Shit Wizard
Lomita Alehouse
Lomita, Calif.
January 5, 2019
Tear Down: A Q&A With Shit Wizard
Digger, guitar/vocals; Shay, drums/vocals
Bandcamp, “Live at Power Plant Records” and more
*Interview done in the back of the Lomita Alehouse.
So, now, where are you based out of?
Shay: Well –
Digger: Hell.
Shay: Yeah. I’m from up north, but residing in Long Beach right now.
Digger: Originally from San Clemente though.
Shay: Oh, yeah, no. Originally, the band started in San Clemente, south Orange County. Right now I live in Long Beach. Whatever. We’re not really – we don’t really play. We played a lot six years ago or something. Then pretty much we got good and we were like, no, we don’t want to get good. We’re shit metal.
Digger: We got too good and we stopped for a little while.
Shay: Yeah, we stopped. Pretty much before any shows we play, we practice once a month before. We don’t go out and look for shows. We don’t play. It’s just pretty much someone hits us up. Sure, why the hell not?
So the band started in 2006?
Shay: Yeah.
Digger: I think it was 2011 we started the band. So it was more than six years.
Shay: That was a long time ago, yeah.
So your cowbell ringer is not with us. Has he always had that sort of shtick or does he change it up?
Digger: Just recently.
What triggered that?
Shay: It’s just our bud.
Digger: He was never in the band. Just whenever we played, he just always was there so he was like, ‘I’ll just play the cowbell.’
Shay: Yeah he pretty much – the first time around he just got hammered and then started banging the cowbell around and we were like, that’s perfect. He’s our cowbell player. Our comedian for the set.
Digger: We welcome anybody to come do stupid shit.
Shay: Yeah, pretty much anybody who wants to come up and do something lame, come up.
What’s the most interesting reaction you’ve gotten from someone about the whole cowbell ringer costume thing?
Digger: I don’t know. From the cowbell, he got the name eggplant cowbell, because he was wearing a purple cloak and then playing the cowbell. Then somehow that turned into purple banana, which is the best nickname ever. So now he’s purple banana because of that. First time he did it.
Shay: There’s nothing like really weird. People think it’s funny. It’s fun. We’re just about having fun and we play shitty music and we don’t really care. I mean, you heard us. We fucked up a bunch. Whatever.
You did?
Shay: Hell yeah.
Digger: We play death metal, but somehow we always play with punk bands. But it’s cool because we are both from punk backgrounds. We both like hardcore.
Shay: Actually, the Alter Boys are the first ones – I used to sing in a hardcore band because I used to live in Ventura, in the 805. And they [the Alter Boys] brought us down here for our first show ever so that’s how I got involved in the L.A. scene and then slowly moved down to Orange County. So we were, back in 2009, we were in a bunch of hardcore bands. We played in a bunch of different bands and we both always come back because we love fucking metal. Raw death metal.
Digger: Same shit. It’s hardcore, fast.
Where did the name Shit Wizard come from?
Shay: Well, we were just sending each other names back and forth.
Digger: I’ve got the story actually. No, it’s from this dude me and purple banana hung out with. And, we were like this dude he made really cool shit, but he was really shitty. So we were like, ‘This dude’s a wizard, but he’s really shitty.’ He’s like a shit wizard and then we’d see bums and say ‘Oh, look at that shit wizard.’ And then we were hanging out and you [Shay] were like ‘Let’s start a death metal band.’ We said, OK, Shit Wizard. Here we go. It was that easy. The next day we made two songs or something.
What’s the biggest difference between metal and punk?
Shay: I mean, first there’s like double bass and stuff, but it’s all the same shit: hard, aggressive, fast. And if you hear our shit there’s a lot of hardcore influence.
Digger: You’ve got to ask someone else because they’re both like the same to me.
Where can people find your music?
Shay: Bandcamp. We actually have a ton of stuff. Just a bunch of recordings we’ve done over the years. Just really low-fi.
Digger: Demos and we’ve got, what? Thirteen songs.
Shay: Yeah, but just a bunch of different versions of it. We made up a new EP recently.
When is your next show?
Shay: We don’t have one.
Digger: This is our next show.
Shay: We played [Alter Boys drummer] Tony’s backyard in Wilmington and that one was really fun. It’s all just because my band Fist Fight on Ecstasy was supposed to play and then one guy bailed and I was like ‘Oh, dude. Let’s play [as Shit Wizard].’
How many other bands are each of you in currently?
Shay: Currently I’m in only one, Fist Fight on Ecstasy.
Digger: Merlin and we were both in Bleeder too, but we’re not doing anything. We’ve been in a bunch of fucking shitty bands over the years
Shay: Ranging from like street, punk, hardcore, metal, the beer rock band.
Anything else people should know about the band?
Shay: Hail Satan.
Digger: We like booze. We’re a drinking band. We like to get drunk and then suck at playing.
Shay: Alright, so we’ve actually blown off shows and gotten drunk and went skateboarding instead.
Digger: We get drunk and go skate and call it playing a show.