Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Hunting Wildlife Down Under With ALI TABATABAEE From ZEBRAHEAD

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Hunting Wildlife Down Under With ALI TABATABAEE From ZEBRAHEAD · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up everybody. I am Ali from the band zebra
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Head and I am just hanging out tongueled with Chris
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: right now with.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Heavy fantastic mate, Thanks for joining us this morning.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Thanks for having me my pleasure, bro So.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Zebrahead returned to Australia after a seven year absence in October,
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: with the run of shows starting in Perth on October
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: seven and Eating Adelaide Melbourne, Sydney and finishing in Brizzy
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: on October to twelfth. Not long now, brother, you've packed
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: and ready to go. You're just telling me you're unpacking before.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we had a couple of shows we ended in
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Las Vegas yesterday I got home, so I got to unpack,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: do some laundry and pack up again, man, and head
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: over to you.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Where is it basically the same stuff you take everywhere?
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Or you're just dumping the washing machine and dumping in
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: the seacase and you're off again.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I kind of.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Cool. It's been seven years, as we say, since you've
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: been to Australia, mate, So what's changing with a Zebrahead
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: in that time?
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Man? I feel like the main thing is Adrian is
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: in Man now. He's the other vocalist, and I think
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: since we haven't been back since before the pandemic, dude,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: so it's been a minute, you know, we've been uh
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: we released three EPs since then three two one with
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Adrian and we're going to be playing some of those
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: songs when we come over. But also we have been
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: when we're not touring, we've been working on new music.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: So we're excited to get back home after Australia and
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: get into the studio and record the songs that we've
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: been working on. So that's mainly it, man, and then
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: once that's done, hopefully next summer starts touring again.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: And yeah, what can fans expect from you guys, is
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: tom around what improvements have you made any live shows
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: this last time here?
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: You know, we're always trying to improve our live show.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: There's there's so much to improve, so we are it's
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: just going to be super fun, I think, man, we're
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: so excited to come back to Australia. Everybody's pumped, so
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: I think it's going to so many high energy shows
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: and we're really excited to see our friends over there again.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: So come hang out with us if you are, if
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: you have some time.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, one thing I keep reading about you guys, is
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: I've never seen you before, but he's known for you
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: on stage banter and humil Like, is it something that
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: you guys loosely plan or is there more anything guys
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: are when you get up there?
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Well listen, you know, if you know us at all,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: you know we don't plan very well. So so even
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: if we were going to try to plan it, it
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: probably wouldn't work out so well for us. So yeah, man,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: it's just you know, we just have a good time.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: We enjoy playing live, and I think it comes through
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: with us just kind of talking trash to each other
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: most of the time.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: So does that extended the audience, like you have that
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: banter with the audience too, or is it just on site?
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Oh? Yeah, man, they're fair game, bro. If you're at
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: this show, you're part of the you're part of the band.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: You get it. If you can give it, you get it.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: So how do you go in different parts of the
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: world that like I I was dryings and nine for
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: being smothouses quick with the like, you get different crowds
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: around the world, you know, like you get some people,
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: abuse if some people and the better than others, and.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: So you know, I think it's lucky for us. Our
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: fan base is very similar everywhere. It's kind of like
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: people that are you know, they know the shows are
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: going to be like a good time, loose, like fun vibe.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: So it's like that mainly everywhere. Said I would say culturally,
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: some places are a little different, Like when we go
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: to Japan, for example, the first time we played a
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: show there, I remember after the first song we ended
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: and like everybody clapped for like maybe ten seconds and
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: then quiet, and we were like, I remember a guitar
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: player who comes up to me and he whispers because
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: I don't know if we can cuss here, but he's like, hey,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: you fuck up or something. I go, I don't know.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: And then afterwards are in our person from the label,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: he's like he could totally hear us, by the way,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: because it's so right you hear him whisper to me.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: He pulls me aside, and he pulls me and Greg aside.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: He goes, don't worry about it. It's just like culturally
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: here they're trying to be respectful. So it's like certain
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: places culturally it's a little bit different, but in general,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: everybody's there to like probably you know, party and have
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: a good time. So that's kind of the energy. Yeah.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: I had a similar problem myself in Japan. I said
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: something and I didn't think many of them can understand English,
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: so I was talking to my mites in English and
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: it probably wasn't the right thing to say at the time,
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: but the whole train pretty much hurt me and they
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: understood me.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: You never know, man, you never know who. You gotta
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: be careful.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: You know, you guys have good Thomas Nicholas band supporting
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: around Australia, which is Kevin from American Pies Musical Ben Soul.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: I know Thomas pretty well. It's a pretty pretty good
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: band to have warm in the crowd up for you.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, absolutely, Actually we hung out with him last time
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: we played the House of Blues and our hometown in
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Orange County, and we were just talking about playing shows together.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: And now it's happening, so we're really excited.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: It's a good puts on a good shows here. Like
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: for a actor playing a musician, he's actually not playing.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: He sounds like he's doing a right yeah.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Man, Yeah, he's talented. He's a talented dude.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Now I want to go back to the beginning for
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: a bit mate like Zebrahead formed in California back in
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: six with yourself, Ben and ed Like, what was the
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: musical climate like back then that gave birth to the
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: band and where did you guys fit in? Initially?
