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The Zou settles in to its own sound
The band is once again staging the Nouveau Rock Music and Art Festival on Saturday at Cedars.
YOUNGSTOWN — “We really enjoy creating nonrock-influenced rock,” says Khaled Tabbara, the driving force behind The Zou.
What does that mean? Let Tabarra explain:
“We try to get musical influences that are not just other rock bands. I find you get much more interesting stuff than when you try to sound like some other rock band that loved some other rock band because that rock band always listened to another rock band.
“I prefer to reach out to things like hip-hop, musical theater, melodies from classical music, and then jam them together with something like post-punk or Motown. Then you get something more interesting.”
Anyone who has seen the five-piece band live already knows it has a flair for the theater.
Tabarra, the band’s songwriter/lyricist, says the theatrical streak has its roots in Stephen Sondheim, the great Broadway musical composer. “Sondheim is one of the main reasons I started playing piano as a kid,” he said.
Tabbara, a regular on area community theater stages, played the role of Signor Pirelli the barber in the Youngstown Playhouse’s production of Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd” last year.
The Zou’s 2004 debut disc was an uneven affair with a Brit-pop flavor. But the five-piece act with the eclectic approach masters its own sound on its latest offering, “The Pine Box Deluxe.”
Released earlier this year, “The Pine Box Deluxe” contains five songs from the previously released “Pine Box” EP, plus five more that are in regular rotation at Zou shows, making it a good way to get up to speed with the band. The entire disc can be downloaded for free from The Zou’s myspace page.
With its cohesiveness and ghoulish carnival atmosphere, “Deluxe” calls to mind the work of ’70s rocker-showman Alice Cooper.
The EP also has a “nowhere to hide” clarity that keeps the spotlight on the songwriting and musicianship.
“The Pine Box Deluxe” was produced at Ampreon Recorder by Pete Drivere, whom Tabarra is quick to praise.
“There is an amazing Pete Drivere-The Zou chemistry we have cultivated over the years,” he said. “Pete is fantastic. We will come up with some crazy idea like ‘we want it to sound like a dark stormy night storm in England during an air raid.’ And Pete will say, ‘OK, I have an idea. Let me grab something,’ and he’ll return with some crazy mic.”
The Zou has begun making the transition from regional band to national touring act. It played California in January and Florida in March, and has hit 14 states so far this year.
But no matter how far it travels, the act remains devoted to the Youngstown music scene. Toward that end, it is resurrecting its Nouveau Rock Music and Art Festival after a couple of years’ absence. The event will be Saturday at The Cedars Lounge, downtown, and will include eight bands on two stages, indoors and out.
“The definition for nouveau is ‘new, different, often fashionably so’,” said Tabarra. “This means all the bands there will be doing something really creative, and they are all Youngstown bands.”
Artists and photographers will also set up shop to display their work.