OWL was forged in 2007 in the infernos of proto-metal, twin harmonies, and doom. By 2010, an album’s worth of minimal demo(nic) riffage and draconian indulgence surfaced in Jackson, California, propagated by brothers Axell Baechle (guitars, vocals, piano) and Alexander (A.K.) Baechle (guitars, vocals) and piqued the interest of industrious local artist, drummer, and yes, third brother, Clint Baechle. OWL played their first show at a barbecue in the proving ground of Oakland’s then house scene. We spoke to Clint on the phone earlier today.
The Mighty Z – Alright. So, who do we have on the phone today?
Clint Baechle – Okay, so it’s your lucky day. You get the drummer,
The drummer. Oh nice.
I’m Clint, I’m the drummer.
And you’re one of three brothers, is that right?
That is correct. Yeah, I’m the oldest.
I see the mature one.
Oh yeah, yeah. So, they say.
Has being in a band with relatives been any more challenging than with not relatives?
I do believe it is more challenging but also more rewarding. In some ways it’s like, you know, as brothers, we do get in fights um and arguments and things like that. But, on the other hand, we uh we do work very well together writing music and we sometimes almost have a, like a a mental telepathy that um makes us play together very well. So, we have that for us, and it’s like even if we do get mad and get in a fight, you know, it doesn’t, we don’t stay mad,
I think the Lamb of God, guys, two of the guys are brothers, they fired, one of them. It does happen. Yeah. I mean everybody can cross the path of no return?
Yeah, that’s true. That’s true. And yeah, some families don’t get along as well as we do. It’s definitely true. So, I think we’re pretty lucky.
Did you grow up a little bit, spend some time in Jackson California as well?
Yes. Yeah. Um So, I live there, from second grade through high school. So, I basically grew up there, and, so did my, my younger brothers, the youngest brother was born there. He’s the only one that was born out there. But yeah, we grew up together in, out in Jackson California.
And uh how familiar are you with the Serbians up there? And their shooting of guns in January?
We definitely hear the shooting of guns. Um, I kind of thought it was all the time but um now that you mentioned it, oh I do remember hearing a lot of shooting of guns in January, I didn’t realize it was the service.
Yeah, it’s Orthodox Christmas in January and I guess before phones um they communicated that way.
And there is an old, beautiful uh Serbian orthodox church in the town, on the edge of town, but you can see when you drive in.
Oh yeah, I’m Serbian so I’m familiar with all that stuff. We go to a lot parties up there because they have a spit for roasting pork, pigs and lambs and all that good old meat and boozing. Did you grow up fishing and hunting? You lived up sort of up in the sticks.
Not fishing or hunting but definitely hiking um went up into the mountains a lot, um got familiar with the terrain up there. Our dad like to take us up and um the mountain’s hiking thing was something that I kind of rekindled during the pandemic because I was bored, started climbing a lot of mountains again. Kind of brought me back to my childhood
Living in Oakland. Uh there’s plenty of hiking here as well, is that right?
Yes. Yes, absolutely. It’s a great city to live in if you want to do the outdoors also.
Photo: Amber Lynch
Do you have any favorite parks? I mean somebody told me that uh Oakland or the Bay Area has more parks per capita than any other county or city in America.
I kind of believe that there is a lot of open space and um I like going, anywhere up in the open hills is great um Mount Yellow Marine County and we’re just kind of spoiled with, resources, outdoor, opportunities out here. So, it’s really nice. I don’t have time to go to all the different places that I want to go.
You have a show coming up tomorrow, is that right?
Yes, that’s right. Tomorrow night at Thee Stork Club with Tabernacle, Vorlust and Los Huaycos, it’s a record release show.
This is your first record since, it’s almost your first record in almost a decade, is that right?
That is correct. Yes, it’s been a long time.
Screech was the last record. And it looks like uh I was just listening to listening to it today and uh one of my favorite tracks on it is right off the bat is Floating Island, which appears to be an older song.
