Interview with Zach Curd (The Pop Project, Suburban Sprawl)
Metro Detroit’s Zach Curd is one busy guy. Not only does he run one of the Midwest’s most prolific indie record labels; Suburban Sprawl, but he is also 25% of the musical melody genius that is The Pop Project (who’ve recently released one of the area’s best and most highly anticipated albums of the year Stars of Stage and Screen.)
Seeing that three stand out acts form the Suburban Sprawl imprint are invading The Blind Pig in Ann Arbor tonight (The Pop Project, Javelins and Child Bite), MCR corresponded with Zach to find out what he’s up to these days.
You have had a busy year, how many new release has Suburban Sprawl put out?
We’ve released 5 discs this year. Child Bite‘s Exquisite Luxury EP and Fantastic Gusts of Blood album, Javelins’ No Plants Just Animals + EP reissue and Heavy Meadows album, and The Pop Project’s Stars of Stage and Screen album. It’s likely we’ll also release The Word Play’s debut album this year too (called How I Became Illustrated).
The Javelins music video for “Out On The Sand” was really well done, who directed it, where was it shot?
That Javelins video was done by Erin Cosens, and it was shot in the Natural History Museum at UofM.
Will there be anymore music videos form Suburban Sprawl in the near future?
Yes! Erin’s slated to be doing a video for The Word Play soon.
Tonight you have a show at the Blind Pig, is it more fun playing a college town like Ann Arbor over a urban jungle like Detroit?
I definitely prefer playing in Ann Arbor, but that could be due to me not having to drive as far. I do like Detroit though.
Do you have sorority groupies in AA, don’t freshmen UofM girls forget to shave their legs or something like that?
I’m not sure about that. You’ll have to ask those freshmen girls yourself. Good luck asking 18/19 year olds about their shaving habits.
My wife went there and she says that she was an outcast since she shaved her legs. Moving on, what happened to your Suburban Sprawl August shows at Alvin’s in Detroit?
Alvin’s closed for the month of August for renovations, so our last scheduled show there was canceled. We agreed to do the shows from April until August, so once August was canceled that was that.
What is coming up in the end of the year/early 09 for Suburban Sprawl ?
We’ve got lots of stuff in the works for 2009, but not really a crazy amount of stuff that anyone will ever hear about. Lots of behind the scenes type stuff. We will have our annual free holiday music compilation available for download at the beginning of December. (www.subsprawl.com/xmas)
Will the Pop Project be touring around the country like the Javelins and Child Bite?
I don’t really see that happening, unless we get an offer that is too good to pass up, like a package tour with Rihanna and Panic At The Disco.
Yes, that new Rihanna single is outstanding. So, anything special planned for tonight’s show at the Blind Pig?
It’s special because all three bands haven’t played Ann Arbor in several months. Everyone feels at home at The Blind Pig, so it should be a great time. I live with Julian (Javelins) and Zach (Child Bite), so the show will be a showcase of our house.
