Sometimes you have to fight for your right to go against the grain. Do it differently. March to the beat of a different drummer. There is NOTHING wrong with it. Even though some people may look down their noses at you for being too “this” or too “that”, DO YOU. Just DO you. How? Hakuna Matata?
No. By giving absolutely no fucks.
This indie band of the week is starting out and is slathered with all the indicators that make us scream, “Fuck yeah!” at the top of our lungs and hail the mighty powers that have bestowed upon us the music that makes us throw our heads back and forth. Their single “Special” landed among the Top 10 Greatest Gainers on BOTH the Billboard Indicator & Foundations Chart! Um, YES!
Based out of Los Angeles, ZFG is Jules Galli (vocals), Trev Lukather (guitar), Sam Porcaro (bass), and Josh Devine (drums). These guys were tight, but when they decided to get into the studio with a new approach in mind, ZFG was born.
We had the absolutely pleasure of chatting up Mr. Devine (Josh) about everything that makes ZFG tick! READ!
Alright. I hate asking this question but tell me a little bit more about ZFG – Zero Fucks Given. I mean: New Band, New Year. Tell me more about how you went into the studio and said, “You know what? This is it! We’re going to go for gold!”
Yeah well, Trev Lukather and I met a couple of years ago and we’d always been big fans of each other’s playing. There’s a lot of respect and we’d always say to each other, “Hey! We need to be together in the studio and do some fun stuff and just write stuff that we’re really digging.”
We both had our own projects going at the time; we both played for other artists at the time. It was all still very pop oriented and more for what the market was wanting and what was going to sell – all that kind of stuff. One day we just said, “Yo, let’s just get in and let’s just create some music that we’re big fans of.” You know? No rules or anything like that. It kind of all came to life.
You said no rules. Tell me what rules you broke to make ZFG “Zero Fucks Given” come to life.
Usually, when you’re writing with artists or you’re getting into the pop game, everything is just “the song needs to be this long” or “we want to shy away from this type of genre”, “we don’t want to have this kind of music,” “we need to keep it friendly”. There’s all these kinds of norms and we just decided, “You know what? Screw this! We’re just going to get in, keep it live, keep it real, keep it very authentic. It’s going to be hard driven, it’s going to be live drums. We’re not going to do these drum machines or copy and paste on the computer like most sessions are these days.” So, yeah it really just came to life very naturally as well. When Jules came into the mix and we got him on to do some vocals, everything changed. His voice has this real RnB kind of soul twist to it, so everything kind of changed again. And then when Sam came into the mix and started playing, we were told to pocket this guy. He just brings the grooves and he’s such a pleasure to play with as a drummer. Playing with Sam on bass, it’s like the stuff we get to do together just changes the vibe again. So it stopped being a straight all out rock band and became a kind of new kind of funky RnB sounding rock stuff. It’s very apparent in the rest of our music that we’ve been recording. We’re definitely exploring those avenues. We just kind of thought, you know, no rules, no conforming to what anyone wants us to do. We just want to do exactly what we want to do.
Did you all do your own production?
Yeah well, we were working with some producers in LA, but we always co-produce everything. Because at the end of the day, it’s nice to have an outside ear to come and say, “Hey! Have you guys thought about this or have you thought about that?” But quite honestly, we want it to just be exactly how we envision it. So, quite honestly, it’s a lot better to just produce it ourselves to really get the results we want. That’s something about the band: we’re all very in tune with this. We all know what we want and collectively, we all very much have the same vision going forward. So it’s very easy to create with these guys. It’s definitely a dream scenario.
It sounds like it evolved while you were recording.
It did. We were coming up with basic concepts and then as soon as we got into the studio, everything keeps evolving, everything keeps changing. Its old school in the way we do it. Like on “Special” we weren’t even really going to do that song, but then we just sort of started jamming the riff and Jules just started riffing on that and we were like, “Holy shit! What is this?” And we literally on that day built the whole track. I went in and just started laying down the drums with Sam playing bass and yeah we kind of built the track then and there on the spot. It was very natural, very organic. It wasn’t like a planned thing where, as some of the other stuff, we sit with them, get the lyrics done and then we build the song around it. This one was very standout, it was brilliant.
Was “Wholehearted” the same way?
“Wholehearted” was a little bit different. We originally sat down with an acoustic and Jules came over (Trev and I live together) to our place and we just spent a good four hours that night writing. I think that we must have written 3 or 4 songs pretty much fully in those hours. That was a little bit different. But again we’re not boxing ourselves in. If the moment takes us where we write it on an acoustic and with voices or something, we do it that way. If we’re in the studio and we start jamming as a full band, it’s all also – as you say, no rules.
You all come from other musical backgrounds, so how is this a different experience?
