Following the most recent episode with Trey Anastasio Band’s Jennifer Hartswick, Live For Live Music Presents: Inside Out with Turner and Seth is back with a new episode featuring a rundown of the 2017 Shaky Knees Festival and a conversation with the three core members of new wave-inspired outfit Zipper Club.
Turner and Seth discuss in length the Shaky Knees Festival, which takes place in Centennial Park in Atlanta, GA, and this year featured headliners from LCD Soundsystem, The XX, Cage the Elephant, Pixies, Portugal. The Man, Phoenix, Ryan Adams, next tier acts such as Moon Taxi, The Revivalists, Sylvan Esso, J. Roddy Walston & The Business, Dr. Dog, Saint Motel, and up and coming acts such as The Record Company, Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Con Brio, and the aforementioned Zipper Club. The festival, now in its fifth year, is hitting its stride as it continues to expand on a diverse lineup of acts from across the musical spectrum.
You can listen to the new episode of Live For Live Music Presents: Inside Out with Turner and Seth below:
During the formal interview section of the podcast, Turner and Seth discuss Mason James‘ former band Cerebral Ballzy, a NYC punk rock act that saw a fair deal of success over the years, and how James made the transition from a style with plenty of edge to a band that, as Turner describes it, “what happens when you have the sophistication of fine art meeting the raw passion of punk, and you throw in a little bit of synth-pop.”
The group goes on to discuss working with former Smashing Pumpkins member and A Perfect Circle guitarist James Iha, who produced a number of tracks on their upcoming debut album. The first time they worked with Iha was in a dingy basement in Brooklyn, NY, and had an immediate connection which continued as the band wrote additional tracks for their forthcoming album.
Zipper Club also opened up for Tears for Fears on their first tour ever, as the band had played with Curt Smith at Coachella, had become close friends with the band, and the opportunity to come out as the support act happened rather organically.
Lissy Trullie, who grew up in New York City, and was an art and film student at Parsons and The New School explained, “For the record, I was a huge fan of punk….The Queers, The Exploited….I was a little punk.” With drummer Damar Davis, the trio was complete, and moved forward with James’ vision of exploring diverse musical genres outside of the punk universe.
In the live setting, Zipper Club is making a point of creating a multi-sensory performance, with a full-on light show, as well as stretching songs out while on stage from an improvisational standpoint. James explains, “Look out for the future, we have been improvising a lot recently….we are trying to expand beyond that. You try to take it to different levels, you try to do different solos, and make it a unique experience for every viewer. Sometimes it goes wrong, sometimes it goes beautiful, it’s that weird awesome thing you get at a live rock n’ roll show.”
James discusses why he was amped to play Shaky Knees, as Turner and Seth began to throw some jabs at other non-festival festival’s such as Coachella, which are more of a scene than anything else, “[Shaky Knees] is full of people that want to see music. It has been really refreshing. Everybody was so nice.”
Explaining one of the craziest gigs James ever played at a punk show, he says, “So I was in the UK, and we did an entire photo shoot of us puking into Christmas things….puking into Santa hats. So I used to have to fucking puke on cue. That was our thing. It is not a cool thing, everybody listening, don’t do this, please. It’ll just give you acid reflux and fuck you up later in life. But, that was our shtick, so we had a whole photo shoot of us [Cerebral Ballzy] puking on Christmas in the UK.” Nobody said the punk life was easy.
Turner also attempts to get the band to divulge the ultra secret information of how they came up with the band name. You’ll just have to listen to find out….
**For more Inside Out With Turner And Seth episodes, head to their SoundCloud, iTunes, or Stitcher page. You can also email the podcast producers here to submit feedback which may be incorporated into future episodes!**
You can check out past episodes of Live For Live Music Presents: Inside Out with Turner and Seth podcast below:
Jen Hartswick Recounts Her Pinky Swear With Christian McBride, A Fateful Call From Trey
Dirty Heads Frontman Jared Watson Talks Weed, Colors, Addiction, And More
Widespread Panic’s John “JoJo” Hermann Tells Studio Stories And More
Jason Crosby Talks Impromptu Performances With Prince And Bruce Springsteen
Col. Bruce Hampton Discusses Upcoming Star-Studded 70th Birthday Blowout
Los Lobos’ Steve Berlin Goes Back To His Roots
Big Gigantic’s Dominic Lalli And Jeremy Salken Discuss Their Careers In EDM
Benny Bloom & Tom Hamilton Get Us Excited For Fool’s Paradise
Al Schnier & Jim Loughlin Talk All Things moe.
Umphrey’s McGee Engineer Chris Mitchell Discusses How He Captures The Band’s Unique Sound
Chris Kuroda Talks Evolution From Early Phish To MSG
Brendan Bayliss Talks New Umphrey’s McGee Album, Career Highlights
Jefferson Waful Talks Umphrey’s, Collaborating With Chris Kuroda
UM’s Brendan Bayliss Talks Band Origins, Meeting Steve Miller & More