An interview with Ryan Slegr (Ozma)

by Roxanne Reyes

Coming off some recent tours with Weezer, Kung Fu Records' up and coming band, Ozma, continues to gain more fans nationwide. Composed of Ryen Slegr (vocals, guitar), Daniel Brummel (bass, vocals), Patrick Edwards (drums), Jose Galvez (guitar, vocals), and Star Wick (keyboards), the group hit the Warped Tour's main stage all summer to promote their records, Rock and Roll Part Three (2000), and The Doubble Donkey Disc (2001). Despite their busy summer, Ryen Slegr was able to take time and chat about their recent success.        

M-R: You’re on Warped until the end of the tour?

M-R: How long will you be there?

RS: Two shows, then we’re going to stay for three more days.

M-R: Have you ever been there?

M-R: Or are you going to record?

RS: <nods> Uh-huh. We’re planning it right now, like a strategy, talking about how we can make our very unpowerful label project us into a new level. We’re years ahead of certain bands [in Warped] who are in debt to their label and who will never probably be out of debt because they pay $50,000 to be on stage on a tour. The stage costs an enormous amount of money so basically, they’re renting the stage for the summer. It’s a big debt to the label. It’s like being enslaved to the label monetarily.

M-R: What stage have you been playing on?

RS: The Teal (main) stage about 95% of the time, and the Maurice stage we played three times. When Andrew WK came, we got kicked off to the Maurice stage to make room for him.

M-R: Are there other bands here that you like to watch?

M-R: Well, I have this question that I always ask: Is there an interesting story that happened while you were on tour anywhere? Something memorable…

RS: Story, story… I don’t know; a pretty surreal moment, or uncomfortable one was on the second tour we went on with Weezer. Somebody came up to us and said, “I need all of you guys to come with me. Rivers [Cuomo] wants to see you.” And we thought we were in big trouble. So we went into his little private room and he was just sitting there by himself. He didn’t really talk very much and he was just talking about a soccer ball, and that’s a pretty crazy moment. He just wanted to thank us for being on the tour, but afterwards it became uncomfortable.