Megan: So, for the people, who are you guys, what do you make…?

Blaze: I’m Blaze. I do drums for BAMBARA, make beats.

Reid: I’m Reid, I sing and play guitar for BAMBARA.

M: Alright, awesome. So one immediate question I had was who do you find takes the most
creative control when you’re starting a new project?

R: I feel like it’s almost on a song by song basis for that.

B: Yeah, I agree with that.

R: Certain people become more involved in and take a leadership role in certain songs, but
overall I think it’s pretty democratic.

B: I think whoever plants the seed that sort of starts the song is whoever we defer to in the
beginning, at least.

M: Do you have any songs that you consider your baby? Like you made the basis for it and let it
grow and now you’re like “that’s mine”?

R: That’s a good question! I don’t know, we all get so involved in each other’s songs that I don’t
know if I ever keep that feeling throughout just with how it all works. It’s hard to say, I don’t have
any specific “my baby” song but I do have ones I like more or I tend to find myself listening to
more if I were to listen to old stuff. Do you have any, Blaze?

B: I don’t know, there have definitely been ones that I’ve been excited about that have come out
of something I made, like Stay Cruel or something, but like you were saying we tend to jump in
on stuff together so it becomes a collective baby.

M: Kinda like an ‘it takes a village’ type thing.

R: Totally!

M: Alright, so I had also kinda read that Reid, you tend to get ideas from things you’ve found at
thrift stores, especially for Stray with things like the name for the dog Lobo. Has there been
anything like that on your recent project or is it mostly from your life or imagination?

R: Yeah! So what I did with Stray is I had a wall of just photographs I bought from a thrift store
right in front of my desk while i was working just so when I was zoning out i wasn’t purely zoning out, more zoning into someone’s story. So with this one I kinda had a thing where during lock-down I had this feeling of being disconnected from the city, I mean it felt like it wasn’t even there since it was all locked up. It was just this feeling of being locked away from all the chaotic, wild energy that made me search for it in other things. I’ve always been interested in photography even though I’m not very good at it because I tend to write and think in images, so I was looking at a lot of pictures from Nan Goldin’s collection The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. She has a lot of pictures of New York that are snapshots that sort of capture the energy of the city, so I used those a lot as inspiration. That along with things from my life and other people’s lives who I’ve encountered, but it was a big inspiration for me. It kinda took the place of that wall of photos for this record.

M: Do you guys feel like New York is sort of your chosen home as opposed to anywhere in your
home state of Georgia?

R: It’s hard to imagine living anywhere else at this moment. We’ve lived here almost 11 years
now. I don’t know if I’d ever choose to live in Atlanta.

B: We’ve been here what feels like forever but it still doesn’t feel quite like home necessarily.

M: Do you think you’re still finding new things about it that thrill you?

B: yeah, there’s just so much, it’s so big. It’s constantly changing. I prefer it, I love living here,
but I do get more of the feeling of home in Georgia. Maybe that’ll always be the case.

M: I grew up near LA and it was this monolith for me, I never quite knew what I was looking at or
experiencing. I felt like if I ever dipped my toe in I would have to learn to swim all over again just
to know where I am. Just a completely different language and way of life there.

B: Mmhm, exactly. New York does everything possible to spit you out, too. I think we’ve made a
lot of artistic choices I’m proud of as we’ve been forced to swim upstream.

M: So I wanted to talk a little more about Love on My Mind. Of the first two tracks we’ve heard,
one has sort of a bombastic rock sound on Mythic Love but Birds has that sort of Gothic, moody
sound we’re more used to from tracks like Miracle or Sweat. Does this variety foreshadow what
we’re gonna be hearing on the new EP and future projects, or are you just going with the flow?

R: Yeah, I think in a way it does foreshadow the EP. Since it’s only 6 songs I feel like each sort
of carries the weight for one type of song that we do. So each song feels pretty different, but in a
way it’s just a microcosm of the different environments you experience on Stray, just with more
clarity, more focus.

M: When you were making it, would you say you were reflecting on the experience of making
Stray?

B: Yeah, in a lot of ways any record that follows another will be bouncing off the ideas and
experiences from what you just did. Things you wanted to expound upon or revisit, and I think
this EP there’s some newer territory we’ve never really gone into that hasn’t been on these
singles. Just things revisiting – like Drew Citron, who sang a lot on Stray, she sings on the last
song on the EP. You can feel there are little bits of shrapnel from Stray in there. It’s a sonic
pileup with some new production on that side of things.

R: Like you said there are definitely some new areas we’ve never explored before which is
exciting, but it’s funny because things like that always seem very big and obvious to us, but I’m
interested to see how people feel about it once it comes out, if they feel like it’s Bambara but just
slightly different.

