FEATURE: Spotlight: Zulu — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Zulu

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CONTUINING Spotlight features strong…

PHOTO CREDIT: Nick Santana

there are names that have come to my ears that I am sort of catching up with. New recommendations are coming from music websites and various sources, which compels me to seek these artists out and then share them here. One group that are definitely ones to watch this year are the amazing Zulu. The incredible Powerviolence Los Angeles crew are splicing R&B samples into Hardcore sounds. They are, as REVOLVER write “rounded out by guitarists Dez Yusuf and Braxton Marcellous, bassist Satchel Brown and drummer Christine Cadette — have taken the next step of working on a debut full-length record. During his call with Revolver, Lei is vague on specifics but palpably excited. "There are going to be entirely new realms explored musically," he says. "I didn't want it to be typical. I didn't wanna do just any record. I didn't get to even include everything I wanted to, but I got to include a lot of elements. It was tough, a lot of work. … [But] getting to experiment with all the things I wanted to was an amazing experience”. I want to give you more information and insight into Zulu through a few interviews. Their amazing singer Anaiah Lei spoke with Kerrang! back in May:

“Anaiah grew up in Los Angeles, picking up a guitar for the first time aged four or five. The instrument didn’t stick at first, but the drums absolutely did. He first encountered punk and hardcore from his father, who’d come up with the city’s first waves decades earlier. “My dad grew up out here,” he says. “A lot of the early stuff that I was intro'd to as a little kid was early ’80s hardcore and the Orange County punk bands, like TSOL, Adolescents and stuff like that.

PHOTO CREDIT: Austin Durant, Kanu Egungbemi

“That was my early years, being into the old school, like the old-old-school, and going to see those bands out in Hollywood, because they still play. All those old LA, Orange County bands still play to this day, which is crazy. That’s really what it was like for me as a young teenager, and then there was the progression of getting into later ’80s stuff like Youth Of Today. From there it was about finding other bands, but it was easy because I already had a starting point.”

These days the Los Angeles scene is vibrant, stylistically varied and churning out new bands at a crazy rate. “Right now there’s a whole lot of bands. There’s a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of bands,” Anaiah says. “I don’t want to say it’s almost too many, but there’s so many bands that pop up that I haven’t even heard that I’m like, ‘Man, it’s almost hard to keep up.’ But it’s a solid scene, it’s probably the most solid it’s been a minute, and it is kind of all over the place. I will say that.

“Within one scene, there’s so many different scenes, and it’s such a big place. There’s grindcore kids, there’s beatdown music, there’s kids that are still into Youth Crew and stuff. They don’t all go to the same shows. It’s not the most unified, I’ll admit, but if you want to get into a scene, there’s something for everyone”.

It is great when you come across a group that you were unaware of but are getting buzz. I have latched onto Zulu fairly recently, and they are getting quite a bit of love here in the U.K. I don’t think they are well-known as in the U.S., but that could well change this year. With new material like Where I’m From showing just how incredible they are, the group mix a groove of Hardcore and a direct message on matters of race in the United States and the wider world. Here is a group who want to open up Hardcore for all. New Noise Magazine spoke with Anaiah Lei. It is fascinating reading how the band came together. With Lei being the figurehead and lead, it is hard to recruit a large amount of Black artists who want to play Hardcore and Powerviolence:

“Zulu is a powerviolence band out of L.A. who have captured the attention of people across the country with their savagely groovy style of hardcore and straightforward message on matters of race in the United States (and beyond). They aim to open up the scene and make it a space for anyone who loves the music, and not just for people who fit a particular demographic profile.

The band are lead by vocalist Anaiah Lei, and while Anaiah puts a lot of himself into each and every track, it is very much a collaborative effort. They’re currently in the process of working on a new record following their signing to Flatspot Records earlier this year.

To get a sense of where the band are as they put together their first full-length, we touched base with Anaiah in the waning days of summer for a short phone conversation. You can check out want Anaiah had to say about the band, their latest video for “Straight from Da Tribe of Tha Moon,” and recent “controversies” regarding their merch below.

So the first thing I wanted to know is: what is the status of the band Zulu? As I understand, the band started out as sort of a personal project. It was pretty much just you, writing and performing a lot of the instrumentation. But in recent press, the band has been referred to as a collective. So I’m wondering what that transition has been like if there has been a transition in the status or the makeup of the band, and what the band looks like now.