It actually is. Yeah. Um We recorded it um during the session for we felt like we had never, done a proper recording. Uh We had recorded it twice before, and we wanted to give it one more shot and uh we finally got the version that we were looking for, and uh it wasn’t necessarily supposed to be on the album. Um I don’t know if you’ve noticed. But what we have is a double album, it’s three sides of music. Um So it’s a little bit longer than a regular album and not everything was supposed to be on there. We recorded some songs that we were going to maybe use for extra stuff but in the end nobody could agree on which songs will be left off of the album. So we just put everything on it, including Floating Islands and there you have it.
So, uh it’s safe to say that you didn’t record any covers?
Um No.
Have you recorded covers in the past?
We have yeah. Um, let me think about that. I know we have; I don’t know if any have ever been released. We recorded a Mudhoney song once. We recorded a Bloodrock song. Yeah, I don’t think any of this stuff has been released, its gonna get released someday.
Yeah, it’s once you’ve recorded a couple of covers, it’s not necessary to continuously do so. And uh being that you have, you know, some of your tracks are over 10 minutes long. You have plenty of your own material.
That’s true. We are never short of our own material.
I mean a set isn’t ever really gonna be more than 40 minutes or so, right?
Right. Yeah, not for us except in Europe. Um, we played for, I think we, they gave us something 90 minutes sometimes, had to learn a lot of songs for that. I think we I think we have like maybe 20 songs in a repertoire at that time. And some nights we played all of them
Magic Spiegel is the most recent addition to although he’s been in the band for half a decade or about right?
It’s been a while now. The thing with our bass players is I can, as you can imagine, it’s kind of hard. The bass player is always the odd one out. It’s the one that’s not a brother, so, they’re always gonna be kind of an outsider and they have to kind of, you know, watch us fight and argue and do whatever we do. And, I’m sure it’s not easy all the time.
Would you say that, the pandemic was a nice little break?
I missed doing all the music stuff. The touring, Um It was it was but it was a nice break. I did a lot of hiking. I took advantage of it. I used the time, but I I’m mostly I miss doing music stuff. Al wrote another album during that time, so that one will probably come out next year. We’re just gonna try to keep them coming now.
I imagine as a drummer, you probably don’t really get that much new gear, do you?
No not really. I have three drum sets now, which is plenty. And the only thing I really have to buy new is symbols because I keep on breaking them.
What leads you working with Justin Weis again?
Trying to remember it was such a long time ago now. Um Why we chose him, at the beginning of our, we decided we wanted to record every album in a different recording studio and have, every album with a different artist doing the album cover. So, we weren’t gonna go back to any place we’ve been to before. And uh we knew that, um track works with Justin wife was a good studio. Um My other band Hazards Cure has recorded there and not too far from home, easy to get to. And uh they have a nice big sounding drum room, a nice live room so, and plus some of our favorite albums from the past, some of our favorite bands like uh Lord Weird Slough Feg have recorded there, Hammers of Fortune. So, it’s kind of like a Bay Area classic.
Alright. Do you have any uh final thoughts uh to share with anybody that might be uh reading this?
Just make it to Thee Stork Club tomorrow night if you can. That’s our record release show. And thank you for the interview.
OWL’s ambitious Geomancy long player enhances baroque elements of guitar composition while maintaining a defiant, barbed-wire anti-sociality. Ten-minute sagas erupt from inspirations bestial as cougar maulings, odes to Earth’s continued viability rend consciousness in humanistic terms, and trenchant dual guitar leads echo Iron Maiden, Scorpions, Thin Lizzy, and King Crimson.Geomancy 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. In advance of the record’s release, the band released the single, “Minion Of The Amethyst Cave.”
Geomancy will be released on 2xLP and digital formats. Find preorders HERE.
OWL:
Axell Baechle – guitars, vocals, piano
Alexander (A.K.) Baechle – guitars, vocals
Clint Baechle – drums, percussion
Jamie Sanitate – bass guitar
Additional Musicians:
Danika Ingraham – backing vocals
Keenah Fassett – backing vocals
Laurie Sue Shanaman – backing vocals on “King”
Hailey Chase – backing vocals and percussion on “Shadow”
Xaina – backing vocals and percussion on “Shadow”
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