The Zico Chain

Arbroath Viewfield, Arbroath on Mon 3rd Apr 2006

Manchester metal band The Zico Chain is currently touring the country to promote their self-titled debut mini-album. eGigs caught up with them at the Arbroath Viewfield gig to ask them a few questions.

In a couple of weeks you will be releasing your debut mini album on Hassle Records – what are your expectations for the album?

Chris Glithero (vocals, bass): We’re not expecting to blow everything away, we’d be happy to sell a few thousand copies to the kids who’ve picked up on what we’ve been doing.

How much has it fulfilled your expectations of what you could do as a band?

Paul Frost (vocals, guitar): We did it in a couple of weeks. It’s simple and it’s fast, it’s everything we wanted to do.

You’ve been playing venues such as the Glasgow ABC when supporting the likes of Nine Black Alps, do you feel more confident in the bigger venues, or do you prefer the smaller venues such as the Arbroath Viewfield?

CG: Honestly, I don’t give a shit these days, as long as there’s twenty kids at the front who are moshing we’ll just play to them anyway.

PF: It’s just a different atmosphere, and the vibes are great. Obviously, it’s dead rewarding if it’s a big room and everyone’s enjoying themselves, but if it’s really intimate and hectic and energetic then it’s great as well.

Have you had a good reaction from the tour so far?

CG: Yeah, Scotland especially is wicked – we’ve had people coming back from the last times we’ve been here, some guy turned up in a Zico t-shirt last night, and we’d never been to Edinburgh before!

How were the Zico Chain formed?

CG: It’s all a little hazy, I can’t remember greatly how it got together. We didn’t think too much about the whole thing, and although it’s clichéd, we were a bit dissatisfied with everything, and we started getting faster and more aggressive.

Were you in any school bands?

CG: My band was called The Blue!
Ollie Middleton (Drums): I was in Penfold! Long live Penfold!

Chris, do you ever get tired of the endless Nirvana comparisons in the press just now?

CG: We think it’s lazy, really lazy that journalists are saying that. We don’t care too much though. You can always tell the person who’s had one look at us and just went to the bar, then in the review writes that we want to be like Nirvana. They were a big band and all, but not any more than (Black) Sabbath and Pixies, and all those other punk bands like the Ramones.

PF: With the mini-album review, there are always influences that are kicked up, like Motorhead.

CG: The kids say that we remind them of Nirvana, but musically, there’s not any real comparison, obviously Paul’s tall, I’ve got long blonde hair, and we shout a lot! I can see where they come from.

Would you rather work your way up slowly, or rise to fame like the Arctic Monkeys?

CG: We’d be stupid to say we just want to keep playing small venues, I think that’s stupid – we’d love to play massive venues to loads of people. We don’t want to be a ‘hype’ band, we don’t want to be a ‘scenester’ band. We’d like to build a massive fanbase - we just want to do it the right way, we want to be around for a while.

What did you collectively listen to when you grew up?

CG: Just Nirvana all the way man!

The rest of the band laugh.

Who are your favourite bands at the minute?

CG: I absolutely love the Dresden Dolls – we saw them at SXSW and Download, and they’re tremendous – they’re pushing the boundaries.

OM: The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster – they’re pushing the boundaries too. We played with them in Texas, and they took the roof off. The Like too – we’ve seen them on tour.

CG: We all like real songs from songwriters, like Motorhead, Metallica, Queens of the Stone Age, all the sort of classic influences.

You’re playing the Download festival – any other plans for the summer?

CG: We can’t fucking wait for Download! Reading and Leeds too – we’re not booked yet but we really hope to be there. We love the festivals, we had a great time as punters last year, thinking “we’re going to be playing next year”, and now we are!

Do you feel you’d be able to keep up the energy in your shows for a longer set?

OM (laughing): We’re dying after 40 minutes as it is!

CG: We’ve been playing ten tracks for these headline tours, it went from eight to nine to ten. We don’t think bands should be playing hour and a half sets. I think with any band if I watch them for fifty minutes, I’ve had enough. If I was a kid at the front sweating, I’d not want to listen to acoustic parts of the set to fill the gap, I don’t think it’s right.

PF: We’d much rather play for forty minutes and keep everyone’s interest.

OM: I think if it was any longer than forty minutes I’d just fall off my stool!

article by: Matt Shaw

published: 05/04/2006 12:12



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