Sceneazine.com
tify – our CD can be bought or downloaded direct from
us on our website. (www.ZrKing.com/music)
Alternatively, it is streaming and available for download on Bandcamp. (http://zoctorking.bandcamp.com)
If you were trying to convince someone to come see
your band what would you tell them? What do you feel
makes you different from any other band?
Our live show is explosive and bloody, like the most
dangerous amphibious animal on earth, the Barracuda.
We definitely think this is what sets us apart from the
pack; we want our live show to burn the house down,
every time. Even if that means we actually have to burn
your house down.
Let’s get everyone to answer this. At what age did
you start playing a instrument or singing? Do you still
have that Instrument?
Well Griffin (guitar & vocals) started with guitar at
age 5 or 6, an old Silvertone tiger-flame Sears Special
with a chipboard case. It was hard as hell to play, but
still made noise. He’s still got it, hanging on the wall
in the den at his house, above the bear skin rug. Nice
piece. Brandon (bass & vocals) started with violin, but
since Griffin had already taken the guitar spot, he had to
settle for bass, an old Ibanez thing covered with stickers
that he bought from our first drummer (hi Kevin Alexander!) for eighty bucks. It’s under a bed somewhere,
but he’s still got it. Derek (drums & vocals) started
playing drums at 5 - a thrown together kit of all different pieces. It was kind of a Technicolor Dream kit, but
most of the pieces were sparkle finish. That kit sadly (or
maybe not?) is now long gone. Matt (guitar & vocals)
started playing piano and singing when he was 4. He
fell in love with guitar after hearing Andres Segovia, and
when he found an old nylon string in his attic at age 7,
began teaching himself to play.
Tell me what got you interested in being in a band.
What was the name of your first band and do you still
keep in touch with anyone that was in your first band?
Griffin and Brandon had a whole bunch of bands – if
you could call them that – in their formative years, as
well as a few jam groups in their early teens. The names
escape us, but suffice it to say our inability to recall
them is probably telling of their quality. We still keep
in touch with a few of those cats, but don’t often jam
with them anymore. We grew up listening to our dad’s
record collection, which was pretty formative, and we
both had a tendency to beat on things – it’s surprising
we didn’t end up drummers. But we both play guitar
with a percussive style; beat it within an inch of life, and
then start over again. Derek’s father is a pro drummer,
so he’s been exposed to various styles of music – and
drums – since birth. His first band was a punk/ska/reggae crew called Subcutaneous, but that was many years
ago. Matt knew very young that he had a lot to say and
many ways to say it. He dabbles in numerous forms
of creative expression, and realized he could combine
them all by emulating his rock n’ roll heroes and making
music his medium for expression. He’s had the pleasure
of working with lots of other great musicians since his
early teens, and still keeps in touch with many of them.
Do you have a favorite local bands that you’ve done
shows with? If so, do you care to share their names with
us?
Yes – absolutely! New York has a wealth of killer
bands: Vinyette, Isle of Rhodes, The Spanish Channel /
Jaime Garamella / Bruce Hordon’s Rock’n’roll Explosion,
Gay Guy/Straight Guy, Bodyface, Stroamata, The Courtesy Tier, The Winchester
Local, Atom Strange. The
former bassist of this last
band is one of the founders of Ronin Guitars, they
handcraft some fantastic instruments. Griffin
relies on them regularly
and Brandon uses them
exclusively.
How do you feel about
your local music scene?
What would you like to
see change?
New York is one of
those places where you
can go out every single
night of the week and see
a killer band in just about
any genre. Sure, there’s a
lot of static and lackluster
acts, but if you know how
to filter out the garbage,
there are some incredible bands you can find
on the local scene. One
of the things that can be
challenging about this,
though, is that it’s very
compartmentalized, and
so often it feels like an
overall level of cohesion and support is missing. That’s
why we try our best to network with the bands that have
similar goals, work ethics, and approaches – we want to
create a scene of like-minded musicians.
Most bands dream of making it big or reaching the
top. Do you guys have that dream or do you care if you
get a recording contract?
Ultimately, our goal is to be able to support ourselves by making music. That doesn’t necessarily mean
making it big, so to speak – it just means sustainability.
What we love more than anything else is making music,
and after so many years of cutting our teeth, we feel like
we’ve gotten pretty g