CHRIS ZANKO of THE PINHEADS: Spooky Sounds and The Number Seven
An interview by Sarah Kidd.
In a local bowling alley situated in Wollongong (pop. approx. 295K), seven friends dined on pizza, talked music and decided then and there to create a band. Lo and behold The Pinheads were born; d.o.b 2013, to proud parents Surfer & Garage Rock. Raised on a steady diet of horror films, they grew quickly into the rowdy wee band we see today; all nebulous soundscapes, startling audiences by cavorting around the stage like those who are possessed by the boogeyman himself!
I manage to tear away Chris Zanko from the afternoon task of printing the band’s t-shirts long enough to ask him a few questions about their debut album, food source and the highly sought after ‘turkey’.
Big question up first, name your favourite horror film
“Ahhh far out! The Wicker Man, the Spanish Film Rec is also pretty good”
How did seven friends “accidentally become a band?”
“So we go ten pin bowling on a Tuesday night at our local bowling alley and just a bunch of us are like into music and things and sort of decided to make a band out of the group of people that we were bowling with! I mean some of us knew how to play instruments, and yeah it just fell together from that”.
So all seven of you just went ‘yep we’re gonna be in a band?’
(laughs) “Yeah pretty much…”
Out of the group who actually knew how to play instruments?
“Like two of the members play in another band called Shining Bird; one of them plays guitar and the other one plays the drums – and a few can keep rhythm, so yeah we just built from there”
Now most people wouldn’t even know what a Theremin is, so how did you end up playing one?
“Yeah I guess, like my whole families background is Russian and it’s a Russian instrument; that’s where it originated from, so there’s a bit of that interest in it. Also I think I just saw like a few videos of it online and I sorta got interested in it, cause I knew there would be others – we thought it would be a good fit for our band just like to make a few horror noises and stuff, so I got one”.
How hard did you find learning how to play it?
“Uh, it’s like easy to make cool sounds and stuff but to actually become really familiar with like note playing and stuff with it has taken quite a while just because I’m teaching myself. I started out by playing that ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ song” (laughs)
Congregating inside a barn in the middle of the bush, The Pinheads set about creating their first offering to the world; the self-recorded debut EP I Wanna Be A Girl. The boisterous seven then delivered their handiwork to Owen Penglis (The Grates, Straight Arrows) who lovingly mixed and mastered it for them. A mélange of psychedelic rock n roll, it enraptured all who offered up their auricles; fans displaying a range of side effects such as hollering, dancing and all out craziness.
Which track on the album sums up The Pinheads best?
“Ooo – These are pretty hard questions, actually they are all pretty hard. (laughs) I guess that I will have to go with my favourite ‘Fight or Flight’ – it’s a more organ driven song and I don’t know it just sort of (for me) resonates being back in a real sort of 60’s band which we go for in our music base I guess”.
What’s your favourite Pizza Topping?
“Ohhh…yeah I like Pineapple heaps but like I never really thought about that detail until it blew up on social media about pineapple doesn’t belong on pizza! I mean we all definitely like pineapple on our pizzas – but without talking to everybody I would have to say Pepperoni” (laughs)
You guys have often been referred to as Shock Rock – do you agree?
“Umm yeah I guess? Like that’s what we wanna do, like we shock people a little bit, but I think like in our core status … it’s probably just our personalities in our day to day life (laughs). We’re not putting it on or anything but yeah I guess if you want to put a label on it like it could be that” (laughs)
Now you have two brothers in the band (the Player brothers) add that to the fact that there are seven of you – it must make for a really interesting dynamic at times?
“Yeah definitely … we’re all like really close friends so that does help a lot, like we don’t have too many arguments or anything between us and also when we are touring or playing shows or whatever we usually like drive altogether in a van – we don’t actually fly anywhere just cause it’s quite expensive, so we do spend a lot of time with each other”.
What’s your best bowling score?
“Aww ok – so I’ve actually got like the highest score – I’ve got the highest average out of all of us in bowling! I’ve been keeping my scores each week for the past two or three years, I think my average is like around one hundred and forty or something”.
Wow – that’s pretty good! So how many strikes can you get in one game?
“If you get three strikes in a row it’s called a ‘Turkey’ – so I’ve had like a few games where I’ve bowled Turkeys and stuff and that’s when you start getting the real big sort of hundred scores and stuff”.
Following up the success of I Wanna Be A Girl in 2015 with a second three track EP entitled Olympia in 2016, The Pinheads decided it was time to really tear the roof off and rummage through the contents inside. It was time to create an album. But the group didn’t want to do something expected; they thrive on the unexpected after all. Therefore they made a pact to be true to themselves; the album being solely written and recorded by the members alone. No producer, no sound engineer, just seven friends and a studio full of recording equipment lovingly acquired over their years together. The result; an honest and raw portrayal of their live performances captured for all eternity within the recording itself.
Your self-titled debut album was released in May, how have you guys been feeling about the public’s response to it?
“Yeah it’s feelin’ great; the response has been a pretty good buzz over here so hope we can go far with it”
Are there any particular artists that you are influenced by?
“We’re all really into … like we call them art rock bands; Mental As Anything and Velvet Underground; all those sort of really artist driven groups that were happening in the 60’s or the 80’s. I guess The O’Doherty Brothers which is like Reg Mombassa and stuff who were part of the mambo scene in the 80’s and 90’s; their a pretty big influence on us, they were like members of Mental As Anything [and] they do a lot of their own artwork for their music”.
If you could choose anyone in the world to go on tour with and they can be living or dead – who would it be?
“Aw far out – I don’t like – umm I’m talking for seven people here! I think a few of us would like to tour with Iggy Pop and The Stooges or umm … The Cramps!”
For people who have never seen you live before – how would you describe a Pinheads show?
“Uh, there are a few technical difficulties throughout the set but what lacks in the music performance is made up with the visual performance (laughs)”
The Pinheads are scheduled to perform three shows across the North Island of New Zealand, kicking off with a show at Valhalla in Wellington on the 13th July, followed by a show at Tauranga’s ‘Totara Street’ on the 14th July and a final show in Auckland’s Whammy! Bar on the 15th July. Tickets are still available from thepinheads.net.