It’s that time of year where we set out to interview as many of the Sophie, New Blood, and Jager bands as we can in the lead-up to one of the most anticipated festivals of the year, Bloodstock. Answering our questions here are BOZ who play the Jagermeister stage on the Saturday.
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
All of us come from various parts of the north-east, but primarily Gateshead, England.
How long have you been playing together as a band?
As BOZ, we’ve been playing together since late ’19, however, Marshall, Tony and Phil have been jamming in various bands together for well over 15 years now.
Where does the name of the band come from?
The name is taken from a good friend’s brother, who’s nickname is simply Boz. We thought it sounded cool. Was short and simple so we took it. We liked the name because it could mean something or nothing. Bollox ov Zatan, Beard of Zeus etc. Anything ya want really. We ain’t precious.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
We like to just think of ourselves as a “metal” band, with influences ranging from High on Fire and Crowbar, to Testament and Metallica with other bits and pieces thrown in for good measure.
With regards to “uniqueness”, it’s very hard to be unique nowadays. We aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel by any stretch. We’re all about writing heavy riffs with some catchy melodies thrown in. As long as the riff makes us pull a “riffy gurn face”, we’re happy.
What’s your live show like? Why are people going to watch you instead of another band?
Our live shows are pretty stripped down. Hairy blokes playing heavy riffs. No bells and whistles. As cliché as it sounds, we try and “let the music do the talking”.
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Have you been to Bloodstock before? What did you think?
Our previous band played Bloodstock back in ’16 and it was an absolute blast. We had such a good laugh and it was awesome to get away for a few days, recharge the batteries for reing that Monday-morning rat race.
Bloodstock is, by far, the best metal festival going. They don’t just get bands on that they know will bring in a crowd, but they offer a plaYorm for up-and-coming bands to get their music out to the masses. Something that’s very much appreciated.
When/how did you find out you’d been selected to play at Bloodstock?
We participated in the Metal 2 The Masses at Trillians Rock Bar in Newcastle (an excellent venue).
We got to the final and played a banger of a set. Our buds in Cast In Tephra won the event (congrats lads!) but Simon Hall enjoyed our set immensely and offered us a spot playing the Jager stage, which we are obviously stoked about.
What sort of setlist can we expect?
Depending on our set length, we’ll be playing most of the material from our debut album, Fury of Pegāna. Basically, many riffs with many shouSngs. Haha.
Which other band do you most hope you’re not clashing with so you can see them play?
We’re playing on Saturday 13th so thankfully we won’t clash with EyeHateGod because they’re an absolute must for us. Been big fans of those guys for years. As for the Saturday, I hope we don’t clash with Cast In Tephra because we wanna see our buds representing on the New Blood stage, but in all honesty, there’s far too many awesome bands to menSon. We’d like to see them all but that just ain’t possible.
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What are you working on at the moment?
We’ve just finished recording and finally released our debut album, Fury of Pegāna, so at the minute, we’re just going to be gigging the shit out of this release. We’ve got a video or two in the works so that’s taking up a good bit of time. Then once those are done, we’re gonna get straight back into the practice space and get into full-on writing mode for the next batch of tunes for BOZ
2.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
Well, there was that one time where Brett snorted a line of ants off a rank toilet floor and Tony had a 5-way after the gig. Good times.
Haha.
But in all seriousness, our wild years are behind us now. We still enjoy having a good drink and a toke when the opportunity presents itself but we just like having a good laugh and bit of banter at gigs with fans and bands alike.
What drink do you throw back to get yourself fired up before going on stage?
A couple of us are partial to a good ol’ bottle of Dog (Newcastle Brown Ale if you’re not a Geordie), whiskey and maybes a few White Russians.
