The Zolas are a Canadian indie rock band based in Vancouver, British Columb… Read Full Bio ↴The Zolas are a Canadian indie rock band based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The core of the band is duo Zachary Gray (vocals/guitar) and Tom Dobrzanski (piano), with other musicians supporting them live and on record.
There’s something happening on the west coast. Whether it’s in the air, the water, or the drugs, a pool of talent has formed around the notion that you can have your pop and eat it too, with brainy, prog-influenced weird-beards like Bend Sinister and arcane psycho-confectioners Mother Mother demonstrating that musical complexity can still be hummable. Commercial, even.
Throw the Zolas into the picture and dammit – you might even call it a scene! Not that it’s ever been a concern to long-term musical partners Zach Gray and Tom Dobrzanski, who established their gifts for intricate songcraft three years ago under the name Lotus Child.
Since then, the duo has finessed its formula into something even busier yet no less direct, filling their new album Tic Toc Tic with hairpin turns, schizoid tonal shifts, multiple parts, and a sort of cabaret strut.
Miraculously, between New Pornographers vet Howard Redekopp’s unfinicky production and the clarity of Gray and Dobrzanski’s vision, Tic Toc Tic works like a charm. Complex without being alienating, it aims equally and with dead-eyed precision for the head, heart, and groin.
Guitarist-vocalist Gray hits on the twin poles that define Tic Toc Tic when he reveals an equal passion for the visceral Scandinavian dream pop of Mew, whose influence is obvious, and the classic music hall rag of the Kinks, whose influence is anything but. Not on first listen, anyway, though the presence of Ray Davies is felt in Gray’s lyrics. Particularly when he turns his attention to the mundane, like the character in “You’re Too Cool” who wrestles with his vulnerability at Vancouver’s hipster HQ the Biltmore. Or the confessional “Body Ash”, which documents a relationship on the ropes. The directness of its sentiment echoes what Gray describes as Davies’ “populism”.
“The first words in ‘Body Ash’ are ‘my balls’,” he laughs. “Literally. I’m not hiding behind any metaphors.” Soundwise, Gray says he was aiming for “self-conscious Jeff Buckley”, which also goes some way towards describing a lot of the music on Tic Toc Tic.
Boxing the listener with their virtuosity right off the top, opener “You’re Too Cool” is six minutes of fortified waltz-time piano dissolving into what Gray characterizes as an “anti-chorus”. “The Great Collapse” is swaggering and deceptively sunny power-pop for apocalyptic future scenarios. “Marlaina Kamikaze” bounces between big band stickwork from drummer Ali Siadat, braying trumpet, and a decadent stride-piano breakdown.
Meanwhile, “You Better Watch Out” has Gray anguishing over a cute girl on a bus while cascading piano arpeggios and Aidan Knight’s hyperactive bass push his suffering to operatic levels of high drama. “Queen of Relax” is featherlite prog, and “Cab Driver” somehow contrives to be both the most straightforward number on Tic Toc Tic, and the most demanding. “It’s the most fun to play,” says Dobrzanski, who caps the song with a libidinous boogie-woogie throwdown sizzling enough to give “Honky Cat” era Elton a case of pianist envy. “It’s a rock-out,” he continues. “I like the athleticism involved in parts of it. It’s actually work.”
If “Cab Driver” finds the Zolas in an almost conventional mood, “I’ve Got Leeches” and album closer “Pyramid Scheme” both explore the fringes of the songwriting team’s expanding universe. Gray describes the first as “baroque” and “Bowie-esque”, while the latter, he admits perhaps a little freely, “is the track where we don’t care if anyone ever listens to it.” As such, it includes what Gray calls “a vaguely Maori, haunted house, war chant section.” Deadpans Dobrzanski, “That moment might come across as a bit out there.”
In truth, Tic Toc Tic is a little out there from bar one to its closing outburst of unbound inspiration. Perhaps it has something to do with the duo’s seasoned friendship – they met as choirboys in Grade 9 – or a working relationship that begins with Gray broadstroking ideas and passing them along to Dobrzanski, his classical musically inclined “details guy”.
Whatever alchemical thing lies beneath the sparkling progressive pop of Tic Toc Tic, the partnership has made its great leap forward. It’s our job to catch up. And we should consider it a pleasure.
