The Obsessed | Interview | New Album, ‘Gilded Sorrow’
The Obsessed lead by Scott “Wino” Weinrich recently released a brand new album, ‘Gilded Sorrow,’ out via Ripple Music.
The band originally began back in the 70s, as a key part of the 80s Washington/Maryland music scene, Scott “Wino” Weinrich music earned the respect of metal, punk and crossover fans alike while often being dubbed “doom metal.” Looking back though, it was really just gritty, street-wise American metal with a cynical bent and psychedelic flair. The newest version of The Obsessed comes roaring back expanded to a 4-piece with the addition of Jason Taylor on guitar.
“Sabbath concert blew me away”
You have a new member of the band, the Canadian guitarist Jason Taylor on second guitar. How did you originally meet him?
Scott “Wino” Weinrich: We met touring – Sierra was supporting The Obsessed. Me and Jason hung out a bit and I thought he was a great guitar player and singer. Some months later, he contacted me about playing on a track. I didn’t move fast enough, but we started a dialogue that culminated in him writing me a really nice letter in which he said that the style of music that I write was where he saw his future, and that he thought he could be an asset to The Obsessed. I pretty much agreed, but we hadn’t jammed yet. When I realized he was only a half day’s drive away, we set up a jam. But then of course the chem-flu stalled us for a year longer, but when all the bullshit was finally over, and he could travel like a free person again, he came out and we played. He brought his enormous talent and amazing energy to the jam, and it became apparent that he would be a great asset to The Obsessed.
The Obsessed began already at the end of the 70s, so it’s basically a project several decades old. Do you feel that Roadburn Festival 2011 motivated you to re-start the project?
No, we were motivated to restart The Obsessed before that, which is the reason why we did Roadburn.
What was it like to record ‘Sacred’? Did you have any old song sketches that you revisited and finished or were songs written especially for the album itself?
There were quite a few old ideas there, including ‘Haywire,’ a remake of ‘Sodden Jackal’ (our first single), and some other songs that we had written along the way. A couple songs I finished in the studio, and one of our covers – ‘It’s Only Money’ by Thin Lizzy – we played for the first time and put together in the studio. In a perfect world, you take your new songs out on the road with you before you record them, but sometimes you don’t have that luxury.
I have been also enjoying your 2020 release of ‘Live At Big Dipper,’ but wonder if you’re planning to record a new studio album? Can you reveal something?
Our new studio album that we recorded as a 4 piece ‘Gilded Sorrow’ will be out on February 16 [interview was conducted January 29]. We have released three digital singles ‘It’s Not Okay,’ ‘Stoned Back to the Bomb Age’ and ‘Realize a Dream’.
Tell us about your equipment, gear and amplifiers you’re currently using?
I use Solar heads and different cabinets. I have an old 1967 Coral 6 x 12 cabinet driver by a 100 watt Solar. I have 2 Tyrant 4 x 12s. I have a Sunn Model T head that I use, and an assortment of other tube amps and cabinets including Jet City and Silvertone.
I would love to discuss the very early years. Wino, what was it like to grow up in Rockville, Maryland? What kind of place was it to grow up? Did you have a hangout place where you and your friends were listening to music, smoking joints et cetera?
Yes, we had several places where we would smoke joints and et cetera! Rockville, MD was a bustling middle class soon to be metropolis on the outskirts of DC. Maryland, Virginia, and DC are very close together, and those became my stomping grounds. I got my high school equivalency actually before I would have graduated, but I wasn’t interested in going to college. Instead I explored the musical realms and rode customized chopper motorcycles with badass motherfukkers.
“You probably would find a couple hits of acid stashed in my drawer”
If we would visit your teenage room, what kind of records, books and fanzines would we find there?
Fanzines didn’t yet exist, but you would find High Times magazines (the early ones), a copy of Abbie Hoffman’s Steal This Book, all kinds of scientific reference books on drugs, underground comics, specifically Zap and the works of S. Clay Wilson and Gilbert Shelton. As far as music goes, I was heavily into Black Sabbath, Johnny Winter, Robin Trower, Jimi Hendrix, Humble Pie, just to name a few. If you would have looked real close, you probably would find a couple hits of acid stashed in my drawer, and possibly some stronger shit too.
Tell us when you first saw Black Sabbath, that must have been a life changing experience for a young kid?
