Rising indie act Zoo Culture has seen a lot of changes since their initial debut: from lineup changes to sonic shifts, there’s been progression & growth in all areas of the project. The core of Zoo Culture, though, has remained the same since day one: multihyphenate musician Alex Drummond. Taking on the project now as a solo act (while still embracing the ebb and flow of collaboration), Alex’s authenticity and personal music journey are what makes Zoo Culture special. With a solid discography (2019’s “Sundress” sits at over 5 million streams on Spotify) and a vision for the future, Zoo Culture is ready to take things to the next level.
This year saw the release of a new string of singles, leading up to the release of a debut album. “Postage” was the first release, a slower, more orchestral track brimming with emotion and sincerity. “Cadi” takes listeners to the other end of the music spectrum; a groovy baseline & driving drum beat taking center stage. Both songs have vastly different vibes, showcasing the range of sounds that will be present on the upcoming album.
Ahead of the release of his next single “Rot” (April 19th), I sat down with Zoo Culture to talk about the past, present, and future of the project, and to hear a bit more about the upcoming album.
Brigid Young: Thank you for taking the time to chat with me today! I wanted to ask a bit about your musical background, what was your experience with music like growing up? How did you decide that this is what you wanted to pursue?
Zoo Culture: I was always singing in choirs [and] I started playing the ukulele and guitar when I was 17. Zoo Culture was founded in 2018 and I’ve just been making music under that moniker ever since. It was really choir that was my first love of music. A lot of it was the church I was in growing up, but later doing it for school as part of a music major was a very moving experience, it’s always something I go back to I think.
BY: Did you go to college for music?
ZC: I did! I went to UAB for 2 years before COVID [and] was a music student. I ended up not finishing, eventually I just started doing my own thing and making music, taking my own time. I studied vocal performance for a bit, like opera and that kind of stuff. Not a lot of longevity with it, but it was an incredible experience.
BY: What was your experience with music school like, and how does it relate to what you do now? I also went to music school, and I feel like everyone has such a different experience once music becomes academic.
ZC: I really loved and appreciated the academic music scene. But, my true love and passion resided with Zoo Culture. I would go to class and sing opera and learn theory, and I’d go home and be writing Zoo Culture songs. That’s what I felt most drawn to. When 2020 came around and COVID happened, that was kind of the tipping point for me. It was great and helped me along my journey, and gave me amazing perspectives and knowledge I didn’t have. But, I really started to lean into my artistic life, and my artistic process. How to make these songs, the story I wanted to tell… operating Zoo Culture. It was interesting to navigate, but I’m very happy I leaned into what I’m doing now.
BY: It’s definitely two different worlds, between classical programs & the actual industry.
ZC: The live music scene is also totally different to the artist path. There are so many little worlds of music that are very different from the academic scene, I find.
BY: Especially coming from a classical program. So, you’ve released two singles this year so far. What can you tell me about “Cadi” and “Postage”? They are super different from one another, I was wondering if you could tell me a bit about each track, and what they mean to you?
ZC: Great question. This record chronicles the last 5 years of my life. There was a lot of adversity. The earlier Zoo Culture discography is a lot of love songs, and I think in that iteration of the band, I was telling stories of relationships I was in, and figuring out a sound and the band at the time. Started embarking on this album process, rebranded, people that were in the band went on to make other music… a lot of change happened. I turned inward, and I wanted to articulate my experience in a poetic way, of being in my early 20’s. I’m 25 now, freshly, this past January. I knew in the thick of a lot of the pain I was going through that I wanted to talk about it, and make art from it. That’s really what the album is. The story of my life from ages 19ish to 25. It’s really funny, the singles coming out, “Cadi” and “Postage”, they talk about very young versions of me, and problems I had. Sonically it was very fun to collaborate and outsource, and meet incredible people, and just make beautiful music together. But as the lyricist and vocalist, I’m in a totally different place of life now trying to step into the shoes of 20 year old me. Trying to articulate the feelings at the beginning of the story while living at the end of the story. It was hard.
