ZUKØ Strive For Heavy Music Domination with New Track 'Absence'
South East Queensland is fast becoming the next destination for a heavy emergence with bands like Wildheart, Diesect and Deadnerve flying the flag between Brissie and the Gold Coast. But a new player in the ecosystem has arrived, and they're not here to fuck spiders.
ZUKO are the five-piece you didn't know you needed in your life and they're hellbent on having their name front of mind as they pulverise expectations with their latest release 'Absence'. Kicking off with an ominous guitar and drum combo, it's not long at all before vocalist Jesse Hudson spits poisonous venom at us before dropping a nasty "BLEGH" at the 46 second mark. What follows is a harrowing display of core - branching into the metal and hardcore genres without settling.
When you're influenced by one of the hardest bands in the game, Knocked Loose, it's easy to build hype and anticipation for your next move and before that happens, we checked in with the lads to find out more about their conception, the future and not pigeonholing themselves too early...
Zuko, welcome to Wall Of Sound. Before we get stuck into your new belter 'Absence', tell us how you came to be?
3 of us (Logan, Ben & Jordan) were in a previous band together, and when that band called it a day, the three of us decided to keep writing music together in hopes of finding a vocalist and second guitarist. After a couple months of writing instrumentals, we were fortunate enough to find two insanely talented musicians via a Facebook group for fellow musos looking for bands, and the rest is history.
Your statement of being "Too metalcore for hardcore, Too hardcore for metalcore" is bold and punk as fuck. What's the motivation behind not being pigeonholed so early in your career?
Initially the first few songs we had written were very much rooted in metalcore, but with so many bands from all ends of the spectrum inspiring us and how we write, we decided to consciously not let specific parameters limit our creativity when flushing out riffs & drum beats and how we structure our songs. We consider ourselves very diverse in our music taste and wanted to have our work reflect that.
From day one we've always wanted to do whatever we wanted so we're trying to stick to that with hopes that we could release something on either end of the spectrum and still be Zuko.
You're back with the new single 'Absence', your first since the release of 2022's Hereditary EP. What's changed in the music-making process from there to now?
There's a lot more input from each member now whereas the Hereditary EP was a small compilation of songs with essentially one writer. With the addition and solidification of Nato joining the lineup, since then we have all learnt the most productive and effective way to write and how to bounce bits and pieces off each other in order to create more diverse songs.
And give us a rundown of the song, who or what inspired the anger behind this menacing track?
'Absence' is about Jesse's grandmother who passed away from Emphysema. Growing up she was the most positive parental figure in his life and ultimately his best friend. Watching someone so detrimental to his life struggle with health issues slowly & painfully wither away to become a pained shell of their former self was absolutely heartbreaking to say the least but he felt as if he captured the very words and feelings he was never able to find in her final moments with us.
It's been a couple of years now and the pain of loss hasn't become any easier to deal with, hence the lyric "I still feel the absence of your love"
Hard-hitting in more ways than one. And that BLEGH was an unexpected treat - well done, it didn't feel forced either (like some other bands).
We're so lucky to have a talented vocalist like Jesse, his range never ceases to impress and he's always learning new vocal techniques to master his craft.
We've seen you popping up more in the scene of late, what's the main goal of the band heading into 2024 and beyond?
2023 has been an absolute blast and we've already ticked a lot of boxes but we're planning to step it up a gear and hopefully do our first couple of shows in Melbourne & Sydney. We have also been tracking instrumentals for an EP which will hopefully be ready before the end of Q1 2024.
For those who fuck with 'Absence', what are three songs by other artists they should chuck in a playlist alongside it?
Counterparts - 'Whispers of your Death'
Gideon - 'Life Without'
Boundaries - 'Resent and Regret'
Is this the taste of more new music on the way this year? Any shows we should keep an eye out for too?
'Absence' is the first release off a two-track. It will be accompanied by 'Venom' which will also drop with a music video we've been working hard on with our boy Dalton Collis.
We are supporting Revoid on the Brisbane leg of their Misery Blooms tour which is this Friday October 20th @ Back Dock Arts in Fortitude Valley. We're also playing the Aftermath Festival on the 25th of November which will span across two venues King Lear's Throne & Bad Luck in Fortitude Valley.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CxnMBK-SQc_/
Plenty of places to catch Zuko live. Final thoughts?
Just want to give a quick shout out to the Brisbane hardcore / heavy music scene. The attendance & crowd participation this year has been huge and we've felt the love big time.
Interview by Paul ‘Browny’ Brown @brownypaul
ZUKO is Jesse Hudson (Vocals), Nato Laenen (Rhythm Guitar), Ben Matthews (Bass), Logan Gill (Lead Guitar) and Jordan Bellchambers (Drums)
Follow ZUKO and Stream 'Absence' via LinkTree
https://open.spotify.com/track/0HTX9RHoxMe7lDie54m2Sr?si=13da718fc19a4c8a
