Join the King Gizzette for an extended chat with Tyler Wicker of MindFuzz Music, a new Official Bootleger label that has just released Gizz Trips Vol 1. This double-LP compilation of Summer 2025 highlights features a little bit of everything we love about King Gizzard: the new and the old, the common and the rare, the songy and the jammy. One could argue all day about how to fill four sides with Summer '25 Gizz tracks, but Tyler (with the help of fellow fans) landed on the following tunes to tickle your ears:
Side A features the show opener ("Gaia") and closer ("Hypertension") from 8/2/25 Forest Hills in Queens NY, a blistering twosome that perfectly captures the summer '25 sound.
Side B starts on a chiller note with a performance of "The Wheel" that drifts seamlessly into a crunching "Magma," a duo plucked from the closing show of the European Residency Tour (6/10/25 Plovdiv, Bulgaria).
Side C pairs an energetic "Sad Pilot" (5/20/25 Lisbon, Portugal) with the second-ever rock arrangement of "Theia" (6/6/25 Athens, Greece) that clears space for some intense and memorable jamming.
Side D closes out the affair with a monster "Head On/Pill," the final number from 5/29/25 in Vilnius, Lithuania. It features extra drumming from Lewis Stiles of King Stingray and a spine-tingling "Sea of Trees" jam that's must-hear material.
The physical package itself is a vinyl lover's fantasy: high quality (and quite trippy) cover art to stare at while listening, randomly colored discs (crimson and dark purple in our case), poly-lined inners, and stunning, room-drenching sound. Check out the entire interview below for more on how the tracks were selected, how the release was mastered and manufactured, and what's next for MindFuzz Music. And be sure to watch @mindfuzz_music and @kglw_net on Instagram for a special giveaway of Gizz Trips Vol. 1!
KGLW.net: How did you get into King Gizzard’s music? What was the moment that it “clicked” for you? (And what's your favorite KGLW song?)
Tyler Wicker: My curiosity for the band kicked off in 2020. I had a few friends who kept trying to sell me on them but with the discography that they have, I didn't know where to start. It was a little intimidating at the time so I just took their word for it, haha.
That all changed in 2022 when visiting a friend in Vermont. Late night after a show, he put on Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava, and that was pretty much the end of it for me. When I got back home to Colorado, I made it a point to dive in properly and started listening to a different Gizz album / show everyday while walking my dog, Ripken. I haven't really stopped since. I recall my first Gizz record being a really cool comp of the 2019 Europe tour by Nail City Records which led to the discovery of the whole bootlegging side of things.
The track(s) that really pulled me in was the Inner Cell Suite ("Inner Cell" > "Loyalty" > "Horology") off Polygondwanaland. The first time I heard it, I had literal tears in my eyes because it hit me in such a powerful way. I still get chills every time I hear it and it's my favorite run of songs to hear live.
What other bands/genres are you listening to lately?
Lately I've been fully immersed in the early-mid '70's era of jazz fusion. Cal Tjader's Last Bolero in Berkeley (Fantasy Records 1973) has been getting a ton of spins lately. It's funky, spiritual, and psychedelic all at the same time. Just one of those albums I can't get enough of. Outside of that, I've been all over the place. It's been a mix of psych, funk, bluegrass, metal, jazz and whatever weird corners of Bandcamp my friends send me.
How did you get into vinyl records? What was your entry point into the subculture?
My vinyl addiction started about 10 years ago when my brother, Max, got me a record player for Xmas. When I started, I was just picking up stuff I was already into, mostly metal and jam bands, and spinning it here and there. But naturally, you grab a few more records, start noticing different variants, pressings, all the nerdy stuff—and BOOM, you're in way deeper than you planned.
I knew I was fully submerged in the subculture once I found this vinyl group on Facebook called Heady Wax Fiends. That group made me realize collecting records is more than just the music, it's the community around it. That's when it stopped being "yeah, I collect records" and turned into a full-blown lifestyle.
Being part of HWF taught me a ton about the hobby and really shaped my passion for it. I even got involved with their subscription record club, which pulled me even deeper down the rabbit hole of vinyl production and that inspired me to want to start pressing records.
What led to the formation of the label? What do you think sets MindFuzz apart from other Bootlegger labels?
The idea for Mindfuzz Music was born at Field of Vision! I was so inspired by all the creative energy at Mirage City, and after talking with Michael from Any Thing Records (thanks, buddy!), I decided to go after a dream of mine: start a record label and make kickass records.
