For Butter or Worse

Turbo Fruit’s cannabis tributes include the truly volcanic

“I was in Minneapolis for a show, and my friends up there were like, ‘You’re never going to believe this, man! There is a strain of weed called Turbo Fruit!’“ laughs vocalist and guitarist Jonas Stein. “When we got into town, we played the show, and they totally hooked us up. It was a pretty magical experience. It was not quite as good as us, but it was pretty good.”

This Nashville-based band—filled out by bassist Dave Tits, drummer Matt Hearn and guitarist Kingsley Brock—formed in ’06 when Stein still strummed the six-string for Be Your Own Pet. Two years later, Pet split and Turbo Fruits kicked into high gear. The band released albums in ’07 and ’09, but it took out a loan to self-finance its third disc, Butter. The band spent eight days in Austin, Texas recording with producer and Spoon drummer Jim Eno, and the final product exceeded everyone’s expectations. As fate would have it, the singer gave a friend a copy, which then got into the hands of Serpent and Snakes, the new record label by fellow Nash Vegas rockers Kings of Leon. Turbo Fruits signed with the label earlier this year, and the new album, Butter, comes out Sept. 11.

“We really wanted to go in there, do our job and make it sound great,” says Stein, who talked with CULTURE while on set playing a role in the new Wanda Jackson video. “My vocals are a little different this time. There are a few songs where I do a single track of vocals, where typically I like to double them. I am one of those singers who doesn’t always feel comfortable in the studio, but I pushed my comfort level throughout this experience.”

The singer also praises the producer’s effort to make sure the band was ready. He continues, “Since we had such limited time in the studio, Jim stressed that we needed to play the songs more times than we thought we needed to, and he wanted us to tour all the way to the studio so we’d play the songs non-stop. We rehearsed our asses off, and the songs were so tight that we often did one or two takes and had a keeper.”

Stein says he doesn’t smoke cannabis as much as he used to, but references appear in songs like “Mama’s Mad Cos I Fried My Brain” and “Volcano,” a tribute to the well-known German-made vaporizer. Not surprisingly, the singer is a big proponent for medical marijuana and legalization.

“It is just ridiculous that it is illegal,” he exclaims. “Marijuana is a threat to moneymaking companies, and that is the problem. You can produce paper faster with hemp, it is another drug that keeps you from buying booze and it’s another smoke that keeps you from buying cigarettes. Those are the companies that provide the funds for Reefer Madness propaganda, so it has been skewed from the beginning. Many years from now, this will just be a blip in history, but right now we are stuck in the middle of it.”

Thar She Blows!

Turbo Fruit’s credibility as a cannabis-friendly band is clearly evident due to two facts: 1) The group’s own publicist outed the band’s leaf-loving ways, saying, “They are big consumers and fans of the herb . . . many of their interviews reference blazing.” 2) Turbo Fruit’s 2007 song “Volcano,” which references a high-end, popular brand of vaporizers. Vaporizers—which come in different forms—heat up cannabis and turns it into vapor instead of smoke. Hence, it’s considered one of the healthiest way to ingest marijuana without having to smoke it.