Interview With Ryan Nall of Zoogma for NewTimes Broward/Palm Beach 2011.10.28

Repost of my interview with Ryan Nall of Zoogma for the NewTimes Broward/Palm Beach found here.

Q&A

Zoogma's Ryan Nall Explains What the F*ck His Band is About

By Adam Smith Fri., Oct. 28 2011 at 7:44 AM

Categories: Q&A

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The live electronic five-piece Zoogma has left its Northern Mississippi home to tear it up all festival season. In between touring, some noteworthy appearances included major festivals like Wakarusa to Camp Bisco X. The quintet utilizes the auditory diversity and pinpoint musicality of DJs to reproduce a traditional dance music intonation that is porous enough to skillfully dab on traces of rock, jazz and hip-hop. The end result is a high-energy, well executed sound that continues to evolve and push the boundaries of exploration.

This weekend, the band returns to one of its favorite places to perform. Prior to tonight's performance at Culture Room, Zoogma's Ryan Nall (bass/synthesizer) took some time with County Grind mid-run to discuss what the fuck Zoogma actually is, and the future of live electronica.

County Grind: Zoogma offered your music for free in the past, and plan to do the same in the future. How important has that approach been in explaining your success from a touring perspective?

Ryan Nall: We like the idea of giving our music away for free, and we believe that has helped expose our music to a lot of people. We believe in our live show, in the distinctive experience that is a Zoogma performance, so much so that we feel like if we give away our record people will be driven to see the music executed live. We take the material in a lot of different directions live, freeing it up and improvising, so you get a similar experience to the album, plus a lot more.

Anyone that went to a Florida music festival in the last year is familiar with your slogan, "What the fuck is Zoogma?" How did that phrase come about and is it safe to ask about the enigma?

We started the campaign at Bear Creek 2010 as a way to raise awareness about our band and festival slot. The viral success of it has been amazing and more successful than we could have imagined. Now we feel as though you only ask if you already know, a kind of battle cry of our fans and mantra of the band. Plus it's always fun to say it at a festival and see what response you get.

Do you see direct correlations between grassroots marketing and word of mouth tactics in regard to the traction Zoogma has gained since the first studio release?

The fact that last year we started asking people at Bear Creek "What the fuck is Zoogma?" and now people all over the country use that slogan as a battle cry at shows make me think that we're onto something.

You are hopping around the state on a four night run, including a date at the Culture Room. What have your experiences been like playing to the Florida crowds?

Florida has been very good to us, the fans we have here are some of our most diehard. Also, as a state in general, the crowds are very grateful and appreciative and always ready to give us the energy we need to create the best versions of our music. The festivals we play here, Bear Creek, Aura, Blackwater, Purple Hatters Ball, and Big & Hearty are usually some of our rowdier festival sets. The connection between the crowd and our band is profound. We're very grateful and proud to be a part of the music tradition here.

Where do you see the future of the live electronica moving in a world dominated by producers, and more importantly, where does Zoogma fit in?

It's tough to say, I believe a lot of the music community have been surprised by the success and influx of DJs and producers across the scene. We see it as a good thing that so much electronic music is being produced and that the genre itself is gaining popularity. We also look toward the future and see that our live instrumentation and abilities as producers is what sets us a part and makes our show a more dynamic electronica experience. Because we can replicate the sound and aesthetic of a DJ as a group of live musicians we feel we offer fans of electronic music a very unique and powerful thing, something they don't get with most DJ and producers.

Have you ever considered attempting to devolve the mash-up technique back to the instruments and execute that approach to electronic music with a full band?

Interesting, kind of a live band Girl Talk concept? It would certainly be interesting to tackle a project like that as a group. We like reinterpreting other artists, and kind of adding our own Zoogma edge to their music. We currently have been playing around with a similar concept. A DJ or producer takes recorded music and remixes it and we've been taking DJ's and producer's music and rearranging it for a live band. We've experimented [with] a Sub-Focus track most recently and have had a lot of fun realizing there music as a live band. In most cases this has never been done before because their music was composed by one person using a digital audio workstation.

Zoogma. With Sounduo and Beat Thief Inc. 9 p.m. Friday, October 28 at Culture Room, 3045 N. Federal Highway, Fort Lauderdale. Tickets cost $10. Click here.

