WAFFLES.FM INTERVIEW / BACK TO CHRISZABRISKIE.COM

Interview with waffles.fm, published June 26, 2008.

Read it on the site here, if you have an account.

Tell me a bit about your musical background. What artists do you like to include in your “influences” category?

Phew, that’s tough. The bands I listen to the most are The Monkees (honest!), Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Kind of Like Spitting, Thomas Dolby, etc., though I’m not sure exactly what influences my songwriting. Oh, and Robert Pollard - I’m listening to The Takeovers right now. I’m somewhat eclectic in my musical tastes I suppose. I started out in noise bands and experimental stuff, then one night the rest of the band didn’t show for a gig and I just had to get up there and sing some songs, and I’ve just sorta been doing that ever since.

Wow, that must have been really awkward at times. Do you think that your experience in the “experimental” scene has helped you in constructing solid, more “conventional” songs?

Definitely. I’m never in search of a specific sound, so I end up working fast. I’m interested in whatever sounds come out of the instrument or the room, not really what I might hear in my head. It makes for much more interesting records to me. So even if it’s just me and an acoustic guitar, I don’t pay too much attention to how to mic the instrument, I just do it a little different every time, so it’s always a little new to me. So sometimes I write some relatively simple “verse chorus verse” sort of songs, then just see what happens. No use trying to sound like anybody else.

You’re based out of Orlando, right? What’s the music scene like there? Is it different from the frightening “Land O’Disney” image that alot of the US have of Orlando?

It’s a very strange music scene that is all at once amazing and horrible. There’s brilliant music being made down here, I’m constantly finding new bands that blow my mind. Yet, it’s hard to find the community feeling. It’s tough getting people out to shows consistently and there’s a serious lack of good, supportive venues. I’ve lived in Portland and Salt Lake City and this is just a really different place. And since so many people are somewhat transient, it’s hard to keep an audience; but, at the same time, you play with a lot of different kinds of bands here. On Friday, I played with some really loud, near-metal sort of bands and my drummer and I just went up there and played acoustic and rocked it out. I sold a lot of CDs, met some really cool new people, it was great. The bill looked weird, but we made it work.

Let’s talk about your new LP O Great Queen Electric, What Do You Have Waiting For Me? What was the inspiration for that title?

It’s a long title, I know. The album’s got some religious themes running through it - specifically from some of my experiences growing up in a very religious family. And the line, “o great queen electric, what do you have waiting for me?” is just sort of asking, “What’s going to happen now?” I’m not religious any more, and when I left religion, it was frightening. I had just become a father, my marriage was falling apart, and life seemed to be both ending and beginning, so it was a real “what’s going to happen to me?” sort of question. But it was my drummer and conspirator in musical crimes, Marc Sidoreus, who suggested the title to me, and it fit.

On the track “I’m On a Talk Show” you muse on the nature of fame, fortune, religion and the past. Were you drawing on personal experience, or observations of the current state of affairs in the world?

That’s sort of it. It’s a weird look back at my past, present and potential future. “I’m On a Talk Show” is just very much like, “Wow. . . Things are really screwed up right now.” Celebrity culture sort of freaks me out, the economic and political climate is insane and God, you know, “he knows what you want, but he does what he likes.” Just, everything is completely out of my control - everyone’s control - and you either accept the chaos and live your life as best you can, or lose your mind.

As you mentioned before, you do a lot of work with Marc Sidoreus from Marc with a C. How did you two get together and start collaborating?

I’ve known Marc since 2002. I had just played my first solo show when I got invited to a songwriter’s showcase where Marc was playing. We liked each other’s stuff and were transitioning as musicians then, so we ended up helping each other dramatically. I ended up producing one of his records and became his full-time drummer and he became my moral support and live drummer. Sometimes he calls me at 2 A.M. with a new song, asking what I think of it, I send him demos and he tells me what he thinks, we edit each other’s work. It’s dangerously close to being one musical entity. O Great Queen is about the only exception to our musical partnership.

Your work with Marc in lo-fi is sci-fi is much more fuzz-rock oriented than your current, mostly acoustic, release. Do you intend to do this sort of work again in the future?

Possibly. I mean, we still sort of do. lo-fi is sci-fi was more or less a stage name before I became comfortable enough to be just Chris Zabriskie. The next Chris Zabriskie album is definitely going to incorporate a bit of that lo-fi album and O Great Queen.

We’ll be on the lookout for it. In addition to being a musician, you are also a filmmaker correct? What sort of work do you enjoy doing? Any hint about what sort of stuff you are currently working on?

Yeah, film is where I started I have a great video editor day job now. I do most of my film work with Brent Chesanek. We did John Vanderslice’s music videos (”Exodus Damage,” “Trance Manual,” “Time to Go”), and we’re actually in pre-production on a feature film right now, but I think that’s all I can say about that at the moment. But, personally, I’m always making experimental stuff that keeps me entertained.

As this is an interview for the members of Waffles, what is your opinion on file sharing as a distribution mechanism for musicians?

I think it’s the future, no question. And it’s perfect for someone like me. I don’t tour the country (yet), I’m not interested in spending a bunch of time shopping around for a label or getting my stuff into commercials. I just make the music that I want to make. I leak all of my stuff in advance. I personally know very high profile indie musicians and bands that do the same thing. Some labels even do it. It’s just the way the industry works now, it can’t be fought against. But there also has to be that unspoken understanding, as a downloader, that you’ll support the bands that you like in one way or another. I was a big OiNK user (RIP) and loved that community, and I love the sites that have sprung up since (Waffles specifically, honest!). And it’s just amazing that I can upload my record to a tracker and people from all over the world can now find it. I can’t do that by taking some CDs down to my local record shop. I check in on my last.fm page occasionally and it’s incredible to see how many different countries people are listening to my music in.

But, if your fans download your music for free, how would you ask them to support you so you can continue to make music?

If you like it, share it with someone. I’d rather have people listening than paying. That’s the ultimate reward for me as a musician. Come to a show if you can, buy something if you want, all of that effort goes right back into making more music.

OK, so if you could recommend anything from the last year or so to the Waffles audience, what would it be?

I’d say check out Andrew Jackson Jihad’s Issue Problems. This is some really amazing folk punk stuff. Issue Problems is 10 minutes long and will change the way you think about music. Oh, also Vincent Black Shadow’s new album More Deeper.

OK, last question. You have just walked from Ocala to Orlando - in August. It took about a week of living off swamp rats, oranges and alligator. You get to a breakfast diner. What drink do you order and what toppings do you get on your extra large plate of Waffles?

Water. Lots of water. On my waffles, I’d probably go with some strawberries and maybe some whipped cream. And syrup. But seriously, when I eat waffles, I only drink water. Might sound weird but there’s nothing better.

WAFFLES.FM INTERVIEW / BACK TO CHRISZABRISKIE.COM