Discovering artists after they’ve been recording for several decades can be both inexplicably exciting and overwhelming. The rush of discovering something new washes over your brain as you hear that song for the first time, you rush to their website or Spotify page to see what other remnants of magic they have out there. What you find is a discography spanning decades, each album carefully crafted to fit the exact emotions the artist was feeling at that moment, but where to start? In terms of the legendary and prolific Nick Oliveri, you can pick any moment in his historic career and be transported to a smokey recording studio with large speakers pounding out monstrous riffs.
Oliveri has been all over the musical map. From recording and performing with international acts like Queens of the Stone Age and continuing to tirelessly work on projects like Mondo Generator. His output is unmatched and his creativity knows no bounds as he continues to find new and exciting ways to present his musical talents. He is set to release the latest volumes of his N.O. Hits At All series, volumes 8 and 9 are set to be released on January 19. Mondo Generator recently released their latest creation, We Stand Against You, in late 2023.
In between his busy work schedule and countless projects, Nick Oliveri graciously found some time to answer a few questions about his long career, current projects, and how everything came to be. Check out our full conversation below.
Your press release defines you as a stoner rock icon. Do you agree with that title and how does it make you feel?
Well, I don’t consider myself an icon but I get where the stoner rock thing comes from because of Kyuss. We were one of the bands that did it first but I don’t know about “icon status”. I think you get that when you die but I don’t feel that way about myself. It makes me feel a little awkward if people call me an icon and stuff like that, I’d prefer to be called an asshole.
How would you personally define stoner rock and what about the genre is so enticing to you? Are genres and labels like that important to someone like you who plays so many different styles?
I define stoner rock as a heavy grind, sludge stuck in the mud, desert odyssey kind of thing. It’s about atmosphere, the music breathes a lot and there’s a lot of space in between notes. There are bands like Saint Vitus and Black Sabbath who I think are the pioneers of what we do now, they just didn’t call it stoner rock. When I was a kid I called myself a stoner and I ran with a stoner crew. We were a gang of kids that went to school and smoked weed at the stoner tree before class. We were listening to early Sabbath, Scorpions, and Judas Priest so to me the true stoner rock was the stuff the stoners were listening to. We would listen to music we could roll joints on, open the gatefold vinyl, and break apart our weed on there. We always got high with our music.
I don’t like labels so much but they’re necessary at times. Categories are good so you know what you’re looking for. I think they can be important but they’re not that important to me because I do like to play all these different styles of rock music but at the end of the day, it’s all rock and roll.
How did the N.O. Hits series start? It involves songs from past and current projects- can you let us know about your current bands and what you’re most excited about?
I sang a lot of songs on different projects whether it be my own track or someone else’s. Sometimes it’s a cover, sometimes I write the lyrics and I just wanted to compile all of these songs. I had a ton of songs across 60+ releases so I wanted to compile them under one roof. Heavy Psych Sounds allowed me to do that, I don’t know anyone else who would let me do that. It’s kept me busy as far as doing solo acoustic tours since I always have a new N.O. Hits around the corner. I’ve been working on number 10 slowly but eight and nine are about to come out which is cool. Eight covers a lot of cool stuff I recorded with Eric Valentine and Slash, I sang and wrote some lyrics for that.
What I’m most excited about is the latest Mondo Generator album. We Stand Against You is out now and it’s a punch in the nose. It’s our hardest, heaviest, fastest, and most intense record we’ve done yet and we did it in a matter of days. You can hear the stress in my voice because we were in such a rush to finish it. Doing three takes a song, by the end of it I was just lying on the ground belching out what I could. I’m also really excited about the new Dwarves record Concept Album, I have a lot of cool songs on there and the guys in the band have a lot of great songs on there as well.
You’ve done a lot since your days in Queens of the Stone Age and Kyuss- but people seem to remember you most from those bands. What bands have you had the most creative input with and how has your songwriting evolved?
With Queens of the Stone Age, I really censored myself and put my best foot forward for that stuff. I never want anyone else to censor me but censor myself and try to say the right thing and play something important at each part whether that be bass or guitar. Everything had to be super special and we had time to do that. We had time to craft and write our songs and fuck around with them a bit. With Mondo on the other hand, you get what you get. We don’t have tomorrow to come back and work on the backbeat or fix a kick drum, this is us, this is it. It’s just go go go, let’s get it done because we don’t have time to fuck around I need to get out on tour to stay alive so that’s the big difference in my songwriting.
I had to evolve into not giving a fuck as much, it started out that way and it became that way again. When you have three days in the studio and you have to finish nine songs, you don’t fuck around. With Queens, we would spend two months in the studio, with no days off. I think I write better riffs and my voice is stronger, just trying to get it to be as strong as it can be.
You play both bass and guitar in bands- what do you dig more these days and do you see yourself more as a guitarist, bassist, or multi-instrumentalist?
