We love the Stoner Rock community because of the friendly people. The only problem: That community is pretty small. Although we might like Stoner Rock and its derivations, it’s not like Mike from Accounting or Jane from HR wants to hear about how you scored Fu Manchu tickets.
That’s why we get excited when we meet like-minded people who are just as passionate about Stoner Rock and finding new ways to support the bands that make the music we love.
Meet Cosmic Fuzz Fm. Run by a small team of Stoner Rock fans, Cosmic Fuzz Fm is a 24/7 internet radio station dedicated to Desert, Stoner, Fuzz, and Heavy Psych. Since stumbling across their site a few months ago, we’ve found plenty of new bands to love and enjoy after we’ve logged off for the day.
We recently caught up with Joey, the owner and creator of Cosmic Fuzz Fm, and the rest of the Fuzz team: Ben, Mick, Pep, and John.
Monster Riff: An online radio station dedicated to Stoner/Desert Rock. Incredible. How’d you get started?Â
Joey: The idea of creating the radio station goes back to 2009/10. Myself and Cody (Desert Dan) were pondering the idea from YouTube compilations we were creating and, basically, we got the idea of going live. We started working on a  station called Skunky Vibes. After a while, we realized the name was pretty fucking dumb and wanted a more radio-themed name. After researching, we found we could use FM, which nailed it for us. We came up with a tagline: “May the Fuzz Be With You.” Yes, we were the first. A lot of others have now used it or are using it, but originally it was ours. Thus, FuzzFm was created and we were like, “Hell yeah, this is gonna work!” Unfortunately, Cody sadly passed away about three years ago and the station basically started to fizzle out. We lost our spot on Tune In and I just lost interest and took a break from it all. After a year, I decided to reinvent the station. I got all our best friends on board who all have a passion for the Fuzz and Stoner Rock. At the time, we felt the genre was ever so slightly changing and had a spacey feel to it. We Launched Cosmic Fuzz Fm.
Monster Riff: It’s not every day that you meet someone who (one) enjoys Stoner Rock and (two) enjoys it enough to dedicate a 24/7 radio station to it. How’d you get interested in the genre?
Joey: A bunch of reasons, I guess. The lifestyle. The surfing culture. The first single or track for me was Sungrazer’s “Zero Zero.” Had it on a constant loop. Ben and Mick here are Kyuss and Fu top fans. John loves Yawning Man/BB and leans more towards the Desert scene and feel. Karma to Burn and Spirit Caravan run through Pepper’s (Pep’s) veins. It all comes together really well for us. Our favorite, Colour Haze, totally rocks our world. It’s the complete package.
Monster Riff: You make it pretty easy for bands and artists to reach out and request airplay. What’s the criteria for getting accepted?
Ben: We don’t really have a criteria. If we like it and it fits in the CFFM groove, we will play it on air.
Mick: Note to artists and bands: We do listen to all the material sent for sure.
Monster Riff: You touch a lot of music in any given day. Are there any bands out there that you feel are unappreciated?
John: Absolutely, there are many who deserve a lot more respect and appreciation. We make sure to feature them as often as we can.
Joey: For sure. A lot of great bands seem to slip under the radar. We exploit them as much as possible.
Monster Riff: Are there any underappreciated bands you’d like to highlight?
Joey: A few bands come to mind. Worth checking out:
- Chasing the Coyote
- Vostok
- Jupiter
- New on the Scene (An exceptional EP from Luna Cruise)
- Karakum
- Motsus
- Asteroid Belt
The list goes on and on. There is a lot of music out there. One thing we do recommend: If you are on Bandcamp and there is a band you like, always click on their recommendations. That way you have an endless journey of finding what you like from one band to the next.
Monster Riff: Talk to me about the surfing angle. There’s a lot of love for surfing on the site, and the UK isn’t known as a surfing hotspot. How’d you get interested in surfing, and how does it tie back into Cosmic Fuzz FM?
Joey: Myself, Ben, and Mick surf a lot whenever we can. There are some choice spots in the UK and Ireland. We do travel in a van across Portugal and Southern Spain when possible. Nazare is our favorite spot. We would love to surf Australia and the west coast of the USA, but the airport duties and costs for taking our boards are ridiculous, so we keep it tight around Europe.
Ben: I think its just that the surf culture and Stoner Rock scene go hand in hand somehow. We always end a session with a beer and tunes banging from our old school boom box. [Laughs] The way things are at the moment, the world is a pretty fucked up place, so staying local has become the norm.
Cosmic Fuzz Fm streams around the clock! You can see what they’re playing right now by heading to the Cosmic Fuzz Fm radio station.