Artist Profile – Zombie Cats (Australia/Germany)

Zombie Cats are one heck of a collective. Not only do they successfully operate as a team from different corners of the Globe (Literally. One is in Australia and the other in Germany!), they have also undergone several musical transformations over their career that is now just shy of a decade long. They are just as happy churning out brain bending neuro as they are hip-hop. They’ve worked with rapper Young Buck, made their group debut on Eatbrain and are still as totally committed to drum and bass as ever, never afraid to step into any sub-genre they choose.

Shimmering with metallic beauty, layered with acres of sprawling synth lines and snappy percussion, and peppered with elements of sonic perfection, their brand new long player Tech Dreams is due out on the mighty Dispatch Recordings next week (14/4/23).  We are supplying a premiere from the LP with this interview (BELOW) and are delighted to bring you a few choice words with this highly inventive and slightly mysterious duo. Comprising of Ross Deschamp and Rouven de Fehr, Zombie Cats are going to set the world on fire with this LP. Just see if they don’t.

Read on to find out a bit about the bands history and just what exactly has been the secret to the their success. 

Fellas! Welcome in! We are buzzing to have you aboard!

Tell us, how did you two meet? You’re from completely different parts of the world (Perth, Australia and Germany). It’s always quite interesting to learn how these initial meetings develop into musical partnerships!

Ross: Around 2005 we knew of each other’s existence through the DSCI4 recordings forum. We chatted through our projects ‘Bad Robot’ (Phetsta and Rregula) and Rouven’s ‘Dementia’. We connected through a Berlin based label ‘Shadybrain Recordings’ with a RMX from these projects. Around 2006 I (Rregula) sent a track for Rouven to work on as we liked each other’s production and personality. DJ Trace of DSCI4 liked the track and asked for another for the upcoming Spy Technologies LP (Trippin’ Balls & Sunk) and that was the start of Rregula & Dementia with many more tracks to come. 

2014 was your breakthrough year under the Zombie Cats guise, but previous to this you were both making music in your own right. Ross, you have a metal background, is that right?

Ross: Yes indeed, in the early 2000’s I played guitar in a heavy sludge groove metal band ‘The Dirty Whittler’. My brother Seve had always been in bands and his band (T-Cells) and mine played a lot of shows around Western Australia and sometimes Melbourne. He was very influential for music in general for me, without him I would be extremely boring. 

And you were releasing drum and bass as early as 2006, so please tell us a bit about your early projects and how you even got into making drum and bass? Just how big was the scene in Australia at this point and how did you get into it?

Ross: I had been going to raves in Perth from around 1999, and after a few years my focus was entirely on Drum and Bass. Words cannot explain just how big our DNB scene was here in Perth in the early 2000s. We had excellent local DJs that were really into it and internationals rolling through almost every weekend. I had been dabbling in Sonic Foundry Acid playing with wavs and samples, but when I heard Stakka & Skynet tour here for their Clockwork LP I lost my shit and asked a friend (Aaron /Static) to help me with Cubase and VSTS. I was pretty obsessed from that point onwards. But getting back to Perth, the scene was ridiculously good. At one stage we had a weekly on every night except for Mondays. Drum Club, Roller, Heat etc. Just nonstop fresh DNB.

The pair of you were also making music as a duo long before you switched your name to Zombie Cats. Which are your favourites from the past?

Rouven: Humans, Fortress and City of Dogs. But we love many of them. These tunes are a time capsule. 

We have to ask though before we go any further……………..cats are cute fluffy things generally, so why turn them into zombies????????

Rouven: We came up with the idea of “The Formula”. There is no big meaning behind the name to be honest. “The Formula” includes the idea of how we get the interest of the audience by mixing two famous words which are highly represented in popular culture. In the end we decided to go with “Zombies and Cats”. It took us a while to find the right words. There were some silly results by using the formula: “Power Horses”, “Wrestling Pirates”, “Angry Unicorns” and many more did not make it (fortunately, haha!)

That’s a pretty cool way to create a name! So, after the creation of the ‘Mutations’ LP while also living in Germany, Ross, you moved back to your hometown of Perth in Australia. This puts you in completely different time zones, so what kind of systems of work do you use to keep things moving?

Ross: Since we worked for so many years remotely via Dropbox in different time zones it was pretty much business as usual for us really. We have pretty much messaged each other every day keeping in touch with our projects since 2007. We used to send each other zipped packages of audio files, then moved into a shared Dropbox folder and that has been our workflow since then. WAVs, Midi and a lot of communication. 

Do you each have roles in the production process, like one specialises in certain aspects (maybe drums for example) and another one writes other parts?

Rouven: Ross is the man for the weird sounds and musical characteristics. I analyse and solve the sound puzzles which manifest in a song. But really there is no rule: Sometimes one of us starts with the intro and the other person does the drop or vice versa. I am a big fan of his unique sound, especially in the title track of Tech Dreams. Lately my vibe is more big bass drops and Ross writes the intros. Let`s see how the next project will be made. Always keeps it interesting. 

Face was a super deep and involved track for us both, it has so many details I think might get missed on the very first listen. Same kinda thing with Hear No More, but the latter involved a lot of out of the box synthesis to get the wonky analogue journey vibes.

Very interesting! We did wonder how such a long distance partnership could work so well! Away from making music then, what sort of leisure activities might we find you both taking part in? What are your individual hobbies or interests?

Ross: I am obsessed with tennis. I played competitive tennis since I was 9 and coached for many years. About 8 years ago a bone died in my right wrist and I couldn’t play right handed anymore so I taught myself to play left handed. Was a stupid idea, I usually play around 3 times a week and am currently doing my best to wreck the rest of my body. I also own a boat with a good friend of mine (Onya Beno) and we go out regularly doing all that boat stuff. Absolute money pit, but being out in the ocean is pretty special. 

Rouven: Besides music I am spending my time to expand my knowledge about sports and lately urban history. I wrote my bachelors and masters thesis about sport events and I am sure I will revisit my academic career at some point in the future. 

Once this album has done the rounds, what other projects have you got lined up or what would you like to try musically that you haven’t tried yet?

Both: Our motivation is very high right now. We are currently working on the Memes singles. Each single has a meme as the artwork, reworked in the Zombie Cats way. It is a totally different approach because at first there is the artwork this time and we are then writing the music FOR the artwork. We started with the prominent Homer In The Bushes meme and the result is the song Fade Out. 

This sounds like a wicked idea!

Besides DNB we worked with Young Buck on a Hip Hop release. Buck was part of the legendary G-Unit (alongside 50 Cent, The Game, Lloyd Banks) in the 2000s, which as basically the same time when we fell in love with the techstep / neurofunk sound.  You cannot go wrong with the classics. 

In terms of Global drum and bass, who are you really vibing to at the moment? Who’s making music that is really making you sit up and take notice?

Both: To drop some names: Reaper, Blvck Crowz, Rebel Scum, Monss, Donny Brook, Shannan, Skellytn, Tom Finster, NCT, Iyre, Psynchro, T>I, Trex, Waeys and Artifice, the Visionary to name just a few. 

Thank you for the interview and shout out to insidednb.net!

FIND OUT MORE HERE:

Tech Dreams Album (fanlink.to)

Stream Zombie Cats. music | Listen to songs, albums, playlists for free on SoundCloud