Emeralds are extraterrestrial metal shredders from Seattle who see nothing but optimistic omens in the exploded body of a Texas buzzard. They speak now between lightning and thunder. This interview by Dan Collins and Tessa Goldston.

You guys are on tour in the South! Is it hot as the dickens?
Ian: It’s been raining.
Adam: Raining the entire time we’ve been in Texas. It’s like monsooning—like torrential the whole time. We brought the rain from Seattle or something.
What’s the worst thing that’s happened so far?
Ian: We ran out of pulled pork sandwiches.
Have you seen any flying cockroaches?
Ian: No, but I heard a story from this really nice country rocker about how she saw her barn explode and she found her cow like four miles over. In a tornado.
Sounds very Wizard of Oz.
Ian: We’ve seen some stuff that’s pretty Wizard. We saw a buzzard pretty up close. We were coming into Texas and going about ninety and a buzzard exploded on our windshield. Not much blood—just sort of exploded. Like a gigantic balloon.
That sounds like ancient Roman augury. Did you get a good look at the intestines and could you tell your fortune from them?
Ian: No. It was just a metaphor for our explosive time in Texas.
When we interviewed Om, they talked about how there’s a spiritual plane that they come from and that they are sort of vessels for a higher power. What is the spiritual basis for your music?
Adam: I don’t know. Native American shaman, and the consciousness of smoking meat. I think that’s the most spiritual thing. The energy from people when you’re playing live music is like a good thing, but it’s mainly just to have a good time.
Why all the donkey imagery in your stuff? You have a song called ‘March of the Mule.’
Adam: That’s about a drug mule. It’s about somebody who starts taking drugs and starts getting into it more and more, and then looking back on his life and realizing how much it’s been wasted. The last verse is like ‘When cadavers cut the cord in service to their lords, you’ll never know how it feels to be a loner, a drifter, a vagabond: an empty vessel that sails on and on.’ It’s about being empty inside.
I totally had a different interpretation, and I feel foolish—I thought it was about Jesus coming back to Jerusalem.
Adam: Everything’s open to interpretation.
Ian and Nick were in a band called Death Ass. I thought maybe the donkey was their spirit animal.
Adam: Ha ha!
Ian: Oh man—I never saw the coincidence, but yeah!
If Death Ass could be a member of the Little Rascals, and Emeralds was a different member of the Little Rascals, which ones would they be?
Ian: Emeralds would definitely be Spanky. Death Ass maybe Alfafa.
Right now Broken Nobles are staying at our house and they were saying how incestuous the Seattle scene is. What other bands do you guys collaborate with?
Adam: Obviously the Broken Nobles dudes and Wildildlife which half of those guys are in. We’re pretty versatile. We play with metal bands, hardcore punk bands, straight up rock n roll bands. We also have a connection with a lot of the B.C. bands, which is pretty cool. In Seattle proper, we’ve been playing with so many bands, I don’t even know… Wildildlife, Sioux City Pete and the Beggars…
You opened for Pentagram, right?
Adam: Oh man, that was awesome. Bobby was, like, 60 years old and he’s totally got the crack mouth going on, and he has these wild eyes. And there were all these underage girls at the show, and he was wearing like a purple lame jacket and leopard print pants and an Indian headdress and he was gyrating his crotch into them. It was kind of awesome. Bobby is a great guy, but it’s obvious he’s pretty far gone on the drug train, I think.
But he’s found Jesus!
Adam: He switched back and forth. It’s like the Sabbath thing, where he’s evil but good at the same time.
Ian, before you were playing metal, you were in a bunch of electronic bands. Coming from electronic music, does that make you think about tempo in a way that’s unique? Are there rules about tempo? Is sludge like 55 beats per minute, and doom is 65 beats per minute?
Ian: I have BPM mood swings. It depends on how hyperactive I’m feeling.
You? Hyper? Ian, that doesn’t sound like you. Lee, who inspires your bass moves?
Lee: I’m the new bassist. I’m trying to adapt myself to their style. I have a background like punk rock, classic rock, Led Zeppelin, a lot of prog rock, King Crimson…
There a lots of space-metal bands coming out nowadays. What do you do that’s unique?
Lee: A lot of those bands are like early seventies, very Zeppy bands. I think we do a really good meshing of bringing elements more… holistically? We bring elements of seventies metal bands like Judas Priest with psych rock with also proto-metal and even punk rock.
Why Emeralds? Why not, like, sapphires or rubies?
Adam: I wanted to call the band ‘Devil Worship,’ but nobody was really into that. I think it just comes from the Thin Lizzy song ‘Emerald,’ and it’s just a name to throw out there that’s not going to pigeonhole anything, ya know? And it also sounds like a type of weed.
That’s true! And if you go on to do separate projects, one of you can go on to do ‘Lincoln Green!’ And one of you can do ‘Amethyst!’
Adam: Ha ha! Lincoln Green. Emerald Green. Green Cock!

EMERALDS WITH THE STAHL BROS, RATS’ EYES, AND IT’S CASUAL AT THE RELAX BAR, 5511 HOLLYWOOD BLVD, FRI., SEPT 18, AND LOCATION TBA ON SAT., SEPT. 19, SOMEWHERE IN DOWNTOWN. VISIT MYSPACE.COM/EMERALDSOCCULT OR WATCH LARECORD.COM FOR UPDATES.