M: I know when I first heard Mythic Love I was like “this is a new angle!” but it definitely still felt
like you guys, fell completely in line, so I’m excited to hear the rest of it.

B: It’s funny because I guess for me being in the action, Mythic Love sounded more familiar for
Bambara than Birds, but i think people are hearing it the other way around. Being the one
creating things you just hear it completely differently.

R: Yeah, when you’re that close it’s hard to see it from a wider angle.

M: On that note of having a different insight than maybe what the fans have, are there any
songs you’ve made that you feel are under appreciated?

R: I mean yeah there’s a few over time. One of my favorites is Steel Dust Ocean off Shadow on
Everything.

B: Yeah, that’s a good one.

R: And then there’s one way back that I really like that I feel like we didn’t give people enough of
a chance to like since it’s so short, but it’s the last song off Dreamviolence called Disappear. I’ve
always liked that one a lot. There are always gonna be some that are looked over though, it’s
just the nature of the beast. Do you have any, Blaze?

B: Steel Dust Ocean is definitely one I feel is under-appreciated. On Stray I’d say maybe
Sweat?

M: I fully agree! I love that track so much.

R: That’s good to hear! That’s definitely one of my favorites off the record and I think it got
overlooked. And Ben and Lily!

M: Whenever I show people Stray there’s such a variety of favorite tracks that comes out of it. I
think the storytelling style on it is so interesting too, the narrative line as opposed to the direct
chronology of Shadow on Everything, it’s just so fun to find where everything fits together.

B: It’s good to hear people are taking the time to do that, it’s all so interwoven.

M: Speaking of the songwriting style, I recently read A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery
O’Connor and I was wondering about what led you to be so intrigued by her character studies
and the aspect of ‘meanness’ to incorporate it so heavily into Stray.

R: I think the first time I realized I was interested in literature or writing of any kind was when I
read that story in high school. We had a Southern Gothic literature section, I guess since we’re
from Georgia, and Flannery O’Connor was from there as well. Something about it just resonated
with me, something about the way she writes these characters just feels so real and so vivid, it’s
horrific but calm and beautiful all at the same time and I think that drew me to it. The use of the
word meanness is something that I’ve always been drawn to as well. It can be used for really
awful things but it sounds so weak and small, almost. It’s the way Southern people speak, trying
not to make a big deal out of anything. It always stuck with me, especially from that story.

M: I kinda noticed that across the album there were these glimpses of hope around it. Most of
the characters are doomed, I mean Death is a character for a reason, but in songs like Serafina
when Sera and Sadie are in love and are able to experience that, declaring that they’ll never die
even though they know it’s coming eventually. Do you think that that might be influenced by
O’Connor’s concept of Radical Grace, that idea that something good can come out of a situation
that isn’t necessarily good?

R: It’s so funny you bring that up since no one’s really tapped into that before, but i think about
that a lot, her concept of grace. It’s always in the back of my mind so I can’t say if it influenced it
directly, but that is something I think about a lot especially when im writing these usually very
hopeless scenarios or pessimistic stories with characters that are doomed, that idea kicks
around in the back of my head a lot. Sometimes it doesn’t make it out because it almost doesn’t
feel like grace is a possibility in that world. But yeah [in Serafina], I needed someone to not feel
smothered by the concept of death in that world, to be sort of a ray of hope or someone to
whom death wasn’t this sort of suffocating blanket over them. It’s just an inevitability they’ll have
to face eventually.

M: So for both of you, are there any tracks off this new EP that you’re especially excited for
people to hear or any you’re particularly passionate about?

B: The first track Glitter in the Rain I’m really proud of, it’s one of those in new territory and I
really like the mood and atmosphere it creates.

R: Yeah, I’m also excited about that one.

M: I was curious if there were any like the Night Chimes EP, something more dark and ambient
or if it’s more going for the directness we’ve been hearing so far.

B: There’s definitely some ambient leaning moments on this one. That’s funny you bring up
night chimes, we were doing an interview with someone in Poland and they brought it up too.

R: There aren’t any straight up ambient tracks like on Night Chimes, just because it’s only 6
tracks and we wanted to keep it pretty tight. One song I’m really excited for off the EP is Little
Wars, different territory for us as well. Tt’s got those female backing vocals and some of the
orchestrated vibe like some of the stuff off Stray but it’s a little more minimal and the
instrumentation and texture choices are very interesting. I’m also really happy with the lyrics on
that one.

M: I’m excited to hear them all! I’m very much looking forward to it. So what influenced you guys
to go for an EP this time rather than going for another LP?

