The Zoup Newsletter Interview

What is the best gig you have ever performed at, and why?

The Emergenza competition Australasian final last December at The Metro Theatre in Sydney, where we were the only kiwi band – Before then the biggest venue we had played was the Kings Arms, so The Metro Theatre seemed massive. It must be a similar size to the St James I guess. When we first walked in, some Aussie band was soundchecking and it sounded like a stadium which was hugely intimidating seeing we’d been gigging for less than a year at that stage, but on the night we ended up coming 3rd out of the 14 bands in the final (out of the total 260-ish bands that had entered the comp) in front of a sizable crowd, which was awesome, especially seeing heaps of the bands were 80’s rock. Beating Australian 80’s rock bands in a competition feels great.

What is your favourite NZ venue?

From the venues we’ve played so far, the Kings Arms is pretty choice with its old, dingy rock atmosphere and its beer drenched charm. We’ve played some memorable gigs there so it’s kind of a favourite for that reason also. We’re looking forward to playing some of the bigger venues though; we like a bit of room on the stage.

What NZ musicians or bands would you like to see more of, and why?

You can’t really get enough of Shihad to be fair, but that isn’t really news. I did always wonder why they didn’t get noticed more overseas though. The Checks seem to be bringing out some great stuff and they’re very entertaining live. If Stardrunk or Eight were still around, more of them would be sweet.

What is your most embarrassing on tour/gig moment?

A gig at the Dogs Bollix where all our equipment seemed to fail. In one song there’s a part where it drops down to vocals and one guitar, and the electric guitar putted out just as that bit kicked in. Cue awkward vocal solo.

How did you come up with the name The Zoup?

Sound of fly zipper + fart

How do you describe your music?

As our bio says, we "combine crunchy and powerful guitar melodies, unique and exploratory vocal patterns and subtle, atmospheric sounds" to build our form of modern rock / alternative rock. We try to keep it pretty raw, we don’t use any synths or anything. We like it nice and grunty and aim for diversity between songs, but also try to keep it reasonably approachable from a commercial perspective.

What can we expect to see from The Zoup over the next year?

More recording. We’ll be recording lots of demos over summer so hopefully some of those will come out sweet and we’ll record a couple more singles. Touring and gigs to support our debut release (‘The Zoup’ EP) will also be on the cards.

What advice would you like to give to other aspiring musicians?

Your aspirations should be just to play music, any success on top of that it’s a bonus. Along with two cups of hard work, a dollop of perseverance and some thyme, that’s what we think the recipe should be.