An Interview with Rod Argent of The Zombies

It’s the time of the season for the annual SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas, and the Zombies will be among the scores of musicians in attendance. The legendary British band, fronted by original members Rod Argent (keyboards/vocals) and Colin Blunstone (lead vocals), are slated to play songs from their current studio album, Breathe Out, Breathe In, alongside some of their most familiar (“She’s Not There,” “Tell Her No”) and fabled (1968’s Odessey and Oracle LP) material.

“It’s just a question of getting it all in, really,” says Argent, who at sixty-seven is very much at the top of his game. In fact, he modestly scoffs at the age-old adage “that one of the essential ingredients of being able to play rock ‘n’ roll was that you were under thirty.”

Truth be told the Zombies are in demand now more than ever, consistently selling out venues around the world — a new live album, Extended Versions, featuring performances recorded last year on tour, was just released — and making vibrant, uniquely soulful music.

Considering you and Mr. Blunstone are the only original members of the band in the present lineup, was there any effort to make Breathe Out, Breathe In reflect the music the band made in the ‘60s, so listeners could draw some parallel in recognizing the music as that of the Zombies?

In the sense that we deliberately tried to record very much using some of the same criteria that we always naturally used in the early days… We tried to use a lot of those same criteria not because we wanted to try and recapture something that was gone. That came out of the fact that in 2008 we did the only live performance we’d ever done of Odessey and Oracle from start to finish. We got the original surviving members of the Zombies — Colin, myself, [bassist] Chris White, and Hugh Grundy on drums — along with the guys that always work with us now, because if we were going to do it we wanted to reproduce every single note that was on the original album. And [it was] the only way of doing that, because there were some overdubs; it was the first time we were using seven or eight tracks instead of the four that we’d had before. And we made a live album from that. That experience, it just felt so nice doing it that when we made this new studio album we put some of those parameters in place.

Coming out of performing that whole album after many years I said to Colin, “Let’s really explore the harmony side of things like we always used to.” It felt so nice going back to that. So we really tried to be adventurous and explore the harmony arrangements in the songs. And I guess that was what we did naturally in the old days anyway. So those factors were in place.

I deliberately, apart from one track, didn’t overdub anything so we could do everything on stage live that we did on the Breathe Out, Breathe In album. We can reproduce all that because there aren’t overdubs, basically, apart from one track, “Shine on Sunshine.” Those factors were common to the way we used to record, but that’s the only thing. We didn’t at any time try to say, “How did we used to record this? Let’s try to recapture it. Let’s try and go back and recreate something.” That was never on the cards. It was always trying to take a musical idea and then just making it work for us.

So there was never a moment in the sessions where you asked someone, for instance, to play like Chris White.

No. Never. I’ll tell you something that a lot of people don’t know, and that is that a lot of those bass parts on early Zombies records… When I wrote “She’s Not There,” for instance, and when I wrote “Care of Cell 44,” those bass parts were absolutely written as part of the song. It wasn’t something invented by Chris or improvised on the session. They were parts written by me.

And on this album we actually did some of that again. I would write a bass part, not to say that Jim [Rodford] wouldn’t take that and personalize it a bit, but basically it was written very much as part of the song. That was a factor that we had in common with the early records, too.

When you’re writing a song for the Zombies and you know Mr. Blunstone is going to sing it, do you tailor it toward his voice? Or does he adapt to suit the song?

There’s a bit of both, actually. I’m sure Colin would agree with me. First of all, when I write a song — and I did this right from the early days, too, because I learned to write songs with Colin singing them, really — I always have Colin’s voice in mind. It’s not something I think of consciously every second, but as I’m writing a song for the Zombies I imagine him singing it. Now, it doesn’t always work out perfectly because sometimes the things that you’d imagine would be absolutely ideal for Colin he would find very difficult, or another time something I’d find tricky he’d find easy. It’s not something you can absolutely quantify, but at the same time that is in my head, in my imagination, all the time. Without even thinking about it, it’s there.

When you wrote “Time of the Season” — particularly the line, “What’s your name? Who’s your daddy? Is he rich like me?” — did you catch any flak for it sounding subversive?

No, not at all. In fact, the very first thing we did as the Zombies in a semi-professional way was “Summertime.” We played that right from the beginning. There’s a couplet in “Summertime,” which is “Your daddy’s rich, and your mama’s good-looking.” And that [line] — “What’s your name? Who’s your daddy? Is he rich like me?” — was a little affectionate nod in the direction of that couplet in “Summertime.” That was the first thing. The second thing was the word “rich” was not necessarily in terms of money; it was like the old-timer people looking at materialistic things, in the same way the Beatles used “Baby You’re A Rich Man.”

All modesty aside to what do you attribute the enduring popularity of the Zombies?

I think there are a couple of factors. The first factor is that when we first started working and recording we were genuinely enthusiastic about it and excited about it. We never did it just to try to sell… Obviously we did want to sell records. We wanted to sell as many records as we could. But we didn’t just say, “We’ll do anything that makes a record sell.” We always took a musical idea that excited us and just tried to make it work in the best way that it sounded to us. So, sometimes in the short term I think we did ourselves a disservice from a purely commercial point of view because rather than try and write absolutely in the fashion of whatever was going on….

