How long have you and your sister been playing music together?
We started back in 2007. Originally, I had this idea of starting a Motown type group with more of a punk rhythm section. I had called up people I knew from high school who were in gospel choir and some of my old band mates but no one was seriously interested. Meanwhile I had written a bunch of songs that I was excited about working with. I would sit in my bedroom and strum them out and one day I badgered my sister to sit behind a snare drum and keep a beat while I played. We ended up having so much fun doing that that it kinda just took off from there. Before we knew it we were out playing open mics and writing songs together. It was awesome. Kind of just one of those things that just come together in the best possible way.
Were you ever interested in adding any other members?
We have flirted with idea of adding additional members a number of times. The longest running honorary member of The Mother Z’s is our friend Aaron, with whom I used to play in a band in high school. He’s played the upright bass at a lot of our gigs around Chicago, but he eventually moved to Portland, OR., so we went back to being a duo. At other times, we have had different friends join us on stage, like my friend Joe on lead guitar (we do a mean cover of Bowie’s “Heroes”). Once my friend Pat played with us at a show in Sheboygan, WI and all but knocked me off the stage while playing bass to “Monster Mash”… Pat is banned from the Z’s.
How long did it take you to write the songs on permanent collection?
These songs have been marinating for 5 years. It probably took me less than an hour to write all of them… some a little longer. But, “Permanent Collection” is a commemoration of the last 5 years of being in a band. These songs are my best written, the most fun to perform and the ones that received the best feedback over 5 years of doing them live. They are pulled from 4 independent bedroom-recorded releases, and we wanted to do these songs justice with full production while still staying true to our lo-fi roots. These are the songs I want to put out into the world.
Do you have any favorites off the album?
I think ‘Straight Up, Bleach!’, ‘Dead Weight’, and ‘Invisible’ are my favorites.
We started back in 2007. Originally, I had this idea of starting a Motown type group with more of a punk rhythm section. I had called up people I knew from high school who were in gospel choir and some of my old band mates but no one was seriously interested. Meanwhile I had written a bunch of songs that I was excited about working with. I would sit in my bedroom and strum them out and one day I badgered my sister to sit behind a snare drum and keep a beat while I played. We ended up having so much fun doing that that it kinda just took off from there. Before we knew it we were out playing open mics and writing songs together. It was awesome. Kind of just one of those things that just come together in the best possible way.
Were you ever interested in adding any other members?
We have flirted with idea of adding additional members a number of times. The longest running honorary member of The Mother Z’s is our friend Aaron, with whom I used to play in a band in high school. He’s played the upright bass at a lot of our gigs around Chicago, but he eventually moved to Portland, OR., so we went back to being a duo. At other times, we have had different friends join us on stage, like my friend Joe on lead guitar (we do a mean cover of Bowie’s “Heroes”). Once my friend Pat played with us at a show in Sheboygan, WI and all but knocked me off the stage while playing bass to “Monster Mash”… Pat is banned from the Z’s.
How long did it take you to write the songs on permanent collection?
These songs have been marinating for 5 years. It probably took me less than an hour to write all of them… some a little longer. But, “Permanent Collection” is a commemoration of the last 5 years of being in a band. These songs are my best written, the most fun to perform and the ones that received the best feedback over 5 years of doing them live. They are pulled from 4 independent bedroom-recorded releases, and we wanted to do these songs justice with full production while still staying true to our lo-fi roots. These are the songs I want to put out into the world.
Do you have any favorites off the album?
I think ‘Straight Up, Bleach!’, ‘Dead Weight’, and ‘Invisible’ are my favorites.