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Man, at that time, it was, you know, Orange County
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: was kind of popping off. You know, we had bands
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: like Offspring, We had bands like No Doubt that We're
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: like doing really well. So there was a lot of
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: the music. The record labels were really focused on Orange County.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: So we actually got very lucky because of that. We
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: are first show. It was like we played this Christmas
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: show and it was just our girlfriends and the guy
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: who ran the club who gave us the show. He'd
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: never heard of us. He came in to get the
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: money from the cash register or something and he heard
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: a song and then after we were done, nobody was there.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: It was like empty, and he goes, Hey, I have
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: a friend who's a manager, and you guys are interesting
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: because you have like hip hop and like punk and stuff.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: He's like, I kind of want him to come and
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: watch you. Is that something we'd be into And we're
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: like sure, you know, of course, who's gonna say no.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: So we ended up being our manager, Todd Singerman. He's like, hey,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: if you guys are serious, I think I can get
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: some record labels here. And we were like, yeah, let's go,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: you know, why not. And then the next time we
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: played it was empty again, nobody but our girlfriends, and
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: then twelve record labels showed up and we got very
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: lucky because of all the hype around bands like the
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Offspring and of No Down stuff. We got a record
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: deal with Columbia rec and you know, we just that's
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: how it started for us.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fantastic already. You guys, threeies met while you
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: were sharing rehearsal space in a practice room, like, tell
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: us more about that. Yeah.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So the way that happened was I wasn't away
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: at college, but I knew Ben, our bass player, through
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: high school. We were kind of friends through my sister
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: in high school. And so I went away to college
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: and I came back. I moved in with my parents
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: because I had to take a year off to apply
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: to medical school because I want to go to medical school.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: So I was came home to study for something called
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: the MCAT, which is you have to take this test
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: again into school. So I moved back home and I
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: didn't have any of my college friends anymore, and I
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: knew Ben was lived in the area, so I like
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: reached out to him and he's like, you know, yeah,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: come hang out with me. We'll go grab beers. But
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: I have band practice. I was like, oh, you're in
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: a band. Yeah, and he's like, yeah, I'm in a band. Whatever.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: So I met him at his rehearsal space, and I
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: met like Just and Greg and Ed. They were all
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: separate bands, but they were rehearsing in one spot, and
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: so it became a routine thing where like on the weekends,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: I'd go meet him at his rehearsal spot and then
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: we'd go out after. And he knew at the time
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: I listened to hip hop. I listened to Ciphers Hill
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: and stuff, so he would come. He would intentionally play
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: like the Cypress Hill bass lines, and he'd be like, helly,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: grab a Mike dud do that Cyprus Hill song. So
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: I'd go up there and like bullshit, some like Cypress
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Hill song, and Ed like would jump up and start
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: playing drums, and then Greg would like play a funky
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: griff or whatever, and then so we started jamming that
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: way and one of one of their bands, I think
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: four h nine, which was Greg and 's band, was
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: releasing an album and they were they said, let's have
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: all the bands play that release. So it was three bands.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: It was Justin's band, Ben's band, and then ed and
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Greg's band, and so those three bands were on on
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: the ticket and they said, since we're all playing in
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: between sets, why don't you come up and wrap that
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: Cyprus Hill song? And I was like, dude, I don't
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: want to rap a Cypersil song. Let's write a song
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: because I'm not going to do it as well as
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: be real, it's embarrassing, you know what I mean. So
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: they were like, okay, well we wrote a song and
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: it turned out being a song called check, which is
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: on our first album. And when we played that that night,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: the kids that came to the show were way more
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: into that one song than they were for even the
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: album release.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: So later that night, the guys came up to me
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: and they were like, hey, do you want to like
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: form a band together? Maybe we can like start writing
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: more songs and stuff because they liked how much the
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: other like the kids loved the song. So I was
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: like sure, I'm home for a year, like I don't
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: have anything to do, It's just I'm studying. So anyway,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: so we just started, you know, playing music together that way,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: and we got lucky and the right people saw us,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: and you know, we ended up being able to do
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: this for like thirty years now.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: So writ any the other bands pissed that you saw
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: their members.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Dude, if they weren't, they didn't say anything to me,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: but you know, maybe I would be probably right.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: And you all experimented musically and you settled on a
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: sound that basically fuses pop punk with rap elements. But
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: how many other styles or genres did you go through
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: before finding the one that worked for you?
