I Heart the Music: Your Online Source for Live Music Reviews and Interviews in Toronto!

With the rapid success of their debut album, Say Us, Toronto rockers Zeus are quickly becoming the band to watch in 2010. We here at iheartthemusic were lucky enough to sit down with Mike O’Brien of Zeus during CMW to discuss the bands breakout success, new album release and their latest performance at SXSW.   Here is what we were able to learn from the Zeus front man:

iheartthemusic: First off, congrats on the Now Magazine cover, that must have been really amazing for you!

Mike: Yeah it was really exciting especially because we are from Toronto.  We have a really great publicity company, Canvas Media, that works at the label and they are just really on top of their shit.

iheartthemusic: Well it’s been a crazy time for you considering your album just dropped last month!

Mike: Yeah, actually on February 23rd. So it’s all been a bit of a whirlwind since then.

iheartthemusic: Fill us in on what your life has been like since the album was released.

Mike: Well we didn’t really get a chance to party that much because we were so busy, but it was really exciting for us.  We had been keeping the album to ourselves for so long that it felt great to put it out and hear feedback and share it with everyone.

iheartthemusic: We think it’s a really incredible album with a totally unique sound and we are interested to learn how you would describe your sound?

Mike: Basically its Rock and Roll or “Pop and Roll”. To me, Rock and Roll has always meant a synthesis of different music and that’s what we are trying to do: we are drawing from all of our different influences and trying to mix it up to make our own little stew.

iheartthemusic: Who are your influences?

Mike: When Carlin and I first met in high school we bonded over Nirvana from the beginning, along with NOFX and other Punk bands that were around at the time.  And then a little bit after that, we were really into the Halifax pop explosion like Sloan and all those bands we were super into as young teenagers. But throughout all that there are also some classic influences like the Beatles, the Stones, the Kinks and the Zombies that were our bread and butter.

iheartthemusic: We read on your website that you guys aim to make “timeless songs”, so what are the elements of a timeless song? How do you try to put that together?

Mike: A “timeless song” can be in any genre and presented in any way. I don’t know if we have succeeded in making timeless music but the main thing to focus on is the songwriting and that comes first. We take a lot of care in the arrangements and the construction of our songs. That’s our benchmark—to  make sure the song is solid—and then we add all of the frills.

iheartthemusic: What’s your favourite song off of the album?

Mike: All of them have been my favourite at different points in time. We recorded the album over the course of almost two years. They’re all so much fun to play and totally feel fresh every time we play them.  But a personal favourite of mine is “At the Risk of Repeating,” because I really love to perform it.

iheartthemusic: We have noticed that your album bears a strong connection to nature, especially the video for “Marching Through Your mind.” How does nature connect to your music?

Mike: Well the video came about through Adam Makarenko’s vision.  We had seen his photographs and found out that he makes little models like the ones in the video. He builds really realistic things from nature like a ribcage of a deer with birds feeding on it. He builds them out of all these different things like pill bottles. The video came about because we loved his work and thought the video would be great using his visual style. I had the idea to take our EP artwork (a picture of our boots) and envisioned that our boots would come to life and have a journey up the mountain.  We brought that to Adam and he fleshed that out and also introduced the nature sounds to the beginning of the video.  It was really fitting because we are from North of Toronto and grew up cottaging and camping so it really is an extension of our experiences.

iheartthemusic: What sets Zeus apart?

Mike: We are a band that has three songwriters, which is important to us.  I don’t think that’s an easy thing to pull off but I feel like we have the people within the band to be able to do that.  It’s tricky to balance, to incorporate three different artistic visions and make it cohesive at the same time.  But hopefully we are doing that and I feel that we have achieved that on the first album.

iheartthemusic: Rapid Fire Round, ok?

Mike: Ok (laughs)

iheartthemusic: What is your favourite Toronto venue to attend or perform at?

Mike: The Magpie.

iheartthemusic: Favourite Breakfast Cereal?

Mike: Um…Cinnamon Life

iheartthemusic: Favourite Romantic Comedy?

Mike: Before Sunrise and its sequel After Sunset. They were both really natural and realistic.

iheartthemusic: Favourite Woman?

Mike: My girlfriend Andrea Wilson

Enough said. Great band. Great sound. Go check them out now!

interviewed by Victoria Kuketz

photography provided by Aaron Alleyne