B: All of 2020 was supposed to be touring for us, so once everything got canceled I don’t think
we were mentally ready to approach a full album again.

R: It felt like Stray didn’t really get its chance, since once it came out COVID hit and we couldn’t
give it a fair shot at being out in the world, like touring with it and all that. So it was hard to just
let that go and move on to a new album. We wrote an EP to try and respond to the fact that
everything had been cut short, so we wrote one to convince ourselves everything was fine. We
got pretty much done with it, mixed and everything, until we realized we really didn’t like it. So
we scrapped it and some of those things stayed, others didn’t, we wrote some more songs and
that’s how this EP came to be. We kinda had to get rid of a lot of weird leftover feelings from the
pandemic stuff, clear our heads.

M: I’m sure a lot of the fanbase will find that empathetic. I wonder if that scrapped EP will ever
make it onto any B-sides and rarities collection anytime.

R: Not if I have anything to do with it. Laughs

M: I feel that, sometimes I get to the end of an art piece and I just think “no one will ever see this
and I’m glad.”

B: It’s important to be able to scrap something. I think a lot of people think they put so much time
into something then they have to put it out.

M: It’s very freeing to be able to put that much into something and then just let it go.

B: There were days working on the older version of the EP where we’d go into the studio and
we just felt so cumbersome, we weren’t really stoked on anything. It just felt like this lead
blanket.

M: So I know you guys have been trying to get back into the touring space now that things are a
little more open, I believe you’ve been doing things with Midwife?

B: Oh yeah, so Midwife was on tour with us and Nothing in December and that was just sort of a
10-day run of the United States, and even then we had to schedule the last 2 days once
omicron hit and we just redid those dates. So now we have March, which is supposed to be all
of mainland Europe. Each country handles it differently, Germany and Italy are both kind of in
question.

M: When you’re able to fully get back out in the world do you think it’ll be a Love on My Mind
tour or more of a joint one between Stray and the EP?

B: Definitely joint.

R: Yeah it’ll be a combo for sure.

B: There are some songs from the EP we’re not going to play, so that alone makes us need
both. There are also so many Stray songs people have never heard us play live.

M: How do you guys plan out what’s gonna be on the setlists for your show? Is it mostly crowd
reception or personal desire to play something?

B: A little of both, but if you’re going out every night and playing a song and it’s just not getting
any reception at all it’s hard to get excited about it.

R: Sweat was kinda like that. We kept playing it and it kept getting this sort of lukewarm
response.

M: Aw!

R: I know, it’s sad!

B: We kinda had to take it back into the workshop.

R: Definitely, they’re never dead, you just gotta tweak ‘em, but it’s been retired for a bit.

B: That’s the thing, a song is never really set in stone until you record it. It stays this malleable
thing and that keeps it fun for us.

R: We finally got Machete working, which is one we’ve been trying to get working forever and
we got it just in time for this tour. It was gratifying to be able to play that one live since we all
wanted it so bad.

M: Was that one challenging to write lyrically since it’s sorta a standalone story?

R: It took a while for sure. Sometimes the shorter ones are even harder since you don’t have as
much space to work with the ideas.

M: I was curious which of the tours you guys have been on has been your favorite since you’ve
been a part of a lot of them, either your own or with other people.

B: The IDLES tour we did in the US was pretty amazing just ‘cause they were fairly unknown when we started that tour, so they all happened in these packed rooms, small venues they don’t play anymore, and it was just a really cool month. We’re supposed to play 10 more shows with them in March, so hopefully that happens.

R: Yeah, that one was really fun. Each tour has its own thing that makes it unique and
awesome.

B: Every band we’ve gone out with has been really cool, we’ve all remained friends long after.

M: Of all your peers in the punk and post-punk space, which ones do you find yourselves most
inspired by?

B: Honestly I don’t listen to too many bands like that. We see our peers live and honestly the
energy of the show is most inspiring.

R: My inspiration doesn’t really come from my peers, I don’t think. There are bands I like, but I
don’t find myself inspired by them. One that does come to mind is Sloppy Jane, she’s really
great. Her approach is very passionate and she has a very singular vision, she knows what she
wants and she finds a way to make it happen. That new record I like a lot. Dougie Poole might
be another one, there are label mates on Wharf Cat that I like a lot like him and Palberta, P.E. is
really great, there are a lot of really good ones but it’s hard to think of since I haven’t been going
to many shows lately.

M: That’s interesting, it seems like the inspiration is very internal within the band then. I mean
you’re just coming up with things off the dome and banging it out, and next thing you know you
have a song?

R: Laughs I mean yeah, we’ve been playing together since we were little kids so at this point
we’ve kind of found that we draw from what’s established between us.

