David: Yeah, that's where we based out of. We're all from San Bernardino, CA and the Highland area of CA. Colton, CA. We all live together and then I met Shorty probably about 2001 right after I got out of the military. I met him over in a local bar where I was singing karaoke and then we started writing songs together. Jamming out. Nando has always been a good friend. Shorty and Paul are over there in the studio recording. We’ve got a new track coming out for another album. They’re working on that. We just came up with the lyrics today so it’s pretty neat.

What got you guys so interested in music?

David: Music for me, I’ve been around it my whole life. My dad used to be a lead singer in Top 40 bands back in the ‘70s. Stuff like that so I’ve always been around music since I was little. I used to take his basses and stuff and try to play them. He’d get mad at me but I liked to rock out. I’d always listened to a lot of punk. A lot of Rick James, Tower Of Power, and stuff like that. Then Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and anything back in the old days. My dad was old school. I listen to about anything. Classical. I’ve always been into it. Music gets through you the day. The world would be a boring place without music. It’s something I’ve always stuck to ever since I was 10. I started playing guitar when I was 10. I like to go out and meet people and that’s why I got into music too. The military didn’t take me all over the world but a rock band will.

When you guys got together as a band, how did you decide on what musical direction to go into?

David: We just got together and we just recorded what would come out. That’s why the album has a lot of diversity to it. I like albums that sound like that. So does Shorty and everyone else. We’re a diverse group of people. We all have different musical backgrounds. Everybody grew up listening to something else. Why not mix it all together? It was all good music to start out with. You get inspiration from everything. I listen to a lot of stuff especially with the Internet because there is all kinds of stuff on there. I’m always on MusicNet looking up bands and stuff like that. It’s pretty cool. We like to make music that has feeling to it. All the music nowadays doesn’t really have that. It’s just more noise. I really don’t listen to radio stations too much. I started to again. I got stuck on my type of music now. I’m starting to get back into the times.

We used to have some cool stations here in Dallas but they seem to be disappearing. Tell me a little bit about Stoned Council.

David: We came up with the name Stoned Council from a council of people who like to smoke. That’s what we come up with. Something that would sound good for Dog Faced Gods. Like our name Dog Faced Gods that we came up with. We thought it sounded good. We were trying to think of it. I’m a smoker. It’s funny. We just decided to go with it. We went to Arizona one time and there were two street signs. The way they were staggered it also said Stone and Council. We thought that looked cool together like that so we just picked up on that. It was pretty neat.

I got a kick out of that name. I thought it was great.

David: That was one of our adventures in Arizona. We just saw that and we were like “whoa, stone council.” We just added a -d for stoned.

Tell me about some of the songs on Stoned Council.

Fernando: I like “Stand Alone”. That’s a good song for me. At the time I was recording it in the studio, I was going through some trials and some stuff. Things were happening but the song stuck in my head. I always liked that song. A lot of feeling behind it.

Was it something you wrote yourself?

Fernando: Actually all of us came up with it. I didn’t come up with it myself.

When you do a record, do all of you contribute to the writing of the songs?

Fernando: Yeah, just 20 minutes ago all of us were in there writing lyrics to a new song. We recorded it two weeks ago and now we’re in there putting words together. We do all contribute to the songwriting part. It’s pretty nice.

I do have to admit that one of my favorite songs on here was “Water Pipe Bong”.

Fernando: That’s a good song. I like that song too.

When you write songs, what inspires you?

Fernando: The inspiration for that one, Shorty and Snake had went to a local head shop and they kicked Snakeyez out of the shop because usually on the wall it says water pipes for tobacco use only. Because it’s the law. They went in there and asked if they could see that bong. The guy said they had to leave the store and they were like “what?” I was at the studio and they came back and said they got kicked out. All of sudden they go “it’s not a water pipe, it’s a bong.” All of a sudden they got all crazy and they just started writing the song. In 15 or 20 minutes they wrote that song.

Why did they get kicked out of the store?

Fernando: Because he said bong. That’s associated with cannabis use.

Damn, that’s mental.

Fernando: It’s a fun song to play too. It gets everybody going. Now that we play a lot more shows, we hear people singing the song because now it’s getting out there more. It’s cool to hear people sing it.

Tell me a little bit about “Earth Is Hell”. I like that one too.

Fernando: “Earth Is Hell”, I think Snakeyez came up with that one. He’s a military guy and I think he was having flashbacks or something. He wrote that song though. At the time he came up with it, a lot of stuff was going on. Pre 9/11. A lot of things were happening in the government at that time. How Robert Blake killed his wife. I don’t know if he did or not. There were a lot of things happening in the local area too. There were a lot of shootings and kids killing each other at schools. There were a lot of things going down.

Seems like ever since Bush got into office, this country has gone to hell.

Fernando: Pretty much but it’s a good song though.

I really liked that one. Another one I liked was “Will I Ever Fit In”. I thought that was a cool one.

Fernando: Yeah, that’s a good song too. We had fun actually making a video to that right here at the studio. We had some friends of ours come in and they have their own production company, him and his wife, and they shot a video for us. It’s on our website. Also it’s on the album. It’s a 15 track album and enhanced CD and it has two videos. That video and just some clips of us. Check it out. It’s fun. If you like the song, the video is on there and it’s pretty cool. It was all done here at the studio. The other video is footage of behind the scenes. People singing here or us outside pulling cars out of ditches. Just funny things going on. At one point we’re pulling Snake behind a H1 and he’s sitting in an office chair. It’s funny stuff on there.

You guys sound like fun dudes.

Fernando: Yeah, we’re pretty laid back. We like to go out. I’m excited about going on tour pretty soon. We get to go out there and play to some people.

Where are you guys touring?

Fernando: We’re starting off with Salt Lake City.

Oh, the Mormons.

Fernando: Yeah and from there we’re going to be hopping on another tour. We haven’t gotten the schedule yet.

Who is the beautiful dog on the CD cover?

Fernando: That was the rez dog. That was our dog here. She was a pure bred Husky. We got her in Vegas. We got her at a pet shop where they sell ferrets and things you can’t normally buy. She was 100 percent pure and she had a computer chip in her neck if she got lost. She had a whole history. She had two different eyes like Marilyn Manson eyes. She had one blue eye and one silver eye. That’s why her eyes look different.

I guess you lost your rez dog.

Fernando: Yeah, after they had those big fires out here in California last year, she disappeared on us. I don’t know if she got caught in the fire or if someone took her.

I hope someone took her because she is absolutely beautiful.

Fernando: I hope so too.

You guys are working on your next record. When are we going to have that?

Fernando: I don’t know. We’re trying to crank it out as fast as we can.

I really loved this one. It was cool. Any other thoughts or comments?

Fernando: Thank you.