Los Angeles Rock outfit The Oil Barons return with their most ambitious work yet: “GRANDIOSE” (out September 26), a sprawling Psych Doom Western adventure that melds fuzz-soaked riffage, cinematic storytelling, and the band’s trademark volatility. Ahead of the full-length, the band will release their new single and video “Wizard” on September 12. Watch the video via the YouTube player below:
Purchase the single “Wizard” on Bandcamp: https://theoilbarons.bandcamp.com/track/wizard-2
“Wizard” follows the release of the single and video for “Gloria,” which showcased the band’s melodic, sentimental side. With its towering riffs and heavier edge, “Wizard” leans hard into the band’s Stoner Rock roots, embracing Doom-tuned guitars and layers of distortion that raise the stakes for the forthcoming record.
“Wizard came about as a sort of sister song to our single ‘VITCH’ from the first LP,” explains guitarist/vocalist Louis Aquiler. “I was messing around with that raised fifth, the ‘mystery’ interval, and it just had built-in magic. I imagined a Wizard of the Old West and all the drama that could hold. There’s a spoken word section that’s equal parts Frank Zappa and Sam Elliott, and layers of acoustic and clean guitars that put you in that desert landscape and add a layer of natural wood and dust over everything.”
For bassist/vocalist Andrew Huber, the song taps into the vast soundscape: “The great expanse and its sounds—long echoing canyons, birds of prey calling from the heavens. It’s the feeling of a brief detachment in the wilderness before civilization comes roaring back in to ride your ass some more.”
The upcoming album “GRANDIOSE” is fueled by love of amp worship and improvisation, pushing The Oil Barons into uncharted territory. “We wanted to really lean into all the juicy, natural frequencies you can wring out of hot tubes,” says Aquiler, “and introduced longer, less structured jams and instrumental breaks in major keys—something we just haven’t really heard in this genre before. It created an entirely new flavor of heavy and psychedelic that felt untapped and ours for the plundering.”
The DIY process was as grueling as it was rewarding. “The recording process was truly an act of hubris,” Aquiler recalls. “Matt engineered the hell out of this thing. We live-tracked as a band, then overdubbed late at night waiting for other bands on our floor to stop playing so we could capture authentic amp sounds. Then more arranging, more harmony…we went a little mad, but the results are thrilling.”
The Oil Barons are a reprobate quartet forging their own volatile brand of 100-proof Rock and Roll laced with Cosmic Country, Doom, and Heavy Psych. Cinematic and chaotic, their sound is a sonic stampede that veers as wildly as the western frontier they
mythologize.
The band’s debut “The West is Won” (2019), produced by Zach Fisher (Weezer, Bad Religion), was crowdfunded by fans and featured the standout single “VITCH,” which landed in primetime TV on Syfy’s Resident Alien. In 2020, they expanded their sound with the “Grease Pop” EP. Each December, they take on their alter ego SCROOGE—transforming A Christmas Carol into a three-night Metal requiem.
Lineup:
Lou Aquiler / Guitar
Andrew Huber / Bass, Lead Vocals
Jake Hart / Drums
Matt Harting/ Organ, Acoustic Guitar