Cape Town supergroup, Zombies Ate My Girlfriend won the 2nd heat of The Battle For Wacken Cape Town at The Rabbit Hole and look set to give Rumours a thrilling performance at The Battle For Wacken Finale on the 28th May. Zombies have also been nominated for a number of SAMMA awards after the successful release of ‘Retrocide’ in 2015. Peter Metalcore caught up with Adriano Rodrigues(Guitarst) ahead of their show.
What was the preparation like building up to the battle? Did you change any of your usual pre show traditions?
Well the approach to the set was quite different. We generally like to take the audience on a very energetic journey whilst still keeping things varied so it doesn’t just end up being monotonous. The Wacken Battle sets are restricted to 20 minutes so it was a bit of a challenge achieving the same vibe with a lot less time than we’re used to.
When Zombies were chosen to compete, what were your initial thoughts?
Excitement! It has a ‘World Cup’ kind of vibe for us, with the competitive nature of it all. So we have a lot of fun placing bets on who will make it through the ‘group stages’ and trying to guess what the initial heats will look like.
Once all the bands had been announced for your leg of the battle how did you think you would fair in comparison? And how had you prepared for the possibility of not being chosen to go through to Johannesburg?
I think the best approach to take with this sort of battle thing, is to aim to win and prepare to lose. It’s a fine line though. You go into it treating it like a normal gig where the first order of business is making sure everyone has a good time. But you have to commit to wanting to win, in turn leaving yourself vulnerable if you lose. It’s part of the experience I guess.
Zombies have had the opportunity of opening for a number of international bands touring South Africa. How did it feel opening for an international band?
It varies. On the whole it’s always been a good experience when you get that sort of opportunity. You get to pit yourself up against recognized and accomplished bands and see how you fair. There’s a lot to be learned from that. We’re under no illusions though, often with those sorts of bookings the crowd is mostly there for the main act. But I think we do a pretty good job of holding our own amongst the greats. Things have certainly gained some momentum for us from some of our more high profile bookings, so for that we’re very grateful.
What can Johannesburg and the judges look forward to and expect from Zombies on May 28th?
The Zom filth in 20 minutes. The bonus of playing such a short show is it often turns out to be even more vicious. You don’t have to last for an hour or anything so you can just put your foot down flat on the gas until there’s nothing left.
Tell us a little bit about how Zombies were conceived and the message within your music.
It’s hard to pinpoint what the message is. I mean a lot of it is personal journey, some of it specifically to do with the band itself and the road we’ve all walked with this Zom thing. But then there’s the broader topics like South Africa, the world, religion. I guess in a way that’s all personal too. If it effects our world we have it in there, and when we play it all together it feels like retribution.
Zombies have also been nominated for a number of South African Metal Music Awards for 2016 after winning Best ‘Core’ Band for 2015. What are your expectations like?
We were really pleased to see that we managed to survive the public participation voting phase of the awards. We’re hoping to pick up one award from the four category nominations but as per usual we expect nothing. It is a great feeling though and a very worthwhile endeavor. Playing in a metal band ain’t exactly the kind of thing that’s going to get commended in your everyday life. So the ‘job well done’ in the form of the SAMMA’s is very welcome. I particularly like the fact that this whole thing has emerged from within the local metal community.
Have Zombies got any plans for new material in the near future after the mind blowing ‘Retrocide’
We do! The facts as they stand are as such. We are still writing the second album, steady progress is being made. We’re aiming to release in 2017 for now. We’d also like to expand on our promotional material with this album release so there’ll definitely be some surprises. But yeah, the rest of 2016 is pretty much dedicated to this next Zom album, with fewer select gigs for the rest of the year as we knuckle down.
If you were going into battle against the zombie army from World War Z, what would be your weapons of choice?
My dick. And I would cut the world with it.
Interviewed by: Peter Metalcore
Shots fired by: Iggy
Date: 27 May 2016
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