I mean, for me personally, I’ve always been a hired gun. I’ve always played for other artists. I’ve played everywhere in the world for massive artists and I’ve done rap, I’ve done pop, I’ve done rock; everything you can imagine. But for this, it’s so different. It’s my baby. It’s all of our, like, love child! It’s really different and interesting as now the pressure is on because actually I’m not just playing for other bands and helping build a brand. We’re kind of building our own and everything is on the line. We’re vulnerable; this is us! People get to look into us and it’s very different. I was blessed to be able to go and tour the world for five years with One Direction, but that is completely different from touring the U.S. at the moment with ZFG. It’s just a completely different kettle of fish, but it’s great. I’m loving it. Loving everything second of it.
It sounds like you feel more connected.
Completely! I mean it’s just nice to be creatives. Because being a hired gun, you’re kind of told, “this is what we want you to play and you can dance around this and you can do this but this is the song, this is how we want you to play it. Now put your spin on it.” Whereas for this, it’s like “Oh! This is MY song. I want to play it THIS way. Trev wants to play it THIS way. Jules wants to sing it THIS way and Sam wants to play it THIS way. So let’s do it!” There’s no one telling us what to do. This is just all of us going, “This is what’s best for the song and this is how we’re going to do it,” and that’s a beautiful thing.
It sounds like it. Does it feel more satisfying?
Completely. It’s very fulfilling. I mean, even though we haven’t had success like I’ve had personally and Jules’ had personally doing other things – we’re not playing in front of 86,000 people yet. It’s still satisfying even to have 100 people in a room singing the words back to you; that’s pretty glorious
Absolutely. Do you feel more connected, not just to your band, but to your audience?
Yeah completely! I mean I think people really can tell it’s authentic. And when people really do something, especially with this kind of music, people dedicate their lives to this kind of stuff. It’s just such a beautiful thing. I feel very connected to everyone that really wants to support. We’ve had overwhelming amounts of support from fans and people who haven’t even heard of us before individually, and they hear the band and they’re like “Man! This is something I really can get behind!” Especially people that don’t really dig rock music. Most of my friends back home aren’t into that kind of genre. They’re listening to it like “Man! I think I like rock music now, this is great!” That’s kind of a really really humbling thing.
You’re introducing rock to the masses and that IS a great thing.
Yeah, I mean at the end of the day, I grew up on rock. Trev and Sam grew up in rock. The thing that we love to hear is people saying that we’re helping to push rock into their lives. That’s a huge amazing thing. It’s overwhelming.
Absolutely. I read that you all played “Special” for Gene Simmons. What was that like? That must have been an experience.
It was funny actually. We were rehearsing in north Hollywood and KISS were rehearsing in the room next door. So we’d periodically get out of playing our own songs, go stand outside their door and hear them play like all the classics and we’re like “Holy shit! This is so sick!” And our manager John disappears for like two minutes and we’re just jamming and he walks back in with Gene Simmons, we’re like “What?” He’s like “Yo. This is Gene. He’d like to hear you in play. We’re like “Oh okay. Let’s play “Special” Let’s do it.” He was very very funny – very much as you would expect. He gave us some great advice and yeah we had a laugh. He definitely lived up to the rockstar legend expectation as you’d imagine
What advice did he give you?
More than anything, “You guys sound great but how are you going to make money?”
There you go. Like a businessman.
Yeah. I mean we definitely feel like he threw us a bone as well. We actually an ANR from the label in there with us, checking us out and he just looked to the ANR and he goes, “you best get these guys the biggest fucking advance.” And we were like “YESS! Gene Simmons! This is great!”
That’s amazing.
It was really good. It was one of those funny moments where he walks out and you’re like, “Did we just play for Gene Simmons? This is crazy!
You played for a legend. It must say something that Gene Simmons is listening to you.
Well yeah and we took a little video and I think the video is up on YouTube I’m sure. He’s definitely standing there, stern face, and crossed-arms, but I promise you, he was enjoying it. He said he enjoyed it. It may not look like it by the image unless he was just being nice to us, but I very much doubt it.
Tell me about the lyric video for “Special”. How did that concept originate?
Well, our manager was like, “Hey! We should do a video. I think it’s too early to do a proper good video. Let’s get like a lyric video – give people a taste. We got to get up on YouTube anyway.” And he found the guy that built this video for us. I remember the guy sent us like 30 seconds previews saying, “Hey! Just spent some time on this, tell us what you think.” And we watched like 30 seconds of it and we were like, “Damn this is something special! No pun intended.”
There you go! So you all didn’t have a hand in it. It was just basically the guy that came up with this concept and it worked.
I would love to say that we were working on the vision we were building for this is this, but no we had nothing to do with that. The guy was like “Hey! This will work. This is really cool.” We just agreed like, “Damn! This is great!”
Sometimes you just got to let the pros do what they do.
Exactly, I mean at the end of the day, you go into a tattoo artist and say, “Hey! I want you to draw this line slightly thicker…” and you kind of give them the idea, but you let the pros do it. That’s their job. We just did the same thing.
