There’s two types of people in this world: those who’ve experienced The Zipheads live, and those who are missing out. If you’re into high energy rock n roll, then their sets are already inching their way into your highlights of the year, especially if you caught them supporting long-standing friends Hillbilly Moon Explosion earlier this year. “We first played with them back in 2013 at the Jazz Cafe,” explains Zipheads frontman Ray Waters, “and that was kind of our first year as a band, maybe not officially but this one we really started playing in London and making a bit of a name for ourselves. That was one of our first big gigs, and then fast forward to 12 years later it was great to do a tour with them. So yeah, we’ve been friends with them for a long time. They’re a fantastic band as you know and we always enjoy playing with bands that don’t fit so neatly into genres like rockabilly and psychobilly. I think the Hillbilly Moon Explosion are a lot more varied than that and hopefully we are too so it’s nice to share a stage and a tour with a band that are completely different sounding from us but have a similar ethos, let’s say.”
Part of the Zipheads’ appeal is that they don’t neatly fit into any genre label. They’ve played psychobilly weekenders like Bedlam Breakout and Psychobilly Freakout Festival but they fit equally as well into this year’s Red Rooster Festival lineup, bursting with Americana and Country. ‘Rock n Roll’ seems to be the best label, but even that doesn’t really cover it, and Waters uses this to his advantage. “We listen to all kinds of music and so that’s what comes out when we write and play music. I think Americana in particular [is] so fantastically vague that you can get away with it. But I think rockabilly, for example, and rock and roll, most of these genres by their very nature are already a mix of four or five other genres which in turn are a mix of four or five others- so we’re very interested in that, the meeting points between genres and stuff like that. But we’re trying not to have more than two genres in one song. So, we’ll have an album, like this album and like our past two albums that will have maybe four or five rock and roll tracks, maybe a reggae or a ska track, a couple of punk tracks, this kind of thing. And so we can adapt our set list because we’ve got that varied back catalogue when we do different events with different crowds. But actually, in the last couple of years, we’ve decided not to do that because it takes a lot more rehearsal and that’s pain in the arse. But [it’s ]more the fact that you get these festivals that are kind of all one type of music, and we used to be a bit nervous about going on and like, oh, should we do our reggae song at Bedlam where everyone’s there for rockabilly and psychobilly? Well, like, fuck it, let’s do it. And honestly, so many people afterwards come up and go like, “that was the best bit of the set”. Ten bands in a day that all sound quite similar can be quite exhausting. So we found that people were actually very responsive to that kind of mix of genres.”
Making music that gets the crowd on board, wherever their roots lie, has come naturally to the vocalist and guitarist. “My father was a musician. You know, he was a guitarist and songwriter and singer. But mainly he would play sort of Irish traditional music, [that] was his thing. And then he would listen to reggae and dub. It was a very interesting household to grow up in musically! Music was always there and the idea of doing it wasn’t ridiculous because I was living in a house with somebody who was not a big star but was going out and playing and making some money from it. But I was never really interested until I was thirteen. And then I started listening to like Green Day and bands like that. I think punk was definitely what turned me on to music. That’s when I said I wanted to pick up a guitar. That’s when I finally said to my dad, “alright, show me some chords”. I know that’s the same for our bass player, Dick [Dynamite] and almost anyone I meet in the rockabilly scene or rockin’ scene was a punk first and then diversified, or became more narrow-minded, whichever way you want to look at it haha!
This was the early 2000s. So I was listening to Green Day and, you know, they were really my favourites. But then there was other bands around- I wasn’t a huge Blink 182 fan, but I like what they’ve been doing and Sum 41, bands like that. Alkaline Trio is one of my favourite bands. One day, because I was listening to those bands, my dad was like, “oh, you know, these guys are just ripping off The Clash or Elvis Costello or the [Sex] Pistols or whatever. So I was like, “oh, right…” I started listening to those bands, listening to the Dead Kennedys and stuff like that and getting really into seventies punk and new wave: The Damned, The Ruts, you know, hundreds of bands. And then one day I was like, oh, I should listen to some rock and roll, like some fifties rock and roll. And I bought a compilation, which was Capital Gold FM Rock and Roll. And that had all the most obvious rock’n’roll songs that everybody knows. Great Balls of Fire and C’mon Everybody by Eddie Cochran and that kind of thing. And I was just in love with it. I was amazed how many of the songs I was like- “I know these songs!” Because everybody knows those songs, but I’d never thought to like, actually properly listen to them. I started really getting into it. And then my dad was like, “well, have you heard of Stray Cats?” So I started listening to them. Another band we were already very much into and a huge influence were the Living End who are, you know…I wouldn’t call them a psychobilly band or a rockabilly band, they’re a punk band with a double bass. So we were already listening to them and really were digging what they were doing. That’s how we kind of got into the rock’n’roll thing, and then basically somebody had a double bass that they’d found in a skip.”
