For people out there that have never heard of you, please give them a brief run down of what Zombie Zombie is. How would you describe what you create?
ETIENNE : it’s a duo… I play an old analog keyboard from the 70′s and Neman plays drums. Our music is mostly instrumental, we have a lot of respect for the first creator of electronic music ! We have an old sound and a cinematic way to compose our songs… we love the music of the horror film… and we love to improvise. We have a rock background, you can find all these elements in our records.
You released your debut album A Land for Renegades earlier this year. What were your major influences for this album and is there a specific theme that runs through it?
ETIENNE : Our major influence was the sound of the analog keys. They create images, we improvise most of the songs when we record the album, so we just wanted to use some sound we love and try to create songs with it. These instruments was theremine, rototom, the space echo…
How long did it take you to write your new album ‘Bombshell’?
Well, half of the songs on ‘Bombshell’ were written after I released ‘KC Rules OK’, and then the other half were older songs. Some of them were put on the list for KC Rules OK because it was kind of a retrospective. It was the label’s pick of songs I’d already recorded and put out on my own label (Fence Recordings), so by design that was quite a strong album. Although I’ve got quite a back catalogue I don’t want every record I do being cherry picks out of the past, so I tried to balance this one with new songs and songs that the label knew were quite strong already. I think I’ve got the balance pretty much 50/50.
What is the story behind the songs on your album?
The new ones are pretty much my insecurities or paranoia of whatever I’m going through at this part of my life. I’ve got a daughter now, she’s 8 and there’s a song ‘Churches Whiteness’ about a fall out she and I had, and yeah, there’s others coming from a sort of older period in time just about all different things really. They are some comedy things on there. A lot of it I suppose is relationship based and then I suppose there’s ‘You’ve no clue Do You?’ which is a kind of a “who-done-it?” in the grand “Cluedo” tradition.
Everything! Such a unique atmosphere. They always put on good music and everyone smiles. And they have the best cider.
What was your personal highlight, who did you enjoy listening to?
Vetiver. My girl got me listening to them a few weeks previous and so I thought I knew what to expect, but seeing them live was one of the most profound musical experiences I’ve had. Battles were immense, too. Their drummer is an insane beast.
The first event took place in 2003, at the Craig Y Nos Castle built by Madame Adelina Patti, but moved in 2004 and 2005 to Baskerville Hall Hotel near Clyro (Wales). The last couple of years the green man has been hosted at Glanusk Park. Each year the event has grown in size. The Green Man Festival has been labelled a folk music festival, but incorporates related styles of music too.
This year saw headline sets from Joanna Newsom, Robert plant and Ian Malkamus. Creature’s highlights from this year include Misty’s big adventure, John Smith and the Broken family band all of which can be found within the festival edition.
Creature has been in attendance for the past two years, the atmosphere is relaxed, the music is good and the setting idyllic, we would whole heartedly recommend this festival to any folk/alternative music fan. The organisers are proud that the event has retained its anti-corporate feel yet continues to thrive…
Creature managed to grab a minute of Jo’s time to ask a few questions about this lovely little festival.
The Broken Family Band Interview – Forward by Jonny Rogers
The Broken Family band don’t look like a band who have suffered parental anguish, in fact they look like the sons my mother would have preferred. Four albums in and the future is looking bright for the four piece from Cambridge, major airplay and positive reviews have made the Broken Family Band a must see of the summer.
Front man Stephen Adams has enough wit and charm to win over any disbelievers of “country metal indie music”. Adams ’ English wit adds to the flavour with precision, at a time when indie music is becoming more and more dull, bands like Broken Family Band rule the school.
Please introduce yourself and your band.
My name is Steven and I’m in The Broken Family Band. So are Jay, Mickey and Gavin.
The Broken Family Band is our band of the summer, Creature has found new love, how do you feel about this?
Very good. We love doing what we do and it’s always a treat to find out that we make some people happy. Thanks for saying so.
You mentioned you have been to many festivals this year, can you put your finger on a favourite?