Those two songs are actually the last two I finished, lyrically. “Postage,” I took a long time with, [but] I wanted it to come out first. It’s kind of like a mission statement, in a way. It’s a lot about vulnerability itself, communicating going through hardships, and sincerity through all of that. I think it sets up the album: it’s heavier, but through all this I want to communicate myself as clearly as possible. It’s me writing to the people who have supported Zoo Culture, in a way. A lot of people rally behind “Sundress,” which is one that has a lot of streams. It has always felt a little disingenuous, because I wrote it as a silly beach song. This one, I wanted to reclaim: it’s me at the helm, I’m really grateful to be where I am in life, that’s not come without hardship and struggles. I want to hold a candle to that. It’s a very 4th wall break song for me. Just sort of summarizing myself and the dissociative feelings I’ve had.
“Cadi” is the first song that gets into that. There was a period in my early 20’s, that I think a lot of people go through, where I was partying a lot. It’s mostly about weed, and my relationship with weed when I was 21. I wanted to write this thesis on nightlife. The need to go out and traverse new social circles, and be youthful and try new things. But, it also comes at a big cost. It’s taxing on your mind and body. The whole thing is chronological, it’s a narrative of what I went through. That was a good way to step into the hardships that I mentioned.
I think of the album as literal chapters of my life, I think the songs have a lot of relatable appeal in certain ways. I’ve showed my friends, and they resonate with it, which is beautiful. But I hear it as a literal scrapbook. It’s always so crazy. Like, ‘amazing you feel that, but also… sorry that you feel that!’ That’s the beautiful thing about music, though. Those two, on the album, are the painful ones. Which are the first two that have come out. There is so much beauty left to discover and hear, that I think is lighter.
BY: Why did you choose those two to be the first singles? Did you want to share the heavier stuff with your audience first?
ZC: I wanted “Postage” to come out first because it feels like a title track. The album is called Delivery, and “Postage” as a song sums up all of it. “Cadi” has been around for about 3 years, and has seen a lot of variations. There are so many demos of it on my phone. It’s a little more upbeat. They stay in the same world, but I wanted to push it a little bit. It’s a very new sound for Zoo Culture. It’s the most electronic thing we’ve ever done, really experimental. I wanted to put that one out there and see how people enjoyed it. Chronologically, it still flows.
BY: So is the tracklist in chronological order based on these chapters of your life? How did you arrange the songs?
ZC: The first song is called “Howling” and it’s an intro track, like a score. It represents this bridge between the last narrative moment of Zoo Culture, which was the Moonflower EP. I’m picking up the story from there, basically. We put out some singles, but there was some structural confusion in the middle of it. I’ve always been a really big writer, so I wanted to pick it up right there. Track two [“Postage”], I would place that song as encompassing the entire journey, but I would place it at around 2020. “Cadi”, 2021. The next song is called “Escape Plan” and it’s a remake of a single that we put out, that fits in narratively with the “Cadi” timeline. There’s a song called “1820”… my family moved out of my childhood home in 2022. I wrote it about that. That was a big life change; a different chapter. The last few songs are about when I moved to Nashville 2 years ago. It flows… I don’t know if I’ll do that again on another record. It was a crazy journey, living that long and making songs to document that. I don’t know if the average listener will pick up on it being a chronological telling of my life, but I listen to it and I’m like, wow.
BY: The intention is there, yeah. When it comes to the creative process for the album, were all of these songs written over the course of the 5 years? What did it look like, in terms of the timeline?
ZC: The entire album was written over 3 years, it talks about 5 years. For a year and a half, starting in 2020, we were in the writing phase. Really in concept. I was plucking around different instruments, writing poems, collecting words over time. When I moved here 2 years ago, I met my best friend Adam [Lochemes]. He was in the band Arlie for a little bit. We spent a year and a half making all the songs. There were maybe 4-ish months of demoing in there, but there was enough material from the year and a half before meeting him that he was like, ‘okay, cool, let’s hit the ground running and finish things.’ We made the whole things together, but there was a lot of work that happened before I ever met him. So, yeah, a three year process, which was really crazy. But a year and a half of it was actually making the album. It was amazing meeting him, we still work together and are really close. He’s the missing piece of my brain. Production genius, it was such a pleasure making this with him.
BY: When it comes to your writing process, do you have a routine or method? Or does it vastly vary based on the song? How do you approach writing usually?