M: Really solid band chemistry.

R: Yeah, so we just kinda pull from our pool of influences that have been cemented between us.

B: And it’s not to say we’re not inspired by music, it’s just more moments in songs than anything
else.

R: Yeah! Less like a band and their vibe and more just moments, that’s a good way to put it.

M: Alright, well I think that’s pretty much all I had on my mind. Thank you guys so much for
talking!

R: Yeah, thanks for having us!

M: Anytime.

BAMBARA’s EP “Love on my Mind” is out February 25th on Wharf Cat Records and the two
lead singles, “Mythic Love” and “Birds,” are out now on all platforms.
A huge thank you to Reid and Blaze for such a wonderful interview!

The post In Conversation with Reid and Blaze Bateh of BAMBARA appeared first on SCAD Radio.

Here’s a fun question just to break the ice. What’s your favorite bear? -E

Casey: Gummy.

Matt: Our mascot is actually a gummy bear.

Casey: Yeah, it’s a red gummy bear with one of his ears bitten off.

Matt: His name’s Moe. Moe Lasses.

Casey: He’s kind of our ear-candy.

Matt: We actually have, if you look at our van, we’ve got a light-up gummy bear that’s on our dash. That’s Moe. He’s always in front of us whenever we travel. He actually melted a little bit over the past week–it’s gotten pretty hot.

There are always a lot of inspirations that bands take from to form their sound. What would you say are the top inspirations you draw from? -E

Matt: We’re really a hodge-podge of a bunch of different sounds. I think it’s because we collaborate a lot more. We have the main songwriter who has the structure of the song… On our way down here, we were talking about albums that influenced us and we picked a year–1998–and our drummer picked Offspring “Americana”. I would’ve picked Korn “Follow the Leader”. Our trumpet player would’ve picked a jazz album that came out in ’98. So, we’re kind of just a cluster of all kinds of different styles thrown in together. We try and make it mold as best as we can. For me, personally, if I were to pick one band…

Casey: Spice Girls.

Matt: Spice Girls, yeah, for sure.

Casey: We actually listened to Spice Girls as a band, today. It was awesome.

Matt: But, yeah, I would say a mix between folk, straight-up rock-n’-roll, and a little bit of soul with [Casey]. If you ask each member of the band what their inspirations were, they would all be something different and that’s why we sound so all over the place sometimes, but [Casey] ties everything together—her voice ties everything together.

Casey: I like a lot of older Motown music and soul singers so that’s where I focus my energy.

Matt: So, I’ll say Korn and she’ll say Motown and then we’re somewhere in-between there. Our name, the Company Stores, referring to a coal town in Appalachia where they would have a Company Store which was a General Store with a little bit of everything. So that’s kind of a throwback to that name so it makes sense. Ties it all together.

What do you think is going to come next for you? -E

Casey: We have a big tour planned out in June. We’re going out West for a few weeks.

Matt: We’re driving across the US, pretty much. We’ve got a couple stops in the Midwest and then we’re going down to San Diego and working our way up the California Coast all the way to Seattle [Washington]. We’re finishing with a show at The Crocodile in Seattle, which is a great venue, with a couple of Seattle local bands. [The rest of the band is] flying back and I’m driving the van back, because they all gotta get back to work and I work from my computer. I’m actually going to drive north, back through Canada, for a week. Definitely gonna stop at some National Parks, like Jasper and Banff.

Casey: I like how you just name-dropped parks.

Matt: I’m a park kinda guy. But as far as the unforeseeable future… We’ll probably be doing this and have a better ride.

Casey: It’s just gonna get better. We’re gonna do more shows and meet the right people.

Matt: Write some more songs… We’re working on our next album right now. We’ve got about 4-5 songs written for the third album but we’re not trying to rush anything.

What goes into writing an album for you? -E

Matt: People present songs to the band.

Casey: A lot of people in the band write songs. It’s about not only coming up with songs but tying them together to go into an album the works as its own piece. Sometimes you go through songs and you realize that’s an alright song but that doesn’t mean it’s gonna fit on album.

Matt: Just because we play something live doesn’t mean that it’ll fit on an album. We’ve got songs we’ll play tonight that will never go on an album because it doesn’t fit with what we’re trying to do, sonically. And everybody’s got different writing styles. Sometimes they’ll present something that’s really great and that we’ll play, but it just doesn’t fit. Normally. The writer will present it to the band and we’ll workshop it and see if it works and if we can get it to flow together. Everybody will add something or take away something. Normally you can present it I slight form, like a rock that has a decent shape, and then everybody else chisels away at it.

