...ab und an mal höflich klatscht und versucht nicht zu gelangweilt auszusehen. Aber glücklicher, glücklicherweise gibt es doch Ausnahmen. Und Zaza sind da ein ganz herausragendes Beispiel für. Bereits ab der ersten Minute, in der ich sie in Hamburg auf der Bühne sah, hatte ich das Gefühl, dass es etwas gibt, das den Zuhörer in ihre Welt aus leicht düsterer, sinnlicher Musik zieht und einen so leicht nicht wieder loslässt. Um es mit einer Zeile der Band auszudrücken, die Zaza gerade auf ihrer Band supporten, könnte man sagen mit Zaza gibt es keinen „easy way out“. Die Band setzt sich aus dem charismatischen Paar Jennifer Fraser (Bass, Vocals) und Danny Taylor (Gitarre, Vocals) zusammen, zwei Musikern, die sich in New York gefunden haben und dort mittlerweile leben und arbeiten. Ihr kreativer Output wird durch Dru Prentiss vervollständigt, der sich seines Zeichens verantwortlich für eventuell minimalistische, aber sehr starke Drums zeigt, die mit den sphärischen Bass-, Gitarren- und Keyboardsounds ein Komplettbild ergeben, das den Hörer mit auf den magischen Zaza Ritt nimmt. Wie man vielleicht schon erraten konnte, spielen sie heute als Vorband für Black Rebel Motorcycle Club in Amsterdam, so dass ich mich mit der bezaubernden Frontfrau Jennifer Fraser unterhalte, die ein paar Geheimnisse um ihre Band lüftet, die, wie sie sagt, zu ihrem Kind geworden ist.

Now, let’s be honest. Being an outright music lover or not, most of the time it’s like this, isn’t it? You’re standing there, waiting for one of your favourite bands finally to come out and play and what do you have to bear? Some nondescript band whose name you’ve never even heard before and you probably never will after that evening. Eventually, you end up biding the time they’ll finally get off stage by, if you’re one of the rather polite bunch of people, applauding politely and trying not to look too bored. But gladly, so very glady, there are exceptions. And Zaza is a very prominent one of them. From their first minute on stage in Hamburg I felt that there’s something that drags you into their world of slightly dark, sultry, music and that won’t let you go easily. Borrowing a line from the band they’re currently supporting on their tour, you could say with Zaza there’s no easy way out. The band’s compiled of the highly charismatic couple Jennifer Fraser (bass, vocals) and Danny Taylor (guitar, vocals), two musicians that found each other and nowadays live and work in New York. Their creative output is completed by Dru Prentiss, who finds himself in charge of adding maybe minimalistic, but very intense drums to the spheric guitar, bass and keyboard sounds that will take you on the magical Zaza ride.

As you might have guessed, it’s them opening up for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club in Amsterdam that night, so that I find myself talking to the band’s charming front woman Jennifer, who lifts some secrets about her band, which has become, as she says, her child.

All right, first things first: Why “Zaza“?

Well, first of all I just think fanatically it sounds beautiful and catchy. But there’s just quite a few of reasons we have... But, you know... It’s a dialect of an old Turkish-Persian language and it was the nickname of my Persian grandmother.

So if you had to describe yourself in three words, what would come to your mind?

Hm... Intense, romantic and vampiric.

Mhmmm... If I got that correctly, you used to be in The Warlocks. So, is Zaza something like a side-project for you, or is it the real thing now?

Oh, it’s my child, yes. And, you know, it’s funny that you bring that up, because last time I was here in Amsterdam I played this very venue with The Warlocks, it’s been a while, so... Cool. So it’s like deja-vu. One of the crew is teasing me, because The Warlocks had toured with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club a many times, so they said “Is this your fourth tour with the Black Rebel ones?”. Yeah, I think so, it’s cool.

So you feel like you’re really cool with each other?

Yeah, they’re magnificent! Poetically beautiful people. And we’re honoured to be in good company.

Now, what would you say inspires you most for writing songs? Because, when I looked up your Myspace it said “Music to make out to”.

(laughs) Oh, yeah, yeah...

Is that connected to anything?