ZC: I was with Adam last night and we were working on new stuff, and we were talking about that. There is no process! It is very eclectic and very passionate, but I feel I’m more of a curator or a collector in terms of writing. I’ll sit on the same phrase for a long time, and I’ll collect little phrases and words around that, and put them all on a page because I feel they look visually like they belong. One day I’ll have a eureka, and I’ll weave it a bit more. In my note pad right now, I have 3 pages for a future project, and I’m literally just writing two words that I think are cool. I wrote “lilypad” yesterday! I was like, I want a swamp vibe, I don’t know! I’ve done it like that for a while.
Structurally, Zoo Culture is more like a collective. I may sing for the project and write the base of the songs, but so many people come in and make whatever they want, and add their own unique flair to these songs. They grow in such interesting ways, there’s always room for me to change what I’m doing. We had a guy named Jake Botts come in and record saxophone for some songs on the album. At that period of time, I had written… on “Rot,” the one that’s coming out, I had written the verses but didn’t have a chorus. Jake came in and played a melody, and I was like, ‘Cool! I’m going to go off of this melody that now exists.” It’s a lot of different factors. It’s never really the same process twice, which I kind of love. It’s very stressful, but it’s also very gratifying. Yeah, a collector.
BY: Yeah, like piecing together a puzzle. So, you said you have a new single coming out in April, “Rot.” Can you tell me a bit about that one?
ZC: That one… in the timeline, I wrote that one about moving here. A lot of the themes on the album have to do with… escapism in ways, but it also talks about growth and ends of eras. Leaving certain circles and cycles of life, and entering new ones. That’s really what that song is about. I think it’s about growth and change, and being really acutely aware of entering a new era. Being very terrified of that change, but also being very welcoming and excited about that growth. I was in this very excited but lost place when I moved here. I had just left my entire life and support system in Birmingham. I knew 4 people here. I didn’t even know my roommates when I got here. It was a very crazy process. I was already going through a lot and changing, as we all are, but I got here and was like ‘wow, this is very different from what I thought it was going to be.’ I could see a road ahead of myself, gotta buckle up.
That’s what the song is about, being on the cusp of great change. Which, initially was going to be the last song on the album, but then I wrote one more because I felt like it deserved a bit of a happier ending. That one is more brooding and turbulent, but I love it. It’s one of my favorites that we put together.
BY: Do you feel that you wrote that last song because you don’t feel the same way that you did when you wrote “Rot?” Do you feel more settled into the new life that you have?
ZC: Absolutely. The first year here was very difficult. I didn’t feel like I was fitting in. I was learning a lot about myself, but also physically a different environment. Birmingham is a city, but a small one. I also grew up in Bessemer, which is a small rural town. This is the biggest city I’ve ever lived in, which is a small big city, from what I understand. I’ve never been to LA, but I’ve been to New York. Those are big cities. The last song is called “Believe You Me,” and I wrote it in this exuberant state of joy. I felt so untethered by everything, just so happy. We wrote and recorded that one really quickly. I wrote this guitar part, and I was like, I think this is the perfect way to wrap up the project.
“Rot” is a very long song, the version that’s coming out is a single version, and the album version will be with the album. There’s a B section, that’s like a minute or two long, that’s on the full version. There’s a lot of cool moments like that on the album that have been hidden so far. I’m really excited. There are a lot of really fun surprises on it. But yeah, wanted to conclude the story with a happier note.
BY: Totally. I wanted to also ask you about the cover art for both of these singles that have come out, I love the hand drawn style. Can you tell me about that?
ZC: Yeah, I’d love to! I actually just opened up one of the packages of the art a minute ago, I’m working on a shirt. So I collaborated with a guy called Dai Okumura, who lives in Japan. I met him through the Instagram explore page, which was so crazy. Never really met someone through Instagram like that. I found his art and was just so in love with it for months. We got to the point where we were wrapping up the album, so I reached out to him like, ‘hey, I would love to commission something for this.’ He did the “Postage” art. … ‘I would love to commission something for the album, but if not just this song.’ He was like, ‘I’ve never done anything for an album before, so I’d love to just be a part of it.’ So we wrote each other letters, and swapped information over the post. He killed it on that. He made so much art, we’re making merch with it. Very creative, very talented. He sources ink from India, then I think it’s recycled waste paper from Japan. That’s his medium, and what he does all of his work on. He did the envelopes for “Postage,” but he also does really interesting stuff with typeface, all kinds of different stuff.