There’s something happening on the west coast. Whether it’s in the air, the water, or the drugs, a pool of talent has formed around the notion that you can have your pop and eat it too, with brainy, prog-influenced weird-beards like Bend Sinister and arcane psycho-confectioners Mother Mother demonstrating that musical complexity can still be hummable. Commercial, even.
Throw the Zolas into the picture and dammit – you might even call it a scene! Not that it’s ever been a concern to long-term musical partners Zach Gray and Tom Dobrzanski, who established their gifts for intricate songcraft three years ago under the name Lotus Child.
Since then, the duo has finessed its formula into something even busier yet no less direct, filling their new album Tic Toc Tic with hairpin turns, schizoid tonal shifts, multiple parts, and a sort of cabaret strut.
Miraculously, between New Pornographers vet Howard Redekopp’s unfinicky production and the clarity of Gray and Dobrzanski’s vision, Tic Toc Tic works like a charm. Complex without being alienating, it aims equally and with dead-eyed precision for the head, heart, and groin.
Guitarist-vocalist Gray hits on the twin poles that define Tic Toc Tic when he reveals an equal passion for the visceral Scandinavian dream pop of Mew, whose influence is obvious, and the classic music hall rag of the Kinks, whose influence is anything but. Not on first listen, anyway, though the presence of Ray Davies is felt in Gray’s lyrics. Particularly when he turns his attention to the mundane, like the character in “You’re Too Cool” who wrestles with his vulnerability at Vancouver’s hipster HQ the Biltmore. Or the confessional “Body Ash”, which documents a relationship on the ropes. The directness of its sentiment echoes what Gray describes as Davies’ “populism”.
“The first words in ‘Body Ash’ are ‘my balls’,” he laughs. “Literally. I’m not hiding behind any metaphors.” Soundwise, Gray says he was aiming for “self-conscious Jeff Buckley”, which also goes some way towards describing a lot of the music on Tic Toc Tic.
Boxing the listener with their virtuosity right off the top, opener “You’re Too Cool” is six minutes of fortified waltz-time piano dissolving into what Gray characterizes as an “anti-chorus”. “The Great Collapse” is swaggering and deceptively sunny power-pop for apocalyptic future scenarios. “Marlaina Kamikaze” bounces between big band stickwork from drummer Ali Siadat, braying trumpet, and a decadent stride-piano breakdown.
Meanwhile, “You Better Watch Out” has Gray anguishing over a cute girl on a bus while cascading piano arpeggios and Aidan Knight’s hyperactive bass push his suffering to operatic levels of high drama. “Queen of Relax” is featherlite prog, and “Cab Driver” somehow contrives to be both the most straightforward number on Tic Toc Tic, and the most demanding. “It’s the most fun to play,” says Dobrzanski, who caps the song with a libidinous boogie-woogie throwdown sizzling enough to give “Honky Cat” era Elton a case of pianist envy. “It’s a rock-out,” he continues. “I like the athleticism involved in parts of it. It’s actually work.”
If “Cab Driver” finds the Zolas in an almost conventional mood, “I’ve Got Leeches” and album closer “Pyramid Scheme” both explore the fringes of the songwriting team’s expanding universe. Gray describes the first as “baroque” and “Bowie-esque”, while the latter, he admits perhaps a little freely, “is the track where we don’t care if anyone ever listens to it.” As such, it includes what Gray calls “a vaguely Maori, haunted house, war chant section.” Deadpans Dobrzanski, “That moment might come across as a bit out there.”
In truth, Tic Toc Tic is a little out there from bar one to its closing outburst of unbound inspiration. Perhaps it has something to do with the duo’s seasoned friendship – they met as choirboys in Grade 9 – or a working relationship that begins with Gray broadstroking ideas and passing them along to Dobrzanski, his classical musically inclined “details guy”.
Whatever alchemical thing lies beneath the sparkling progressive pop of Tic Toc Tic, the partnership has made its great leap forward. It’s our job to catch up. And we should consider it a pleasure.