It’s connected to the fact that we had a string of people over and over again say “Oh, we’ve been having sex to your EP”. So, friends and, erm... (laughs) friends that will not be named... (conspiratorially looking into the direction of the door). So we just thought “Well, yeah, let’s bring the sex on”.

But what inspires us, well... Danny and I inspire each other quite a bit and New York and history and lost friendships. And fiction. And all that, yeah.

Well, I read that you’re originally from the West coast, is that right?

Yeah.

And moved to New York. So would you say that New York has a great influence on your work or your creative process, or is it rather that you can write anywhere?

Well, I feel... Originally I’m a short-story writer and a narrative writer, so it was right prolific, on the West coast I was always writing stories. But, I find the East coast is, well... East coast meaning New York, is franatic and has a lot of energy and it pushes you a lot, it has a lot of pulse and a lot of beats to it. So I feel much more inspired, musically, on the East coast, meaning New York City. New York City just has this punch, you know, just gets you going all the time.

Unfortunately I haven’t been there yet, but I guess I can imagine what it’s like.

Oh, you must, it’s quite bloody, it’s amazing!

Now let’s talk about your EP. First of all, what’s the idea behind its title?

“Cameo” was a double meaning, because, you know, in American culture you say someone makes a cameo appearance, which means they just, like, either their first appearance or quick appearance. But mostly, Cameo... I got really into sentimental jewelry. Basically like, cameo brooches or, like, hair lockets, you know. Which is all kind of archaic now, but in the 1800s or early 20^th century there was a lot of sentimental jewelry. If your lover would go off to war or if they died you would get their face edged into a cameo brooch. So because when we started writing the Cameo EP I was on tour with The Warlocks. So we were sending a lot of letters back to one another and a lot of music, so it felt like this, I don’t know, sentimental exchange. So we thought that Cameo was kind of a way to put it.

And the artwork was going to be our profiles set in cameo brooches. But then we thought “Let’s play on that and not be so literal”, so that’s why it’s our faces.

So the six songs on there, are they going to be forming into a new album or are you like picking songs from it to put it on there?

Oh no, it’s all new music. All new music, yeah.

How far are you by now?

We’ve almost a little bit more than halfway done. With recording. We have half the other songs written. So it’s just a matter of time of recording them. It’s quite a process. But, what’s also interesting is that we play a few songs of the Cameo EP live and we’ve played them differently, I don’t know, it’s great.

Do you have a release date or a title already or is it more like “Let’s just see how it goes on”?

Ah, let’s just see how it goes, yeah.

You’ve been touring now, a couple of weeks I think. Is there anything you would call a great experience or a nice story or something that will really remind you of this tour forever?

Well, the evening in Paris last night was, well... It will be burned into my memory for the rest of my life because it was such a wonderful show and I had many friends from different parts of the world come to Paris and so we’re all interconnected through music. (laughs) There’s a few very personal things that will always remind me, but oh... I hopped on the Black Rebel bus and... from pretty much the French countryside and getting to see the view... Oh! After Rome, I hopped on the bus with Black Rebel and after the show at two in the morning we all parked out in front of the Vatican. And took photos and... (laughs) Rob bought this doll of a gladiator and we were like throwing it around and taking pictures with the gladiator doll.

But not a singing one?

Noo, not a singing one. But I will always remember the Vatican in Rome. That’s something to remember, yeah.

You’ve got Dru with you as a drummer, but I think you got a different drummer before him. How did you get to know him?

Yeah, we had. Our first drummer was this gentleman named Kurt Feldman, who plays in a band called The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart. Fantastic drummer. Dru is not a drummer. (laughs) He was just a musician friend of ours that we really like and who we thought was really great. And I said one day after a show, we opened up for Tricky, and we all went to the after and I said to Danny “I wish Dru played drums, because he’s really fun.” So he was “Well, I don’t know, let’s ask him”. So we had an idea to play drums or not, we just hadn’t come into the factor space... He was like the final puzzle piece to us, yeah.

So last night, what was going on there, was there something like an after-show party, were you djing?

Yeah, we did an after-show party at this fancy, glamorous place right under the Eiffel tower and it was a disaster. (laughs) But, when you’re in Paris, all things go.

http://zazasound.com/

http://www.myspace.com/warofzaza

(Jessica Schnittger)