ABOUT TOO MANY ZOOZ: [http://toomanyzooz.com/]
The curious thing about being a fan of brasshouse? You're pretty much
talking about being into one solitary but extremely unforgettable
band: the amusingly monikered Too Many Zooz.
The musical style was "branded" by drummer King of Sludge, who
recognized that there was no worthy existing classification for the
New York trio, whose other two members are the equally unclassifiable
Leo P (saxophone) and Matt Doe (trumpet).
"Brasshouse is a high energy musical conversation," Matt insists.
"Though I honestly don't think there is a good way to describe it in
words. It's about many different feelings and sounds and emotions."
Or as KOS so decisively puts it, "I don't really care about what's
happening in music -- I just make art that I enjoy making."
It's exactly this indifference to convention and trend that has
garnered Too Many Zooz a fanbase that KOS describes as "wide-ranging
and fanatical." One of those fans? In 2016, Beyonce asked them to
perform with her at the Billboard Music Awards...and it's quite
possible they got just as much attention as did she.
After two years, a gazillion live performances and four EPs, their
debut album _Subway Gawdz _(an unsubtle reference to their birth in
the underground stations of NYC), was released to enthusiastic acclaim
in 2016. Its sound was truly like nothing else, with inescapable
grooves that take in dub, soul, funk and ska, utterly exhilarating
horn blasts that shoot right up your spine, and, of course, equal
doses of fun and attitude.
And right now, TMZ are riding higher than ever, surely poised for the
leap into genuinely widespread international recognition that was
likley inevitable since they first set foot in an NYC subway station.
Indeed, following a deal with Ministry of Sound, their single
"Warriors" racked up major play on Radio One (if you think you haven't
heard it, when you hear it, you'll quickly realize you already have),
followed by high-profile remixes from the likes of Armand Van Helden
and KDA.
Then, UK sensation Jess Glynne penned lyrics and added vocals to morph
the song into "So Real (Warriors)," which has been generating massive
buzz while climbing the European charts. In the meanwhile, a live
video for "Car Alarm" has furtively racked up more than 500K views in
one week.
But surely signaling their mainstream "arrival"? A Canadian KFC
commercial featured the band and their songs -- so don't be surprised
if listening to their music suddenly makes you hungry.
Though they've also been up to more serious matters. Leo, in fact, was
asked to play at the BBC Proms Charles Mingus tribute at a sold-out
Royal Albert Hall in August 2017 -- certainly no small honor.
Yet for all this, the forward plan for Too Many Zooz, is, as ever,
constant touring. The reason is simple: it's their outrageous,
electrifying live performances that consistently continue to add the
numbers to their growing worldwide legion of fans. Autumn 2018 will
take them coast to coast, from Seattle to Houston to Philadelphia, and
across Europe, with stops in Krakow, Strasbourg and Marseille, amongst
others.
"I don't think there's any recording that can do a live performance
justice," reckons Matt. "You'll see people of all different colors,
creeds, genders, ages, sexuality at our shows. I really can't find a
constant between them...besides liking our music -- haha."
But for everything that's happened in the last couple of years, the
trio aren't actually all that surprised by their success.
"I always knew we had something special," Leo enthuses. "Thousands of
people everyday loved our music...and I knew it would just continue to
spread."
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23/01/2020 Last update