What Dream May Come

Slightly Stoopid’s mellow vibe sprouts its own strain

The members of Slightly Stoopid all grew up in Ocean Beach, surfing, skateboarding, being punks, burning herb and listening to music. This heavy influence of SoCal beach culture flowed into the band’s music with bits of punk, reggae, metal and smooth acoustic mellowness. CULTURE recently talked with Slightly Stoopid drummer Ryan “RyMo” Moran about the group’s new album, playing Brazil and having your own signature strain.

Slightly Stoopid were signed back in 1995 by Bradley Nowell to Bong Load Records, and it’s now 2012. It seems bands like Sublime with Rome, Pepper and Slightly Stoopid are more popular than ever with sold out shows wherever you go. The fans seem more excited than ever with a newer generation of kids showing up at your shows. How do you feel about that?

We feel blessed! It’s been a goal of ours since we were kids to do this and we’re all able to sustain a good living now. It’s definitely come as a result of nonstop touring for the last decade or so. The band is so grateful that our fans are supporting us, and we can keep the music flowing to them. It’s kind of a reciprocal relationship.

Who influenced your drumming?

The biggest influence that made me want to play was John Bonham from Led Zeppelin. At an early age that really got me excited about music and drumming . . . I played violin, piano and guitar, but nothing really grabbed me until I heard “When the Levee Breaks” and “Rock and Roll.” After hearing Led Zeppelin IV, I was like, “Yeah, I want to do that!”

What bands influenced Slightly Stoopid? What were you listening to as teens?

We listened to all sorts of stuff . . . Operation Ivy, Rancid, Barrington Levy, Bob Marley, Don Carlos, Black Uhuru, Fishbone, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bad Religion—the list could go on and on as we listened to a pretty broad variety of music from classic metal to punk, ska and reggae.

Slightly Stoopid seems to be getting big in other parts of the world, correct?

We’re doing pretty well. We just played two nights in Brazil, and none of us had ever traveled to Brazil before. The first night we play a big club gig with Israel Vibration, but the next night we played in front of 15,000 people at a huge festival. That whole experience was pretty over the top. The Internet is who we have to thank for our international growth. We’ve been overseas a ton of times now, and we’ve seen Europe, Japan and Australia. The Internet is really helping out artists, you know?

How do you feel about medical marijuana and everything that’s going on?

Slightly Stoopid is obviously pro-marijuana, pro-herbals, pro-medicinal use and pro-recreational use. It’s a tough call because if Proposition 19 passed the dynamic would’ve been different. A tax would be involved and it would have been pro economy and it could help California get out of debt. It also would affect the private sector as well, so I don’t know.

I think some farmers want to keep it illegal for business reasons. You also need to realize the legitimate demand for people with illnesses, and it should definitely be legal for them. For them it should be 100 percent legal. Who knows what’s in 99 percent of pharmaceutical pills today? If someone is growing a plant then you’re going to throw them in jail, but the same government is going to let the big pharmaceutical companies make billions of dollars pumping humans full of random chemicals. Half the time they end up recalling the drugs for side effects like stroke and heart attack, and you’ve never heard about anything like that if you smoke a joint.

What is your favorite strain?

We have our own strain so the guys have been smoking the Wet Dream, Slightly Stoopid’s signature strain of the moment.

You have your own marijuana strain? I didn’t know that strain was a Slightly Stoopid exclusive.

Yes, it’s our very own strain! So right now the band has medicated with a lot of Wet Dream—and we always like strong Kush, of course.

What’s the favorite method of the band to medicate?

Most of the time in the studio the water pipe is always ready and iced down for use. We also have a Volcano in the studio for those who like to vape, and every now and again a couple of spliffs to mix things up.

What’s the band working on right now?

We built our own studio about a year and a half ago in San Diego, and we got a lot work done on the album, but a few of the members had kids. Last year we toured a bunch and other “life” things [happened] so recording was a little intermittent. We just finished the album and it’ll be out in May. The band doesn’t have a title yet, but it’s a great album that’s going to have between 15 and 20 tracks with tons of music. Some fans wondered why it took three years to get another record done and I have one thing to say to those people: The next album will be well worth the wait.

www.slightlystoopid.com