If you’ve never seen the Zebroids live, there is going to be no better chance than this Sunday atop the MCA Denver during our Don’t Look Down series. In preparation for their raucous and somewhat insane show, we chatted with Mike Howard who bared the band’s soul and told us they loved the Twilight series. Yeah, it was pretty weird for us too.
Audiovore: If you could have any person or animal to be your band mascot, who or what would it be?
Mike Howard: Maybe John Elway? Or GG Allin? They would definitely have to be wearing KISS face paint (Gene, Paul, or Ace but NOT Peter) and nothing else. Iron Maiden is playing here on Monday. Maybe we could get them to loan us Eddie for our show Sunday afternoon! But actually we would never have a mascot. That would be gimmicky and wrong. We are musicians/artists who take ourselves and our artistic craftsmanship very seriously.
AV: Would you choose invisibility or flying for your super power? What would you do with it?
MH: We’d take either because we would really probably just use it to look at naked chicks in the shower.
AV: Are you recording? Releasing something soon? Have you just released something? Touring? Fill us in.
MH: We just got done recording some songs with the elusive studio wizard James Barone aka that guy from the band TENNIS. (No, not that guy, the other one.) We are going to let all the major labels fight over it and see which one offers us the highest amount of millions of dollars and which one really seems like they will be able to effectively market our musical artistry to the youth market while still being able to substantially cross over to the 25-40 year old suburban “tween” crowd. We don’t want to lose any of our artistic credibility, or “street cred” as the kids would say, but we do want to be able to buy hot tubs and jet skis.
AV: What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?
MH: Being in the Zebroids. But it’s the most rewarding.
AV: How long have you been a band and how did you culminate into what people are hearing these days?
MH: We’ve been a band for approximately 1 year, 9 months and 12 days. But who’s counting. We don’t know what the word “culminate” means but it sounds like something we’d be into.
AV: What’s the worst band you’ve ever been in?
MH: Definitely the Zebroids. But it’s the most rewarding.
AV: What is the best place besides the MCA rooftop to play in Denver
MH: We don’t want to ruffle any feathers here, but we’d probably have to say the basement of the Denver Art Museum. Or the lobby of the Clyfford Still museum. We only play 1st floors or top floors of Art Museums in Denver though so our view on this might be skewed. We’ve heard that the Lost Lake, Mouth House, Rhinoceropolis, Hi Dive, and 3 Kings are cool places to play, but that would entail us playing after 6 p.m., and that would mean we wouldn’t make it home to catch Kitchen Nightmares with Chef Gordon Ramsey and we’re just not willing to sacrifice that.
AV: Who are your favorite bands in Denver? And out of them, who would win in a Kung Fu fight?
MH: 1st place, always Big Head Todd and the Monsters.
AV: Really?
MH: Yeah but tied for 2nd Place would be Git Some, Negative Degree, the Conjugal Visits, the Dirty Few, the Nervous, A. Tom Collins, Pacific Pride, Il Cativo, Tjtjuna, Kingdom of Magic, Mr. Pacman, the Manxx and tons of other great friends/bands/artists.
AV: Can you think of any movie sequels that are as good as the original?
MH: We never thought there could ever be anything better than Twilight. Until we saw Twilight: New Moon. And then Twilight: Eclipse. Simply. Breathtaking.
AV: What’s your favorite hot dog place in Denver?
MH: Matty and I like Steve’s Snapping Dogs. Their California Dog, Chicago Dog and Atlanta Dog are awesome! Also, it’s directly across the street from where we work. Josh likes Sam’s Club because you can get a 9” hot dog and a soda for $2 dollars. Beau only eats at Country Buffet.
AV: How many servings of fruit do you eat per day? How about the rest of the band?
MH: We love fruit! We all eat at least 2-4 servings of fruit a day. We take the food pyramid very seriously. No wait, I’m thinking of vegetables. No wait, actually I’m thinking of Pizza. Nevermind.
AV: Who’s body is nicer when exposed on stage: Aaron Collins from A. Tom Collins, Avery Raines from Mr. Pacman, or Iggy Pop from The Stooges?
MH: Aaron is sort of like the bad boy/heartbreaker type that you know you shouldn’t like, but you just can’t help falling for his same old tricks and rippling muscles again and again. Avery is the nice one that will call you on the phone and talk about feelings for hours with you and the one you really should be with, but your mom has a mandatory restraining order against him. Iggy Pop looks like a fruit roll up that was left out in the sun for 40 years, but the fact that he is still alive (and ripped) considering the amount of partying he did is amazing. Plus he sang on Raw Power. We’re getting too worked up thinking about this. Maybe they should just leave their clothes on.
AV: What is the one thing you want people reading Audiovore to know about your band?
MH: We dig music….We’re on drugs!!!
