Oog Bogo just put out our favorite release of the year so far. It’s a freaky, unhinged blitzkrieg of oddball punk that belongs in a class of its own.

Trippy and dreamlike at times, relentless and white-knuckled at others, the group’s first full length release finds them ditching the DIY 4-track aesthetic heard on previous releases, and entering a more high-fidelity, airtight sonic landscape courtesy of producer Ty Segall.

Kevin Boog is the one-man creation machine and songwriter behind the group, who you may recognize from his days playing bass in Meatbodies. However, it’s become increasingly apparent over the years that Kevin is an accomplished songwriter in his own right; in 2020, he quietly released his first solo EP under the name Oog Bogo into the world, a homemade experiment in lofi-weirdness that was quickly followed up by the aptly named EP 2 (if you’ve been paying close attention, you may remember this ghostly gem of a track from one of our playlists).

We recently got a chance to chat with Kevin about the recording process behind Plastic, inspirations behind the music, and our shared love for Iggy Pop’s The Idiot.—Jackson Todd

Jackson Todd: I wanted to start off by saying congrats on the new new album “Plastic”, we’re huge fans of it and everything you’ve put out so far.

Kevin Boog: Thanks man, I appreciate that.

Tell me about the recording process for “Plastic”. How was it different from your older releases like EP 2 and the self-titled EP?

During quarantine I was doing my normal style of recording a lot with a four track, going into my practice space, playing drums, layering it, and bouncing it from one four track to another. And then I bought an eight track reel-to-reel, so my world got a little bigger. I was writing more, feeling more inspired, and of course the one sliver of a silver lining with everything that was going down at the time was all the free time. I was trying to be productive but also stay mentally positive. So I ended up with a bunch of tracks that I really wanted to play with the full band and record at Ty's studio, and there was one week of time he had to record in between a bunch of other projects.

So you guys recorded the whole album in a week?

Well, we tried to get together over and over again, and it would be like "I was just here, and someone got exposed," or "that space is kinda sketchy." It got to where we were a few weeks out from when we were supposed to record, and none of us had met up yet to rehearse the songs. I was kinda freaking out, and was like, "I guess I'll just play all the parts." My friend Thomas, who was playing drums at the time, agreed to play half of the record's drum parts. I just did the other six songs or whatever it was.

What elements did Ty bring to the table as producer?

Oh, it was awesome. It was so fun to work together. We're pretty good buds and we like similar stuff. It was cool because a lot of people in the studio are very time-oriented, and we definitely weren't wasting time, but he was never afraid to entertain a weird idea, you know? I would be like "what if we added cowbell to this?" and he would be like "Yeah! What if we added a rototom too?" I would be like, "Oh yeah, dude! Totally!" We would ping pong off each other like that [laughs]. It was really fun.

Now that you’ve done both, which do you prefer more, recording in a proper studio setting with a producer or the DIY home setup?

I like them both so much, it's hard to say. I feel like, when you record at home, and you do a song over a few times, you can get so microscopic with it that you start to get overly familiar with the parts, and it's so refreshing to have someone else's brain to bounce stuff off of. So I guess I'd probably have to go with the latter.

Was there anything you were listening to around the time of recording that informed the sound of the album?

Yeah. I would say specifically I was listening to Iggy Pop's The Idiot like, constantly. Especially the last track, Mass Production.

Yeah, I love that song. One of my favorite albums of all time, for that matter.

I loved the production on it, specifically the way the drums have this kinda roomy sound, and the guitar sounds like someone vomiting.

And that synth meltdown section towards the end?

Yeah, yeah, that [emulates synthesizer with mouth] sound [laughs]. I was jamming that and some weird stuff like Los Microwaves and Kleenex, kinda dancier tracks.

It definitely seems like the sound of the band has shifted a bit since your last release, EP 2. What were some of the influences on the older releases?

Oh man, I guess with the first EP I was kinda listening to the same stuff, but also some even weirder stuff from the world of Snakefinger and the Residents, Throbbing Gristle, kinda noisier weirdo shit. And then with the second EP, I was just listening to a bunch of Bob Dylan and shit [laughs]. I was kinda just keeping it straightforward, I'd be like "you know what, it's Dylan time" or like "let's pop on Neil Young live at the Fillmore 1970 and hear that shit go down."

Are there any modern bands you are into?

Oh dude, totally, there’s almost too many to name. Right now there's such a renaissance of really cool bands happening.

Yeah, that feels especially true in L.A. right now.

Yeah, in L.A., and The Bay, and Seattle, there's all kinds of stuff. Our friends are in this band called Star Party, they're from Seattle. They just put out a record that really rules.

I saw you guys play at SLO brew in San Luis Obispo a few months ago, that was a great show, and I heard you guys did a warehouse show there a few weeks ago with Pancho and The Wizards? How was that?

It was so much fun, it was insane. It ruled. I met this guy Tristan at that SLO Brew show, and he was like, "if you ever want to book anything here I got you." And so, we were just talking about booking some of our own shows leading up to the Huichica festival in Sonoma, and I was like "let's just hit up Tristan and see what SLO's like." He thought of that space The Warehouse on Mars, and Pancho played with us. The space was really amazing, it had old arcade games and weird shit everywhere. It was pretty fitting. The show sold out before we even got there, so we were all super stoked. Props to Tristan for really setting that all up.

Yeah, Tristan’s a cool dude and his band rips. That’s an area that usually doesn’t get much traffic from touring bands so it’s cool when bands like you guys make a point to stop there. Any highlights from your last run up the coast?

I guess just being able to open for The Freedom Band was pretty insane, and just being on tour for the first time in a couple years felt pretty amazing. Our friend Ian from Star Party set up a show at this billiards hall in Seattle called Billiard Hoang's, that was really fun. Some narcs came to that show, actually [laughs].

Who is in the live band these days?

Right now, it's myself, Shelby Jacobson, and Marley Jones.

What would you say is more important to you, being a great live band or putting out great records? You guys obviously do both.

That's another tough one, I think they're equally as important, for sure. I know that's a cop-out answer -

It's probably the best answer.

[Laughs]. Definitely, like C, all of the above, cause I feel like one could just put out records, but then you miss out on the live experience. I personally like when bands put records and the band sounds different live, and I definitely think we have that going on.

You guys also did a live record, right?

We did a couple of live sessions, Shelby and I did a two piece live rendition of the first EP, and then the full band did a live rendition of the second EP.

Any shows coming up anytime soon?

We have one show pretty far down the line that I don't think I’m allowed to announce yet that I'm really stoked about. Top Secret. That's pretty much all we have for now.