“I like the precision of electronic music. The fact you can manipulate a note on a synthesiser into pretty much anything gives you so many options to find a sound that can move a track in exactly the right way.”

While I am trying to escape the grey Berlin sky that darkens my work desk, I know that the only way to do that is to put on some tune that will carry my mind elsewhere. The amazing track Meridian by the so talented London band Zola Blood succeeded in delicately lifting up my mind and heart. And so did their new sublime video for it that was done by their good friend, photographer and director Maxim Kelly. The four band members, Matt (vocals/guitar), Ed (Synth), Sam (drums) and Paul (guitar) faced up to our questions about their debut EP, dealing with the collisions of different ways of thinking and working and why they are trying to apply a “no phone” rule in the studio.

image by Adam Pilmer
interview by Sigrun Guggenberger

You are from London. It´s such a great, vibrant and multicultural place. How has this place shaped you as a humans and artists?

London has a rhythm that you don’t get in many places, there’s so much happening all the time and so many people – that’s exciting. I think like a lot of people in the city, we all moved away from smaller towns trying to find something here.

We’ve got to meet a lot of musicians and there’s a big community of people trying to contribute something creative – that’s inspiring. It’s a great place to live, but it’s also fucking expensive and can eat people up if they’re on their own. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else though.

“We’re also handicapped by chronic disorganization, which doesn’t lend itself to finishing songs quickly.” Is that your biggest weakness? And what is your biggest strength?

We’re not entirely disorganised – we have a manager! But we’re not what you’d call speedy at songwriting. Our label would probably say it’s our biggest weakness, but I don’t think we’d trust a song we finished in a couple of hours. Biggest strength? Urm, Sam is fluent(ish) in Spanish.

In October you released your debut EP Meridian. How proud are you to hold something in your hands that you have created?

Yeah we’re very happy. The whole process with the EP was great. We recorded it with a good friend Oli Bayston (Boxed In) and it felt like a long time coming. Some of those songs were written ages ago, so it was a relief to release it. There’s always a feeling that nothing is ever finished and because it was the first thing we were putting out we felt a bit reluctant to let go – but the reaction totally surpassed expectations. We’re writing a bunch of new tunes at the minute that we’ll hopefully play out in the summer.

I like the fact that you are doing electronic music but you are using real instruments also on stage and we love the organic sound that comes with it. Why did you chose to do electronic music?

We all started out playing guitar music and went down a probably quite common path of growing up with bands like Portishead and Radiohead and then discovering club music and labels like DFA. A few years ago Ed and I went to (now defunct club) Neighbourhood and saw an electronic band from Oxford called The Egg. It was the first time I’d seen a full band playing dance music like that and it it left a big impression on both of us and probably planted a bit of a seed.

I like the precision of electronic music. The fact you can manipulate a note on a synthesiser into pretty much anything gives you so many options to find a sound that can move a track in exactly the right way. Listening to someone like Tim Hecker you can sense how much time has gone into a sound so that a single chord is really dense and dynamic, despite just being three notes.

That said, we also love the chaos and white noise of playing live and trying to couple that precision with ‘live’ instruments without everything falling apart.

scene from Meridian Video

“…..we also love the chaos and white noise of playing live and trying to couple that precision with ‘live’ instruments without everything falling apart.”

“And besides taking a lot of time to find sounds out of different software instruments or vocal samples it´s the four of you playing as a band and trying to work out the different ideas each of you has.” Is it four completely different worlds colliding or you have a very mutual way of thinking and working?

A little bit of both. We have a good sense of who we are as a band and most of the time we’re on the same wave length. No one is trying to push for a more Gabba sound or anything like that. We’ve been playing music together for a few years so it’s become easier to figure out where something is going.

We tend to write together in one room and then people will take bits away to work on and share ideas just on a phone or 4-track. Once we start to demo a song Sam will take on most of the production duties, but it’s pretty democratic. There’s the odd argument, but that’s important in getting a song to the right place.

You are doing many live shows at the moment. How is it going so far and after a gig do you take this energy from stage with you for a while or it gets quite quickly absorbed by the tiredness of the hard work to give people a good time?

Yeah they’ve been pretty mad so far, both the London shows were sold out and the crowds were amazing. It’s always a bit weird straight after playing a show, cause you’re so pumped up it’s quite hard to concentrate on anything – you end up sort of floating above yourself for a little bit. It’s usually always fun though, so inevitably you take good vibes from a show to wherever you end up

We just got announced for Swn Festival in Cardiff and Secret Garden Party – looking forward to playing outside for the first time.

Besides music, the things that are important in your life?

Family and friends.

Many of my friends have made good changes for themselves this year. What has been the best change for you?

It’s new thing, but we’re trying to have a ‘no phones’ rule in the studio, especially as we’re working on new stuff at the moment. I read somewhere that if you’re in the middle of something and stop to look at your phone it can take 20 minutes to regain your concentration, which is pretty scary!

Any last words?

We’ve just finished making a video for Meridian with our good friend Maxim Kelly – a photographer/director. Max went out with to a Greek island called Hydra to film it with a synchronised swimmer. Apparently the water was freezing cold, so she did an amazing job – you can see it here. Or here: