Interview: Zoot Woman on the Hot Seat!

Students.ch: Johnny, welcome to Zurich! When did you guys arrive?

Johnny Blake: About an hour ago. We were on a nightliner tour bus, so we're sort of living on the bus. Last night we did Munich, which was brilliant. It was part of the Melt Club Night, so it was us, Delphic, Bodi Bill and a new band from the US called Baby Monster.

Students.ch: Are you glad to be back on tour again?

Johnny Blake: Yeah, I enjoy being on tour. It's one of those things where you do an awful lot of preparation, but once you're actually on tour, it's a lot of fun.

Students.ch: Stuart Price doesn't really tour with you guys anymore, does he?

Johnny Blake: No, I mean, it's funny, we still make records together as Zoot Woman, it's always the same process and hopefully how we will always make Zoot Woman records, but the Live show and the Live Line-up has been reconstructed many times. I am very happy with how it is at the moment, but you never know... I've always thought that with Zoot Woman, as long as the essence of the song is there, the show can kind of work its own way out. Stuart, obviously, is a very busy producer...

Students.ch: You made a reference to the process regarding the making of a Zoot Woman record. Could you elaborate a bit more on how you three make songs?

Johnny Blake: Usually the first song I do comes from Adam, so any kind of musical idea basically. Then I work with it and add the vocals. Then we work with Stuart on it, who's a great producer and has a great vision of how to put a good stamp on a song. So that's basically the method on how Zoot Woman makes tracks. Obviously there's the odd song, where it hasn't been like this, but that's the way it works. I think that's also the reason why we work very well together, all the three of us. With the years, these roles have also become more established. When we were younger, we were still fiddling about in different areas of the process, trying things out, whereas now we now where each of our strengths lie and try to focus on these.

Students.ch: Do you work together in a studio or does each member do their part individually?

Johnny Blake: It's the latter. We work individually on the songs, for quite a long time actually, but there's always that stage where we'd get together for the final polish. I'll do the vocals separately, Adam will work on the music separately, Stuart will work in the studio by himself, but there is always this fundamental point in time we all three of us get together to work on the song. I think you have to do this in order to really finish a record, unless you're a solo artist. But I think if you can get a lot of it done by yourself, it's good for everyone.

Students.ch: Where do get your inspiration from?

Johnny Blake: Well, all three of us like a lot of different music, but I think we have, where Zoot Woman is concerned, our long-term influences – we've always been fans of the, like, stylish acts such as Roxy Music, Depeche Mode, David Bowie...just to name a few. What you grow up with obviously also influences you – I myself grew up with the late 80s, early 90s sound. I suppose you carry a bit of everything you ever listened to.

Johnny Blake am Konzert im Hive

Students.ch: Are there any artists out there you personally really like at the moment?

Johnny Blake: There's the UK band Delphic we played with yesterday and in Berlin, and I bought their album just because I liked the sound of a couple of songs. I then found out we were doing the gigs with them. I really like what their doing. I think it's music we can really relate to because it's very melodic and song-based, but production point of view it's doing something very sharp and exciting.

Students.ch: How important are visuals for Zoot Woman, like the way you dress at a gig, the design of an album cover?

Johnny Blake: Very important. We spent a long time on the cover of the last album – I know if you look at it it's actually very simple (laughs), but it's something we spent a lot of time thinking about. Wit the live shows as well, the look is something we spend time on determining. I think that probably also comes from the influence of bands like Roxy Music and artists like David Bowie. You can't just suddenly wake up and be those artists, but if that's the road you're kind of going down, then I think it's quite an exciting thing. I've been to a couple of gigs where you're just blown away by the style element and that inspires you to do a similar thing.

Students.ch: So do you think you could describe the music of Zoot Woman to a deaf person?

Johnny Blake: Difficult...we've always kind of said you have to look how you sound, so hopefully the look of the band could translate this. But I think Zoot Woman is built foremost around the songs and not the show. There are bands out there where the show is like more descriptive of the band than the actual music, but with Zoot Woman it's vice versa.

Students.ch: Are there any new songs in the pipeline you're working on?

Johnny Blake: Yeah, we've got a bunch of new songs and quite a few that I think are going to shape the direction of the new album. I'd like to see us do something a bit more spontaneous and possibly a bit more experimental. The last album, although I liked it, was very song-based and constructed – it would be nice to go down a completely new and fresh path of trying things out. I don't think that's a negative thing, a lot of bands and artists like to steer away from what they've just done, unless it's such a, sort of, routine process. I think it's healthy to do something totally different.

Students.ch: Are there any other artists you would like to work with together?

Johnny Blake: It's a funny thing, collaboration...it's not like we've ever said „No“, we've just always had this formula which works. I think there's a lot of room for that, but it's normally the most unlikely ones which actually work. I don't know really, but I think it's good to leave the door open. We've always worked very close to our own format, I suppose.

Students.ch: You said you were working on new songs – when do you think the fans can be expecting a new album to hit the stores? Will it take as long as the last album to be released?

Johnny Blake: (Laughs) I'm sure it won't take as long as the last album... I'd like to see us putting it out, say, within the next 18 months. I'm saying that now, but you never really know... touch wood! (smiles)

Students.ch: So if you're not making music, what do you do in your past time?

Johnny Blake: It's funny, if I'm not doing music, I actually don't really like to have anything to do with music. I like jogging quite a lot and a lot of people do this while listening to music, and I'll not do that. So I like to do things which have nothing to do with music for a while when I'm not doing gigs or working on songs.

Students.ch: Ok, thanks a lot and all the best for this evening.

Johnny Blake: Cool, thanks...see you at the show.