Zipper Club is the new band produced by James Iha of The Smashing Pumpkins. Distracts Stefan gets the low down!
How did you guys meet?
Mason – I met Lissy In Union Square and I met Damar in a skate park
Your logo is very interesting and I had a hard time figuring out what it means, and to be honest still don’t. Can you explain how it came about and what it signifies for you individually and as a band?
Lissy – It means Zipper Club.
And piggy backing off the logo, why the name “Zipper Club”? What is the history of the name?
Lissy – Zipper Club is a secret society of likeminded people
You recently performed in NY’s Berlin in East Village, how does the crowd, venue, and energy compare to that of LA, your hometown?
Lissy – New York is my hometown.
Mason – Each city has it’s own attractions and detractions. Traffic sucks…
The rest of your tour is out West, what brought you to NY?
Lissy – I’m from New York so I brought myself there and Mason used to live in New York.
Mason – Cities are cities and people migrate to wherever they end up. We end up wherever the cooler thing is going on at the time. There was a time when New York was a place I needed to be. Right now it’s LA but it’s only because of the people that are there and that you surround yourself with.
Most of our followers haven’t been to your show, how would you differentiate it from just a regular band?
Lissy – We are a brand new band. We’re just at the start of touring so it’s not crazy that a lot of people haven’t seen us.
Damar – I think our live show is pretty energetic and our songs are pretty dancey. People who haven’t seen us are missing the party aspect to our show
We have, especially in NY, seen this evolution into, as you would say, “If it sounds good I don’t care if it’s from the 1920’s or the 2016’s. As a musician, you take little tidbits of cool sounds you hear and combine them into something completely unique.” How much do you attribute to technology and the ability to obtain information, musical or lyrical, instantly from all corners of the world?
Mason – Real, good music happens everywhere and the city is only the catalyst for making cool shit. Instant accessibility to everything is a major catalyst in what moves the world forward today at such a quick pace. We would be remisc to say that being able to pull up a cool sound or cool song doesn’t have a major influence in the way we write music. That being said we just try to expand upon what are our interests.
Where do you go out to search for new music and sounds?
Damar – KCRW
Lissy – Word of mouth
How do you do so? Friends or fans sending you samples? Or do you just pick a city and find their most popular music?
What was your first experience with music?
Damar – I was 2 yrs old and I started pulling the pots out of the kitchen cabinets and started banging on them in the kitchen.
How did it evolve into forming a band?
Damar – Mason and Lissy worked on the record together and then once it was time for a live show me and Damar had a mutual friend in Mike McMillan and that’s how I became the drummer.
What were your biggest musical, creative, or general inspirations growing up and now-a-days?
Damar – growing up a lot of Soul music like Marvin Gaye and Teddy Pendergrast. As I got older Jon Bonhman, Talk Talk and The Smiths and Cann.
The video for “Going the Distance” is visually beautiful. How did the concept come about? How did you end up teaming with Mason James and Jason Hogg? Who in the band has the visual eye?
Mason – We all have a visual eye and we are all very unique people on our own. Jason is a great friend of mine personally and it was great to collaborate with him on the project. He’s a visual wizard and a really cool guy.