I think what makes MindFuzz Music fun is the focus on experience and community. These aren't just records thrown together—I really tried to make something special. For me, fan-suggested tracks, fan-created artwork, thoughtful mastering, and limited runs from indie pressing plants all feed into that. My goal is to capture the raw energy of the live shows and give people a record that makes them think, "F*ck yeah" when they hold it.
What was the mastering process like for Gizz Trips Vol. 1? It sounds ridiculously good to my ears.
Thanks! The mastering process was a blast. In my decade of collecting, I've noticed that many of my favorite sounding records were mastered by Clint Holley or Dave Polster of Well Made Music in Bristol, Virginia, so when I started putting Gizz Trips Vol. 1 together, they were on the top of my list.
I was lucky enough to get connected with Clint through a buddy, and we had a great conversation about the band and what I was looking to get out of the release. These are raw, high energy jams so my goal was to keep that edge intact without letting things get harsh or fatiguing. Clint did an amazing job balancing the compression and EQ to keep everything feeling alive and have it translate onto wax beautifully. We had a great time working together, and even added a little fun surprise on Side D by applying a locked groove using some of Stu's banter :)
After the mastering, it moved to the lacquering process where the audio is first cut as a physical groove. Once that lacquer was cut and approved, it went down to my friends at Pour House Pressing in Raleigh, North Carolina for electroplating (taking the lacquer master to create a metal stamper) and then vinyl pressing. Pour House's mission is to provide independent artists and labels with a high-quality option for pressing vinyl, and they always deliver. I have several pressings from them and I am always impressed by the quality and sound of the wax. Overall, I feel the combination of Well Made's mastering and Pour House's press helped make Gizz Trips Vol. 1 sound massive!
Can you tell us about the cover art? Who did it and how did you connect with them?
When I was pitching the idea for a record label, I made a social post asking if any artists wanted to collab for this project. The first person to reach out was @inmortal.Madness and I instantly loved his style. He's got this dark, metal-ish vibe in his work that really connects with me. On top of that, he was really excited about the project, which made it an easy choice to work together. Super cool and insanely talented dude.
The cover art was originally a poster design for the 2024 acoustic San Diego show that never ended up getting printed. I liked it so much that we decided to rework it for the album cover. I think it came out great and it's littered with little Gizzy things that I love. He ended up doing the art for the back cover as well, so the whole thing flows together nicely.
You can check out his IG @inmortal.madness or his website here: https://inmortalmadness.mitiendanube.com/us/
What have been the biggest challenges and rewards of starting a label so far?
I think the biggest challenge was trying to find the right jams to fit on a 20-minute side! It's a lot harder than it sounds - you've got to focus on the flow, the energy, and make sure nothing gets lost in the mastering.
The biggest reward by far is seeing it all come together. Getting to see people hold the record, share it online, or just tell me they love it has been an incredible experience. It's really cool to see people enjoy something that I put a lot of love into.
Summer 2025 was an embarrassment of live Gizzard riches. How did you arrive at the tracks for Gizz Trips Vol. 1? The album description mentions that the tracks were "fan curated"—can you give us some further details?
Haha, you're right! 2025 hasn't had a bad show yet. To land on the tracks for Gizz Trips Vol. 1, I pulled from a little of everything—conversations with friends at Field of Vision, posts on Facebook and Reddit, and my own personal favorites. All that gave me a pretty big list of tracks, and then I had to sit down and figure out what actually fit best on a double LP. There must've been five different versions of this comp before landing on the final tracks.
What were the top 2-3 cuts that didn't make the final version of Gizz Trips Vol. 1?
Oh man, the battle royale of jams was not an easy one to decide. I was torn between a few jams but ultimately, my decision came down to timing and diversity in music and venues. The top three that didn't make the cut were:
"The River" — 5/20/25 Lisbon, Portugal "Antarctica" — 5/18/25 Lisbon, Portugal "Oddlife" — 6/4/25 Athens, Greece
What’s next for MindFuzz Music?
I'm already starting to think about Vol. 2! Beyond that, I'd love to dive deeper into more thematic comps, full shows, and maybe even collabs with other psych bands that want to get a record out. My goal is to keep building this community around the bands we all love while making records that people are stoked to spin.
I also want to thank the band and their management for being so open to letting fans press their music. It's such an awesome thing that they're doing and because of it I've met some truly great and talented people that create really cool stuff. THANK YOU!
If you would like to follow along with MindFuzz Music updates, you can follow me on IG at @mindfuzz_music. And if you want to join a community of vinyl collecting Gizz fans, I started a Facebook group called KGLW Vinyl. Come join us!
