Interview with Zoogma
Sat. Nov. 16th at Three Links
FREE TICKET Giveaway
Zoogma will be performing in Dallas this Saturday as part of an extensive Fall Tour in support of their second full-length EP, Anthems for Androids. Banjos to Beats and Time 2 Fly Music have teamed up with Three Links in Deep Ellum to bring Dallas fans a truly unique experience this weekend.
Visit the Live Music Daily Twitter Page, and share our tweet with Brock’s interview, for a chance to win A FREE TICKET to catch Zoogma in Dallas. The winner will be announced Saturday.
These Dirty South electro rockers have closed the gap in heavy hitting dance beats and electronic rock, yielding a genre-defying album that explores new depths in the ever-evolving Electronic Music Scene. The four-piece outfit melts genres seamlessly with ease and without confusion expanding the scope of their songs in the live performance with well executed improvisational passages. The group features two live guitars, drums, and bass accompanied with live sequencing and dance heavy synth lines.
Brock Bowling (Guitar, Live Sequencing) discussed a variety of topics with Live Music Daily including the Anthems for Andriods EP, Zoogma’s diverse musical influences, favorite venues/festivals, and the current tour.
Interview with Brock Bowling
Could you tell me a bit about the song writing and recording process for Zoogma’s latest album, Anthems for Andriods? The album is a bit more tightly put together and has more of a sound that is unique Zoogma’s signature sound.
Brock: I think we went in with the idea of trying to make a rock album and an electronic album at the same time, so we went in with that in mind, and there were only a couple of songs on the record we had even played before, so that was cool. A lot of them were kind of like ideas and rough sketches of stuff and then we went into the studio in Atlanta where we played around with them, played them live, since we hadn’t played probably half of them live…nobody had ever heard half of the album. We messed with them, constructed them, started working on them, balanced them out. While some of us were recording one song, the other ones would be upstairs hashing out parts, I think we just kind of hit a stride on that, rotating, tagging in and out of the studio all the time.
How did you guys decide to approach the songs that had been performed live when going into the studio. Obviously with the wide circulation of your live performances and the group’s extensive touring, fans sometimes have an attachment to some of those songs. What is the best way to balance what fans expect the song to sound like and creating a great studio track?
Brock: It was not really as much a problem as it was a challenge, the ones we had already played live have longer improvisational sections to them…you probably wouldn’t want a twelve minute song on the studio album. So we went in taking the pieces as we had performed them and deconstructed the song. The stuff we had not already played, we took the opposite approach to it. Broke it down, trimmed the fat, to make them fit well within the context of the album. Then we still extend the songs out live. Trying to capture a moment in time, the right moment to convey the message you want.
You draw on a lot of influences in your music- world music, electronic, jam, and pure rock n roll into Zoogma’s sound. You even bring you Phantazm to add hip-hop into the mix on the title track. You guys strike a balance in bringing all of those sounds into what defines Zoogma, how would you describe the culmination of these ideas when performing and recording together?
Brock: I think it comes naturally, because people like different types of music. I think we all listen and play a little differently, it isn’t forced. We try to stick with what we enjoy and it ends up turning out that way because we all listen to different types of music. It is not good to be just so all over the place though, so you have to keep it all together, find that balance, in our sound it naturally settles that way since each of us listens to different types of music, yet we have a great deal in common. Everyone likes the same stuff, different members enjoy different types of music more.
The live music circuit is certainly Zoogma’s stomping grounds. Plenty of great electronic band/DJ acts out there such as STS9, Lotus, Papadosio, Boombox, and many others. How does Zoogma maintain its own personal identity? Where, in your eyes, do you manage to offer fans an listening experience unlike other acts you might be generally associated with in terms of your style and performance?
Brock: I think our strong suit and the defining thing about our sound as opposed to some other people is the heavy rock aspect, the two guitars, sometimes we will go metal to a progressive rock sound like Rush, even Pink Floyd comes out. One other part is we all like Southern Rock and Dirty South Hip-Hop, the Southern swing makes things a little heavier.
The role of a guitarist in a DJ/Band setting is certainly different than a standard rock band, like a power trio or even a regular four piece act. What advantages and potential drawbacks do you face as a guitarist in the DJ/Band set-up?
Brock: It is cool if you look at it from the other side, if you look at it as two guitars, bass, and a drummer then you just add the stuff as the extra colors, extra sounds, bells and whistles… all of that. Being able to write that way, both ways, having a very electronic song, then putting live guitars and bass over the top of it… Or the other way around having a song that is written out on the computer and then you go back, add stuff to it, beef it up, use some different sounds.
I think people, even non-musicians, enjoy seeing people play live instruments. A DJ is really like a party, there could be a light show, but there is a slimmer chance of fault. It is so much more humanizing, people want to see stuff going on. Mixing organic sounds, some people now have grown up on mainly electronic music, when we were growing up we listened to bands like Nirvana.
Though you formed in the college town of Oxford, MS I know you guys are now based out of Memphis. Memphis is one of the best music communities in the country, what attributes of the city’s vibrant music culture are inspirational to you personally and in your sound.
Brock: It influences me probably the most, I actually grew up in Memphis. Our bass player Ryan, went to college there, so was around the scene for about five years. That’s the place where big things started for us, places like the New Daisy are such major parts of the music community. Memphis is arguably where more genres of music started than anywhere else in the country. All that history, our drummer grew up right outside of Memphis…I feel all that gangster Three 6 Mafia type hip-hop, the jazzy Stax sound, the hill country blues sound, that was all part of myself, Matt, and Justin’s musical upbringing. The sounds of the city. That is my hometown, that is where some of the first people supported us, we started in Oxford, so we sort of have a dual home.
Zoogma has played hundreds of shows across the country. You have hit many of the major festivals and venues including Red Rocks, CounterPoint, Camp Bisco, Hangout, Aura, Wakarusa. What venues and festivals would you like to the play in the future that you have not already had the opportunity to play? What makes those places so special that you would like to perform there?
Brock: We haven’t done Bonnaroo yet, that would be cool, to have one good Bonnaroo show, that is our stomping grounds. I don’t think that is out of the scope. Coachella would be really cool. I’m sure there are some awesome festivals we do not even know about, but we have gotten to play so many really cool venues.
I know some that I would really like to return to…I think Hornings Hideout in Oregon, Hangout, and JamCruise were my favorite ever. Bear Creek is always fun too.
What can fans, both old and new, expect from this tour in support of Anthems for Androids? You guys hit Dallas this Saturday (Nov.16) at Three Links in Deep Ellum, anything in particular in the works for that show?
Brock: The evolution of our sound is really starting come to fruition, the first recording we did together as a four piece band, changing it up from five to four….over the last two years we have been figuring it all out…new tunes…. new lights…The Phantazm will join us in Dallas, so we will be adding more live hip-hop to the show on Saturday night.
Full Zoogma Tour Dates Facebook Twitter Soundcloud