In the short term that made our records a bit unusual, made it hard to get them played sometimes, and maybe they didn’t sell as many as some other people who were more overtly commercial. In the long term I think it actually worked for us because even though those records sound of their period I think many people feel that they still stand up today and don’t date in such a way that people don’t want to hear anymore because they just sound like something from the ‘60s and nothing else.

And similarly I think we’re approaching things in exactly the same way now. We’re doing it from a point of view of complete enthusiasm…. I think the thing is we’re just honest and we’re doing it for the right reasons. Coupled with that, we do want to give as good an account of ourselves as possible both on every live show and on every single that we do. We do work at it. As you get older I think you can even improve your chops, but you have to work at it. When you’re eighteen years old there are some things you can do and it feels very easy. When you get older you can let that go and it’s very difficult to recover it. But if you’re prepared to continue to work at it you can keep very strong chops.

The Zombies, currently: Jim Rodford (bass), Colin Blunstone (lead vocals),Rod Argent (keyboards, vocals),  Steve Rodford (drums), Tom Toomey (lead guitar)

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An Interview with Colin Blunstone of The Zombies

Nearly half a century ago Colin Blunstone emerged as one of England’s most singular, evocative vocalists. As the lead singer of the Zombies, whose classic hits like “She’s Not There,” “Tell Her No,” and “Time of the Season” helped define the British Invasion, Blunstone imparted sophistication and grace that were rare for the era. Although the group called it quits upon the release of their 1968 LP, Odessey and Oracle, Blunstone eventually found his footing as a solo artist beginning with 1971’s One Year, with such gems as “Caroline Goodbye” and “Though You Are Far Away” earning him even further distinction.

While his post-Zombies endeavors haven't enjoyed the same success in the States as they have in his native country, Blunstone has continued to explore and expound upon his talent, whether recording under his own name or in collaboration with other artists, most notably Alan Parsons and fellow Zombies alumnus Rod Argent. For a little over the past decade, in fact, Blunstone and Argent have (with an otherwise revamped lineup) brought the Zombies back to life in the recording studio as well as on the concert stage. “It reminds people of what we did years ago,” says Blunstone, “and I hope it enhances it.”

The same could be said for his eleventh and latest solo effort, On The Air Tonight, which reflects the hallmark sublimity of Blunstone’s classic works in timeless, touching ways.

The Zombies had a very distinct sound. Did you guys consciously strive to have a unique sound or did that unique sound come about because of the makeup of the band, particularly with Rod Argent on keyboards?

It was just the way the band sounded naturally. I think to some extent that sound evolved over a period of years. What I would say is that we consciously didn’t try to copy. That’s the one thing I would say. We didn’t try to copy people. And of course we had two quite prolific and sophisticated writers in the band. I think that that was one of the great strengths of the band that we had these two writers, Rod Argent and Chris White. Rod had always written good songs, and Chris had [too] but he really progressed in the three years we’d been on the road that by the time we got to Odessey and Oracle they were both writing really, really fine songs. In some ways that’s one of the main things that sets us apart from other bands. I know that there were some that were writing, but they had their own sound too. But there were other bands that were just copying, but we certainly weren’t.

And of course our band was very much a keyboard-based band. It was musically based on Rod’s keyboard abilities, and he’s a world-class keyboard player. And I think that gave us a very distinctive sound as well whereas most bands of that time — in the mid ‘60s — were very much guitar-based bands. There were very few that were keyboard-based bands. So that did make us sound very different and possibly unique.

Another thing is that your voice, unlike those of a lot of English bands of that era, sounded British. Many British singers seemed to affect an American accent perhaps to appeal to a wider audience, but you — along with Syd Barrett and David Bowie, for instance — had a distinctly British character to your singing.

There’s a lot of rock ‘n’ roll tunes that [are] very tempting to sing with an American accent. Sometimes, I think, you possibly have to sing in an American accent. But certainly in the ‘60s I did try to maintain my English accent. It wasn’t something that I laid awake at night worrying about. It just seemed more natural to me. I found that if ever I started singing with a bit of an American accent I think I found it a little bit embarrassing, really, and a little bit unreal. So it was more natural for me to sing in my English accent, and to some degree I still do. I try to make my singing as natural as possible. I do think about singing a lot. Every phrase has been discussed and thought about and maybe even argued about — every phrase in every song that we record.

The new album, On the Air Tonight, includes a version of “Though You Are Far Away,” which you first recorded in 1971. Was there a particular reason you wanted to revisit that song?

There was. There’s a very famous Belgian singer, Jasper Steverlinck, who recorded this song. He used the string arrangement from my first album and interpreted that on piano. Of course that’s how it was written in the first place. The arranger for this song is called Chris Gunning. When he first played this arrangement to me he played it on piano, and later on we used a string quintet to interpret his piano arrangement. Then Jasper went back to the piano. I just thought that it was really striking when I heard it. I thought, “I’d like to try it on stage,” which is what we did. We put it into our stage act and we got such a good response from when we were playing it live that I thought, “I’d like to re-record it.” So that’s what I did.

