Buzz Osborne isn’t here to make nice. The Melvins frontman just dropped his second solo record, Gift of Sacrifice, and it’s exactly as uncompromising as you’d expect from a guy who’s been thrashing out weird, loud, and confounding music for 40 years. This time, though, he’s gone acoustic—mostly. There’s still plenty of oddball modular synth work and weird tunings to keep fans of his usual chaos guessing.
Teaming up with Trevor Dunn, Osborne went for an acoustic guitar and bass combo, wrapped in a layer of modular synth madness. “No one else is doing acoustic and modular synth together,” Buzz says. “It just made sense to me. I’ve always liked doing things that other people wouldn’t think to do.”
But it’s not just about noise and experimentation. There’s a method to his madness, and he’s not worried about people who don’t get it. “People listen to two percent of what we do and think they know what we’re about,” he says. “You don’t know shit. I’m not here to fit your expectations. I make music I want to hear.”
Buzz has always thrived on challenging conventions, both musically and philosophically. That goes for his opinions on the way we approach music, science, and religion. “Science and religion aren’t that different,” he points out. “Both require faith in something unprovable. Evolution is just change over time. Why’s everyone so hung up on the details? Facts change, but people cling to them like gospel.”
His creative process is no less chaotic, diving into unconventional tunings that come to him in dreams and experimenting with sounds that shouldn’t work on paper but do in practice. “It’s about playing with texture and soul,” Buzz explains. “There’s no rulebook for how to do it right. Music is primal. It’s in my blood. I don’t care if it sounds wrong. I’ll make it work.”
The record itself feels like a collage of different moods and philosophies—one minute a dark acoustic meditation, the next a frenzied synth freakout. “I’d rather play something wrong and interesting than technically perfect and boring,” Buzz says, noting that his songs are never precious. “They’re just suggestions. I might play them completely different live. Who cares? It’s not sacred.”
In the end, it’s that unbreakable spirit that makes Buzz Osborne such a fascinating artist. He’s not just pushing boundaries—he’s ignoring their existence entirely. Whether it’s messing with tunings, blending acoustic guitar with synth freakouts, or calling out the idiocy of rigid thinking, he’s always operating on his own chaotic wavelength.
“I’ll keep doing it until I don’t want to anymore,” Buzz says. “If you’re not into it, that’s your problem. I’m not here to make everyone happy. I’m here to make something that matters.”
Listen to the interview above and then check out the videos below.
