Interview: Know Your NYC Bands with ZAZA

BeatCrave is proud to bring you band, ZAZA, as part of our Know Your NYC Bands series. This gem of a band sparkles just as much as their name does as they distract you into another hazy realm with their haunting vocals and eerie melodies. It’s a shocking surprise to know that they haven’t been involved in every other indie film, or placed into the final scene of an HBO episode which would probably involve some kind of epiphany, scandal, or glamorous shot of drug consumption. ZAZA brings the ethereal aspect of most shoegaze bands but stand apart because of their ability to skillfully slide moments of suspense, pleasure, and even danger into their sound.

ZAZA is definitely a band to keep your eye on. It could just take a few months for artists like this to come out of nowhere to others. However, if you’re smart and you trust our gut instinct, you’ll be ahead of the game when ZAZA is the only band anyone can talk about. “Have you heard of this band named ZAZA?” Your answer: “Yeah, man. Haven’t you?”

The band has a show coming on March 24th which will take place at Glasslands. To tide you over until then, check out our exclusive interview with Danny of ZAZA where he tells me about smart thinking in the music biz and more!

Are you both originally from the Brooklyn area?

I grew up in the farmlands of Oregon and found myself in Brooklyn 4 years ago after a long failed tour. My van had blown up in Iowa and I arrived with $16 in my pocket.  Classic, I know…I’ve been in love with New York since I took a trip here with my father – the city had never left my mind. Jenny is from Orange County in California – palm trees, orange groves, warm winters.

How did you two meet?

Jenny was living in LA and had come to New York on a one way ticket to decompress – we met, realized we had become best friends and started playing together with headphones in my apartment.  Jenny never bought the ticket back.

ZAZA is an unusual band name – I like it! I read that it is also the name of the people in Southeastern Turkey. Did this fact have anything to do with choosing the name?

Perhaps – a dying language from an relatively unknown but ancient culture, an obscure French play about a singing prostitute, Biblical for “belonging to all,” my grandmother’s childhood nickname… It does not however have anything to do with Zsa Zsa Gabor.

You’ve released Cameo as a free download. People such as Robert Smith are have deemed to that be fundamentally wrong yet many bands are going with this business model. Why did you choose this option?

Mr.Smith is correct; Giving away the next Cure album for free wouldn’t make much sense… Economically or morally. Young bands however have always given their music away, whether it be on cassette, CD-R or mp3s. We are both proud of the Cameo EP, proud of the time and effort we put into it and the response that we’ve received so far.  It would be naive and idealistic to say that “all art should be free” – but in the context of our first release, some things are worth more then just an iTunes paycheck.  Hopefully you’ll see the EP in the flesh soon, on vinyl – I don’t think we’ll be handing it out from the back of a truck.

You once said that Cameo is also about silhouettes and outlines. Can you explain this in further detail?

Seeing, experiencing and understanding something or someone just through the profile – that superficial judgment. When something is reduced to its basic form, a 2-D landscape of emotion and desire.

The music industry is going through a rough time right now. What are your thoughts on how independent bands can still thrive?

Seeing past the present, embracing new ideas and models.  If the auto and music industry merged, perhaps they could get their collective heads out of the sand and get something done.
Bands need to realize that they control their own destiny, that there is no magic A&R fairy that is going to sweep them off their feet. Make original, genuine music and try to have as many people hear it as you can.  Good art will always thrive…

Your music has such an ethereal aspect to it. What do you do during performances to heighten the effect?

We try to make out live performance an all encompassing experience – songs that blend into one another, backdrops and lights that keep people in our world for 30 minutes.  While it is ethereal, we also put a raw, powerful minimalism into the set. Three people (Myself on guitar loops and vocals, Jennifer playing bass and keyboards, Kurt Feldman playing drums) stand up and across in a line.  We collaborate with a great visual artist, Lauren Sneiden, who designs our stage sets.  I would hope that over time we will be able to expand and refine that same principle.

Has it been easy to be a band in the NYC music scene when there is so much going on?

The fact that there is so much going on is what makes New York great – it separates the wheat from the chaff.   Friendships,partnerships and supportive scenes are all such key pieces into what makes this city breed such interesting artists – even if you aren’t in the same genre or come from a different musical angle, you can always find a home.

What’s coming up next for Zaza?

Technically, touring as much as possible and recording new material for a full length. Spiritually, trying to make and push ourselves to new directions.  Socially, forming long term relationships that we’ll remember and trust for the rest of our career. Emotionally, learning to grow with each other.

Quick-Fire Round:
What’s the best show you’ve been to in the last six months?

I run sound at Cakeshop in the Lower East Side, so night to night I get to see some great bands from across the country that hardly anyone has heard.   That said, there is a tribal jazz trio that plays at the Bedford L stop some mornings.  They have amazing sound and rhythms in the giant echo chamber that is the New York subway system – I’ve missed many a train listening to them.

Who are your favorite local bands right now?

I just got off a tour with The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Depreciation Guild, both of whom are some of my best friends.  I may be a little biased… My Best Fiend are great and School of Seven Bells deserves all the praise they’ve been receiving.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

Does that exist in music?  In New York?  When we find it, we’ll tell you…

When people come to visit NYC, what’s one thing you make sure they can experience?

The music room in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  If you are within 5 miles of Bach’s harpsichord, you’d be a villain not to go.

Tell us one thing about yourself we probably don’t already know.

I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise.