It seems that Zoë Kravitz wears more guises than most. She’s a successful actress, appearing in films like Divergent, X-Men: First Class and soon to be seen in the Mad Max reboot. But she’s also Lenny Kravitz’s daughter, so it’s perhaps little surprise that she’s been making music since she was 16.
Her latest project, Lolawolf, seems to be the first that’s taken off, with songs like “Drive” and “What Love Is” getting enough attention that the band will not only be releasing their debut album Calm Down in Australia this Friday – before the rest of the world in fact – but they’ll also be coming down our way for a brief jaunt around the country as Miley Cyrus’ support band.
I had the opportunity to speak to the entire band as they drove from one gig to another in the US, where they are supporting Lily Allen. We spoke about how Zoë balances her film and music worlds, the Australian bands she loves and her recent time filming reshoots in Australia for Mad Max: Fury Road. We hear from the rest of the band as well about their debut album, their live show and much more…
Where are you guys at the moment?
Zoe: We’re driving to New York from Washington D.C. where we just played a show with Lily Allen.
How have the shows with Lily been?
Zoe: They’ve been good! This was our third show. We played two shows in New York. So far so good.
It must be a good way to get the word out about the new record…
Zoe: Yeah it’s crazy, they’re some of the biggest crowds we’ve ever played to. So it’s awesome.
Now you played Terminal 5 in New York, which is one of my favourite venues. As New York locals, that must have been pretty cool to play there…
Zoe: Yeah, we love the place. We’ve seen so many shows there. It’s definitely one of those stages we never thought we’d get to play on. It was all kind of surreal.
And how has Lily been received?
Jimmy: She’s been fucking rad. She works hard, she’s talented. She puts on a good show and she’s been overwhelmingly sweet to us. Everyone in her whole crew… they have a real family vibe.
Zoe: Yeah they’ve all been awesome, we were really nervous just about being on such a big tour. So it’s been really cool!
So your album is released here ahead of the rest of the world… what does it mean to you guys to be getting that exposure so far from home, so early in the game?
Jimmy: To be completely honest, we don’t know. We’re just really excited. We’ve never released an album in Australia before.
Zoe: Yeah we can’t believe we have a record coming out anywhere, so yeah Australia is extra cool, because it’s so far away!
So tell me a little bit about the journey of making this record. At what point did you start laying down the tracks for Calm Down?
Jimmy: We write on the spot, so we got together in the Bahamas, in January, and recorded for a couple of weeks. And we got a lot of stuff done. Then we came back to New York, and went about all our other projects, and kept writing and messing around. Then Zoë was shooting in Vegas so we went there and recorded for another few weeks. Did the same thing in LA. And kind of wrapped it up shortly after that.
It’s all writing on the spot. We show up, we go with the vibe. We listen to a lot of records and whatever we’re influenced by we take it to the table. This record is very minimal, we listened to a lot of older and newer hip hop. A lot of the beats and the production and we just tried to get in that world a little bit.
Zoë: And it was all recorded in different houses and hotel rooms. So that’s kind of a cool thing. We didn’t go near a studio. Whereever we happened to be, that’s where the music was recorded.
From a thematic level, that might explain why there’s such a variety of subjects covered and the approaches taken musically… Looking at the songs people might know so far, “Jimmy Franco” and “What Love Is” – those are quite different tracks!
Zoë: Yeah definitely. I mean “What Love Is” was recorded a long time before “Jimmy Franco” was. Maybe six months between them. And then “Jimmy Franco” is different to “Ayo” or “What’s Up” or “Calm Down”. The album is pretty widespread.
It’s an eclectic mix!
Zoë: It is for sure! But I do think there’s something about it that does tie it all together.
Jimmy: Part of the production was that we were always aware that we wanted to go for a specific sound… we wanted to keep it on the same floor… always making sure we never went too far off. What you hear is what we actually like. So the ideas all come from the same place. But the songs are stretched out a bit you know?
I read some earlier interviews where you were talking about the struggle to translate your material live. How have you found that jump to be now that you’re playing big stages?