Is songwriting something that happens from everyone in the band? -M

Matt: Not everyone. Casey writes. I write. Jackford, Matt Jackford our keyboard player, doesn’t write songs but he adds on to everyone else’s songs.

Casey: He’s actually a composer. That’s what he went to school for. It comes in handy.

Matt: If I have some ideas on a song, I’ll go to him and say “hey, I’ve got this, but I want to do something different,” and he’ll throw me some new ideas and we’ll work on it together. Grant, our bass player, has written a few songs for us. So, 4 out of 6 of us are writers.

It must be useful to have a composer in the band. -E

Matt: He’s the latest person to join the band—he joined last year. We’ve actually gotten some really cool opportunities because of that. We’re playing next weekend with the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra. There are 3 West Virginia bands that were chosen, we were 1 of them. He’s arranging all of the parts for the symphony. Every band gets 3 songs. We’re also doing something really similar in Seattle for The Crocodile show for those 3 bands. They’re sending him some songs and they have a string ensemble. One of the bands’ front-lady works with the Seattle symphony. We’re doing a rock orchestra thing there. So, yeah, it definitely comes in handy having a composer in the band.

Casey: We’re gonna keep him.

I know that you guys have some charitable work. You guys do the Noteworthy Kids Program. Would you mind telling us a little bit about that and if that’s influenced you personally or with the band? -M

Matt: I have instruments just sitting around the house that I don’t play anymore and the idea is that we take donations of instruments that are just collecting dust. Maybe someone inherited an instrument that they don’t play. Then, putting those in the hands of underprivileged kids. It’s in Charleston, West Virginia, where we live. We do drives around Christmas-time and work with the Boys and Girls Club. Our Fiddle player, Joe, teaches violin for a program but they don’t have a guitar program so I’ve been talking to him about linking up and donating guitars for them because they’re losing funding because their administration is cutting back on programs. But, yeah, most of the time, in Charleston, I just go by and pick up the instrument. Any donation helps and it doesn’t have to be guitars. Any instrument that people aren’t using, they can hit us up online and we’ll point them in the direction of where to donate. You can contact us at thecompanystoresband@gmail.com and all of our contact information is online on our website thecompanystores.com We welcome any donations, doesn’t matter how big or how small. It’s a really cool thing.

Do you have one moment when you went from “Oh this is fun” to “This is what I wanna do, for real”? -E

Casey: Once we formed the band, It was a 3-piece to begin with, and once we started playing shows, I got over the stage-freight and was just able to sing and feel so alive and so happy. I forgot all the stage-freight and the nerves. I think that’s when I realized that this brings me a lot of joy.

Matt: My hands used to shake, which is terrible for a guitar player, but after a handful of shows, that all went away. I’ve been playing guitar since I was 14-15 years old and never tried to play live. It wasn’t until St. Patrick’s Day of 2014, I think, at The Empty Glass… There a video of Korn at Woodstock ’96, playing live and you see this wave of people jumping. They cease to be people, they’re just a huge wave of energy and I thought “man, that is the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen.”  The house was packed that night [at The Empty Glass] and it was like 200 people there for our show, but that happened. The whole crowd was joined together and they were jumping and I saw that wave of energy and I almost quit playing because my jaw just dropped. That was the moment, the “oh, wow” moment.

You mentioned that you started playing guitar around 14-15. How did you get into that? -E

Matt: Man, I keep talking about Korn… This is crazy… We sound nothing like Korn whatsoever… But, I didn’t start listening to contemporary music up until I was 12. I was a Pastor’s kid so we listened to a lot of contemporary Christian but I wasn’t listening to secular music. I started listening to Country and Hip Hop. When I was 14, I was playing football and we have 2-a-day practices. I had packed a lunch and between practices I was just hanging out. One of my schoolmates left me his Walkman and it was Korn “Follow the Leader” and I had never heard anything like it. After that, I started listening to rock-n’-roll and listening to heavy music and then going back into classic rock—checking out Hendrix and Floyd and all the great. It just kind of spiraled down on from there and that’s when I started playing guitar. I wanted to play stuff like this. Eventually I quit athletics and started playing guitar every day, in my room, after school. I never planned on playing live up until I joined this band and that was 13 years later. Casey started singing about a year before the band.

Casey: When I was younger I always knew that I could sing pretty well and my mom made me take a couple of voice lessons. I, of course, was like “I’m not gonna do it. You can’t tell me what to do.” Later on, I graduated high school and I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, I didn’t go to college or anything. I found a guitar in my Grandma’s basement and slowly started to learn how to play it and started writing songs. I started going to a bunch of open-mics around town. I did that for about half a year, regular, every week. I met Matt. I really wanted to find a guitar player and I ran into Matt and it expanded from there. I was 21.

