1. In The Royle Family, Ralf Little’s character Anthony names the band he manages as ‘EXIT’. As their name will always be in lights! Why did you decide to call your band Zenith?
A. The name ‘ZENITH’ was chosen as it’s possibly the boldest statement we could come up with to describe what the band is. The meaning of the word ‘ZENITH’ is power, and we looked at that and thought “that’ll do”.
2. The video for your new single ‘Pages’ focuses on the traumas of mental health. Is this a subject that’s important to you?
A. Its a subject that is not only important to us but to everyone, or at least it should be. Every one of us has been through something, is going through something or eventually will go through something but having those we can turn to whether it’s friends or the ones we love is what matters.
3. You signed your deal with Big Condo late last year. Why is this label a great fit for you?
A. We like to think we’re similar to Big condo in the way we’re extremely independent, have had to learn things the hard way in our careers and have been made stronger in retrospect. It’s nice knowing we have a label that understands us and can work with us to help us become the best version of ourselves.
4. Listening to your music, I can hear influences from bands such as Oasis, Guns & Roses, Foo Fighters & Queen. What artists do you get your biggest inspiration from?
A. Some of those artists named in the question are but a few we draw inspiration from. Each of us has such a unique musical background and when you put that together you get our musical sound. Other influences we draw from are the Beatles, pink Floyd, Metallica and many more!
5. Who is responsible for songwriting within the band?
A. We’ve got Billy who is our main lyricist and occasionally writes the odd song but it can take him a long time develop something he’s happy with. Lewis and George are the ‘Lennon- McCartney’ of the band and are the driving force in our composition. They’re always churning out the songs whenever they can and with help from Dylan if they’re jamming together.
6. To George & Billy – Who are your favourite guitarists and why?
A. For Billy my favourite guitarist is Johnny Buckland from Coldplay. I grew up listening to his simple but haunting Melodys and his use of reverb and delay effects. He also inspired me to use a telecaster as my preferred guitar. For myself (George) I’ve grown up with many guitarists that I’ve drew inspiration from and I don’t think I can choose one that best describes my craft. If I had to name a few of my favourites and their influences in my work it would be Jimmy page, David Gilmour, mark knopfler and slash.
7. Have you got a favourite venue that you’ve performed in?
A. Our favourite venue so far has to be the ‘O2 academy’ in Liverpool. That was the first venue that really made us feel like we were someone, and the sound was incredible.
8. What is the song you feel most proud about and why do you feel this way?
A. I think we would have to go with ‘Diamond Girls’ on this one. Even though WE know that we’re capable of a wide range of musical genres, it was the pride we had in releasing the song to the public to finally show them a different side to our music that wasn’t just heavy rock, but a more catchy lighter song with pop elements.
9. Are there any genres that Zenith haven’t tapped into that you’d like to try in the future?
A. The sheer amount of genres that we mess around with in practice is astounding and again that comes from our different influences. If we were to go with an untapped genre in a future release we think ‘funk’ would be pretty entertaining to witness.
10. Do you know what your main aspirations are as a band? Sold out shows? Platinum records?
A. Our aspirations have changed so much throughout the years with our first being to just have a song on a music platform that we could look back on in years to come. Now though we would love to see a completely sold out show for a large venue with nothing but dedicated fans who our music has touched or resonated with.
11. Is it important to you to have critical acclaim or not?
A. Critical acclaim is always nice isn’t it? But not completely necessary. At the end of the day people like what they like and that includes the critics. They can pull a song apart to tell you what’s amazing or what’s terrible but as long as our music is still loved by our fans and us that’s what matters.
12. To Lewis – Do you do any vocal warmups before a gig?
A. I have a nice YouTube playlist dedicated to warming up that I make me and the boys partake in at every practice session. I’ve also become quite fond of breathing exercises to strengthen the lungs and any upper body stretches to help loosen the neck up, it all helps in the long run.
13. You have done several decent covers of tracks like Pink Floyd’s ‘Money’ & The Beatles ‘Helter Skelter’. Are there any others that you’d like to try?
A. With the recent announcement of the ‘Oasis’ reunion we thought it be best if we messed around with a cover or two of their songs and jump on the hype train a bit. We can confirm that we have a recorded version of ‘Morning Glory’ just waiting to be released and it sounds phenomenal.
14. To Dylan – Are there any famous drummers that you look up to?
A.Like George I’ve got many influences Aswell that go into my playing and they range from the soft and skilled to the more heavy hitters. To name a few, John Bonham, Jimmy the rev Sullivan and Dave abbruzze.
15. Have you had any proper cringe moments whilst playing live?
A. There have been so many throughout our career that it’s become impossible to choose a specific one. Believe us we’ve had it all, from forgetting lyrics to broken guitar strings, playing wrong sections in songs to destroying drum kits we’ve done it all. You can only plan so much to avoid all this stuff but at the end of the day it’s a laugh and we carry on.
Interview By @vinyl_scouse
