I often get “Von Bismark” by Zachshots stuck in my head, and not just one part of it. It’s all three sections of the damn song! The Brooklyn duo has a way with hooks, and that extends to their forthcoming single, “These Are My Friends,” which comes out on the 15th and is the first full-band instrumentation blast from a duo known for intimate pop throwdowns in the middle of the screamo show. One music writer move would be to say that Zachshots sounds like The Moldy Peaches if they came up in Champaign-Urbana instead of New York City, but, look, that’s not me. As you will see from our conversation, and hear from their new music, they are ready to kick those comparisons to the sideline. Zachshots is doing Zachshots!
The duo comes out of a fertile NYC underground rock scene, one centered around emo and screamo but open-minded enough to include indie, metal, and tweaked-out electronic pop bands like The Dallas Cowboys and ideasforconversations. Both members of Zachshots play in the seven-piece band Cash Only Tony’s along with a member of Dallas Cowboys. Annika also plays in Holidays in United States and Aieou. Zach is an editor for The Adam Friedland Show. These are some busy New Yorkers, no doubt! Thankfully, they were not too busy to meet up with John’s Music Blog last week, where we talked shop in a Brooklyn backyard.
What are you working on today?
Annika: Working on the album.
Zach: We spent the morning going through all the songs that we’ve recorded so far, just writing notes. It’s rare that we both have so much time to record, because unfortunately we kinda have opposite work schedules. So we’re taking the time to give all of the creative direction that we can in a cohesive way today.
Are there drums on this record?
Annika: Yes. There’s gonna be a lot on this record that was not previously on any of our other songs.
Zach: Part of the reason it’s taking so long is that it’s gonna be full instrumentation on basically every single song. It’s not gonna be very similar to the first one, aside from the charm of our songwriting.
Annika: But of course.
So, like, a rock palette? Electronic music?
Zach: A little bit of both.
Annika: It’s kind of all over the place. We really have an array of different sounds and feels throughout the whole album, and I don’t think any two songs are alike, especially with the way that it’s being fleshed out instrumentally. I wouldn’t put it in a specific palette, genre wise, because it dips into so many different things.
Zach: Usually, I’m good at being able to define what something is, just because I really am nerdy about different microgenres and stuff like that, but it’s been a little bit difficult with this record. We have the bands that me and Annika really both like and are inspired by, but outside of specific tracks or albums, I can’t think of a lot of comps that are like, This is what it should sound like.
Annika: When we were listening to things we’d be like, Oh I kind of want something like this here, but I don’t know what that would be, because there’s nothing that comes to mind immediately in the music that we listen to consistently, the music that we reference consistently, that encompasses a certain sound or certain idea that we want to include.
You seem like the kind of band that is more guided by your songwriting than anything else.
Annika: For sure.
Zach: That’s very much how we started making music together, just guitar and singing, and I think that ethos has been really important. To me, a song works when you can perform it just with the guitar. So, I’m really excited to flesh all these out and sort of show what’s been cooking in our heads the whole time.
Annika: That’s what makes doing the record this way fun, because the past two years everything has been predominantly acoustic and not really fleshed out—we haven’t had drums, we haven’t had electric guitar other than if we’re playing somewhere and that’s the only option.
Zach: Or if I’m too lazy to bring my acoustic there.
Annika: It’s been really fun trying to translate what we do and what our sound is into something that is a little bit more full and just bigger.
Zach: Half of me is, I wouldn’t say nervous, but I’m very curious to see how people respond to it.
Annika: Me too. I think people will be a little bit surprised by it, but I hope in a good way.
Zach: My hope is fueled mostly—well, it’s by my confidence in the songs—but the part of the set that people are most excited for is the end of “Von Bismarck,” and that’s the only part that we have recorded that has some type of drums and percussion and instrumentation. I think people are looking for that.
I want to ask you about being the acoustic band at the screamo show. Does that work?
Annika: Totally. I think it absolutely works. I mean, emo exists in so many different subgenres and acoustic emo music is just as loved in the grander scheme of the scene, as a screamo band with three guitars, you know?
Zach: Exactly.
Annika: People just like fun, good music.
Zach: There’s an emotional quality that resonates for audiences. And also, I think something that I like about the new sort of wave of the screamo scene is like it feels very much more in the realm of indie music than it does punk music. I love punk music obviously, but I think that the reception to us on those bills is much warmer than if it was like a hardcore bill or something like that.
