California-based psychedelic freaks Owl recently released their third full-length, ‘Geomancy,’ via Lummox Records.

DIY funds materialized from hard work and dedication and their self-titled LP followed in November 2012, as principal songwriter A.K. sweated out the resins of literature, the Bush years, and job loss. Owl toured for more than two years before releasing the full-length road-bomber ‘Screech’ on tape in 2014 and vinyl in 2015. Original bassist Melanie Burkett eventually fled the band amicably to pursue endeavors outside of music.

Jamie Sanitate joined the band through a period of intermittent touring and added NWOBHM influence to the band, while the band grappled with other ideas. Finally in 2018, ‘Awaken The Mountain’ was released as a single, highlighting the band’s heavy-prog interests and the Pompeii-inspired songwriting of guitar animal, Axell.

Owl’s ambitious ‘Geomancy’ long player enhances baroque elements of guitar composition while maintaining a defiant, barbed-wire anti-sociality. The album was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Justin Weis at Trackworx (Hammers Of Misfortune, Swamp Witch, Orthodox) and comes swathed in the cover art of Chris Corona.

“‘Geomancy’ is our most developed work to date”

It’s really nice to have you. It’s been quite some time since your last album in 2014. How long did you work on ‘Geomancy’?

Alex “AK” Baechle: Thanks for having us. ‘Geomancy’ has been an odyssey. We started tracking in June of 2016 and finished in March of 2019. During that time I was working in different wilderness areas across the west, the Flathead and Gila National Forests, which complicated things geographically. In early 2018, Jamie Sanitate left the band to become a dad. We lucked out when Magic Spiegel jumped in on bass for our U.S. tour that summer, and he is still with the band now. Just as we began to finance the ’Geomancy’ release, the pandemic hit and set us back again. We continued to agonize over changes to the track order and overall concept of the album during this time. ‘Geomancy’ was originally intended to be a 44-minute LP – ‘Jupiterian Ocean,’ ‘Floating Island,’ and ‘Ghostlanes’ were all slated as non-LP tracks at one time or another. In the end we decided a 60-minute, 3-sided LP was a stronger choice, but this required another remaster, which added more months to the process. Ultimately we wanted ‘Geomancy’ to be epic and cohesive, a complete expression of our Owl vision. So we took our time and, we think, finally got it right in the end!

Would you say it’s your most mature work? How would you compare it to ‘Screech’ or ‘Owl’?

I think describing anything we’ve ever done as mature is a bit of a stretch, haha. But I would readily agree that ‘Geomancy’ is our most developed work to date. Both ‘Screech’ and ‘Owl’ were written and recorded quickly. Action preceded intention in many ways, which I’m grateful for. Those records are raw and unfiltered. By comparison, ‘Geomancy’ is a refinement of that same naïve artistic impulse. With ‘Geomancy’ we are getting more ambitious with the compositions, more meticulous with the arrangements, pushing our limits creatively. There are a couple long epics here that are absolutely juiced with guitar delicacies – ‘A King For Every Mountain’ is somewhere between Yes and Electric Wizard, if you can parse that. I think our lyrics have become more thoughtful as well. It’s pretty insane.

Can you share some further details on how your latest album was recorded?

We decided to record with Justin Weis, who we already knew and respected. The plan was to do the tracking, mixing, and mastering all under one roof, which we thought would make the process simple and straightforward. Boy, were we wrong about that. What happens in a good studio is you can hear everything sharp and clear, so you listen back and you keep thinking you can do something better. We were indulgent. Justin was great, though; he was patient with us.

<a href="https://owlbrotherhood.bandcamp.com/album/geomancy">Geomancy by Owl</a>

How did you approach music making this time around?

Axell Baechle and I wanted to write something darker, centered around a theme. We had a few vague ideas way back to 2011/2012. The first conversation about the third album, we were talking about interiors, burial, claustrophobic spaces, very black metal in a sense, and we wanted to do a whole album like that. As the idea expanded, Axell introduced the contrasting possibility of emergence, escape, and the harshness of light. You can really hear this tension on ‘Runes,’ where the worlds of light and dark trade places, confinement and emancipation present equally hostile anxieties. Musically we carried our Iron Maiden/complicated prog thing to its logical extension, and we refused to settle for good enough – we wanted every part to be awesome. We also knew Clint Baechle could rock anything we threw at him, so we didn’t hold back on riffs that were rhythmically jarring.

How pleased were you with the sound of the album?

We think it sounds pretty stoked. We’re all tits for it.

Tell us about the gear, pedals, effects you are currently using?

I keep mine pretty simple. I have a CryBaby, a TS-9, a Rat, and a Dunlop echo/delay that I use a lot. I’ve been running that through a Peavey Festival for power and a Laney combo amp for grit. My main guitars are the Strat and an SG.

(Axell prefers a loud-as-fuck Music Man head and an SG with a Bigsby. He has a bunch of cool pedals but I don’t know what they are)

Are you planning to tour?

We are looking at some dates on the West Coast in June. We want to hit some of our favorite spots, Arizona, the Northwest, the 805. Depending on how that goes, we may do a longer tour in the future.

Are any of you involved in any other bands or do you have any active side-projects going on at this point?

Clint’s always been in tons of bands, his group Deathgrave with Greg Wilkinson is playing a lot of shows all over California now. He also plays drums for long-running heshers Hazzard’s Cure and a newer outfit called Maggus. Axell’s got an LP out and has done a few tours as the main guy for Crystal Logic. I have an acoustic EP ready for release this year under the name Kytos, and my new group is about to record an EP with Phil Becker at El Studio.

“‘Geomancy’ is for the dirty punters who have hung in there and bring the fight every day”

Let’s end this interview with some of your favourite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?

Of course there are millions. It’s a few years old now, but I spent some good time last year with the Obsolete cassette, thrash/death metal from Dead Media, MPLS. I think Molten has a great metal mentality coming through in their sound. I really liked the latest Earthless record, I think it’s their best one yet – they killed it at the Cornerstone last February while I was tripping on liquid LSD. Helms Alee is consistently putting out great stuff. And the last Pharoah Sanders album, from 2021, is devastating and transcendent. I was also inspired by Tongo Eisen-Martin’s spoken word album, from Rocks In Your Head Records. He is the poet laureate of San Francisco, you know.

Thank you for taking your time. Last word is yours.

We appreciate the folks that have put us up over the years, partied with us, forced us to drink inhuman amounts of Jack Daniel’s and PBR in their garage. You know who you are. We love the road and the road tolerates us. ‘Geomancy’ is for the dirty punters who have hung in there and bring the fight every day. We want to see you at the gig…

Klemen Breznikar

Headline photo by Wyatt Burton

Owl Official Website / Facebook / Instagram / Bandcamp
Lummox Records Bandcamp