I had a good time at all of them, but End Of The Road was my favourite. The festivals have been good for different reasons though, like Glastonbury was about being there with my friends, and the gig was sort of incidental. Summer Sundae was all about our show as far as I’m concerned. We played this posh festival near Oxford called Cornbury – we shouldn’t have been there but I had a ball.
The name alone implies something a little different and it delivers. Creature has been a fan of Misty’s big Adventure for some years now, the ridiculous gigs and the incredibly catchy songs make it very hard not to be. Misty’s music is an eclectic mix of jazz, lounge, psychedelia, two tone, pop and punk. But this is only really half the tale.
The eight piece is led by the aptly named Grandmaster Gareth, who is the ringleader to a very peculiar bunch. (suggestions for the collective noun of Misty’s Big Adventure members are most welcome). Lurking near the Grandmaster is Erotic Volvo, a man dressed in a loose full-body red sack with numerous stuffed blue gloves attached, with his face painted blue. It’s difficult to know where to look or what to do or say, I find it fitting to dance with a beer and a leer. A very English affair.
Bright eyes, Modest mouse (older stuff) Radiohead hail to the thief (awesome album) Mr Hopkins computer sings [v.2.0].The Fall, headroll. Nood and Rasha Shaheen.
Are you still out decorating the streets of Bristol?What was your last project?
Oh yes although a bit low key in Bristol area, have been putting up garden gnomes on toilet blocks – ghostboy.co.uk/gnomes.htm . Am working on graffiti led light displays at the moment.
Flipron are an entirely unique, almost unclassifiable, band, from Glastonbury, UK, consisting of singer and songwriter Jesse Budd, pianist/organist Joe Atkinson, drummer Mike Chitty and bassist Greg Shepheard. Flipron were signed to Tiny Dog Records in 2003.
At creature mag we put a lot of emphasis on noticing, on noticing what you notice, it’s what this issue is all about, what do you notice?
JB: I can’t speak for the others, as I’ve hijacked this interview for myself, but I’m not sure what I do and don’t notice. I feel it’s important to notice and understand your emotions, your subtle secret intentions, your real motives, things that you don’t really like to admit to yourself. We deceive ourselves on so many levels. But in physical terms, smells are well worth noticing as they are so evocative.
Smells are generally under-represented on the noticing stakes. I also like little sounds. Bird song, ticking clocks, watches, breathing. Quiet breezes. When I drive Mrs. Flipron to work in the mornings, we drive through the Somerset levels near Glastonbury where we live. In the spring we notice Little Egrets lurking in boggy fields.
They’re like small herons but completely snow white, really gorgeous looking creatures. Mrs Flipron has an eye for tiny details like no other. She can spot the tiniest of flowers in the busiest of surroundings. She is a Master Noticer. I am but her clumsy apprentice.
An Interview with the artist, musician and founder of Kangaroo Kourt, Hal Camplin. Summer 06.
So you set up an art space in 2002, can you tell us a bit about how it developed into Kangaroo Kourt?
2001 Just after Sept. 11th I returned from New York after an operation on my spine and started a horse racing
betting line business in Bristol (after leaving London). We named our business HQ Kangaroo Kourt and put a slate
sign up outside the house I was renting with others in north Bristol off the Gloucester rd (I was on good terms
with the house owner).
How do you go about creating the animations… programmes etc, how long does it take?
Having started as a graphic designer and illustrator all my animation work is based on my illustrations that I scan and digitally manipulate. From the animation point of view I use various software depending on the aesthetic I am going for. So far I have used form 3D and 2D animation software to video and traditional frame to frame animation. Very recently on my animation into pieces I used stencil animation as you probably have seen. My two previous animations took me around three months form conceptualisation to completion and that was because of deadlines. My last animation took me only a month of very hard work because of a deadline for an exhibition. I was asked to present it in a video installation format.
Are you just working freelance at the moment or are you working for a company?
I have worked in the past for design and advertising agencies but at the moment I am a freelancer working both on my personal projects and other artist’s projects.
