Interview: Voodoo Bloo
What got you into music, and if you had not gotten into music what would you be doing Today?
Honestly I couldn’t even give you a reason. It just sprung out to me from a very young age, I’ve been playing instruments for as long as I can remember, it’s so long ago now that I can’t even remember getting my first guitar or having my first lesson, it’s been surrounding me for all my life and, if I didn’t get into music, I’m pretty sure I’d be doing nothing at all.
What do you like to do when you are not playing music and how does that influence your creativity?
Pinball is one of my favorite pass-times. We have one down in our home studio so that’s where I spend most of my time when I’m not writing or recording. I’m starting to become a real music tech nerd as well, I just bought a tr-606 the other day and now I’m going down the rabbit hole that is boutique drum machines. Music is not only difficult at best, but bloody expensive too…
Where are you based and how did that influence your music?
I’m based in Wellington, New Zealand, and the one reason that I started making music at 13 years old is because I hated Lorde’s music. Literally nothing more to it than that. She was at a house party I was at in Auckland recently and I left as soon as I heard the news, swear to god.
Tell me about your most memorable shows.
There have been many a show that it’s hard to pick, but there’s one that stands out above all. It was the first night of our first tour, and everything went okay when we were onstage, but once we hopped off and the next band went on, we noticed this totally drunk chick there who had this real bad stench around her, like I had to go outside because she was totally not all good.
Anyway show ends and I go back up to the stage to grab my gear and go home, and I feel myself slip over in something, still had quite a bit of adrenaline in me from the show so I didn’t think much of it. We then travelled about halfway through the country overnight and played another gig, for me to find out that not only had I been an incredible distance with sh*t all over my leg and didn’t notice, but I had played a show with sh*t on my leg, and wondered why people
were giving us a funny look for a whole 45 minutes….
What is your favorite venue to play at, and do you have any places you want to play that you have not already?
Meow is a definite favorite of mine, it’s this real cool spot in the city, the walls are lined with bookshelves and it just has this really welcoming feeling. Our drummer Jackson actually played with IDLES up there once, they used to do this bit where they’d give the instruments to the crowd, he tried to ask the guitarist what the chords are but he just shrugged and pulled a stage dive on him. F*cking hilarious.
As for somewhere I’d want to play, Red Rocks may be very high hopes, but how could anyone think it is not the coolest venue they’ve ever seen? It’s so pretty, such good sound and I won’t give up till we end up their or Weird Al does a parody of one of our tracks.
If you could play any show with any lineup, who would be on the ticket?
Mr. Bungle, The Mars Volta and My Chemical Romance.
Not sure if anyone would actually go, hell I might be the only person who wants that, but it sure would make me happy.
What is some advice that you would give to your younger self?
You’re alright, but you get a hell of a lot better, so just keep existing I guess.
Of your songs which one means the most to you and why?
That would have to go to 9 th of July, 2019 off of our first album “Jacobus”. It was my final goodbye to one of my closest friends, and though we never perform it live to record and put it out there was a form of closure that I’ve never felt again. I’ll always miss him but to have a version of him that I can go back and listen to will always be the most special thing to me
Which songs are your favorite to play and which get requested the most?
At the moment it’s one of our new tunes we’ve never even played live, it’s not even gonna be on this album, called “extreme performance grease”, we’re starting to make some absolutely batty sh*t and I can’t wait to do something with it. Oh and MMA. It’s literally every single time MMA, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love it, it’s a great way to end off the night!
What is your creative process, and what inspires you to write your music?
I think about things then stuff happens with it. Nah Idk, me and the boys have a wallflower aspect on everything in life, we never get too involved but we watch everything going on around us and it can go from something so philosophical and deep and meaningful in terms of what we write, to a song named “extreme performance grease” which is about absolutely nothing at all. Inspiration comes from all angles, like a musical purgatory, that’s where I live at least.
What kinds of messages do you like to get across in your music?
It spans from messages of positivity, strong vocalizations of mental health importance, to dreams I’ve had about Pennywise the clown turning me into a sleeper agent to kill my family, and wanting global warming just to end everything already. As was told, Musical Purgatory.
What are your plans for the future, and do you have anything that you want to spotlight that is coming up?
I wouldn’t be surprised if the album wasn’t the only set of music we release this year, we are slowly becoming cogs in the content machine, but we also might not just be seeing everyone in New Zealand this time around, a trip over the pond may be in order, or even set in stone…..
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