by
Zea are a Dutch band who have their home on Transformed Dreams, a fantastic label that also has fellow Dutch band Seedling under it's wings. They are both heading to the UK for a joint tour ahead of a release of their debut album Kowtow To An Idiot on Transformed Dreams/Shellshock. But are they looking forward to coming to the UK again?
"We do, it's exciting. We've been there twice now, and it's been good all the time. It sounded like people really liked our music. People told me we kinda sound different from English bands and not only because of my crappy lyrics," replied Arnold de Bour, chief songwriter for Zea.
This is good to know as apart from a few exceptions bands from other European countries don't seem to do well in the UK. DiS then pressed zea with the question as to why they think that the UK in the main ignore the depth of talent and originality that exists in Europe? "Well, maybe because there is a lot to listen to in the UK already and people don't have enough time to also go out and explore the continent. Maybe because you British are all so bloody arrogant! No, I think that bands and labels from countries have to go out and play as much as possible all over the world and come to the people. That's what we do and we like it. We just take our stuff and come and play in England. And then people hear and see us and then they maybe get interested. I think people who love music don't really care about where a band comes from. When they hear it and like it, it's enough. Talented rockers from the continent have just to shout out loud and enter your kingdom and of course be good."
In the beginning Zea were lazily compared to dEUS obviously due to their name. But, shock! zea agree with the comparison, well sort of anyway. "It seems we sound as much like dEUS, as dEUS sound like the Sugarcubes. I guess we created our own kind of universe of beats and melodies, sounds and lyrics." Phew, thank heavens for that. But what things actually influence Zea?"Movies, I love movies a lot"
On first glance this may seem strange but as well as writing top class tunes they were involved in writing the soundtrack and performing live to the classic silent film Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens. How did this compare to writing songs?
"It was a great experience. We all enjoyed it a lot, and also performing with the movie. It was 80 minutes of music and took some improvisation here and there as well. It was totally different from writing songs about thoughts and
feelings, things and happenings, because there was a story with images already we had to make the music for. I'd love to do such a thing again, but no real plans like that at the moment." So David Lynch, Hal Hartly, Mike Leigh, Jim Jarmush, Micheal Winterbottom & Wong Kar-Wai (directors which zea rate as their influences) if you need a soundtrack you know where to come!
Next, the killer question as to what affect do you think your music has? "I know it can make people smile but I guess it also makes people cry (different reasons). Some people like to dance to our music, some people find that a bit difficult. I can only hope it does the same to people as a lot of music does to me (blows me away, freaks me out etcetera)."
Zea are currently in the middle of a short tour of the UK supporting Seedling.
