Zombies Ate My Girlfriend recently won the Battle For Wacken. We got an opportunity to interview Adriano Rodrigues, guitarist for the band.
The roster for the final of Battle for Wacken was filled with some great bands. Who were you most concerned about competing against?
Not being our first rodeo with Wacken Battle South Africa, we went into it knowing it could be anyone’s game. The thing is, once you reach the finals, you know all the competing bands are just as hungry as you are. I don’t think we really singled any bands out as “threats”. It’s a bit like football, anything can happen on the night.
A few of your members play in Infanteria, who won one of the previous Battle for Wacken events. How did that influence or assist you in this round of Battle for Wacken?
Chris and I were fortunate to go through to Wacken Open Air for the very first Wacken Metal Battle. From previous participation we had a good idea what the judges were looking for, but in all honesty Wacken Metal Battle S.A. made the judging criteria freely available to bands and spectators alike. We just figured, “what are the chances” and went for it. Being in bands for a while means pride isn’t really an issue when you’re considering the chances of losing.
Who is the main songwriting force in the band, or it is a fully collaborative effort?
I do the majority of writing in Zombies, but we do collaborate during certain parts of the process. Ferdi writes all his drums, there’s a lot of collaboration between myself and him at that point. Both of us trying to get the most out of the song but mainly trying to stay true to what the specific track is trying to do. Then during vocals myself and Gavin will get together to demo the entire album once the music is written.
Chris does a majority of writing for Infanterria. Is there ever a conflict in songwriting, or is Chirs more of a “Hired Gun” type?
The writing process and contribution is pretty much the same in both bands. I do the majority in Zombies, Chris does the majority in Infanteria. We’re completely honest with each other when we bounce ideas around or demo track ideas for each other but if it’s Teria Chris has the final say and likewise for Zombies it’s me. We decided this before Chris even joined Zombies. I’ve never wanted to write for Teria because Chris has a style going. Now that we band share completely this has become even more important. It’s a case of making sure the bands retain their individual sound without it just becoming two versions of the same thing.
In 2015, you guy released the album “Retrocide”. What has the reception for Retrocide been like?
On the whole it’s been good but it started out kind of weird. We received the award for ‘best album’ from the South African Metal Music Awards for it this year. When it first came out the reception from the press in general was lukewarm with a dash of average. But it was pretty clear from the start that the album was making ground amongst the fans and getting the band’s sound to new ears.
You said before that you would take a few months off in 2015 to begin working on a new album. Are you currently working on anything new, or has your main focus been prepping for Wacken?
We’re still set on releasing the next album in the first half of next year. Things have just become a bit harder recently with the addition of the tour as well as a few shows we’ve now got lined up for later this year. That being said, we are writing, and have written enough album worthy material for this second one to start taking shape conceptually. I guess we expected that things would quiet down a bit after the very successful album release year we had in 2015 but this year has just proved to be even more demanding and rewarding. We have no intentions of putting album plans on hold, if anything we’re just working harder to make it happen.
What preparations are you making for Wacken?
In all honesty we’ve never changed up our prep for a specific show. We do the majority of the homework individually at home and then get together for a rehearsal or two before game night. It doesn’t matter if it’s 10 people or 8000 we’re going to go up there and blow you away. There’s a goodtime to be had for anyone who’s interested, whether it be for the many or the few. That’s the part of the deal that we’ll always bring to the table.
What are some of the challenges in regards to logistics are you as a band is facing in order to get to Wacken?
The biggest challenge is getting the required gear over there. We’ve been doing a lot of flying to Gauteng over the last few years so we’ve got our tour rig pretty sorted at this point. And thankfully the worst of the admin is behind us now so we can start focusing on rehearsals.
Zombies Are My Girlfriend are local legends, and many up and coming bands look up to you. What advice can you give any young band?
Patience and perseverance. On a more hands on note, spend a lot of time during your musical career writing songs. How do you write good music? By writing loads of [bad] music first. Like any technique you would practise with your instrument, song writing is no different. It takes a while to reach a decent level and then even longer to develop your own style. I think these days it’s very easy to market yourself effectively, to deliver some quality brand product as it were. But a lot of bands fall short after the initial “first one’s free” hype is done, because the music is nowhere near the level of the bands marketing. Ultimately, it can be all shiny to get attention, but the substance makes sure the attention is maintained and grows.
As a band, you guys use Jackson guitars. Tell us what guitars you’ll be playing at Wacken.
I’m using old faithful, the guitar that I’ve used to record the EP and album. My black Jackson Kelly KE5FR 2009. Chris is taking his Jackson PDX Demmelition King V 2014 and Marc his Jackson JS3V Concert Bass.
Why have you chosen these specific guitars?
These are pretty much the guitars and setup we’ve been using for quite a while now. So we’ve got our sound completely dialled in. I’m a total Jackson nut, been playing them for almost two decades now and have owned quite a few. This KE5 though, it’s by far one of the best guitars I’ve owned. Sometimes you just get that one that was made with that little bit of extra care. It’s a guitar I’ll never part ways with.
