El Zombie | Interview | New Album, ‘Kommando’
El Zombie is a project by René and Erwin that recently released their sophomore album, ‘Kommando’. A raw, nihilistic and yet swinging garage rock with spark of blues and a shot of psychedelia.
The project has been active for several years releasing a few singles and a debut album in 2018, ‘Life Is Bli$$’.
“Rock ‘n’ roll to us is revisiting rock ‘n’ roll, and trying to make it yours”
How would you describe your sound?
René: No nonsense garage rock!
Would you like to talk a bit about your background?
We’ve been together for who knows how long. Turn of the century? For over twenty years at least. It all started with a blues project by Erwin (singing/guitar), in John Lee Hooker style. He asked René to join him on drums and fame and fortune has never come our way from that day on. Before that, we played a few years together in The Stoned, a wild sixties punk band. There is a CD out there on dB’s Records, if you can find it. Before that we played separately in other bands, but that is really talking about the good old days. All dead and gone.
Are you involved in any other bands or do you have any active side-projects going on at this point?
Erwin has an on/off solo noise project, Irwin Church, and makes violent comics. René does the dishes.
When did you decide that you wanted to start writing and performing your own music? What brought that about for you?
What else are you in a band for? Covering songs is fun to do, once in a while, but usually doesn’t make sense. A band really comes alive when you find something together and make something new. That’s “new,” of course, since playing garage rock ‘n’ roll is making variations on a very well-known theme. We often find ourselves thinking that that new, great song we just made, actually sounds a lot like a song we already knew from favorite bands like the Stones, Stooges, Saints and a lot more. Then again, they copied a lot too. That’s part of the fun. Rock ‘n’ roll to us is revisiting rock ‘n’ roll, and trying to make it yours, somehow. Writing lyrics is the really hard part. We don’t like the popular garage rock themes like ‘I Hate You,’ ‘Let’s Get Drunk’ and so on. We often go for a personal view on life, frustrations and friends, in that way we try to make the songs ours lyrically too. Doesn’t mean that we have something to say, by the way.
How do you usually approach music making?
Could start with anything: jamming, a riff, an “echo of a song we can use” (= stealing), a great line, or even just talking about movies. The best songs often are made within 10-15 minutes. Well, excluding the lyrics that is. ‘St Stooge’ for example from the ‘Kommando’ album was only rehearsed three times before we recorded it and was very, very fresh. Our friend El Droppo, who plays keys on that song, never heard it. We gave him the chords in the studio while he was setting up his Philicorda. It worked very well and it is very rewarding when it works out like that. Still one of our favorites.
Can you share some further details on how your latest album ‘Kommando’ was recorded?
We had some good fun writing songs and especially making the cover for the album. But the recording itself was another story. Different sessions, in two different studios, in 2019 and 2021, we think? Plus the mixing, by producer DJ DNA (great guy) took quite some time, because of different reasons. When it takes that long, there comes a moment when you really don’t know if all goes well and it becomes hard to judge your own music. But somehow, we ended the sessions. And then, when the test pressing finally arrived from the pressing plant, the keys turned out to be too low in volume in the mix and the opening song sounded punchless. We had to do an expensive remastering or end up with a record you’ll find hard to listen to yourself. Very frustrating and very expensive, but what can you do? We went for the remastering. Luckily, in the end, all came out well, and we like it, there are some good songs on it, we hope. And as they say: all’s well that ends well… Listen for yourself.
What about ‘Life Is Bli$$’?
That was an adventure to make. First time we went for the big shiny 12” vinyl. Great to learn that an album is more than a collection of songs, it gradually becomes a story. DJ DNA did a great job on that one (on ‘Kommando’ too, mind you).
Took a long time too. We’re making the same mistakes.
You also released three 7″, but that was a very long time ago, please share some words about them.
These indeed are from the old days, but they’re not bad at all. Don’t know what to say about them. We’re glad we started to make albums, because we really grew as a band, but as we said, that doesn’t mean that the older stuff is rubbish. There is more of a blues influence on some of the songs of the first two singles, though not on all. The b-side from the first single ‘G.t.t.b.m.f.e.p.’ was recorded on a cheap tape deck in our rehearsal room, using only one mic and one channel. That was fun. Come to think of it, the third single was also recorded in a rehearsal room on a tape deck, this time with 4 channels. Forgot about that!
What are some bands/musicians that have a big influence on you?
Bands we both like that influence us are Stooges, Rolling Stones, Cramps, Velvet Underground, Saints, Brainbombs, Johnny Thunders. But we also like to listen to GG Allin, Ramones, Suicide, The Fall, Cosmic Psychos, Electric Eels. Then there’s some blues, country and then some more: movie soundtracks, Kraftwerk, Brian Jonestown Massacre, a little disco every now and then, Lee Perry. The list is endless and broad.
Do you often play live? Who are some of your personal favorite bands that you’ve had a chance to play with over the past few years?
We don’t play too often, unfortunately. Don’t know why. We’re not very popular or maybe just unknown or too ugly. We don’t play the regular garage rock ‘n’ roll, maybe we don’t fit in? We wrote to about fifteen Dutch venues, two months ago. No-one even bothered to answer, except for one. We like to play more, all you readers out there. We played with Mr Airplane Man, King Khan, Jack Oblivian, Cosmic Psychos and a lot more, but we have to dig deep.
What are some future plans?
Album number three. That would be great.
Let’s end this interview with some of your favourite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?
Weird Omen, from France. Especially live. About our favorite albums: you get an idea from the list of bands that influence us. But if you insist: we recommend listening to Brainbombs. Killer band from Sweden. ‘Genius and Brutality – Taste and Power’ and ‘Obey’ are great, great albums.
Thank you. Last word is yours.
Nah. We’re exhausted. Thank you!
Klemen Breznikar
