Weed Demon leans into fantasy to escape ‘The Doom Scroll’

In titling their new album The Doom Scroll (Electric Valley Records), the members of Weed Demon acknowledge the reality that we are living through increasingly dark, chaotic times – both politically and socially. At the same time, the music within serves more often as an escape from these dire headlines, its lyrics rooted in far more fantastical realms.

“We’re all pretty ideologically aligned, and if I were to write an antifascist, anti-Trump song, no one in the band would take issue with that,” said singer/bassist Jordan Holland, joined by guitarist Andy Center for a late January interview. “Up until [Weed Demon], I had always been in bands that were so serious, where we’d talk about geopolitical issues and social woes, or personal griefs. And I didn’t want to do it with this band. I wanted to keep it more whimsical. And even the name lends itself to the idea of playing with fantasy. … Plus, Andy and myself have played Dungeons and Dragons in the past, and I find that shit cool.”

But the title is also a nod to the musical diversity at play within the record, where listening along can feel like “you’re scrolling through these different types of songs,” Holland said, the band offering its unique spin on stoner metal, sludge, doom, dungeon synth, blues-rock and more. “Acid Dungeon” sets the tone, layering together atmospheric synthesizers and chilling guitar drones in an eerie collage that could soundtrack a trip into the Parisian catacombs. Elsewhere, Weed Demon stretches its legs on “Roasting the Sacred Bones,” a six-plus minute monster that opens serenely and then gradually surrenders to menace as the musicians layer on speed-bag drums, serrated guitars and Holland’s gruffly textured, guttural vocals. “Tower of Smoke” is somehow even more epic, lurching skyward on big, snarling riffs as it builds toward a hazy, blues-washed crescendo over the course of nearly eight minutes.

“With every album, I think, we’ve strayer further and further from the quintessential stoner-doom song structure,” said Holland, who will join his Weed Demon bandmates in celebrating the release of The Doom Scroll at Ace of Cups on Friday, Feb. 7, joined by Shi, Moontemple and Crop. “We all have varying musical backgrounds, and it gets boring playing the same style of riffs over and over again. I prefer albums that have more layers, more diversity, more depth. Those grab my attention more.”

This musical evolution mirrors the life changes that have taken place within the group since Center started toying with the earliest version of what would become “Tower of Smoke” in 2018. At that point in time, the guitarist was unmarried and had no kids (he’s now married with a 3-year-old), and the word “Covid” was still a couple of years away from even being a concept for most of the world’s population. 

“I got married literally a week before the pandemic, so we got home from our honeymoon and my wife went to work one day, and then everything shut down,” Center said. “And it feels like a snap of the fingers and now we’re in 2025, and even my mindset since we started writing these songs is entirely different.”

“We’re very different people now compared with when we started writing the album,” said Holland, who recalled Covid obliterating long-developed plans for a three-week nationwide tour that the Weed Demon musicians envisioned as a final send-off before settling into comparatively “adult” life. “At that time, we were all in our mid-30s and reaching a point where it was like, ‘Hey man, we can’t necessarily do this forever, especially as full-time musicians, as hobby musicians.’ So that’s kind of where we were: Let’s have one more ride and make it big. And, lo and behold, we never got to do that.”

Instead, the band members took some time off and then regrouped to continue to work on the songs that first started percolating a few years earlier, adopting a patient, slow building approach to writing that often carries over into the music. “We kind of operate at our own pace,” Holland said.

Within Weed Demon, the songs generally begin with Center, who will toy with riffs in his guitar until something grabs him – a tone, the melodic undercurrent, the way a passage reverberates in his core – and then begin fleshing it out into something more expansive, generally focused on the more technical aspects of the music. “A lot of times it’s this sound in my head that I’m trying to recreate,” he said. “And in trying to match that, it falls somewhere between a vibe and really focusing to output it technically on the guitar.”

The more conceptual elements filter in later, with Holland and Co. taking these early seeds and expanding them into more fully immersive epics. For example, if Center crafts a dark, sludgy riff, Holland will generally begin the process of lyric writing by lingering on things that evoke sludgy vibes – bogs, oppressive humidity, primordial ooze. “I’m trying to visualize things that give me that feeling,” Holland said. “If it’s a low, heavy riff, I might imagine walking through a swamp. … Then I usually come up with a song title and expand from there, where I’m taking this loose concept and then I turn it into the actual building of the world, so to speak.”

While the approach to songwriting has remained relatively consistent throughout Weed Demon’s decade of existence, the musicians acknowledged that a combination of the pandemic, age and the onset of family responsibilities have combined to ease the pressure of expectation they felt more acutely in the years leading to the lockdown. “I would say that post-pandemic, everything has felt a lot more chill,” Center said. “I mean, the world certainly doesn’t. But if someone doesn’t like Weed Demon, that’s so far down on my list that it’s like, eh, whatever. I’m taking care of a kid, trying to be a good husband. There are just other things in my life now that matter more.”