Gather & Fold
Zorch
Let's start with who you are and what you are doing here at SXSW.
I'm Zach Traeger, and I'm in a band called Zorch, and with Sam Chown we put together free, DIY style shows during the festival.
And Zorch's visual side?
Sam and I create individual artwork for every CD that we release. We also go to thrift stores and buy up t-shirts, we screen-print over the top of them, so they are all different as well.
Are you trained in the arts at all?
No, we figured it out ourselves, we had friends help us with screen-printing. The girls in the paper stores love us as they're usually helping women making wedding invitesÃÂÃÂÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂæ
How long do you spend on these CD cases?
For 100 copies it usually takes us 2 - 4 hours.
So they are quite spontaneous compositions-
Yes, because it's such a quick process.
Does that visual approach relate to the music you make?
The music that we write is based on improvisation between Sam and I. When we lived in Boston, we used to rent a studio for 4 hours, and play the solid 4 hours, then later go back and chop it up into different ideas. So improvisation, spur of the moment thought has a lot to do with our song writing process as well as our art, our tshirts What we do now comes from that. Also, when we release music on the internet, we release samples of it - so the drums, keyboard and vocals are all separate, so people can take it and manipulate it in their own way. So through what we do for packaging and promotion with the t-shirts, our music is about reusing things for free, creative use. We used to actually let people chose the packaging and we would assemble it at the merch table, but it became just too difficult when you are playing so many shows.
How long have you been Zorch?
We've lived in Austin for 3 years, so it's been 2 or 3 years. Before then we lived in Boston, we were at Berklee College of Music, we improvised together but never did shows.
What's next for you two?
We really, really want to make a 3D iMax movie! At first it was joke, but now it's our ultimate goal.
What would it be like?
Don't know for certain yet, but similar to our live shows - an immersive, audio, visual experience...
So who should we speak to tomorrow?
I'm referring you to Brian McLaskey from Squid Ink. He's a local guy, he's done work for us, he has a screen-printing studio in town and is involved in a bunch of things.
You can download their music here www.zorch.bandcamp.com
Photography and artwork property of Zorch and Double Days.
Archive
The referrals began with Leah Jackson who referred Stephanie Downey who referred Chris Hill who referred Jonathan Wallace who referred Dominic Hofstede, who referred Paul Fuog, who referred Ben Edwards and Juliet Moore, who referred Ryan Russel and Byron George, who referred Dianna Snape, who finished the stream with Jessica Brent. We also introduced Matt Hinkley who referred Warren Taylor who referred Yanni Florence, who referred Liv Barrett, who referred Fayen d'Evie, who referred Masato Takasaka, who referred Madeline Kidd, who referred Meredith Turnbull, who referred Nella Themelios.
In May 2012, we began a new Melbourne stream with Oslo Davis. He then referred Alexander Stitt, who referred Mimmo Cozzolino, who referred Fysh Rutherford, who referred Simon and Jenna Hipgrave.
In March 2012, we went to Austin for SXSW, where the daily referrals began with Sonnenzimmer who referred Landland and Hometapes who referred Zorch, who referred Brian Maclaskey, who referred Bobby Dixon, who referred Brian Phillips, who, through some auspicious coincidence, turned the SXSW referral interview project into a perfect circle, by referring us back to Sonnenzimmer. Then there was a giveaway to celebrate.