Interview With Will Yates (Zoos of Berlin)
Loungy pop rockers Zoos of Berlin are by no means a new band on the local scene. However, what is new is the fact that Zoos of Berlin have recently release thier first full length album titled Taxis, and will be playing as a top headliner at the upcoming GOLD Music & Arts Festival in Downtown Rochester this coming Sunday (which is free of charge I might add.) With all this, I recenlty contected Zoos of Berlin’s talented keyboardist Will Yates to find out what’s inside the band’s innards.
How did Zoos of Berlin get started?
Our vocalists Trevor and Daniel have played together for several years in a few projects, including Red Shirt Brigade. A few years ago they recruited our drummer Collin and started Zoos of Berlin. A couple subsequent lineup additions and subtractions took us to our present configuration, with me rounding things out on keyboards.
Who are Zoos of Berlin’s influences?
Like most musicians, we’re all voracious listeners, so we’ve got too
many influences to count. Broadly speaking, we try to keep our music
weird and fresh without getting too far away from being a pop band,
and we admire anyone that’s done the same, from The Beatles on down.
Tell us about the new album?
Some of the songs have been in the works for years; others are relatively recent. In general Trevor and Daniel will start writing the songs together, and then bring their parts to a full band practice for all of us to flesh out and finish off. We’re lucky enough to have an accomplished recording engineer — Collin Dupuis — for our drummer, so he did the lion’s share of recording and mixing for the album. We rented a very large room at the Russell Industrial Center in Detroit for six weeks, built a makeshift studio, and recorded the bulk of the album there. All the reverb on the album is natural (i.e., not computer-generated), coming from the rooms and halls of the Russell. Carl Craig — Collin’s employer — was kind enough to let us use his studio in off-hours to mix the album. We ultimately self-released ”Taxis”, and now it’s out on CD and as a digital download. If we manage to come in to some money someday we’ll press up vinyl.
FEATURED TRACK:
“Black In The Sun Room” – Zoos of Berlin
Why did it take you so long to complete?
There are multiple reasons why it took so long to finish the album: we have a perfectionist streak, we did everything (recording, mixing, releasing) ourselves, we’re all busy with things outside of the band, etc. We definitely took the long road on this one, but in the end we got it done, and we like to think that all the choices we made in the process made for a better album.
With so many “things out side the band”, does that mean you will not be touring much?
We’ll be doing weekend trips to New York and hopefully Chicago this Fall. No plans for a longer tour at the moment, but it’s certainly on the table.
So what are the challenges of promoting a album independently?
The album is self-released. We have more control over things by doing a self-release, and I actually enjoy the work that goes into releasing and promoting an album. On the other hand, being on an established label would bring us a level of clout and connections that we don’t have, and would probably make it easier to get people to take us seriously. It’s certainly something we’re interested in, should the right opportunity present itself.
Who comes up with all of Zoos of Berlin’s cool artwork and album covers?
Our very own, very talented Trevor Naud (guitar, vocals). I consider him to be a visionary. You should check out Trevor’s Flickr page.
What other bands are the members of Zoos of Berlin in?
Trevor’s sort of in Pas/Cal, and then he has his Hidden Ghost Balloon Ship project with LTD. I’m in The Pop Project, and I’m also a live-only member of Javelins.
Being that you’re in more then one band in town, what do you think of the current music scene around Detroit?
I’m happy with it. It makes up a good chunk of my circle of friends, but that aside I think there’s a lot of talent in town and a lot to be proud of. I would say there isn’t a central “sound” the way there was when garage rock was at its peak a few years back, but there’s nothing wrong with that. I’d like to think there’s a lot of room for someone to come out of nowhere and blow some minds with what they’ve been working on in their bedroom.
So you’re playing the Gold Fest in Downtown Rochester on Sunday, tell us about it?
It’s being put on by the folks who run the Factory, the all-ages venue in Rochester. We’ll be performing Sunday August 16 in the Rochester Farmers Market parking lot. Also playing are The Hard Lessons, Millions of Brazilians, Friendly Foes and more. I myself will be pulling double duty by playing with Javelins as well. Should be a good time, and I’m happy to help support the Factory folks, since I think they’re doing a good thing.
** The GOLD Music & Arts Festival takes place this coming Sunday (8/16) in Downtown Rochester, Michigan in the Farmer’s Market parking lot located at the southwest corner of East Third Street and Water Street. Zoos of Berlin go on at 7:00 PM.