Interview: Vicious Animal
Jose Galvez Of Ozma Talks About His ‘Chilled Out Indie Pop’ Project
Jose Galvez is a prolific songwriter and talented multi-instrumentalist.
Over the years, the Ozma guitarist has released a steady stream of hooky and high-energy pop rock under his own name and in various bands. With his latest project, Vicious Animal, Galvez takes his sound in a more “chilled out indie pop” direction.
“Vicious Animal sparked mostly from working with singer Carly Bannister,” Galvez told me for the interview below. “I was excited about my own music like I’d never been before. Every month I would track and prepare two songs for her to sing in one session, and over the course of several months the album squint was done.”
“I’m so lucky and honored that Carly kept agreeing to do these sessions because now I have Vicious Animal.”
Squint’s release comes on the heels of three sold out Ozma shows at The Troubadour in LA to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Rock and Roll Part Three.
“Ozma gave me the ultimate high as a musician, which in a weird way has turned music-making into a little bit of a drug for me,” Galvez said.
“Not like I'm truthfully searching for that Ozma high again, but it more or less turned me into a lifer—playing, writing, and recording music, whether recreationally (which has been the case the past 15+ years) or professionally.”
I caught up with Galvez by email in the days leading up to the release of squint to discuss his inspiration for this new project, his songwriting and recording approach, and what’s next for Vicious Animal.
Jose Galvez Interview
Congrats on the new album. What’s the story behind Vicious Animal?
Jose Galvez: As a fan of Carly Bannister’s music, and especially her album Same Team, I followed her on Instagram where she posted about moving to LA from Nashville. I cold approached her on Instagram and asked if she did session work. I had just finished demoing a pretty serious song about my experience losing one of my best friends, David Del Fonzo, five years ago. That song is called ‘The Cellar,’ and to my surprise she accepted the session singing gig based on the demo I sent her.
I didn’t want my own vocals to screw up what was an important and deeply personal song. I also wanted to work with Carly because I really dug her voice. So her moving to LA synced up perfectly. We met at the coffee shop down the street from the studio in Sierra Madre, where we essentially learned about each other for the first time.
How did those initial sessions go?
Really, really well. She did about four or five full takes of the song. I remember having this epiphany where I realized that I should have been outsourcing my lead vocal this whole time! She then whipped up a harmony track on the spot and I was just feeling so extremely encouraged about how it was all coming together.
Singing isn't a natural gift for me. I do love to sing, but I recognize that just because I can sorta do it doesn't mean I should. Maybe my songs would have greater appeal if someone else who can sing is the voice of something I wrote. As I was throwing together the tracks in my home studio and heard Carly, it 100% solidified this notion.
What got you interested in writing/producing in this more laid back indie pop style? Were there any specific bands or projects that inspired you?
Jose Galvez: Hearing how well ‘The Cellar’ came together ultimately pointed me in that direction. My solo stuff is pretty guitar driven with an abundance of layers and tracks. But with someone like Carly singing on them, I didn’t really need to distract the listener with a lot going on. I just needed some songs with good melodies and some space for the songs to breathe. Luckily, I had a lot of those songs in my back catalog that fit this criteria for a full album of chilled out indie pop.
As for bands that inspired me and this style, I’d have to say Andy Shauf. That guy uses space beautifully.
The first single was “Joyride.” How did that track come together?
Jose Galvez: I had written ‘Joyride’ shortly after recording ‘The Cellar’ with Carly. I think the upbeat nature is from being excited about this potential musical partnership. ‘Joyride’ was majorly important for this project because this was the second song she would be introduced to. Maybe if she didn’t like the song then the partnership would be dead.
Luckily, she said some pretty nice things about ‘Joyride’ and thus the catalyst for her to continue on with the sessions. Lyrically the song follows a more light hearted formula, which is when I’m usually noodling around on the guitar watching these dumb shows on Bravo, a lot of my word salad placeholder lyrics come from what the people are going through on these bad reality shows.
Instead of changing them later, I sadly keep them most of the time. This goes for ‘Joyride’ which is about Tom and Tom on Vanderpump Rules. Barf.
Why were “Joyride” and the second single, "Hurricane," the right way to introduce Vicious Animal?
Jose Galvez: After some friend/focus-group advice, ‘Joyride’ and ‘Hurricane’ seemed to be the consensus standouts. Both songs became available about two weeks apart and the only ones available before the official release of the Vicious Animal album, squint.
"Hurricane" is a track you previously recorded with BED in 2014. How did your approach to those two versions differ?
Jose Galvez: I sketched out a GarageBand version of ‘Hurricane’ in 2011. The version BED fleshed out as a band is a more souped-up and exciting version that still vibes. But there was a lot of charm in the original GarageBand version that I couldn’t shake, so I wanted to revisit it with Vicious Animal. ‘Hurricane’ is still one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written, so I’m going to keep making versions of it ‘til everyone hears it.
Will Vicious Animal be performing live?
Jose Galvez: After those Ozma shows, it did make me remember how important it is to play live. A lot of new friends that came to the show that didn’t know what an Ozma was said, ‘It was great to see you in your element.’
When working on Vicious Animal I was solely focused on the recording as I fulfilled every single role besides the lead vocal, it barely crossed my mind that these songs would ever be performed live. Carly is more-or-less a session singer, so if it’s her or someone else singing in the live format, I think it would be great!
As an artist that hates self promotion, having a project not named after me makes it easier to push. Also, having someone great as the voice of these songs makes it easier to promote as well. The reception to the first two songs has been positive, so my brain definitely has been coming up with scenarios to hopefully make a live set happen.
You keep introducing me to great artists! On his youtube page now listening to one song after another. Love that he's doing all the playing.