Ray Waters of The Zipheads reflects on the band’s creativity, influences and more in this new interview!
Hi guys, how are you doing?
We’re doing great! We’re currently on our way back down south having played the Adelphi Club in Hull last night. Great show, so we’re still buzzing off it.
You guys have a unique energy, how important is that visual aspect of what you do?
Visuals are quite important though with that said, it’s not like we have a big light show or lasers and all that. But in regard to how we dress we used to be just jeans t-shirts because “we’re just about the music man!” but actually later on we realized that we’re there to put on a show and so we dress accordingly- a lot of bands in the punk/rockabilly scenes go for a ‘tough’ or ‘cool’ look but we’re all massive dorks so that was never gonna happen.
So we’re kind of good for suits and ties but with lots of bright colours- we try to make fun music and so we try and dress accordingly. Although I’d like to remind everyone that being on stage in suits is a bloody stupid ‘cause it gets way too hot up there.
What motivates the band creatively, outside of music?
Films, art and definitely comedy are all big influences on us. We’re all millennials so films like Back To The Future (from which we took our band name) and The Blues Brothers definitely influenced us subconsciously when we watched them on TV as kids, and now as adults we realize the effect they had on us we try and lean into that a bit more and celebrate the inspiration that we got from them.
How do you look back at Prehistoric Beat now?
Still proud. Production-wise I think we chose to go the wrong way with it. We recorded it on analogue tape because we wanted to get a ‘retro’ sound but we ended up with a record that wasn’t really representative of our live sound. Our second record Rampage! definitely is more in line with what we sound like live. But I think all the songs on Prehistoric Beat are still great and still some of our most popular songs when we play live.
Talk us through ‘How Do You Like Me Now?’ and its inspirations?
‘How Do You Like Me Now’ is a song about kind of overcoming adversity but still not really being over it haha. It’s a very bitter and petty song but laid out in a self-aware and self-deprecating way. Musically it’s kind of a mix of 50s Rock’n’Roll and 70s new wave/power pop which is generally how we would describe our music. Although there’s also a bit of 90s/00s pop-punk in there, certainly in the drums.
How would you say that you’ve changed and developed through your career as a musician with The Zipheads?
We’re more professional than we used to be. Like, we actually rehearse now and that makes you a better band- who knew? Stuff like turning up on time, making sure our equipment is of a decent standard and actually working- sounds (and is) obvious but we didn’t do any of that for the longest time. We’ve been a band for well over 10 years now and I think at this stage of the game if we’re not doing things to the best of our abilities we’d just be wasting our time. Although objectively we are anyway!!
Anything else you’d like to add before we finish?
Buy our records and come to our gigs. Please. In fact- come to one of these ones!
11/07 Trillians- Newcastle
12/07 The Waterloo- Blackpool
13/07 The Brickyard- Carlisle
20/07 Parish- Huddersfield
21/07 Bedford River Festival- Bedford
MORE GIGS – http://zzz.zipheads.com/