Matt: We worked together at a restaurant and it was a slow day. She said “I sing and I play a little guitar,” and I said “I play guitar.” She came over to my house for the first time and she played a song. I showed her a song that I had written and her voice was perfect for it. We decided we were gonna play together from then.

How’d you meet everyone else over the years? -E

Casey: We did open mics together for a while, around town. We met our drummer and he would do open mics and sit in with people. We started a trio.

Matt: It was a trio for… Well, I had to go to Nashville for an internship for school so we stayed [a trio] until I got back. Then, we picked up our fiddle player and bassist. That bassist left about a year into the project and we got Grant. Then we met Matt Jackford, our keyboard player and trombone player. Everyone, except me, grew up in the same circles and all went to the same schools. Our fiddle player, drummer, bass player, and keyboard player all played music together in high school.

Casey: I was a couple years younger than them so I knew who they were but I didn’t hang out with them.

Do you see yourself picking up any odd instruments or more musicians in the future? -E

Casey: I wanna learn how to play the harmonica.

Matt: We don’t have enough room in the van for any more people but instruments, yeah. I’m sure Joe will learn how to play some Asian flute. He’s our fiddle player and trumpet player, also plays penny whistle and harmonica.

Casey: He’s a Renaissance man.

Matt: I’m sure he’ll learn some random, weird instrument within the next year and we’ll throw something crazy on our album. But, no more people.

Even if you got a bigger bus? -E

Matt: Maybe some back-up singers.

Casey: That’d be cool.

Matt: There’s already so many hands in the cookie jar. And the way we do things, everybody has input, so the more people, the harder it is to come to a conclusion.

Casey: Maybe a new guitar player.

Matt: Yeah, so I can focus on my true talent: Radio Interviews.

You can find more information about The Company Stores on their website thecompanystores.com

Catch them on tour this summer! Their June tour dates are online at thecompanystores.com/calendar

The post Interview with The Company Stores – Barrell House South, Savannah GA appeared first on SCAD Radio.

The day before my birthday I sent a desperate message to Rainbow Kitten Surprise via Facebook. It read, “Please, it’s my birthday,” and to my surprise, it worked.(Little did I know they had actually been responding to my emails all along, but their responses had ended up in my junk mail.) I checked out a camera, drove to Asheville, NC, and shot one of my favorite bands the next night.

It was a sold-out show at the Asheville-favorite venue, The Orange Peel. The line wrapped around the building even as people poured into the venue. Anticipation grew until — hallelujah — the band finally emerged from backstage, kicking off the show with one of their new singles “Fever Pitch.”

They progressed through new singles and singalong classics, pleasing new and old fans alike. From their characteristically upbeat songs to bassist Charlie Holt’s endearing crazy eyes, to lead vocalist Sam Melo’s hairy bare chest (not pictured), to the constant movement on stage, Rainbow Kitten Surprise kept the audience fully engaged from start to finish, even through two encores. They danced onstage and reached offstage. It was a crazy, exciting, energetic show, and I couldn’t help but want to jump around watching Sam do the same.

Lucky for you, they released their new album How to: Friend, Love, Freefall a few days after the show, on April 6th. Give it a listen and keep a lookout for a Rainbow Kitten Surprise concert near you.

The post It’s My Birthday and I’ll Take As Many Photos of Rainbow Kitten Surprise As I Want appeared first on SCAD Radio.

SCAD Radio gets on the phone with influential metalcore group Zao’s lead guitarist  Scott Mellinger ahead of their performance at 2017 A.U.R.A Fest in Savannah, GA. 

Zao, who released their first full length album All Else Failed in 1995, are credited as one of the pioneers in the metalcore genre which bridged metal music with hardcore punk. Scott has described Zao as “an extreme metal band with very introspective lyrical content”.

Since their inception in 1993, Zao has released ten full length albums, four EPs and a two-disc DVD documentary, whilst garnering an international fan base. The group are back after a 5-year hiatus with brand new album The Well Intentioned Virus.   

Kush at SCAD Radio: For those who haven’t heard of you, would you say that there is album that serves as a good entry point into Zao’s music?

Scott Mellinger of Zao: To be honest with you, I think the newest one is probably one of the best because it does have little indications of what we’ve done in the past. I mean, I guess our main ‘hit’ record (though I don’t really think we have a ‘hit’ anything). Liberate Te Ex Inferis is the record that I think people point to. Funeral of God is another one that I think people point to. So those two, and this new one as well.

Kush: Alright sounds good, so what are Zao’s plans going into the new year?

