Lead vocalist Matty Lewis, speaking from his home in Las Vegas, is proud that his band can provide an escape from all the darkness happening in the world at the moment. “I think that’s why I like it (the new album) so much,” he admits. “It’s what I like – I like party music, loud and fast and not really saying too much. We don’t like to preach or anything like that, we just like to have a good time, drink beer and party – and more party.”
Is at least part of that the fact that you don’t want to add to all the doom and gloom that’s going on around the world? “Absolutely man,” he agrees emphatically. “This is rock ‘n’ roll, and we shouldn’t be the people that comment on politics or religion or bullshit like that. Just come to a show, listen to some music and have a good time with all your friends. And that’s what we do with Zebrahead.
“You know what?” He continues, “the world’s full of really shitty stuff. So why not take a break from it and have some fun?”
And he also agrees that their music and attitude is a reaction to a lot of the dark and doomy sounding bands that proliferate across the rock, punk and metal worlds. “Absolutely. That’s my least favourite of all music,” he says. “There’s a lot of music today that is just so depressing; it makes me want to hate life. It’s like ‘when they were writing this music, what were they thinking? Are they in a dark room by themselves and crying?’ I don’t understand, it’s sad,” he laughs.
He doesn’t believe that the fact that he lives in a sunny, warm place contributes overly to his more positive attitude and, subsequently, he and his band’s happier approach to songwriting and performance. “Well that could be, but do you know what? The sun shines everywhere. Even Cleveland, Ohio, and even in London. There’s sun everywhere you go. You gotta live it up.”
And it appears as though Australian pop-punk fans will be getting to experience the fun and rollicking good times that a Zebrahead show is within the next twelve months tops. “Absolutely,” he emphasises again. “I can’t say we’ve confirmed things right now, but we’re definitely going to be there, for sure.”
You can trace the band’s origins back to the mid ’90s, and since then they have released no less than ten albums in that time. Matty is actually quite incredulous that it has been over a decade and a half that his band has been around, and feels that they still have plenty of creative juices left in their tank. He puts their staying power and their industrious approach down to simply a strong work ethic and enjoying what they do.
“The years just kind of meld together, and it’s crazy how it flies. No, it doesn’t feel like that (long) at all. It’s basically just what we do; we’re a working band, a blue collar type of band. We love touring and we love writing records, it’s fun.”
And even though the band have been doing this for a long time, and feel they have plenty left in them, they never take playing music in an original band for a living for granted. “To do this for a living is so fortunate,” he says, “I can’t tell you how fortunate we’ve been, with the shows and the response and the kids and the fans, they’re basically keeping us alive, and making it all possible. And making it possible for us to tell our families ‘we’re not dirtbags’. We’re kind of dirtbags, but we’ve got a little bit of spending money. Not much, though.”
BY ROD WHITFIELD