I’m a bass player by trade, I have a lot of fun with that instrument. I started out on guitar but I found myself being better on bass so I decided to focus more on the bass. Now I’m trying to be more of a rhythm guitar player, I can do leads but I wouldn’t consider myself a lead player. I play guitar on most Mondo records, at least a song or two on each album. I mess around on drums but I am by no means a drummer, I’ve played with some of the best drummers in rock so to call myself a drummer feels stupid. I can write a part on a lot of different instruments that would fit into a song to help the texture of a record, I can add a one-finger-piano section but I can’t actually play the piano.
What was the process of putting together the upcoming volumes of the series? What was it like going through all those old demos and did you hear anything that you were like “What the fuck is that?” (in both a bad or good way)
Always, I still have some stockpiled stuff I need to go through and some newer stuff that will be on Volume 10. I don’t know how many volumes I’m going to do but 10 I’m thinking about a double release and ending the series. I would hate to end the thing and have a bunch of cool shit surfaces. It’s a cool package, we have some great artwork and there are some weirder demos on there, it’s like a musical encyclopedia. It’s always like “holy shit that’s awesome I need to put that out” but it’s also about reaching out to the bands I worked with in case they already put it out and getting permission to put it on my thing. I don’t do these things for money, a friend asks me to sing on something and I do it. Everyone is always very generous in that sense but there are times I can’t get a hold of the band I recorded the track with, It’s hard to get permission and shit for everything.
You also released an EP with your band Stöner this year- what song would you most want a newbie to check out from those 2 albums and EP?
I would say “Party March”, it’s the first song on Totally. It’s been a while since those records were on my turntable but we did do a song on a compilation for Lemmy from Motörhead. We covered “R.A.M.O.N.E.S” by Ramones which Lemmy wrote.
How did you first connect with Heavy Psych Sounds and what is your creative partnership with them like?
I first connected with them in 2016 when we did The Best of Mondo Generator double album. A buddy of mine got a hold of Gabriele from the label and got us in touch and we started working together. My creative partnership is I hand them music and they put it out, simple as that. There is no one censoring me or telling me what bands to play in or what to put out. They keep my name out there and we do tours together, they booked me in Europe and stuff like that, I stay real busy.
What musicians are true icons to you and serve as your biggest inspirations past and present?
I fucking love Lemmy from Motörhead, he was a real rockstar. I really like Wattie Buchan from The Exploited, Subhumans, Bad Brains, Black Flag, all versions of Black Flag but I prefer the Dez Cadena era. There’s a lot of stuff, Keith Morris, Circle Jerks, Johnny Cash, there will never be another GG Allin, Iggy Pop of course. I like Ghetto Boys and N.W.A., the real gangster rap stuff. Punk rock is an attitude if you ask me and that “Fuck The Police” stuff is really great. I like the stuff that hits people in the face and hurts them hard.
For your fans – what are some of your better memories from being in bands like Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age? Any big collaborations or live shows that you still feel proud of?
The better memories for bands like Kyuss were going to school and meeting Brant Bjork. I think I played baseball against him in like 1987 and he asked me if I had an amp and a guitar. I said yes and he was like “I got a drum set, you want to come over and jam?” At the time I had just played along to Ramones at home, ditching a lot of school and playing my guitar in my room. My mom got home at noon so I had to be out of the house and pretend I was at school but I’d play my guitar all morning so I taught myself what I know how to do. School wasn’t offering me what I was looking for. At home, I could get high and play music and try to play the notes. I would watch videos of bands and see how their fingers land on the fretboard. Ramones seemed to be my best teacher, it wasn’t hard note-wise. There is a formula to old 50’s bebop rock and Ramones are that sped up.
I went over to Brant’s one day and it was a moment of “Oh shit I actually get to play with somebody”. That was the first musical conversation I had with someone in the same room. That’s when people like Josh Homme and Chris Cockrell came over, they all had already been jamming together but Brant wanted to add another guy so he invited me along, I was the second guitar player along with John Garcia. I sang that first practice and we recorded it, I think John used that as a blueprint for what he wanted to do. I don’t believe he wanted to sing at first. That first day of practice with those guys is my biggest memory. We played our first party a month later. I left and came back in 1990 and we did the first two records as Kyuss, those were big for me because I could prove to myself and certain people that I could make music and put out a record and get signed.
There are countless memories with Queens, we were on tour for five years straight pretty much and recording albums in between the tours. We were a working band and stayed busy, we were professionals but complete amateur fuck-ups at the same time. We were getting high and drunk and somehow making all this shit work, we just showed up and played.
Going on tour with Motörhead and Lemmy was a dream come true. I got to go out on stage and sing “Overkill” with him and that was very special.
What is the best way for fans to stay in touch with what you are working on next?
I mentioned the tenth volume of N.O. Hits and I’m working hard on that. The best way to keep in touch is the Mondo Generator website, we also have a Facebook page. My personal handle on all social media is rexeverything666 so you can find me that way as well. I have a lot of cool stuff I’m working on with The Dwarves as well so you can check out their website to see what else is going on with me.
