The Zolas Interview

The Zolas Interview – „We managed to make our vision of adventurous.“

Im Interview: The Zolas aus Vancouver

Im Interview: The Zolas aus Vancouver

Am 04. März bringen The Zolas ihr neues Studioalbum „Swooner“ raus. Mit dem Soundkartell haben sie über ihren neuen Sound, einen Tanzbär und noch vieles mehr im Interview gesprochen.

Ich kenne The Zolas noch über ihren Song „Strange Girl“. Springende, ja tanzende Indie-Gitarrenriffs. Jetzt ist gefühlt alles anders. The Zolas sind deutlich poppiger und auch elektronischer geworden. Sie haben die Schlagzahl am Synthesizer erhöht, um es mal so auszudrücken. Ehrlich gesagt: Das macht mir absolut gar nichts aus, denn das Album ist klasse. Im Interview habe ich sie auf den „alten“ Sound angesprochen, darauf wie stolz sie auf ihr neues Album sind und auch auf ihre Heimatstadt Vancouver. Lest jetzt hier das ganze Interview mit der Band. Ab Anfang Februar gehen sie auch auf Tour durch Deutschland (Livedaten siehe unten).

“Swooner” is your new album. What can we expect from The Zolas?

The Zolas: „When writing this album we knew we wanted to fill it with singles, so you can expect one of the most stacked albums of the year. But the songs we love playing these days are the weirder ones. The ones about the lightness and heaviness of life in 2016.“

I really really like your new album. I’m very relieved that your new song are stilly dancing bear…

The Zolas: „Is that a typo or a reference to the much sought-after German-made Tanzbär analogue drum machine?“

I know older tracks like “Strange Girl”. When I listened to “Get Dark” the first time I asked myself: What happend to the guitars?

The Zolas: „There are a few songs on Swooner that are full-on guitar rock songs but in general we wanted to make more drum-and-synth music and to keep things as minimal as possible. Guitars take up a lot of space so we used them as a deliberate choice, not as a default. Also we got interested in combining vintage synths with super-modern software synths and manipulating them with guitar pedals and we lost of ourselves in that particular black hole. There is a lot of guitar on the record, but it’s just tastier than in previous albums of ours.“

Could you classify your new release if we are reviewing your musical development?

The Zolas: „This is the album where we finally managed to make our vision of adventurous, intelligent pop music. We produced it ourselves for the first time so we had no excuse but to make it exactly how we wanted it.“

Now you are making Piano Prog-Pop. Could you name three elements in your music that stand for the progressive tune?

The Zolas: „I think we used to be more progressive than we are now. We used to write in weird time signatures and I used to write more academic lyrics. For us the progressiveness is just that there aren’t many musicians doing exactly what we’re doing right now.“

You will play some shows in Germany. Here in Germany The Zolas is still an insiders’ tip. What are your plans for the shows to change that?

The Zolas: „I’m comfortable to be an insider’s tip. We just want to see the country and leave an impression on the people who see us. That’s what we control.“

Is there any element in your music that stands for the influence growing up in Vancouver and that stands for the music scene there?

The Zolas: „Vancouver is a city that acts as a perfect microcosm of the world today. It’s a city of the richest and poorest people in the developed world. And it’s a city of mountains and ocean so we’ve perfected the irony of loving the natural world while consuming it into extinction. This album is a little like that. It’s about that fucked up feeling of stepping outside at a party for a smoke or a quiet moment, reading about terrorism and climate catastrophe on your phone, then finishing your cigarette and going back inside to dance. Our brains are split at all times and each half has to ignore the other.“

In read an interview with you from 2014. Starting from this interview I got the impression that you are very impatient persons…

The Zolas: „Yes I’m guilty of that. My head is always full of unfulfilled timelines. It’s not attractive.“

What your goals for the new year 2016?

The Zolas: „To speak to people, to be the best band we’ve ever been and to play a million shows.“

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Livedates:

09.02.16 – Berlin @ Musik & Frieden
10.02.16 – Frankfurt @ Nachtleben
11.02.16 – Hamburg @ Nochtspeicher
12.02.16 – Wuppertal @ Hutmacher
13.02.16 – Luzern, Schweiz @ Sedel
16.02.16 – Hildesheim @ Wohnzimmer
17.02.16 – Köln @ Stereo Wonderland
19.02.16 – Freiburg @ Swamp
20.02.16 – Rees-Haldern @ Haldern Pop Bar

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