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.

These Days
The Zolas Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

It started with a sandcastle
Today washed up my tomorrow
But one night the mark was made
Seared in your flesh with canola oil

These days are piling up
Piling up like bricks
Walls blocking off the sun

I miss you
Oh, call it what you like
My shaky memory
We knew it from the top
We're deep sea

On every bus I take there's an empty seat
There's an empty stare in every streetlamp
And the city nights are full of colors
Colors dormant in the day
Trashy light in the sky and a rainbow of grays

The one thing that silence brings
These empty-house evenings

My dreams are haunted by
Ghostly pages that I can't fill

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to The Zolas’ song These Days are poetic and evocative, showcasing the emotions and thoughts related to the passage of time and the impermanence of life. The opening lines, “It started with a sandcastle, Today washed up my tomorrow” sets the stage for the theme of the transience of life. The image of a sandcastle being washed away by the tide is a metaphor for how quickly life can change, how little control we have over our circumstances, and how everything we build can be destroyed in an instant.

The lines “But one night the mark was made, Seared in your flesh with canola oil” refers to a moment that was so significant, so powerful, that it left an indelible mark on someone's life. The use of canola oil as a medium to create this mark is a unique and surprising choice, emphasizing the idea that sometimes the most important moments and memories can come from unexpected places.

The chorus of “These days are piling up, Piling up like bricks, Walls blocking off the sun, I miss you” is a powerful evocation of the way that time can feel oppressive and overwhelming. The image of walls blocking off the sun, casting a shadow over everything, is a perfect illustration of how difficult it can be to move forward when confronted with loss or grief. The lines “On every bus I take there's an empty seat, There's an empty stare in every streetlamp” is a haunting description of the loneliness and isolation that can come with those feelings of loss.

The use of vibrant colors in the lines “And the city nights are full of colors, Colors dormant in the day, Trashy light in the sky and a rainbow of grays” creates a sense of excitement and possibility - a reminder that even in dark times, there is always the potential for something beautiful to emerge. The final lines “My dreams are haunted by, Ghostly pages that I can't fill” is an evocative and poignant conclusion, illustrating the way that memories can be both a source of comfort and a source of pain, the way that they can obsess us and yet remain forever incomplete.

Line by Line Meaning

It started with a sandcastle
Our relationship was built on something fragile and temporary, like a sandcastle at the beach.

Today washed up my tomorrow
Something unexpected happened that has ruined our plans for the future.

But one night the mark was made
One specific moment in our relationship had a significant impact on both of us.

Seared in your flesh with canola oil
This moment was intense and left a lasting impression on you, like a burn caused by hot oil.

These days are piling up
Time keeps passing and our problems are getting worse.

Piling up like bricks
Our problems are building upon each other, making it harder to overcome them.

Walls blocking off the sun
Our problems are preventing us from finding happiness and blocking out any positivity in our lives.

I miss you
Despite everything, I still have feelings for you and wish things were different.

Oh, call it what you like
You can interpret our situation however you want, but the truth is we're struggling and it's not easy.

My shaky memory
I'm having trouble remembering the good times we had together, and everything seems blurry and uncertain now.

We knew it from the top
At the beginning of our relationship, we were aware that things might not work out between us.

We're deep sea
Our problems run deep and are difficult to overcome, like trying to navigate through the depths of the ocean.

On every bus I take there's an empty seat
Everywhere I go, I'm reminded of your absence and how much I miss you.

There's an empty stare in every streetlamp
Even the lights in the city seem to be staring back at me, emphasizing the emptiness I feel without you.

And the city nights are full of colors
Despite everything, the city is still vibrant and alive with colors and energy at night.

Colors dormant in the day
During the day, the colors of the city are subdued and muted, hiding the liveliness that comes out at night.

Trashy light in the sky and a rainbow of grays
The artificial, polluted light of the city contrasts with the bleakness of the gray sky, creating a strange and unsettling feeling.

The one thing that silence brings
When everything is quiet, my thoughts are amplified and I'm forced to confront my feelings and emotions.

These empty-house evenings
The loneliness I feel when I'm alone at home is especially difficult to bear.

My dreams are haunted by
Even in my dreams, I can't escape the memories of our relationship and how it was lost.

Ghostly pages that I can't fill
I'm unable to rewrite or change the past, and it haunts me like unfinished pages in a ghost story.

Contributed by Hunter V. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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