Returning to what inspired them is the driving force behind Rock’n’Roll Renaissance, the Zipheads’ eagerly awaited third album. “We chose that title because it’s got a lot of ‘R’s in it. So it kind of sounds good, a little alliteration for our brand, but [we were] also interested in the idea of a Renaissance. The Italian Renaissance and the Harlem Renaissance weren’t so much new things. It was the idea of going back to the classics, which in the Italian Renaissance would have been like Greek stuff, going back to the history of art, music, academia, and putting value on that and celebrating that so that’s kind of what we did. We’ve sort of gone back to our roots.” Waters pauses to laugh at his phrase. “I hate when bands say that, it’s one of those like in-the-chamber, ready-to-go sound bites, isn’t it? But yeah, I went back and really dug myself into the rock’n’roll. I was never a huge Elvis fan, but like Sun Studios stuff and then a lot of second wave- if you want to call it that- rock’n’roll: Gene Vincent, Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers, Eddie Cochran and all that kind of thing. Going back to that and thinking about, you know, what it was that makes it so great and yeah, trying to encapsulate that on this new record.”
Rock’n’Roll Renaissance will also be their first studio album to feature Dick Dynamite on bass. “He’s great. He’s a great bass player and he’s a good singer. He’s a good all-round musician. He plays violin on this album. There’s some violin… a smaller double bass. He’s a massive nerd like we are but many of these songs were written before he joined the band. And, yeah, he certainly put his stamp on things in the studio. He’s a consummate professional. When he joined and was really listening to the songs to get stage ready, he was like, “yeah, a lot of your lyrics are…” I obviously have some kind of victim complex. Yeah, persecution complex, that’s what they call it, right?” Waters is talking about his jaded lyricism, which comes to the forefront on new song Happiness, which features the chorus ‘happiness is hard to find’. “It certainly is. I think it’s hard to find for a lot of people. Music is one of the places we look for it. I’m also not really actually convinced that happiness necessarily exists as an achievable goal. You know, but contentment and joy are certainly things that you can try and hold on to for as long as you can. And then they step away and they come back. But that song specifically is about cutting someone toxic out of your life. Happiness is hard enough to find without somebody standing in the way of it and actively blocking it. So yeah, you gotta cut that person out.” Why Say You Do, a gorgeously fifties-influenced song with an active trademark bitterness running through it, is a standout on Rock’n’Roll Renaissance, even though it was nearly dropped. “That one almost didn’t make the cut, you know. We actually had two songs left over. We had two more than we needed and these other two songs were quite heavy, quite punk, and they didn’t really fit in too well with the rest of the album. They’re great songs and we were really disappointed to cut them because in many ways we prefer them to some of the songs that are on there. But they’re going to be first in line to be recorded on the next record, which will maybe be a bit heavier and be a bit more consistent. There was a second where we were thinking about dropping Why Say You Do, which is probably one of the most obviously fifties, sixties inspired ones on the album for sure. It’s got a nice bounce to it, so we left it on there and yeah, it turned out great.” Closing the album with a cover of Jackie Wilson’s Lonely Teardrops is a bold move, and is bound to be a fan favourite. “Everyone’s asking about that! So, it’s sort of become a Zipheads tradition to finish every album with a cover. Something we sort of accidentally did on our first two albums and then decided ‘is this a thing?’
This is the thing now. So I’ve always, always loved that song. I’m a massive fan of Jackie Wilson. And it was one of the first rock and roll songs I learned. I’ve been singing it in my bedroom since I was like seventeen. And I’m just absolutely in love with that song. We just thought it worked well with a Lovers Rock reggae kind of thing to it. On our first album, the last song is our version of 5446 Was My Number, which is a classic reggae song. So we took that and we did it in a rock’n’roll style. And now we’re flipping it and taking a rock’n’roll song and doing it in a reggae style.”
With only two weeks to go until Rock’n’Roll Renaissance launches in spectacular style at the Underworld in Camden, Waters is raring to go. “I am excited, I’m very excited. We were rehearsing yesterday and we’ve been getting match fit for it, obviously rehearsing songs that we’ve never played live before from the album. We’re very excited to debut those to all our fans and friends and family.” There’s no better time to experience a Rock’n’Roll Renaissance with The Zipheads than right now, and if you’re coming fresh to their sound, there’s no better place to start than with their album launch party next month.
Order Rock’n’Roll Renaissance from https://shop.zipheads.com/
Buy your tickets to The Zipheads’ album launch party on Friday 13th June at the Underworld here: https://www.theunderworldcamden.co.uk/event/the-zipheads-13th-jun-the-underworld-london-tickets/
An interview with Ray Waters of the Zipheads by Kate Allvey. Photography by Pauline Di Silvestro.
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