Scott: I mean, kinda just staying the course, playing as much as we can. We are in the process of doing some recording so we plan on having something, probably EP size, released by the end of the year. That would then go into funding the next full length album which probably would be out sometime 2018.

K: And I know you guys have been in the scene for a while now, so what would you say are the most exciting things happening in metalcore at the moment?

S: Well, I think there is a resurgence, that I’m seeing, in kind of a DIY ethic that was there when we started. I think a lot of people are seeing – I mean when we kinda bowed out a little bit I think that this music is the closest it’s ever been to the forefront of metal. So some of the bands we toured with back in the day, like Lamb of God and Killswitch Engage, have seen and blossomed into the next wave of metal, like the bands that people look to. I think, though, there’s bands like Code Orange, and even Nails, and some of these other heavy influenced hardcore metal bands are starting to kind of do things their own way and I’m really excited about that.

I mean even for us, we just released our own record, so the internet and some of the social media aspect of it has given some of the bands a little more of a voice than they would have had before. I still think some bands won’t get heard through it. There’s a lot of bands out there, but I think a lot of people are trying to take it and do their own thing with it.

K: And on the other hand, are there any recent trends in metalcore that you’re not a fan of?

S:  Ooh, well, I [laughs] maybe this is because I’m biased because I’m not a good looking dude, but I was a little – you know, it was a little awkward to watch bands play this style of music and kinda put a lot of emphasis on their look. I didn’t necessarily imagine or foresee this style of music accepting that, because I always felt like hardcore really came from punk. And punk was kind of a, you know, shunning of people being a certain way or looking a certain way. It was kind of just for misfits and people that felt like outcasts.

So, yeah, I guess the one trend that surprises me is that there are a lot of bands out there that are under the metalcore, or whatever, moniker and they’re kind of look like – there’s like a look to them? [laughs] Which is a little strange, but whatever man. I’m to each his own. If you like it, do what you got to do. I listen to all kinds of weird s**t, so it doesn’t matter.

K: Absolutely. [laughs] So I know Zao recently came back to making music after a fairly long hiatus and so what were some of the challenges associated with returning after such a long time?

S: I think the biggest one for us, and this is more of a self-imposed one, is that when you come back from any more than a five year thing when you’re a band that’s been around as long as we have, we were really cognizant of not becoming nostalgia, you know? I mean I don’t know if there’s a way to combat that really. The way we felt was the best way to combat that was to release a new record and pour our hearts into it and make it as good as we can so people would recognize that the new is just as good as, if not better than, the old. But we were really, really kind of aware of the chance – because there’s a lot of bands and I don’t poo poo it or anything, like I think it’s great.

There’s some bands coming back and doing reunion tours of records that I love, so I’m like all for it, whatever they want to do. But we’ve always been the kind of band, and the type of people that don’t like to do that. I don’t like to do that. I don’t like to rest on the past and don’t like to use the past as something that could move you forward. I like using the present to move us forward. So, we were more into the idea of writing new material and getting back out there with the strength of the new material.

K: And speaking of the new material, some of the songs on your new album The Well Intentioned Virus come from a very personal space, I’d say. Did this make working on the album any more difficult? Or did it prove to be artistically liberating for you?

S: I think artistically liberating. I think Dan (Daniel Weydant, lead vocals) especially but all of use this band as a catharsis. You know, all of us go through bad things. I’m lucky enough that I found something like playing music  to help me get through some of these tough things. And I use my guitar playing, my songwriting, as kind of a tool to help release some of that sadness, frustration, whatever. I know Dan does the same. It’s cheap therapy for us. [laughs] You know, you could just go in and funnel a lot of that emotion that you have in the writing. And then those songs – it can be tough.

I know for Dan, Dan will write lyrics that are extremely (emotional) and maybe have happened to him at one point in his life. So when he has to revisit that when he’s singing the songs, if you’re not in the right headspace it could put you into maybe a little more depressed state. But I think he looks at it as like his way of getting that emotion out of him and liberating himself on that sadness or whatever it is. So we try to – I think we really do – we really focus on, just, putting all that emotion into something and then releasing it and that’s kind of what helps us through our daily lives, you know?

K: Yeah, absolutely. And I know Zao has gone through a variety of lineup changes over the years since the band’s inception. Has this made it difficult to retain the band’s identity in your opinion?

S: I don’t think so. The one nice thing, because I noticed there’s a lot of bands that go through lineup changes and I really do think the main reason for lineup changes is more of just where people are in their lives. So financial state is really important. If you can’t support yourself or if you can’t give up a 9 to 5 job to do a band, there’s nothing wrong with that. It just, it is what it is. So I think, you know, in Zao’s situation there were times where we were trying to be a full 8 to 9 month touring band and some people couldn’t do that. It just wasn’t viable. We make something, but it’s not enough to support a family, if that was your plan, or if you have a family already or whatever. If people leave the band for some of that situation, I don’t think there was a lot of animosity with people who have left the band.