Do you have to pay any special attention to your voice today—perhaps in ways that you didn’t 40 years ago—in order to preserve it?

Well, 40 years ago I didn’t pay any attention to it at all. It was just the natural sound that came out. But as you get older your voice does change. Both Rod [Argent] and myself went to a singing coach about 10 or 15 years ago. I only studied with him for a few weeks, but he taught me a little bit about singing technique and he also gave me some exercises that I can practice. I found them a great help. Especially as you get older, you need to exercise your voice and to strengthen your voice. It taught me to keep my voice strong, and I think it’s made me a little bit more accurate with regard to intonation.

The way your voice works within the structures of these songs on the solo album, particularly slower ones like "For You" and "The Best is Yet to Come," inspires a lot of unpredictable moments, little deviations in the melody — kind of like a Burt Bacharach composition, where you don’t really know where he’s going with it.

It’s funny, my touring band will sometimes say that. We play half of the album when we play live. Nearly all the songs we play live, you’re never quite sure what’s going on next. So you have to really put some work in before you start the tour so that you know these songs inside out. Some of them seem quite simple, and when you start to think about them you think, “It’s not as straightforward as you think.” I like songs like that, especially if they sound quite simple on the surface. And then when you start to really dig deep you realize that there’s a lot more to the song than you first thought....

I get really excited about chord progressions. A lot of the chord progressions [on the new album], they’re not what you think they are and they’re not like a lot of contemporary music, which is a lot more predictable. These chord progressions are very unusual. And they very often have different bass notes than what you would expect, which also, I think, enhances it. It’s an area that I really like.

Do you encounter songs that you appreciate but don’t necessarily feel you could do them justice or, for lack of a better phrase, make them your own? Do you have those moments?

I do. I can’t think of any instances off the top of my head, but it does happen. Especially if someone’s put a really wonderful vocal performance onto a great song, I think you realize it’s just best to leave it as it is because everything that could be said about that song has been said in that performance. Yeah, it does happen. The other thing is, generally but not always, I try to do a song in a different way. I try not to copy. There have been occasions when they have been pretty close, but usually I would do them in a totally different way. But certainly, yeah, there have been lovely songs that I thought, “Well, that’s just been done so well, I think it’s best to move on now and try something else.”

And it doesn’t even have to be a case where someone has recorded a definitive version of a song and you just don’t want to infringe on that, but rather an instance where you say, “That’s a great song, but the way I sing — my technique, my sound — wouldn’t complement it as well as I’d like.” It just doesn’t go with your aesthetic, really.

I have felt like that over the years, yeah. More than that, I’ve started singing a song — not often — and I might’ve given up on it and said, “Listen, this song’s not for me.” It would usually be some kind of phrasing issue; I just felt I wasn’t getting my head around the phrasing of a song. That would usually be the main problem, I think. But there are many songs out there, so you have to find something that you really like and that you feel you can sing well. It takes time. I don’t think people realize how much time and effort goes into making an album. When you’re looking for other people’s songs it can be very, very hard to find them.

And I do try to write more and more. It’s so much more natural to sing your own songs. You don’t even have to think about it, usually. I find it very exciting to take a song from that initial spark of inspiration through to recording it and then eventually take it out onto the stage and play it live in front of an audience. I think that’s one of the most exciting things about being in the music business — if you can do that. I’ve never been a particularly prolific writer; it’s very hard for me to write songs. But when I’m fortunate enough to do it, I think it’s a very thrilling situation.

When you write, is that a process you enjoy? I’ve heard songwriters say that they like having written a song, but they hate trying to write lyrics and coming up with a chord structure — everything that it takes to get from that initial spark of inspiration to the finished song.

Me, personally, I’m trying to write songs all the time. And I think I must drive people around me crazy because when you’re writing songs it doesn’t always sound very attractive. You’re just trying things all the time and often it doesn’t work. And so I just sit here doodling with my guitar, and I think it must be a bit trying for people that are around me. But I’m almost doing it subconsciously now. It can be a real struggle. Once in a while I’ve written a song really quickly, but they’re real exceptions. Usually it takes months from that first little chord progression or maybe just a little bit of lyric and then you just have to build on it bit by bit.

Despite not being prolific, then, you do appreciate the process.

I do, to be honest. It quite intrigues me although it can be very frustrating. I’m not really an accomplished guitarist. When the Zombies first started I was a rhythm guitarist. So I’ve always played guitar, but I’m not an accomplished player. I couldn’t make a living being a professional guitarist. So it means I’m a bit limited musically when I compare to other writers, and that can make it frustrating. I’ll find that my hands will fall onto the same chord progressions if I’m not careful. I’m just playing the same thing over and over, and I have to really work on expanding my knowledge of chords and music to try to write fresh songs.

Because you fall back on what you know.

Well you do. It’s a subconscious thing, really. You sit down, you relax, pick up your guitar, and you find you’re playing a progression that you’ve played a million times before. You just have to force yourself to move into new areas.

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