“I’m probably the most addictive personality you'll ever meet,” says Scott Frazier of Uncle Junkie. “I grew up in Spring Valley. I went to continuation school in Encanto. The guys I ran with? Some are incarcerated. Some are dead.”
Frazier explains that he left that life with the help of a very lenient judge. He offers water to a visitor. “I don’t drink alcohol,” he says.
The group’s debut full-length was recorded between 2011 and 2012. “We spent about a year in my studio in North County,” says guitarist Damon Cisneros, “and that was just on pre-production.” In the past, Cisneros has worked with Cypress Hill, Kottonmouth Kings, and Unwritten Law, among others. Enlisted in the beginning as a songwriting partner, the multi-instrumentalist eventually joined the new lineup as Uncle Junkie’s third guitar.
“There’s a lot of texture happening in the songs,” says Cisneros of the three-guitar configuration. “We figured out a way to balance all of them.” The other guitarist is Jeff Musial (“We call him Flesh”), along with two L.A. session musicians rounding out the all-new lineup: Brian “Dog Boy” Burwell on drums, and bassist Brian Netzley.
“One of the reasons I went from producing to jumping in on guitar is that there is a lot of cool stuff happening here,” Cisneros says. “I think this music holds up to some of the best that’s out there right now.”