I saw Black Sabbath in 1973 (I was 13 years old). They were supported by Edgar Winter’s White Trash with Rick Derringer on guitar. My father took me and my original bass player Mark Laue to the show for my birthday present and I was completely blown away. The only other band I had seen before this was James Gang minus Joe Walsh touring for their record ‘Straight Shooter’. This Sabbath concert blew me away, changed my life forever. While watching the performance there was no doubt in my mind that as hard as they were playing, that the show would surely be stopped, but of course, that wasn’t the case, that was just how they played. My subsequent concerts were Alice Cooper on the Killer tour with the original Alice Cooper Band being supported by Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels featuring Steve Hunter on guitar. The next one was Blue Öyster Cult on Secret Treaties tour supported by Nazareth touring for Razzamanaz. It was at this concert that I first saw the name ZZ Top – written in ballpoint pen on some kids’ army hats. ZZ Top wasn’t yet popular and no one knew who they were, but this was the first time I saw their name.
But you were also a fan of The Stooges, The Dictators and The Saints… What else?
I liked the Sex Pistols, the Damned, Bad Brains, Dead Boys, Television, and also other bands like Mahavishnu Orchestra, The Grateful Dead, and Zappa.
How did you first form Warhorse? Were you aware of Nick Simper’s Warhorse?
I was not aware of them, and my version of Warhorse was our name for only one show. Our bass player at the time picked the name for the one show.
Tell us what did your repertoire look like and what club did Warhorse play? When did you change the name to The Obsessed.
The one Warhorse gig was just a 20minute gig at Wootton High School – you can see a snippet of this in the Columbia Obsessed documentary. We never went further with that name than that one 20 minute set. Me and Mark Laue and our drummer Dave Flood were always the core in those days. The name came about when me and Mark were walking across the parking lot after work one day. Mark was instrumental in getting me to sing and for The Obsessed to become a three piece. I always wrote original songs from when I first picked up the guitar even though we would sometimes play covers when we had to play like 3 sets a night.
What do you recall from recording 7″ titled ‘Sodden Jackal’ in 1983 on Invictus Records?
We were completely inexperienced in the studio, but we had a little bit of dough and I had faith in the engineer that he would lead us. So we loaded in our gear on Saturday night and were due back to record on Sunday morning, BUT the engineer had got superbowl tickets and he had left and put his brother in charge, who barely knew more than we did, and that’s why the snare drum sounds like somebody is hitting a pizza box. It got bad reviews in Kerrang! and was pretty disheartening. That’s why I decided to re-record it for Sacred.
I guess we are lucky that the interest in The Obsessed remained and that stuff like ‘Live at the Wax Museum’ was later released.
Agreed.
What was the transition to Saint Vitus like for you? How would you compare the songwriting process between the two bands?
Contrary to popular belief, I wrote very few Saint Vitus songs during my tenure with the band. I wrote 2.5 songs off of ‘Mournful Cries’ and I wrote ‘Ice Monkey’ and the music for ‘When Emotion Dies’ on ‘V,’ I wrote the lyrics to ‘Blessed Night’ off ‘Lillie,’ and ‘Vertigo’. The transition was kind of rough actually, because when we first started playing out in the height of the great division between punks and rockers, Vitus was hated. Luckily I came in at the tail end of it, and missed the tours with Black Flag and such where they got spit on, cups of piss thrown on them, et cetera, by the punks who hated them. One thing I will say about Saint Vitus is that we were punks at heart. David grew up on the Germs and all the heavy punk shit that I like too, and our stage show became fairly radical I thought. On any given occasion, if things on stage went completely south due to broken strings or amp failures, I had a technique where I would put my wallet down my pants and stage dive.
What would be the most crazy story that happened to The Obsessed while touring?
On an early European tour around 1993, we ended up stuck in Slovenia. After mucho grappa and a bar destroying version of ‘Inside Looking Out’ on an acoustic guitar, I passed out and was being carried to my hotel room by my band mates, except they dropped me, and I went rolling down a very steep hill. From that moment on there was a domino effect which included pissing my pants, a staph infection in my leg, our bus going on fire and all my clothes burning up due to a Wayne’s World wig going on the furnace. Enough said?
What’s next for you guys?
‘Gilded Sorrow’ comes out February 16 2024. We’ll be hitting the road in March touring the US, August/September in Europe, and doing some stuff in between.
Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?
Nothing comes to mind, as to be honest, I still mostly listen to the old shit.
Thank you. Last word is yours.
Thanks a lot to everybody who believes in my music and this kind of music, hopefully we will see you out on the road and you will enjoy our new record ‘Gilded Sorrow’.
Klemen Breznikar
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