Next weekend, April 9, the first Desert Generator festival will be held. Put together by Rolling Heavy magazine, Allnight Allnight and Brant Bjork himself, it brings groups from the desert and beyond to Pappy and Harriet’s Saloon in Pioneertown, California, to play on an outdoor stage in the tradition of the parties held in the middle of nowhere (also the center of everywhere) of yore that helped shape the Palm Desert scene and thus American heavy rock as a whole. In addition to a van show and camp-out, the lineup is Red Fang, Brant Bjork and the Low Desert Punk Band, Acid King, Golden Void and Ecstatic Vision.

Sounds like weirdo heaven? Yeah, it just might be. For Bjork, it’s another manifestation of the commitment to a desert art scene that has seen him become one of its most recognizable ambassadors. As the drummer for Kyuss, he played those parties alongside the likes of Yawning Man and Fatso Jetson, and across his solo material and even up to Black Power Flower (review here), the 2014 debut from Brant Bjork and the Low Desert Punk Band, he’s remained a defining feature of what the rest of the world has come to think of as the sound of that place, of that desert. His work is inseparable from that.

It makes sense in that way that Desert Generator should both exist and should take its name from the by-now-legendary parties that gave Bjork and many others their start, since in its very concept, the one-day fest feeds into and expands on that tradition much as Bjork‘s work has done with desert rock as a whole. From his years in Kyuss and Fu Manchu and his earliest solo work with the Jalamanta album on Man’s Ruin, through time with Brant Bjork and the Bros. on tour in the US and abroad and continuing through the forthcoming Tao of the Devil LP that will complete his current contract with Napalm Records, he’s been far more relentless than the laid back vibe of so much of his output might suggest.

But of course, that’s part of the atmosphere Bjork and his compatriots are hoping will play into the goings down at Desert Generator. In the interview that follows, the godfather of desert groove talks about the origins of this perhaps-inaugural festival, how it all came together with the bands involved and the legacy it’s working from. He also looks forward, not only to the Tao of the Devil release and potential European touring, but to revisiting his substantial back catalog and other projects in the offing.

Complete Q&A follows the jump. Please enjoy:

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