Swooner
The Zolas Lyrics
We have lyrics for these tracks by The Zolas:
Ancient Mars I want to believe in time travel That one day I’ll…
Body Ash My balls are coals in the bottom of our bed That…
Cab Driver I'm gonna hold your eye an extra beat You're gonna lean…
Cold Moon The paint is dry, we've closed the vein To rinse the…
Come Back to Life Ooh, ooh ooh ooh ooh Ooh, ooh ooh ooh ooh Helter Skelter Da…
CULTURED MAN I want to be your cultured man who doesn’t jump off…
CV Dazzle Eyes on every corner, Every dollar bill. Paint our faces int…
Energy Czar How'd we get so far? We've been floating through this life A…
Escape Artist My alter-ego. He’s an escape artist, he’s only truly happy …
Get Dark Down on King Street, Kelly′s getting dark at the pharmacy Wh…
I Feel the Transition Ooh Ooh, ah Ooh Ooh Ooh Ooh, ah You're a rainbow's arc You'…
In Heaven At intermission we meet outside a grin of a hug you blow…
Invisible I want to be invisible and lurk around the world for…
Knot In My Heart My friends are wilding How winter loves wear thin They’re cu…
Local Swan In Montreal’s tiny pond she and I we smoulder the local sw…
Male Gaze Everything is okay Woman in the window I play her body like…
Marionettes Sometimes an empire doesn't fall As masked invaders climb t…
Marlaina Kamikaze Oh, Marlaina, you are something special Please believe me w…
No Talking So tell me, Mama, 'cause you know it's true Weren't you…
Nothing But The Bells On Are you the type that tries to get it right?…
Observatory We broke in where we're not allowed and found a station f…
Obsevatory We broke in where we’re not allowed and found a station f…
Pyramid Scheme Take a vow Take a vow of jealousy Falling strangers callin…
Queen of Relax You spend your days with this inside cat Who goes out…
Snow The mercury is cold and grey It's like the color of…
Strange Girl You were the deep well in earth-and-ocean class and on the d…
The Great Collapse I dreamt about you the other night We were there when…
These Days It started with a sandcastle Today washed up my tomorrow B…
Ultramarine I'm going over and out It's like the last cigarette in…
You Better Watch Out You better watch out 'Cause one of these days I'll turn an…
You're Too Cool Love don't live at home, oh no, it slithers in…
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
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Raven Lunatic
Miss mythical
She's like the Wailing Wall
I pass, pass her notes
And she goes, "Oh honey, it's alright"
When the arrows volley down, will you stay with me?
Build a fire out of pages of magazines
Someone like you don't come around every dynasty
A swooner, that's what you are
Top of her class
Top of her field of futurists
All the head-hunters got her name on their lips
Yeah she's the spine to our body of friends
That incandescent girl of Incan descent
When the arrows volley down, will you stay with me?
Build a fire out of pages of magazines
Someone like you don't come around every dynasty
A swooner, that's what you are
Feel my temperature rising
Like a comet colliding
Feel my temperature rising
Feel my temperature, feel my temperature
When the arrows volley down, will you stay with me?
Build a fire out of pages of magazines
Someone like you don't come around every dynasty
A swooner, that's what you are
That's what you are
That's what you are
That's what you are
Shaya
"That incandescent girl of Incan descent" remains one of the greatest written lines of all time
Joshua Vincent
TIL
Matthew McQuade
Hey! I love the Zolas so much! I've just found them and I can't believe how good they are, they're definitely in my top two of bands. Maybe, even my favourite! I really hope you guys come to Ireland sometime, I'd love to see you!
Raven Lunatic
Miss mythical
She's like the Wailing Wall
I pass, pass her notes
And she goes, "Oh honey, it's alright"
When the arrows volley down, will you stay with me?
Build a fire out of pages of magazines
Someone like you don't come around every dynasty
A swooner, that's what you are
Top of her class
Top of her field of futurists
All the head-hunters got her name on their lips
Yeah she's the spine to our body of friends
That incandescent girl of Incan descent
When the arrows volley down, will you stay with me?
Build a fire out of pages of magazines
Someone like you don't come around every dynasty
A swooner, that's what you are
Feel my temperature rising
Like a comet colliding
Feel my temperature rising
Feel my temperature, feel my temperature
When the arrows volley down, will you stay with me?
Build a fire out of pages of magazines
Someone like you don't come around every dynasty
A swooner, that's what you are
That's what you are
That's what you are
That's what you are
weedman513
Phenomenal song. Fuckin love these guys finally got to see and meet them. Hope they come back to Hamilton/Toronto soon!!
LightOrganRecords
June 18th @ NXNE. See you there!
jay anirudh
What a song...came across the band for the 1st time..and what a song...fell in love with them..
nolove85es
this is what I call actual music. Made me a fan.
Doglover 44
Absolutely in love with this band!!!
jay anirudh
I listen to this every night before going to sleep...thanks Zolas..now I sleep perfect