SHADOWQUEEN celebrate the release of their second album Living Madness with a live gig at Brisbane’s CROWBAR and answering a few questions for our AMNplify Snapshot. Read on for details about the gig, and to hear Robbi Zane of SHADOWQUEEN chats to us about music, their insane live shows, and Mexican food!

SHADOWQUEEN // Living Madness

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How would you describe your journey in the music industry so far, and where do you want to go from here with your music?

Where do I start! My journey has been filled with meeting so many wonderful interesting crazy people that have come from a variety of backgrounds. I remember taking piano lessons and being tapped with a metal ruler over my knuckles by my Russian Piano teacher whenever I made mistakes. You’d think that would have turned me off music, but no, I persevered and only wanted more music in my life. Go figure. Meeting Alex Deegan and Si Hopman was a life changer for me. The three of us have been through a lot together. Through marriage and divorce. Simon and I got together at a young age, and we divorced during the making of our first album, yet our band is still together. We are great friends and believe in our songs more than words can explain. From here we will keep writing and release more songs. We know our music evolves and we grow together with our writing skills. We would like to tour again, not only in Australia but overseas too. 

When did you know you wanted to make music and perform as your career?

Since I could remember, all I wanted to do was music. I remember using an old wooden fake candle for a microphone as I used to sing along to these records at the top of my lungs. I drove my family nuts with my loud voice. I was lucky enough to have parents that wanted me to have piano lessons, so I started playing classical piano from a very young age, and it was drummed into me that performing to people was a natural part of learning an instrument. The most defining moment of musicianship and feeling like a real muso was at high school when I had to learn songs by ear in order to play with other rock musicians. I had only learnt music by reading sheet music up until then, so it was enlightening to be woken up by real musicianship. From my teens, I started to learn how to learn how to play several other instruments and started composing. I love performing, but my heart really lives with writing music. 

Who have been your musical influences through life?

Bands from Queens of the Stone Age, Royal Blood, Foo Fighters, Sound Garden, to a variety of old-school rock, like Led Zeppelin, Rush, Janis Joplin and Chris Cornell.  So many influences for so many different reasons that I’m probably going to stop there. Our album has many eclectic influences. Lyrically I would say Neil Peart and Chris Cornell would be my strongest influences. I love universal themes and diverse subject matter as well as lyrics about life on the road and personal experiences. Musically I feel I have experimented with so many different styles of music. Music was played constantly in my household and my family had a variety of vinyl records, everything from Elvis, Abba, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Yes, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Iron Maiden, etc. I like the fact that I have been submerged with music from a variety of styles, classical, soul, jazz, reggae, to rock influences.  

Are there any artists or musicians that you have been so impacted by that it changed your view on life or mentality?

Lyrically I have been inspired by Neil Peart. I found him to be artful and I loved the broad range of topics covered, from political, social and mythological themes. Not to mention what a phenomenal drummer he is! Of course, his band buddy Geddy Lee is simply inspirational, let’s just do it all, play bass, sing and do keyboards all at the same time!! Amazing. 

Vocally and lyrically, Chris Cornell has touched me. He is one of the most prolific songwriters of rock, and I mean through each of his musical eras, Soundgarden, Audioslave, etc and solo. I read in an interview that he described himself as a loner and had anxiety as a teenager and that music was his saviour. There are too many other musicians to mention that inspire me and that I feel have impacted my life as a musician. It’s inspiring that people can feel so lost and miserable, have so much sadness and insecurities, yet have such strength, devotion, purpose and raw passion when they have music in their lives. It truly is a passion and something that you can live and die for which sums up my life experience with music.

SHADOWQUEEN

How would you describe your sound, and why is it unique from other artist’s sound?

Vocally our songs are quite distinct. I believe you can pick that it’s ‘Robbi Zana’ singing as I have a unique vocal sound with a big range that tonally has light and shade. We have many songs that have a rawness of awesome rock riffs, and as a three-piece, I believe we sound huge with minimal overlaying of instruments, and that our music has little bits of all our favourite classic rock music influences combined together. 

What can fans expect from your upcoming Australian tour in February?

Kick arse live shows!!! We give every show our all. 

After touring Australia what is next for 2018?

Releasing more songs in the future is definitely in store for the band. We love writing and performing live, so more of that to come. The journey of creating and acting in the music clips has been a very enjoyable and creative process. Seeing we love creating these clips, watch out or more clips to come. We also want to release our album overseas, so we hope a Europe tour would be on the cards.

If you weren’t working in the music industry, what else do you think you would be doing with your life right now?

Family & socialising is a big part of my life. My life is pretty full of music, so outside of playing with Shadowqueen I still have other side projects involving music. It’s hard to imagine my life without music, I believe life would be boring without it. Other than music, I like flying my drone, cooking and teaching tricks to my cat that thinks he’s a dog. I’d prefer not to think about life without the music industry.

What’s one song fans might be surprised you really like?

I really love the song ‘Twisted’. It’s an old song. The first version I heard of it Annie Ross was singing. Then I heard a version by Joni Mitchell. It was just as awesome. It is a jazzy style and has very kooky lyrics that I love.

Do you have one performance that stands out so far as being your favourite, or most memorable?

We did a support for Butterfly Effect at the Ferntree Gully Hotel. The audience response was awesome!! I also remember from that night that before I bought my Ampeg Amp that I use now, I used an Ashdown Amp back then that wiggled off my speaker box (probably because it was so loud that the amp vibrated off) and fell off! It made an almighty sound that sounded like it was a part of the show and we kept playing as though nothing had happened. Both relieving and exciting. Can’t believe my amp still worked perfectly after that! Another also very memorable night was playing at a Melbourne pub and I fell off the stage,  I fractured a bone and missed singing a couple of phrases. I got back up onto the stage and received a dirty look from Si because I had missed my parts. He, of course, was so busy playing the guitar and doing his own thing (covering my missing parts) that he hadn’t even noticed that I was on the ground side of the stage for part of the song!! Of course, after the gig I made him feel bad for giving me dirty looks.

Lastly, just for fun – If you had to eat only one food for the rest of your life, what would you choose?

 Ohhh, tough one! I’d get bored of just one flavour, but I love broccoli. Now that I’ve said that, it sounds really boring. But if I had to choose a meal, I’d say Tacos. I love Mexican food!

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CATCH

SHADOWQUEEN

@ CROWBAR BRISBANE

8 PM FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8TH, 2017

click HERE for more info on tonight’s gig!!!

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AMNplify – BD