Welcome to The Grand Tour, a regular feature where
PHXmusic.com takes you inside practice spaces, tour vans and seedy
apartments occupied by Phoenix-area bands. This week we give you a
look inside the cavernous Fransisco Studios, where Phoenix hard rockers Smokus Pocus . If you would like your band featured, tweet
@PHXmusicdotcom.
Smokus Pocus are performing and releasing their brand new EP at Chopper John's on April 23rd. The band, Andrew Francis, bass and vocals, Brandon Maguire, guitar and vocals, and Mark Mustacci, drums recorded their album all over Phoenix, including The Conservatory of Recording Arts.
Smells Like: "Particularly ripe," the dudes joke as we enter. The band shares the space with several other bands. "Death metal, hardcore punk, whatever," Maguire laughs. "Everyone brings something special to the space," he states. Especially stinky man-stench.
Most
Cherished Piece of Gear: Maguire showed off his Fender Strat. "Made all sorts of modifications," he promised.
Odds 'n' Ends: The band was short on niceties, but crammed a ton of gear into their space. "We make pretty complex music," Maguire said. "Which leads to a lot of musicians liking our stuff. Which is sorta cool, though we'd like everyone to like it, too, so we can tour and have fun and all that."