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: I mean, we're still going through it, man. We everybody.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: The thing about us is all five of us write together,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: so and everybody has different musical tastes like, for example, uh,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: you know ed our drummer is really into punk, Ben
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: is more into punk and metal, Greg was into metal,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: I was into rap, and Justin was into everything. Uh
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: So when we would write, like all these different influences
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: would come in and we would try to integrate them.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: And I know, like initially, if you were to tell me, like,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: how are you gonna put a funk guitar lead over
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: a pop punk song with a rapper, I would be like,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: I don't know, but it it worked, so we just
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: kept doing it. We kept doing it, And I think
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: the cool thing with us is we never like set
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: out to make a punk song or a metal song
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: or a rap song. It's always just like we we
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: try to combine all of our ideas together and it
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: becomes what it is. It's never like planned out that way,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: and so it's always evolving. And I think that's kind
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: of cool because you never know what you're gonna get
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: with us, and you know it's not intentional, but it's
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: kind of how it worked out.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: Yes, how do you fund the balance into creative process? Like,
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: how do you know when you go on too fire
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: one diration or far enough in another?
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Well, we one of the things we've learned over the
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: years is to not try to stop an idea until
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: you've you've finished it right. So there's so many times, man,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: when we're be like, all right, what's done. Let's let's
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: all listen to it, and we'll be like, okay, how
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: about this that guitar part is rat Let's hold on
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: to the guitar part and the rest, you know, we
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: can probably do better, so then we'll just take the
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: guitar part and you know, put that somewhere. So there's
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: a lot of like trial and error, you know. And
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: the thing is just try not to stop other people's
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: ideas from uh, trying to not stop other people's ideas
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: from being finished kind of, you know.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: And you mentioned a bit of new music before, Brian
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: show us some more about that.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So you know, when we're not touring, which is
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: we tour a lot, but when we're not touring, we're
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: at home writing. And nowadays everybody has like a like
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: a recording studio on their home, so it's really easy
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: now to work when you're at home. And then when
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: you feel like you have a some things that are
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: working that we'll meet and like gam them out. So
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: we've been doing that and I think when we come
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: back from Australia we are kind of hitting it really hard.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: We're focusing on finishing the songs and recording them and
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: we'll have them out by summer, hopefully a new album.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: So what directions are they taken? Me Like they branched
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: off a bit more experimentally.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, some of them for sure, Are are are gonna
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: be a little left field, but again, it's kind of
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: still in the early stages of the songs. We haven't
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: like gone in with a producer to rearrange or anything yet,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: so I don't know how far they're gonna change. But
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: there are some songs right now I think people will
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: be surprised. But there's like there's some straight up rock songs.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: There's some really heavy songs. So and that's another thing.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: Like we've been doing EPs, so now we're we're hoping
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: that we can have enough songs that we have a
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: full album. So we're kind of still figuring out if
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: we're doing an EP or a full album. So it's
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: kind of interesting right now. You know, before I let you.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: Go, bro, I've got a new segment I've started called
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: fighter Bomb. So basically, I've told you social media and
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: I found a few fighters that I want to know
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: a little bit more about. Oh no, is this one?
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: This won't be a little bit hard to see, but
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: there's actually someone lined on the guitarist there, like, oh,
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: that's me already. All we got to say, is it
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: someone that stormed the stage and you knocking out or
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: is it part of the show.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: No, So I was trying to figure out what Dan
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: was playing, and so I saw an opening between his
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: legs and so I just went for it. I gotta
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: get you right there. Yeah, Dan had a hole in
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: his pants and he wasn't wearing the underwear. So I
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: was just like, what is going on? Man?
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: I thought though someone water might be stormed the stage,
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: and he's just sort of give him a quick elbow
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: and put him down and even standing over him.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: Now unfortunately it's just me.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: The other one I found. Look, there's a lot of
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: photos of people surfing inflatables at your shows. Yeah, well,
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: what was that something that you guys have started or
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: is it?
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: You know? You know, I don't remember. I know we've
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: played with bands that have done this as well, so
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: we've definitely didn't start this, but it is something that
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: the fans really dig so we try to try to
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: have an inflatable with us whenever we can. Yeah, that's
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: punk rock holiday that that festivals are awesome. By the way,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: in Slovenia.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: You actually taking inflat with you and you throw it
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: out every show.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, and then are our friends in the skeleton
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: outfits like usually run and jump off the stage and
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: land on them and then they get taken around the
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: pit or whatever and on the raft.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: So two things from that. People out of bringing their
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: own inflatables.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: I'm just gonna say, yeah, why not.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: People jumping off stage? What's to go with them? They
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: seem to be in a lot of fights as well.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's our crew. Not only are they are
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: like best friends, but we embarrass them by making them
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: wear weird shit all the time. And right now it's
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: a skeleton like Skelley outfit. And by the way, those
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: things smell terrible. Dude, they don't wash them enough and
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: so you can always smell a skeleton coming up from
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: behind you when we're playing the shows.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: It's pretty amazing, pretty smart, pretty smart you know that coming. Yeah,
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: totally fantastic. Helly, thanks for your time. Road, been a
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: pleasure speaking to you. I shall be at the Brisbane show,
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: which is the last one, so we'll catch off an
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: have a beer.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah man, please do. We'll have maybe four beers.