Right! Like if I had a surgeon, I wouldn’t tell them how to do it. They know what they’re doing.
Exactly. That’s their lane, let them do it so it can come out better.
There you go. You are on tour with Adelita’s Way.
Yes so we just left yesterday. We’ve got a long ass drive to Texas that’s for sure.
Oh my gosh! And Texas is HUGE!
Yeah. I mean last time I did Texas, I did it in a tour bus, so I could just fall asleep but we’re not doing it in a tour bus this time so I’m actually going to see all the in-between bits, so I’m realizing how far way everything in America really is.
It is!
I mean, I come from England, and it’s like tiny. You can drive across the whole country in a day.
Oh yeah. The U.S. is huge. I know from where I’m at, it takes me a good 16 hours, if not more to get to San Antonio. Yeah and I’ve made that drive in a day.
Oh my god. I’m pretty sure you could go from my hometown Bournemouth which is in the south coast to the top of Scotland in 14 hours and that’s like journeying across two countries, it’s ridiculous.
But it sounds more impressive when you say it that way that you go across two countries. When you say you go from like one state to the other, it doesn’t feel that big.
It’s all crazy. I can understand now why 40% of Americans don’t even have a passport. To be honest, you guys have got everything here, you can do anything and go anywhere with half the climate.
Absolutely. If I’m craving the beach, I can go south.
Yeah its nuts. Absolutely nuts.
So you’re starting off on this tour. You all are not unfamiliar with tour life, so what are you expecting and then what would you like to have happen? Like what are you dreaming for?
I’m expecting this is isn’t going to be like the tours I’ve done personally. I feel like I’ve been very spoiled. The first major tour I ever had, we were taking busses and jets. It was the Rolls Royce of touring I’d call it. Now this is going to be definitely the other side of that, but I’m expecting to have a good laugh. I mean at the end of the day, we all get on as friends so the banter is there. We’ve been on this for a day already and we’re cracking up at every opportunity, it’s so much fun. So yeah, we’re just expecting to have a good laugh, to hopefully win some fans over and some new people check us out and hopefully dig what we’re doing. The dream is obviously that we’re going to just keep touring so we can do bigger shows, and yeah, we’ll see how far this crazy rides takes us.
Sounds amazing. So did you know that there’s a ZFG pale ale brewed out of Hidden Springs in Tampa Florida?
No way.
Yeah it’s… I’m just curious because I was doing some research trying to find more information about you all and the first thing that comes up is this beer, I think ya’ll need to try it.
Damn alright! I mean I have to hit them up and say yo there’s some mutual benefit going on here, we need to co-brand some stuff. That sounds great.
I think you need to. Because-
I’m going to take a leaf out of Gene Simmons book and start thinking about expanding the empire!
There you go. It’s not a terrible thing to have it be a beer, you know what I mean? It could be good.
Yeah I mean, we all take beer. That sounds like a logical progression.
Yeah I mean it could be something horrible like a rat trap or something, you know what I mean [laughs]
[laughs] Yeah. Like cockroach extermination supplies or something.
Exactly “ZFG Exterminations”. I mean you’re on the-
You know what, we’re going to start a whole empire of all these weird shit.
[laughs] ZFG Rat Traps. ZFG Butt Plugs. ZFG everything. I think you should make a series of –
ZFG Tarmacking equipment. We’re going to help with people tarmac the road. It’s done. It’s going to be great.
ZFG Roofers. It’ll be great.
I love it.
That is my last question. Enjoy your trip, take a lot of naps and have a good time.
Thank you so much for taking the time to question me, it’s very fun!
ZFG w/ Adeltias Way “What it Takes” Tour Dates:
4/17 Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live
4/19 Austin, TX @ Come and Take it Live
4/20 Dallas, TX @ Gas Monkey
4/24 Heath, OH @ Muddy Creek Saloon
4/26 Tucson, AZ @ Pima County Fair
4/27 Easton, PA @ One Centre Square
4/28 Buffalo, NY @ Iron Works
5/1 Pittsburgh, PA @ Crafthouse
5/2 Flint, MI @ Machine Shop
5/3 Battle Creek, MI @ Music Factory
5/4 Joliet, IL @ The Forge
5/5 Madison, WI @ Majestic Theater
5/8 Chippewa Falls, WI @ Every Buddys
5/9 Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line
5/10 Lincoln, NE @ Bourbon Theatre
5/11 Denver, CO @ Marquis
5/12 Colorado Springs, CO @ Black Sheep
ZFG w/ The Winery Dogs “Who Let The Dogs Out” Tour:
5/25 Las Vegas, NV – Vamp’d
5/28 Sacramento, CA – Crest Theater
5/29 Santa Cruz, CA – Rio Theater
5/30 Anaheim, CA – The Grove
5/31 Beverly Hills, CA – Saban Theatre
