Shakafest 2017 has sold out and is promising one hell of a line up. GC Live caught up with one such band, Electric Zebra, fresh off their east coast tour to chat about Shakafest, their latest single ‘I Blink’ and their EP ‘Ambition’.
Catherine Gunther hung out with Keelan, lead singer of Electric Zebra.
Your latest single is ‘I Blink’. It’s packed with catchy guitar riffs and the vocals have a lot of energy. What inspired the song?
It’s kind of self-motivational, like encouraging myself to get up and do something rather than sitting at home all day. I hate being stuck at my computer but it takes a lot to convince me to go anywhere else. Sometimes you have to be your own hype-man.
You worked with some great people to produce the track. What was it like working with Bryce Moorhead, Darek Mudge and Steve Smart?
Bryce is a brilliant producer. He captures your best performance, his brain percolates and starts adding little ideas, and then we work together until we’re happy. Darek is one of the best mix engineers around and also one of the nicest guys I know, despite how insanely busy he can be, he always finds time for us. Steve Smart has a killer portfolio of mastering (DZ Deathrays, British India) and he always gets the masters back to us straight away, plus he’s been happy to make adjustments whenever we’ve asked for them. We’re very glad we get to work with any of these people.
The EP ‘Ambition’ has a great collection of songs that capture the nuances of your loud yet provocative take on grunge that brings up memories of the early 90s but with the Electric Zebra twist, is there a favourite song from the record that just had to be included? What was the story behind the song?
Cheers! The last track ‘Momentum’ was my favourite at the time of writing, but when I showed the guys my demo for it, none of them thought the riff worked. Eventually they changed their minds (I hope). It was the only kind of hopeful sounding song I had written for that EP too, so I knew it needed to be on there at the end, to balance out the angst.
You’ve just wrapped up an east coast tour, how was the response from fans? Were there any standout memorable moments from your time on the road?
We were happy with the response everywhere, but especially here. Our Gold Coast show was huge, definitely an all-time top 5 show for me. The tour was full of standout, usually pretty bizarre moments. We saw a kangaroo explode, for example. Gross. My favourite part was probably seeing Kesh (our bassist) descend backwards into the mosh pit while playing a bass solo at Miami Shark Bar.
You’re gearing up to play the Gold Coast’s own Shakafest alongside some amazing bands like Grinspoon, what does this festival mean to the band and what can fans expect from your live show?
Oh man we could not be happier to be on that line-up. Grinspoon are legendary of course, DZ Deathrays are one of our all time favourite bands, Waax are incredible – we can’t believe they’re having us on! We’re going to be bringing our A-game for sure. I know if I were a punter I would expect a lot from anyone on a bill this huge, so we have to prove ourselves, and I cant wait.
It’s been a crazy time for Electric Zebra, what’s happening next after Shakafest?
We’ve been working on a lot of new material, and some of it should be coming very soon after Shakafest. Then I’d like to take that on a bigger tour, hit some new cities. We just want to play great shows for great people, that’s always the best part.
You can catch Electric Zebra at Shakafest August 19th.