And really, if you think about the way the band has gone, you had that original incarnation of it that left one member to kind of build it back up again and since that, I mean Zao really hasn’t changed much. I think Dan is big reason for the success Zao got when he had joined the band and I don’t think the band really looked – as long as Dan’s involved, me and Russ (Russ Cogdell, rhythm guitar) have been in it a long time. Even now, with Marty (Marty Lunn, bass) and Jeff (Jeff Gretz, drums), they have been pretty consistent members and are going to be consistent members from here on out. Since 2005, everyone has been pretty stable for probably the longest time of our band. But I still do see the band as a big – with Dan being a one of the biggest parts of it. So, since he’s there, me and Russ, like I’ve said, have been there for a while – I see the band in two phases, sort of. And we’ve been in that second phase for a pretty long time.

K: And do you think that there are any benefits to changing a band’s lineup?

S: I think so. I think that a new member can give you a whole different perspective. That’s one thing always tried to do. You know, any time there’d be somebody new – we’re not the type of people that are real apprehensive about having people have a voice. So, when a new member would come in, we would always be willing and open to hear their ideas to what songs can do and where songs can go. Jeff’s been a huge help. I mean, Jeff, just in his abilities – he is a trained musician. His eclectic style and what he listens to has really helped us trying to move forward as a band.

I think it can reinvigorate you if you have new members that are really excited. They can also kind of put the focus back on the whole of the band. The longer members are in, they start getting their own little ideas and they become insular and stuff. And so, you’ve got this new guy that maybe brings the focus back and “Oh! This is what we’re trying to do as a band!” So, yeah, I think having new members can help.

K: Despite no longer being classified as a “Christian band”, do you feel that the beliefs from your earlier works influence your material in any way?

S: Eh, maybe. Me, personally, I’m an atheist. I’m probably the more that than anyone else in the band. But I know all of us have kind of changed a lot of the viewpoint on that stuff. I think Dan has always, since he’s been in the band, called out the hypocrisies in religion. And, now as he’s gotten older, and a little more open to other things, maybe he’s sort of closed the chapter to that part of his life. He still sees what great there can be in Christianity and religion and what horrible hypocrisy there can be. He still does sing about seeing some of that stuff.

But, at the same time, as a band, that’s the one thing I hope separates us, because there’s a lot of bands out there that don’t have any kind of religious background or they don’t have any or want any religious overtones in their music or any of that stuff and they rally and they fight Christianity, which that’s something we’re never going to do. I mean, I like to have people open minded and as long as they’re cool with the way I am, I’m absolutely cool with the way they are. So, we’re not the type of band that’s ever going to fight Christianity or be against it in any way. And we totally appreciate those type of fans. So, I would say there’s still some. A little bit of it in there.

K: Yeah absolutely. Over the years, I’ve noticed that Zao has had a focus on just open mindedness in general, not just religiously, you know?

S: Yeah, mm hm.

K: It’s just been something you’ve fought for.

S: Yeah, yeah, we’ve always done that, even when Zao was considered – I mean people would call us the Christian band. There’s a lot of intricacies with that. And it wasn’t just black and white for us. Ever. So when Dan would write about it, a lot of the time he would write about it was to call it out. It wasn’t necessarily to be up there and preaching saying you should be this. It was “Hey, you guys are doing this and you’re telling people one thing and doing other things behind closed doors.” So, yeah, we’ve always had that weird fight with it. [laughs]

K: [laughs] And, just to close things out, what can we expect from Zao’s set at Savannah’s A.U.R.A. Fest this coming February?

S: Well, we’re totally understanding of what people like and we do understand that people pay very, very good money to come see a band play songs they remember. So, we’re never not going to play older songs. We’re definitely going to do a lot more new stuff, too. I think the record has been received well enough that we’re really – we’re extremely excited. We love the new songs. We can’t wait to play those. So I think you’re going to still get a good balance of new and old. And yeah, I just think you’re going to see five older dudes up there giving their heart because this is what their heart’s all about. [laughs]

K: [laughs] Alright, awesome! Thank you so much for taking the time to talk.

S: Oh dude, my pleasure.

K: Thank you so much.

S: Yeah, my pleasure dude. Thank you.

Be sure to catch Zao performing at 2017 A.U.R.A Fest in Savannah on February 18, 2017 at the The Gardens of Ships Of The Sea Maritime Museum.

The post The Ultimate Zao Interview appeared first on SCAD Radio.