I got the chance to have a quick interview with Z&G front-man Greg Carlin for Activate Newspaper and thought I'd upload some of the pic's from the night and the interview with Greg about their tour, new album and performing for Rhodents.
Niamh: So, this is your 6th show for the tour?
Greg: I have no
idea! (Laughs).
N: Haha, oh wow,
but how’s it been so far then?
G: It’s been cool;
we’ve got a new band basically. Mike used to play keys and he’s moved to drums
now and Stef’s the new bassist. I’m playing keyboards as well now, so it’s kind
of a new thing for us. We’re still
getting used to it. For the last 4 years I’ve been playing guitar and stuff. We’re
playing new songs as well. It’s fun but it’s just weird sometimes for the crowd
because they don’t know them, they sort of go “what is this? What is this new music”,
so ya it’s been cool.
N: Ya, 'cause your new album seems to be a bit darker, and it’s sort of like “why are you guys so
mad or angry?”
G: Hahaha, no it’s not really that. Ag, it’s just
a different. We just wanted to go a different route. It wasn’t like a preconceived
idea.
N: Is your music
personal, or a mixture?
G: Very much so.
For me it’s very personal. I write all the lyrics so it’s all from sort of
personal experience. Looking back and analysing my own life, so it’s very
autobiographical. Even from the first albums.
N: How was last
year and the other times you played in Grahamstown?
G: Last time we
played acoustic, which was still pretty crazy. The last time we played as a proper
band was at Prime, which was pretty fun.
N: And so far on
your tour where’s been the best place?
G: We’ve had the
best turn out in Jo’burg actually. Even though it’s my hometown we
never really [have such a turn out], it’s such a spread out city that its hard to focus on a crowd in
one area. This time we played in Fourways and we had like our biggest crowd. it was real fun.
N: How are you
expecting tonight to go?
G: I don’t know,
I’m looking for people (laughs). Ya I don’t know, you never know. It’s a
student town and it depends if people have been partying this whole week and if
they’ve got money but we kept it cheap at 30 bux. It’s chilled, I’m sure it’ll
be fun.
N: What’s it like
doing other gigs and coming out with a new album?
G: This album we
did kind of differently. We took some breaks in between and we actually haven’t
played a proper live show before the tour, which is about four months. We’ve
had quite a lot of time off from a full show but we did a lot of acoustic
shows. And that’s what we did at Fest and stuff like that. So that was easy ‘cause
it was just the three of us. Me, Mike and Al. It was a simple tour, it wasn’t like
a whole nationwide tour, so was quite fun.
N: What’s your
favourite song off the new album?
G: I think live
wise, I think Sons, and I love it on
the record and it’s going to be our next single, maybe towards end of the year.
N: How is the
album doing?
G: The album seems to be doing pretty well. Being played on
campus radio and 5fm, we’re moving on to our next single now, called My Best which is a little bit more
commercial and sounds a little bit more like The Knife and The Inside. Whereas
I’ll Blame You is quite different. [My Best] is a bit more like the old
stuff.
N: Awesome, and
what do you think of us Rhodents? We’re well behaved hey?
G: Rhodents! No!
Of course you’re not well behaved. We have some fun times!
Tailor:
Zebra & Giraffe:
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