Interview With Zeus

As part of a series of interviews conducted backstage at this year’s Peats Ridge Festival, we bring you our chat with Canadian band Zeus to kick start it all. Marred by recording difficulties and absurd conversations, Max Easton gives you a taste of the raucous Zeus camp.

“Fuck you Jay you fucking prick you stupid son-of-a-bitch!” This is the lone voice that screams through the collective murmuring that is the recording of our interview with Toronto’s Zeus; the backing band for Arts & Crafts label mate Jason Collett and fully-fledged outfit in their own right. “Fucking Jay Collett!” It should be stressed that this perceived tension is a mock response concerning their relationship with Collett, the maudlin ex-Broken Social Scene guitarist and elderly statesman of the Zeus/Collett pairing. He shakes his head with a smile, murmurs “such sweet boys” and then mentions something about them getting paid before the conversation devolves into obscure talk about the world outside of the fortress of solitude that is their backstage hideaway. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Zeus.

Held backstage at the back end of Peats Ridge Day One, the recipe for this interview was always going to result in something a little maligned. Zeus had just played their first set to Australian audiences, managing to drag a small but dense crowd down front to get involved with their unique brand of genre-splicing indie-rock...but only after an invitation from the band moved them up front.

“In the famous words of Jason Collett, you have to teach people how to have a good time some times,” muses multi-instrumentalist Carlin Nicholson, “Sometimes [the audience] forget why they’re there…they’re all back sitting in the mud, and you want to say ‘what are you doing? Why are you here?’ But it was lovely, they came up and had a great time.”

It seems that good times are at the essence of what Zeus do, after all, that’s just part of the reason why very little was said in this interview that’s possible to print. Yeah, the other reasons include the backstage rider of Absinthe, the small crowded room and a voice recorder that had reached capacity…but regardless, they’re very much a band conscious of how to get over.

“The set is just a formula,” Nicholson continues, “population plus intensity of the crowd equals everyone having a great time. That’s how we had a great time anyway.”

Described by Jason Collett in our interview with him as a band with tremendous instincts, Zeus seem to have the ability to play in the form of a dozen different iterations. Band members swap from lead vocals to drums, from keys to guitars, all without losing an inch of what the previous iteration had to offer. They’re tight, but with that Crazy Horse looseness that brings a raucous flavor to everything they do, soaring through dirty keys and off-kilter beats amongst classic rock riffing and soulful vocals. These are all elements and themes lost in the depths of the faults with this off-the-cuff interview, and while it may be a shame to have lost them, we do have some very good reasons as to why you shouldn’t fuck nor fuck with Hercules.

As the Absinthe takes it's toll, we drop out and the band proceed to draw on the walls of the temporary hallways that constitute the backstage area while the discussion comes to a close. For Zeus, this tour is very much a toe in the water; feeling out their reception in the Australian market. It's a challenge for any band to make that step across the Pacific without a recognisable name, but it's steps like this which lead to a touring future, and there's no doubt that with the right timing Zeus have the potential to become a welcomed main-stay on the Australian circuit.

You can catch Zeus supporting Jason Collett across the East Coast on the dates listed here.