
We
did this interview for play on radio back in the
Summer of 2001. Ozma was on tour with Rilo Kiley
and Nada Surf, and we caught up with them at their
stop at the Middle East in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
We probably annoyed them with all of our questions
about video games, but, hey, it's not every day
they get to talk up their love of Blaster Master
and Dr. Mario.
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SRX:
Introduce yourselves and the band
to the listening audience.
JOSE:
I'm Jose Galvez and I play guitar in a
band called Ozma.
PAT:
I'm Pat Edwards; I play drums. Not with us are
Star Wick, keyboards, Ryen Slegr, guitar and vocals,
and Daniel Brummel, bass and vocals.
SRX:
Super Radio X is basically oriented toward video
game music. We have lots of very obsessed listeners
who are into that sort of stuff. You guys have
done the Tetris cover, actually the old
folk song cover, but everybody else knows it as
Tetris. How did that song come about?
JOSE:
Our bass player was already kind of into this
Russian theme, and it just seemed like the Tetris
song was a perfect fit for it. We felt like we
could rock [the song] out.
PAT:
And he's always had a sort of thing for Nintendo.
JOSE:
8-bit, and Game Boy stuff.
PAT:
Plus, it works great at shows just because everybody
knows it. Everybody recognizes it, and it's sort
of a unique rendition of it, but it's blaringly
obvious what it is from the start.
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SRX:
There are lots of Nintendo references not only
in your music but on your website. Is that the
doing of all of you, or is their one obsessed
member of the band? (*Note: at
the time of this interview, Ozma's website prominently
featured a picture of an NES)
(laughter)
JOSE:
Yeah! Our bass player is pretty, pretty into it.
[But] we all love it, and we all grew up on it.
PAT: [Daniel]
is the one who just can't get over it. You know,
he should be here talking to you. You guys would
be perfect.
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| Jose's
got a HUGE right hand. That's why he's so
good at guitar, you see. |
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SRX:
Well, you can let him know later. He'll be quite
jealous.
JOSE:
He will. He will be.
SRX:
Do either of you have a favorite game,
old or new?
JOSE:
I play a lot of Dr. Mario. My brother and
I would just sit and listen to CDs until five
in the morning playing Dr. Mario, trying
to beat each other.
SRX:
(Nick points to Mike, who has been silently watching)
We've got a Dr. Mario freak here, too.
MIKE:
Yeah,
I play some Dr. Mario.
SRX:
Favorite
game for you, Pat?
PAT:
Um,
I've been playing a lot of Perfect Dark
and James Bond on the N64. But, old school, I
always thought Blaster Master was a well-made
game, even though it wasn't fun to play because
I always died and never could figure out how to
advance. But it was [cool] with the different
viewpoints. I don't know what the technical terms
are. Like, there's a car and you're walking around,
and then you're swimming, and you go to the door
and there's this big guy with the spikes, you
know?
SRX:
Speaking of the new systems like Nintendo 64,
do you think in maybe fifteen years you'll be
writing Nintendo 64 based songs?
(laughter)
JOSE:
Probably not. I think definitely not.
I don't think Daniel even has a Nintendo 64.
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SRX:
Okay,
well you're probably the only signed artist that
we play on the show, as most video game music
cover artists can't seem to find record labels
for some reason. (laughter) So tell us
about the album that you have coming out soon.
PAT:
It's basically a rerelease of an album we recorded
at the end of 1999 and put out in early 2000.
We put it out ourselves, and they heard it and
liked it. So they're putting it out again, remastered,
so if you put it in your computer it's got lyrics,
history, two videos. The computer animated video
for Tetris is on there. They're trying to make
it a new thing and rerelease it worldwide, basically.
|

| Pat
drums like a madman and wears cool shades
AT THE SAME TIME! |
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SRX:
Are you working on anything else coming up after
that? Any other albums or songs?
JOSE:
Yeah, we're trying to write. We have almost half
of [the new record] written. So we just have to
find the time where can just sit and write five
more songs. I don't know when we're gonna' record
it, but hopefully soon.
PAT:
Yeah, it's coming along.
SRX:
We were talking about this earlier; we were trying
to figure out if any of your musical style is
-- we're stretching for video game questions here
-- we're trying to figure out if any of your musical
style is influenced by video game music not including
the Tetris cover.
JOSE:
I think a little bit of it is. Video game music
is very melodic. It doesn't have any lyrics or
anything, so it's very melody-based. I think Ozma
is [influenced by that].
PAT:
I'd say "Domino Effect" is. I mean,
the way that they created the main melody for
that song was on a little Casio. They played it
sort of slow and [then] sped up the tempo so it
was played really fast. That's how they found
the melody, and I think that's a real video game
sort of sounding song.
SRX:
Lots of keyboards.
PAT:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SRX:
Where can the listeners find more information
about you guys? Tour dates?
JOSE:
At our official website at www.ozmaonline.com.
SRX:
Do you have anything else to say to the rabid
fans?
PAT:
Mp3.com/ozma has mp3s. (*Note:
Mp3.com has since gone down. Just go to Ozma's
website)
JOSE:
And a tour diary so you can see what's going on.
SRX:
Well, Okay!
JOSE:
Bye!
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Since
we did this interview, Ozma put out the album that
they were working on at the time, called Spending
Time on the Borderline, featuring the video
game reference-laden "Game Over." Check
out their website, Ozma
Online, for more information and tour dates.
Also, if you want to get your hands on their Tetris
cover, "Korobeiniki," it's available on
their double EP release, the Doubble
Donkey Disc.
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