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Bela Fleck and The Flecktones 2011.10.19 Culture Room Fort Lauderdale, FL

Repost from the NewTimes Broward/Palm Beach website found here.

Live: Bela Fleck & The Flecktones at Culture Room, October 19

By Adam Smith Thu., Oct. 20 2011 at 9:09 AM

Categories: Concert Review, Last Night

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​Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
(Original Lineup)
Culture Room, Fort Lauderdale
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

Better Than: Bela Fleck & The Flecktones with Jeff Coffin on saxophone.

Hot off their chart topping new album Rocket Science with the original Flecktones lineup of Victor Wooten (bass), Roy "Future Man" Wooten (Drumitar, percussion) and Howard Levy (piano, harmonica), Bela Fleck (banjo) and the guys proved that after over 20 years they are still pushing the progressive envelope. As masters of their respective instruments and possessing a reputation of defying genre classification, an certain level of expectation proceeds the outfit. They are more about jazzing up world rhythms than sticking to jazz molds, and more inclined to fuse bluegrass and funk than dwell in the fusion spectrum. After an extensive summer tour playing theaters, sheds and festivals all over the U.S. and Canada, the quartet of virtuosos kicked of an early October run through the South that included a stop at the intimate Culture Room in Fort Lauderdale.

The Culture Room brought in numbers and the room was filled to capacity when the guys took up their respective instruments. The start of the set was oddly punctual and kicked off right around the 9 p.m. mark. "Gravity Lane," the opening track of the new album, served as a warm up tune before the band launched into a series of greatest hits, crowd favorites, and choice new selections. A theme of using older tracks as jump off point for segues into fresh material from Rocket Science worked well in maintaining a balance of sound range and the audience's attention.

"Sex In a Pan" from 1992's UFO Tofu was phased into "Life In Eleven," a Levy track that references his use of 11/8 time, something he calls, "really funky, but to me feels totally normal." That is not normal, but this is the same guy that was the first to use overblow and overdraw techniques for chromatic playing on the diatonic harmonica. Another UFO track came with an upbeat version of "The Yee-Haw Factory" before dropping into a smoothly slowed down and jazzed out "Prickly Pair."  

Grammy nominated violinist Casey Driessen came out to show off his violin skill set and engaged Levy in multiple duels. The winner of each was debatable, but the competition pushed the entire band into high energy peaks that were rewarded by ovations from the audience. He would return a handful of times through out the night. Things went way back to the self titled record next with "Flipper" and "Sunset Road" sandwiching 1991's "Flying Saucer Dudes" from Flight Of The Cosmic Hippo." Old school fans were elated by the series of throwback cuts and the band rewarded the crowd energy with jaw dropping solo trading. Whether it was Fleck switching between his traditional and rock guitar tone mandolins, Future Man on the drumitar or traditional kit, Levy on harmonica or Steinway baby grand, or Wooten on his yin-yang 4 string or aquamarine 5 string bass, the multidimensional conglomerate held nothing back. 

A two hour and forty minute continues set continued with two more new songs before crushing both crowd favorites "Sinister Minister" and "Blu-bop." Fittingly bookending the set where "Gravity Lane" began, the guys extended the bass driven "Bottle Rocket," the final track of Rocket Science, before walking off stage. 

The insatiable crowd took the opportunity to release a great deal of pent up energy that brought a smiling band back on stage. The final result can only be called an exposition on how Fleck can capture such a large amount of sound while alone on stage. Lets just say he even tried to play with his teeth. Future Man was also left to his own devices as he put on a drum clinic before the band returned to the stage to round out the encore with an Earth shattering bass solo from Wooten during Flight Of The Cosmic Hippo. 

Critics Notebook:

The Crowd: Top heavy mix of an older crowd mixed in with energetic young jazz heads. The room was packed in from wall to wall with little room to move.  

Personal bias: First time seeing the original lineup and Levy stole the show with the dynamic and energy he brings to the band. The tracks from Rocket Science bring back the original sound combined with musical evolution and wisdom.  

Overheard:  "So I got to Fort Lauderdale and went to one of those massage parlors...yeah" - Victor Wooten in between songs.  Intermittent bursts of the loudest yelling possible by a particularly excitable member of the audience. 

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