Zombi – Steve Moore

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

InstruMENTAL kingpins, ZOMBI have just released an excellent new album called Spirit Animal that you should check out. “What do they sound like?” you ask? Well, imagine a score to a classic Giallo film crossed with a soundtrack to an obscure Scarface rip-off movie that was released straight to VHS circa 1983. Pick up the album here.

We spoke with Zombi songwriter Steve Moore about the album, horror movies, and (almost) drugs.

SMN news: How did your fascination with film scores begin? Did you start collecting them right off the bat?

Steve Moore: My fascination with film scores began when I was very young – my father had all the Star Wars soundtracks on LP and we’d listen to them non-stop. This was long before DVD’s – we didn’t even have a VCR yet so this was the only way to re-live the movies. From there it grew to unhealthy proportions. The Halloween and Halloween 2 soundtracks were the first I bought on my own – on cassette!!

Were you raised in a musical household?

My father played guitar and sang in a band. Before I was even born I was spending every Friday night at the local bars and joints in the Monroeville PA, my mom standing in front of the PA speakers watching my dad play. We listened to a lot of records too. Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, Yes, Meco – my dad has a pretty eclectic record collection.

The title track on Spirit Animal reminded me of Georgio Moroder in parts. Can you talk about the song’s origins?

Moroder is quite a compliment. Spirit Animal is one of those rare instances in which a song forms completely in the mind before it ever makes it onto paper or tape. One night I had this melody going through my head – very simple and repetitive. Within a day the whole thing had worked itself out in my mind, and I spent the next two days recording a demo mix for Zombi drummer A.E. Paterra to check out.

Everything from the warm analog sounds to the artwork on the new album is rooted in a 70’s feel. What about that time period appeals to you the most? Spirit Animal certainly sounds like it could have been released in 1977.

I’ve always felt a lot of nostalgia for the 70’s. The decade spawned most of my favorite albums, movies, books. That said, I’m not trying to recreate sounds of that era – I just like to use them as a starting point. I love to write for synthesizer, which automatically gives our music a 70’s feel, but really aside from that I think we’re more in tune with math rock bands from the 90’s, like Don Caballero or Trans Am.

There’s always been this idea that has gone around that listening to a band like Zombi, Tangerine Dream, or say Amon Düül is better appreciated under the influence of psychedelic drugs. What are your experiences in that realm?

Ha – sorry but I’m going to have to plead the fifth on this one.

Since Zombi formed there has been a huge wave of instrumental bands in the heavy rock and metal scenes. Have you found a lot of quality new groups from this surge or has it been disappointing so far?

I haven’t been paying too much attention to new instrumental metal – it’s been about 2 years since the last Zombi tour and that’s usually the only contact I have with the metal world. Outside of metal though, instrumental bands like Turzi and Chateau Marmont have been blowing my mind.

The obvious next step for the band is scoring. Have you been approached yet and what would be your ideal project? People would probably say something in the horror genre but I was curious to get your take on it.

We scored a couple movies years ago as Zombi – both horror films. It was a lot of fun, and I’ve scored a few movies on my own since then. I don’t think scoring films is high on Zombi’s priority list anymore though. I think my ideal project though would be something more along the lines of a BBC nature documentary or a post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie.

Thanks for the taking the time to do this.

My pleasure!

By Carlos Ramirez