Matty Lewis - Zebrahead (01/12/2013)
When I catch Matty Lewis of Zebrahead, we found common ground almost instantly on the fact that our throats were torn to shreds. However, Matty’s reasoning held much more interest than a simple flu.
“We were playing a show at on Friday, and just as I hit the last note of the show, my voice just gave up on me. Talk about lucky. I’ve only just gotten it back now.”
Zebrahead are one of the many bands announced in the Soundwave Festival second announcement alongside A Day to Remember, Jimmy Eat World, and Panic at the Disco. It’s a wonder how they held their excitement. With a secret as big as that line-up, you can only imagine how they kept quiet. As it turns out, they never got the chance to speak.
“We didn’t really know we were confirmed until the tweet went out saying we were playing!”
Sadly, the Zebrahead line-up had taken a hit earlier this June, when during recording guitarist Greg Bergdorf retired from touring with the band to spend some more time with his family. Still, Matty seems to have taken it in his stride, and with the addition of Crime in Stereo’s Dan Palmer, he feels more than confident that the band only has the brightest future in its path.
“Well, Greg has a kid about two states over, so we understood where he was coming from when he said he needed to leave. We’re all good having Dan along on tour; we know each other pretty well. Whenever Greg couldn’t make it we’d get Dan to fill in for him live for years. Actually, we had him with us when we came down with our last Soundwave!”
Zebrahead’s newest offering, Call Your Friends, manages to somehow keep the standard feel the band has set up over the years while tackling a style not seen from the guys before. This style is that of modern post-hardcore, a genre shift that the band had yet to try. Matty blames this on both the addition of Dan to the line-up and a need to capture the energy of their live shows in recording
“Actually, I’d blame the change in sound on Dan. Overall, I think we just wanted to have the album sound a bit more like our live shows. If you hear us live, our songs are about 30% faster (you can blame our drummer for that!), and we really just wanted to capture that for the new album. We didn’t sit down and go “oh, this song needs to sound more hardcore” or anything, we just did what came naturally, and I think it came out pretty well on the album.”
Zebrahead are just as thrilled as the rest of the punters to be joining the Soundwave 2014 crew for two major reasons. The first is being able to play for all of their die-hard Australian fans again, a fanbase that when they were first in Australia they had no idea they had.
“I’m telling you, it was such a good surprise to see people at Soundwave watching us. I mean, I didn’t expect anyone to come along, but every show the crowd just got bigger and bigger and everyone seemed to be having such a good time. It’s one of those things that makes you feel like you’ve done something.”
The second is being able to see so many incredible musicians after their set. There’s one artist Matty is very particular about seeing though.
“This year I’m pretty pumped to be playing with Living Colour, those guys sound awesome. It’ll be real awesome to see them playing every night on this tour; they’ve got a great sound going on that I can’t wait to see.”
Matty, hopped up on all of this music talk, decided to divulge into which band he would ever feel not worthy enough to be in their presence. For him, there’s only one answer.
“If there was one band I’d freak out about seeing; it’d most definitely be Van Halen. If they we’re playing, I’d make sure I’d watch them every second that they were playing, every single night, and I’d still be devastated when it was over. I love Van Halen, they’re my favourite band ever.”
Lastly, Matty tackled a question every Zebrahead fan wants to know: is there any chance for another covers album like 2009’s Panty Raid?
“There have definitely been talks about doing another Panty Raidish covers album. I mean, we’ve already done Panty Raid, so we can’t really do that theme again, but there’s always others out there. We’ve definitely been talking about it, don’t you worry.”
Ben Spencer
“We were playing a show at on Friday, and just as I hit the last note of the show, my voice just gave up on me. Talk about lucky. I’ve only just gotten it back now.”
Zebrahead are one of the many bands announced in the Soundwave Festival second announcement alongside A Day to Remember, Jimmy Eat World, and Panic at the Disco. It’s a wonder how they held their excitement. With a secret as big as that line-up, you can only imagine how they kept quiet. As it turns out, they never got the chance to speak.
“We didn’t really know we were confirmed until the tweet went out saying we were playing!”
Sadly, the Zebrahead line-up had taken a hit earlier this June, when during recording guitarist Greg Bergdorf retired from touring with the band to spend some more time with his family. Still, Matty seems to have taken it in his stride, and with the addition of Crime in Stereo’s Dan Palmer, he feels more than confident that the band only has the brightest future in its path.
“Well, Greg has a kid about two states over, so we understood where he was coming from when he said he needed to leave. We’re all good having Dan along on tour; we know each other pretty well. Whenever Greg couldn’t make it we’d get Dan to fill in for him live for years. Actually, we had him with us when we came down with our last Soundwave!”
Zebrahead’s newest offering, Call Your Friends, manages to somehow keep the standard feel the band has set up over the years while tackling a style not seen from the guys before. This style is that of modern post-hardcore, a genre shift that the band had yet to try. Matty blames this on both the addition of Dan to the line-up and a need to capture the energy of their live shows in recording
“Actually, I’d blame the change in sound on Dan. Overall, I think we just wanted to have the album sound a bit more like our live shows. If you hear us live, our songs are about 30% faster (you can blame our drummer for that!), and we really just wanted to capture that for the new album. We didn’t sit down and go “oh, this song needs to sound more hardcore” or anything, we just did what came naturally, and I think it came out pretty well on the album.”
Zebrahead are just as thrilled as the rest of the punters to be joining the Soundwave 2014 crew for two major reasons. The first is being able to play for all of their die-hard Australian fans again, a fanbase that when they were first in Australia they had no idea they had.
“I’m telling you, it was such a good surprise to see people at Soundwave watching us. I mean, I didn’t expect anyone to come along, but every show the crowd just got bigger and bigger and everyone seemed to be having such a good time. It’s one of those things that makes you feel like you’ve done something.”
The second is being able to see so many incredible musicians after their set. There’s one artist Matty is very particular about seeing though.
“This year I’m pretty pumped to be playing with Living Colour, those guys sound awesome. It’ll be real awesome to see them playing every night on this tour; they’ve got a great sound going on that I can’t wait to see.”
Matty, hopped up on all of this music talk, decided to divulge into which band he would ever feel not worthy enough to be in their presence. For him, there’s only one answer.
“If there was one band I’d freak out about seeing; it’d most definitely be Van Halen. If they we’re playing, I’d make sure I’d watch them every second that they were playing, every single night, and I’d still be devastated when it was over. I love Van Halen, they’re my favourite band ever.”
Lastly, Matty tackled a question every Zebrahead fan wants to know: is there any chance for another covers album like 2009’s Panty Raid?
“There have definitely been talks about doing another Panty Raidish covers album. I mean, we’ve already done Panty Raid, so we can’t really do that theme again, but there’s always others out there. We’ve definitely been talking about it, don’t you worry.”
Ben Spencer