Zoë: Well at first we had a full band, a live drummer and a guitar player. So the sound was very different to what it is now. Much more jammy and rocky… and then when we after recorded everything, we went much more towards the hip hop beat vibe, so we decided to break it down. It sounds a lot cleaner now. We’re not afraid to use backing tracks anymore – I didn’t want to use them at first, it seemed weird to me, but I really like it now. We have drum pads and synths and it’s really simple… I think it sounds a lot more like the record now.
So next up on your touring agenda after these Lily shows, you’re coming to Australia!
Jimmy: Yeah we’re coming with Miley, we’re stoked.
You’ve spent a bit of time down here with Mad Max haven’t you Zoë?
Zoë: Yeah we did re-shoots in Sydney. I was there last December for about a week and a half, we did a bunch of re-shoots there.
It’s not a bad place to be that time of year…
Zoë: Oh no it was perfect it was amazing!
So are you looking forward to getting back down here?
Zoë: I am! It’s perfect timing again, too, it’ll just be starting to get cold up here – so we’ll running your way.
And not only do you have the album coming out in time for the tour, but you have “Ayo” being released as a single…
Jimmy: Yeah we’re excited about that, our friend Trouble Andrew did a video for it which we’re putting out. It’s a pretty rad clip. It was shot in Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn. Trouble is a skater and he’s also heavily influenced by Hip Hop. He’s got this place called the Gucci trap in Bed-Stuy. He does so much art there. He’g got this show coming up in New York in the W Hotel… he does all this cool art stuff. And he has this amazing space, which we used with a green screen, and we got a VHS camera and a couple of Go Pros and he directed Zoë in this fun way. We were all just drinking, smoking, doing whatever, and he was really into this song, which made it very easy for us. It was a real moment.
Zoë: It was an inspired thing. We have two videos that are already shot and are ready to come out. And they were both just these really organic things that we shot with friends who we think are talented. You’ll be seeing them all soon!
I understand too that you’re a bit of a Tame Impala fan Zoë?
Zoë: I love Tame Impala.
While you were in Australia did you get to discover any other Australian music?
Zoë: Unfortunately not, I was working a lot of the time. But hopefully this time we will, because we won’t be working a lot of the time, and we’ll want to check out some cool clubs. We might do some other shows. So hopefully we’ll go around and discover some new music!
Jimmy: Who should we look out for?
Well if you like Tame Impala the first band that comes to mind to check out are from Melbourne, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.
Jimmy: Oh you know what, I saw them twice at a residency in Brooklyn!
Zoë: Oh I saw them too, they were great! They were really awesome.
Looking ahead to touring and all the commitments and everything that comes along with that, how’s everything going to be balanced with the other things you guys have got going on, not the least of which being your acting Zoë?
Zoë: Well yeah we all have other commitments. I have my acting. James and Jimmy both have a band called Reputante… so we’re all juggling and working around each others schedules and supporting each other. So it’s cool, we have our own shit going on and then we have this that brings us together.
I was going to ask too – reckon we could get a Reputante show happening while you’re in Australia?
Zoë: Oh we could do that!
James: Yeah we should do that! We’ve never gone to Australia.
Zoë: We’re going to try to make that happen.
James: We’re so excited to get down there.
Well congratulations on the record, it’s so much fun to listen to. And it just seems like you guys are just having a blast putting it all together. That has to be true doesn’t it?
Zoë: Oh yeah, that’s the most important thing to me. We’re all doing this all for the art and we love each other and want to hang out, and so if you don’t hear that we’re having fun – especially when you watch us play – then something’s very wrong. Because that’s what keeps me going. I mean sometimes I get nervous but then I just remember I’m up there with my two best friends playing music. There’s nothing better than that. We’re having quite a good time.
——————-
Calm Down is out on Friday, October 10th through Create/Control. The band will be making their Australian debut as the support for Miley Cyrus in her Entertainment Centre and Arena shows around Australia next week:
Oct 15: Brisbane Entertainment Centre – Brisbane QLD, Australia
Oct 17: Acer Arena – Sydney NSW, Australia
Oct 20: Adelaide Entertainment Centre – Hindmarsh SA, Australia
Oct 23: Perth Arena – Perth, Australia