Oh, yeah, it’s currently just members that play the music live. Those are the members of the band, and they are part of it just as much as I am. But, you know, I still write the majority of the music, and it is pretty much still my baby. But the band helps see my vision through. We write together, but I still write a lot on my own. That’s the vibe right now.

As I understand, it was kind of difficult putting together your current band. You had conceived of Zulu as an all-Black hardcore band, but then it took a little bit of time for you to put together a lineup that represented that vision.

Yeah, it was tough because there aren’t that many Black musicians that want to play this kind of music. The scene is mainly just white people-dominated. And it’s kind of intimidating to play in a space like that. So I get why there are not as many musicians like me in the scene who are doing what I’m doing.

I’ve heard that you try to write mostly in your own voice when you’re writing for the band. How do you constrain what you want to say to fit within a power violence format? I feel like the stuff that you are talking about is really important and touches on issues that you ruminate on a lot, so condense those ideas and those feelings into short three to four-word verses.

That is the toughest thing. I am still having trouble getting that right, to this day. But I figured what I’m talking about is already very obvious, and stuff that people should already know about. So, I’m just doing a really dumbed-down version of all that stuff. And I don’t want to say a whole lot on these topics either. I’m not a teacher. I’m not an educator. I’m literally just a person trying to make music and talk about some real-life stuff. So I keep it short and sweet. I don’t have a whole lot to say on it already. I just want to get the main point across.

I’ve noticed that about your lyrics. They’re very direct.

Yeah, I’m not abstract. I’m not trying to be poetic with it. And that’s because that’s not how I am. I’m not like abstract or poetic in my regular life. So if I’m going to write lyrics, I’m going to do it very straightforward. That’s just what I do. I’m not stepping out of my boundaries when it comes to my lyrics, necessarily”.

I am going to end with an interview from Alternative Press. They spoke with Anaiah Lei. It is clear that the group want to make Hardcore more open and accessible. There is a sense of restlessness and ambition that means you are never going to get the same thing twice from the L.A. group. There are some sections from the interview that I wanted to highlight. There is new material out but, as we await an album, I would recommend people check out everything Zulu have released to date:

“Was it an adjustment to switch to fronting a band vocally as opposed to being a drummer? Did it take you a while to develop your vocal style?

It absolutely was an adjustment. I was not used to singing and only really sang backup vocals for previous projects that I was in. When I did the first recordings, I wanted to emulate the vocal styles that I liked, which were in much higher ranges, and I realized that I couldn’t really do it. I had to be mindful of how I could do this long-term. I learned more about my range, talked to other vocalists and eventually learned my voice works better in a lower register. Playing shows helped me learn a lot as well, but it’s definitely been a journey. I’m now at a point where I like how I sound, but I am always wanting to learn how to do it better, but for now, it works.

How did you end up linking with Flatspot Records?

I actually knew Ricky [Singh] from the label for several years. He hit me up randomly and told me he would love to put out our EP on 12-inch vinyl. When it comes to hardcore labels, I’m a little bit wary, but we knew each other, and I respect what they do. They have a really sick lineup, and the bands that they have are crushing it. We’re all just doing our own thing, all at the same time and in our own respective areas just going for it. When you hear about labels that really blew up and had a moment, it really feels like that in real-time.

Undoubtedly, modern hardcore is looking so much more diverse, and artists are pushing the genre forward both lyrically and sonically more than ever. What do you make of the new scene? What is working about it, and what needs to change?

While it’s doing really well and getting better with more diversity, it still is very white-dominated. Younger generations are coming out, and it is more inclusive, but it still can feel exclusive and judgmental. It’s getting there, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. It’s up to everyone to change that.

What does the immediate future look like for Zulu?

I have no time frame for the album yet, but I’m aiming for either the end of this year or early next year. We are heading to Canada soon to do some shows with Knocked Loose, and then we have a European tour in midsummer. It’s just been so amazing to see where we’ve gone, and I’m ready for whatever comes”.

Even if you are not a Hardcore fan or have had much exposure to it, I would still guide you the way of the brilliant Zulu. Music that you will bond with and appreciate, they are a musical force primed for big things this year. They definitely have the power, ambition, ammunition and passion to…