We talk to John Garcia of Unida and Kyuss Lives! You can catch Unida in Australia this May.
Andrew: So it’s nice to be speaking to you, it’s nice to see you back so soon from Soundwave Festival as well.
John: It’s good to be speaking to you as well. Thanks for the interest, I appreciate that, I personally can’t wait to get back down there again, so I’m really excited.
Andrew: Yeah, so how was your time with the Soundwave festival anyway?
John: It’s good! Anytime you’re playing with that kind of show full of that calibre, I think the word that comes to mind is fortunate. I’m very fortunate to have shared the stage with Brant, Bruno and Mike Dean and, again to play in a festival like that, it’s an honour and I certaintly appreciate it, so fantastic.
Andrew: Yeah, I saw a couple of the shows and you guys did a really good job. Do you think that Unida would come and do this Soundwave festival by any chance?
John: I don’t know. If we’re invited, I certaintly, most likely….haha I’ll just cut right to the chase. Yeah, I would love to play here with Unida at the Soundwave. Yeah sure that would be great!
Andrew: Yeah, would be definitley something to see. But it’s good to see that you’re down in Australia anyway. Is this your first time with that band in Australia as well?
John: It is, yeah it is. We’ve never been down there, we’ve only toured in the States and Europe. Unida was kind of short lived when we were going full time with it and all so to be able to re-visit some of these songs and tour with Arthur and Mike again, I’m looking forward to it.
Andrew: So what’s the actual plan with the band at the moment? Are you guys going to be touring more and doing another album or…what’s the plan with you guys?
John: We’re just sort of kinda taking her out for a test drive again really. She’s been in the garage, car’s been running in the garage, but the motor still runs real good, we’re just gonna take her out for a test drive, see how she feels and we’ll see what happens. But you know, we’ve never been down there and every opportunity that I get a chance to go down there, because I love your country, I always jump at that chance. Vista Chino has a little bit of down time right now so, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to again, re-visit some of these songs and share the stage again with Arthur and Mike so, again I’m really excited.
Andrew: Yeah and I’m sure a lot of fans are too. So what’s the story with the second album you guys put, I think it’s called “The Great Divide”, I don’t think there was an official release? Was there any plans to put that out anytime?
John: I certaintly hope so, I certaintly hope it will be released. That record, we spent a lot of time and effort on that record and to have it not see an official release would truly be a bummer so maybe in the near future we’ll see how it goes but, I would certaintly love to see that get an official release one of these days but we’ll see how it goes. I’m not sure, there’s a lot on everybody’s plate right now, so right now I think we’re just gonna do these shows and see how it feels and go from there.
Andrew: So have you guys done many shows so far before the Australian tour?
John: No we haven’t. We played a couple shows here in the desert, one in Los Angeles and right before we tour in Australia we’re gonna play one in Berlin and one in London and then come home for the Desert tour for a couple days and then we’re off and running, on to Australia so this is kinda like a little multi-continental little runaround.
Andrew: How’s the reaction to the shows that you have done so far? How’s the reaction been and seeing you guys back again?
John: Well, I haven’t heard any bad things about it but, I’m a realist and, either you get Unida or you don’t get Unida. The reaction’s been good. I’ve been very pleased and, again I’m honoured if 5 people show up to a show. It makes a difference but then again it doesn’t make a difference. I hope that makes sense and I’m not doing this for all the praise and glory and any kind of false modesty. It is what it is and like I said, I’ve played in front of 5 people or 500 people, 5000 and 50,000 people, I’ve done all of those so I’m just fortunate to still be doing it.
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Andrew: So what can we expect from these shows in Australia then? Are they full on headlining shows?
John: Well we have Beast Wars for a couple shows but Unida is a different energy, it’s a little bit of a higher energy than Vista Chino or Kyuss is. I think it’s a little bit more high spirited. Not to say that the music is any better or any worse, it’s a totally different monster and again, it’s a different energy. I wouldn’t consider Unida to be metal, I would consider Unida to be a heavy rock and roll band but I look forward to the opportunity to going down there and if people dig it, cool. If people don’t dig it, cool too you know what I mean? Everybody has their own certain style and their own certain taste and yeah I know I certaintly do. I don’t get up in the morning and take a bombload and turn on Monster Magnet although I would like to! I go home and relax and listen to anything from The Pretenders to Bob Marley and everything inbetween so, it’s just a different monster.
Andrew: Yeah definitley! So I got a couple of last questions as well that The Rockpit usually asks. The first being, if you could be a fly on the wall for the recording of any great classic album in history, which would it be?
John: Oh I’m a fan of the Cult and I would have loved to have been involved in the record “(The Cult) Love”. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for that one, I mean that’s when they were still working with singer Iant Astbury, Bill Duffy and they’re still working with Les Warner and Jaimie Stewart so that would of been a classic record to be in, a fly on the wall for sure.
Andrew: Cool. And one last question, what is the meaning of life?
John: (laughs) What is the meaning of life? Well I could answer that…that’s a hard one. I’ll tell you what the meaning of life to me is, to John Garcia that is. It’s family. It’s family and it’s spirituality and that really is what life is all about, to me. My wife, my son, my daughter and my spiritual being. That’s hard to sum it up in such few words. I wanna be calm, cool and collected. I don’t wanna say anything about them because they are my life, that’s what I live for. You wrap music involved with that, the love of life and the love of being in that and that’s it for me.
Andrew: Sounds good! Thanks for the interview and we’re really looking forward to seeing you guys coming down and putting on a really good show so hopefully it will go really well so thanks again!
John: OK Well thank you very much I appreciate it and I’ll see you soon!
