Fans of The Black Keys, Alabama Shakes, Gossip and The White Stripes can I please have your attention.
Let me introduce you to Z-Star Delta, a two-piece rock & roll, blues, soul circus that make a lot more noise than a duo should ever make.
They've rocked stages as far and wide, and iconic as Glastonbury to the Royal Albert Hall in London, from Whisky A Go Go in LA to Radio City Music Hall in New York. And now they're in Australia for a two-month stint of festivals and their own headline shows.
Drummer/ singer Zee Gachette sits down for a chat.
You have a two-month stint in Australia touring March-April; you must be looking forward to the extended stay?
[Zee] The intention is to get in as many beach sessions as possible swapping the snow for glorious, hot sand! We have lots of friends here, so hangout time is essential: dinners, barbecues, jams.
A lazy evening at the Hot Springs in Mornington Peninsula has already been ticked off the list. I’m also keen to check out a vintage drum warehouse in Sydney, go trekking for waterfalls in Byron, take that tour of Stone & Wood brewery – just love their pale ale.
Visit some funky markets for the food, arts and crafts – Eumundi is a fave :) A friend’s wedding. Possibly some late-night recording at Yama-Nui in Kiels Mountain. Busy, busy x.
With the extra time you'll be in Australia, are you hoping to explore/ connect to our local music scene in greater depth?
Yeah for sure, especially at the festivals. It’s great when you get drawn to the sound in the distance.
Last tour we saw some great shows and made a tonne of new muso friends: Wolfmother, Beck Flatt (Blues Arcadia), Lachy Doley and Jackie Barnes, Dave Atkins (Resin Dogs), OJ (Band Of Frequencies), Minnie Marks, Harry Hookey, Teskey Brothers and Hussy Hicks – who we’ve got a show with this tour.
You have a bunch of festival appearances slotted in with normal headline shows; do you approach festival shows any differently to your standard show?
It’s always the same approach when it comes to performing. It’s like our last night on Earth vibe. That’s the energy we bring. It’s just a question of the time of day and how much time we have to take the audience on that psychedelic train with us.
At venue shows, we can go off-piste a lot improvising and writing new tunes which keeps the experience of playing music fresh for us. Sometimes we lean back into the more acoustic blues or we fall full throttle into the our trashy blues, rock & roll selves. It’s all part of that hot mess of a vibe that makes it fun, edgy and unpredictable.
Being only a two-piece, do you both make an extra effort to be more active on stage interacting and engaging with the audience?
Performing live is a natural action for us, it’s going to be whatever it is. In the Z-Star Delta, I’m drumming, playing guitar and singing sometimes all at once which I don’t do in the mothership (Z-STAR full band). So from that point of view it takes way more energy.
We always want to make a big sound for the songs to surf on; it’s a two-piece with a full-band backline set-up. Sound engineers just love us :) I feel we engage with our audience on a spectrum that ranges from intimacy to catharsis.
We can only deliver the songs to their full capacity in the truth of that moment. The rest I suppose is in the collective recollection of the experience.
Who are some singing drummers you have been influenced by? And have you seen Kram from Aussie Spiderbait live?
I wouldn’t say I was influenced by singing drummers, more like 'wow that’s a singing drummer'. Sheila E, Chaka Khan, Meg & Jack White, Deap Vally, Anderson .Paak, Keith Moon, Ringo, Jimi Hendrix. Spiderbait were off the hook when we saw them last tour at Caloundra Music Festival.
What does it mean to you to be an independent musician?
Being independent means freedom, but mostly it means you own all the rights on your recordings. When you can collaborate with a label that really believes in the music that’s a goldmine, because artists need patrons, followers, music lovers. The support of a great label can mean the fast track to a larger audience, sometimes.
I’m a huge fan of Ani DiFranco, she defined all odds to make the records her way; keeps on touring and establishing her label, Righteous Babe Records.
Creative control. Imagine an art lover telling the artist what paint/ colours to use and who they should be inspired by. If you’re a musician making music for the masses and there’s big money involved everyone wants a say in how it should sound and look. Luckily that’s not us. We write what we feel and play it the only way we can over the precipice, with abandon.
You have your ‘Face The Iron Ram’ limited edition tour album available at this run of shows; for the uninitiated, how do these live recordings showcase the sound/ musical direction of Z-Star Delta?
The listener definitely gets a good taste of the Z-Star Delta musical spectrum. It’s as live and energetic as it can be for a studio recording, plus we get to add some layers like a pre-production exploration for the official record.
'Face The Iron Ram' is a collection of tunes recorded at various times over the past year; all very raw and vibey. Some tracks are just one mic in the room.
And how is work progressing on the Z-Star Delta debut studio album?
It’s going great. We’ve been experimenting with sounds and production ideas adding more synth and looping beats. The real challenge is deciding what songs make it to the album… as we have quite a few to choose from.
Z-Star Delta Tour Dates
Tue 20 Mar - The Wesley Anne (Melbourne)Fri 23 Mar - Camelot Lounge (Sydney)
Sat 24 Mar - The Stag & Hunter Hotel (Newcastle)
Fri 30 Mar - BlenheimFest (Clare Valley, SA)
Sat 31 Mar - The Wheatsheaf Hotel (Adelaide)
Thu 5 Apr - Lefty's Old Time Music Hall (Brisbane)
Fri 6 Apr - Dust Temple (Gold Coast)
Sat 14 Apr - The Porch Project (Yandina Creek)
Sat 21 Apr - Byron Bay Brewery
Fri 27 Apr - Sound Feast @ The J (Sunshine Coast)
Sat 28 Apr - Mullum Drill Hall (Mullumbimby)