Annika: Oh, a hundred percent. I think the screamo, emo shows that we’ve been to or we’ve played at before, or that our friends play, there’s a lot more of a mixed bag when it comes to who’s on the bill. People who book shows and promote shows want a little bit of everything, especially when it’s DIY. It’s like, Okay, this is the screamo band, and this is the emo band, and this is the acoustic duo, and this is the, you know, the digi-emo screamo project.
Zach: Laptop twee.
Annika: Yeah, this is the laptop twee project.
Zach: That shit pisses me off, just calling everything laptop twee. I think it’s very lazy journalistic practice. The creation of it as a term is very novel and very true. I think for other journalists and honestly just people in general, it’s all algorithmically minded to then brand everything.
Annika: Terms like that are so online, social media, like, Yo, check out this laptop twee thing, or you look in the comments of a band and people are using it as a diss almost. It becomes lazy when people start to use this very broad terminology to negatively describe a band that is doing well.
Zach: I think that the coining of the phrase is brilliant, but I guess our frustration is definitely that it almost removes any room for intrigue into what the sound of a band is. It’s like calling everything Lynchian or something.
Annika: Even being introduced to a certain band, you’re discovering them on a playlist or on YouTube or through an article, and having somebody denote their genre as one thing versus something else affects the way that you listen to them initially.
Zach: It’s always cool seeing Zachshots on Rate Your Music, there’s a lot of votes for bedroom pop.
Annika: Really?
Zach: Which is like, Okay, we did record it in a bedroom, this is true. But that’s not what I think of when I think of bedroom pop. I have it downvoted, and I’m severely outnumbered with the votes, so whatever.
Annnika: I don’t know, people will interpret whatever the way they want to interpret it.
Zach: It’s a good practice to be like, I don’t get to choose how I’m defined.
Annika: When you let go of it and when you put it out into the ether, then it becomes just as much everybody else’s as it is yours. Tying it back to the way that the album is coming together, I feel like this is very much us stepping outside of whatever those boxes have been for us previously, and being like, Okay, here’s a bunch of stuff that doesn’t sound totally the same, but is still cohesive on one record together.
Zach: My guess is they’ll be fewer Moldy Peaches comparisons.
Annika: God, I hope so.
Is that not something you fuck with? Is that something that annoys you?
Zach: No, it never annoys me. I totally understand it. But it’s just funny, it’s not a band that I’ve really ever liked that much or listened to that much.
Annika: I like The Moldy Peaches. I think especially as a boy/girl duo with guitar, we get a lot of those comparisons, but I don’t think any of our songs sound like The Moldy Peaches. I don’t think the content of what we’re writing about or the way that the music comes together is…
Zach: It feels almost like we’re getting into the territory of Greta Van Fleet being like, I’ve never heard Led Zeppelin before. I get the content, it’s just very funny to me and more interesting than anything, that it’s a band that really has not inspired me at all.
Annika: I like The Moldy Peaches, and I’ve listened to them a lot, but I would not cite them as an inspiration for the thing that we’re doing.
People sometimes have a hard time dealing with music that has a sense of humor to it, they’re looking for some kind of a comparison.
Zach: I mean, shit, keep them coming.
Who are some of your favorite duos?
Annika: I’m a truther for Mates of State. That is probably my favorite duo. They’re not acoustic, they have acoustic songs, but a lot of their stuff is more electronic and produced.
I hear Mates of State in this band, in the vocals.
Zach: That’s all Annika, she put me on, and I fuck with them.
Annika: I just think what they do is really interesting and I feel like they’re a hard band to draw comparisons to because it’s weird and it’s a little bit off-putting, but it’s so satisfying at the same time.
Zach: One for me, kinda like how it all started, is Carissa’s Wierd. They’re probably one of, if not, my favorite bands of all time. The songwriting partnership of Matt and Jen is really where I fell in love with that very tender and melancholic, sometimes a little bitter, sound. I always feel glad and proud when we get those comparisons. Even though with the new record, we’re really not even in that territory anymore.
Annika: I would say there are some songs on the record that definitely, like, you listen to them and you can recognize some of that.
Zach: And I’m so bitter that we’re not on the bill, they’re playing with American Analog set in LA. That fucking stacked ass bill. But yeah, whatever.
Annika: Yeah, where was our invite? Yeah. Where was our ticket to LA from New York City?
You seem like an easy band to tour with. Versus, I was thinking about Cash Only Tony’s, that’s the opposite situation.
Annika: The 13, 14, 15, 16 piece band.
Zach: We’ll play a show, and if the guarantee’s smaller, it’ll be like, Yeah, cool, we can get dinner. Or bigger guarantees, we could afford to record. With Cash Only Tony’s, it’s obviously the totally different thing where even if we get a label advance or something, like shit, that’s like subway fare or something like that.
Some Subway sandwiches, maybe.
Annika: Maybe.
Zach: On a good day. But it’s very fun seeing both sides of that. We’ve never done a real big Zachshots tour, but we’ve been a very easy addition to other runs, like what we just did with Annika and Holidays in United States, and then two summers ago when Cash Only Tony’s went on tour with Feburary. We’re there. We got an acoustic guitar. Let’s get on stage.
Annika: I think one of my favorite shows we’ve ever played was the first time we had ever played outside of New York, at D3 Arts, a very cool DIY spot in Denver. We were like, Okay, we’re gonna open up the show and sit down and play some acoustic songs, and didn’t really know what to expect from any of the people in the crowd. It’s a huge packed out show, and a ton of people were there to see Feburary play—so, you know, screamo kids. We get up there and sit down and we’re playing, and everybody in the crowd starts sitting down, and we have people putting their phone lights in the air, and everybody was just so receptive and complimentary afterwards.
Zach: Yeah, one kid said that was like Alex G if he was good.
Annika: The biggest compliment ever. I don’t think we’ll ever top that. It’s stuff like that, where it’s so easy, because there are just two of us, and we don’t need a whole lot to play a show. Because of our friends and because of the places that we get to go to together with the other projects that we’re in, it’s fun and easy to do.
Have you ever considered renting one of those Smart cars? Doing a full tour in a tiny little car?
Annika: We could do that.
Zach: I mean, shit, save money. There’s so many ways that I’ve thought about, funny ways for us to just completely save because we’re just so compact.
Annika: Like how?
Zach: I mean, literally just taking a bus.
I used to tour on Greyhound buses, actually, way back in the day. Psycho style, but you know, I would always come back with some money.
Zach: The biggest difference is that, oh we don’t have to pay for ten people’s plane tickets. Outside of the economic sort of angle, it’s a real point of pride for me, at least, that we have songs that are strong enough that this is all we need to play a show right now, right here. When I have a guitar, we’re ready. And I definitely have the habit, which isn’t a good habit, but I turn my nose a little bit at bands who need all of this shit, all of this gear to play a fucking show. You know what I mean? Recording projects are great, but if you’re playing live, you should be able to just bare bones get it done.
What is “Williamsburg Bitch” about?
Zach: It’s a satire of a kind of passé indie-folk song that I think could’ve been a cult hit in 2010s PBR hipster era NYC. “She doesn’t eat carbs”… Really? To me, it was obviously a joke, since it’s a very tender love song in which the narrator exclusively refers to his love as a bitch.
Last question. What’s up with the name?
Annika: You wanna tell the story?
Zach: You can tell the story.
Annika: So basically, oh man, it was back in what? 2013, I think?
Zach: I think later. I think sixteen.
So you’ve known each other for a long time.
Zach: Yeah.
Annika: Long time. I grew up in Connecticut. Zach grew up in upstate New York. So, we would come into New York, just separately growing up, all the time as kids and young people. I was taking an extracurricular summer class at NYU, right near Washington Square Park, and it was a photography class, and Zach ended up taking the same one.
Zach: Yeah.
Annika: You can take it from here.
Zach: Well, we were in the park on our first assignment and we were trying to capture a picture of this albino squirrel that was loose in the park, and we ended up taking a picture of it at the exact same time. Then we got to talking and found we had really similar tastes. We vowed then and there to make a band called Zachshots, which was a play on snapshots, like of the squirrel.
Annika: Right.
Zach: In seven to eight years. We said in seven to eight years, we’re gonna make a band called Zachshots.
I would have thought the name maybe derived from a different cultural reference.
Annika: You know, a lot of people think that and it’s totally inaccurate and it has nothing to do with...
Zach: It’s a porn addicted society. It’s something that is very sort of opposite from our image.
Annnika: Yeah. Our name comes from a very wholesome…
You know what, I’m not gonna press you on this one.
Annika: That’s our story.
Zach: Yeah, and that’s our story.
Thank you to JMC Aggregate for first putting me on to Zachshots. Find the band on Instagram here.