Harst, on the other hand, who’s become a really good friend of mine, I met him in the strangest way possible at UAB. I took a lot of English classes my first year, and a lot of those classes were in the humanities building. I would finish up with class and leave the building, and I started seeing this art all over the place. Old film photos, paintings, matchbooks, bottles… objects that just had his name painted on them. I seemed to be the only person who was taking note of them, and they were in such strange places. I started to collect this art I was finding. After class every day I would go on this Easter egg hunt. He would hide it in vending machines, behind staircases, tape it to telephone poles, in bushes… It was the coolest, strangest thing. I didn’t meet him that entire year until the very end. We didn’t talk for very long.
Fast forward 4 years, or whatever it’s been, I hit him up like, ‘hey, I wrote this album.’ He had done this style of art for a little while that involved using shipping envelopes, and when I was writing the album I always had it in mind. It was a visual thing for me. I reached out to him, and we got to know each other super well, met up for drinks, worked on so many pieces together. He did the “Cadi” art, and then the art for the rest of the album that will be coming out. Incredible person from my hometown, very cool guy.
BY: Two very unique collaborators, that’s really cool to create art with people like that. Sort of tying into that, you have a P.O. box to connect with listeners. Have you had any great penpal experiences or connections?
ZC: Yes! It hasn’t been a ton, I kind of knew in posting a P.O. box on the internet that only some people would resonate. It has a lot of functional purpose for me, buying merch for the band, newsletters and that sort of thing. But a good bit of people who listen to the band have reached out with letters, and have been really excited to hear the music that’s coming out. I’ve gotten to know them really well. It’s been fun. I knew I wanted to embark on this again, writing an album that’s postal themed. I had a lot of penpals when I was a kid, and kind of woke up one day in the middle of this album and was like, why don’t I write people anymore? I’d love to get to know these people that care about my music. I’d love to talk to them. It’s been the cutest, sweetest thing. I love it so much. On record, I’d love to encourage more people to write in! I love that form of communication, it’s so sincere and personal. It chronicles a moment of your life. I think it’s very beautiful.
BY: Absolutely, it’s a more concrete form of communication compared to just typing out a DM. A bit of a throwback question: “Sundress” was obviously huge, I wanted to ask you about the Beachcomber version: what made you want to revisit that song and sort of give it new life? Could you tell me a bit about that?
ZC: Absolutely. Zoo Culture went through a pretty big rebrand, a lot of the guys that were in the band went on to do totally different projects. I started the band a long time ago, and we always had people coming and going. It was usually the same core 3 people that were involved for a really long time, but we constantly had people that were filling in. Once those core people decided to make other music, it was just me. I was like, okay, it’s always been people coming and going, contributing things artistically and then taking a step back. I would rather just leave things very expansive and open. A collective. Be able to make music and art with people, really collaborative.
I decided, given the new sound of Zoo Culture on this album and the direction we were going in, to remake “Sundress.” Kind of for the OG fans, to let them know what’s happening in the future. I think Beachcomber is a really good template sound of some of the stuff you’ll hear on the album, in terms of ambient electronic stuff… there’s a lot of classical elements, you’ve got strings on there, you’ve got saxophone… those are new things for us. I definitely wanted to remake an old favorite to prepare for the new sound. Plus, I resonate with “Sundress” for a lot of different reasons, it’s definitely a part of me… that song, to me, is beers on a boat, having a good time with your friends at the beach, in the sun… I’m not that guy at the beach! I’m up early and go on walks. Not that I can’t party and have a good time…
BY: Different vibe!
ZC: Yeah! That version [Beachcomber] of it is way more in tune with not only the future sound, but with myself. When I sit down to play “Sundress,” a lot of the times I play it on acoustic. I’ve enjoyed the softer version of it. People have enjoyed it live, too. We pull out both versions, and play around with transitions and stuff. It’s been kind of fun to give it new life in a way to prepare for the future.
BY: Totally, a transition between the old and the new. My final question to wrap up today is: what do you hope that listeners take away from this album?
ZC: That’s a great question. I think this album is a lot about growth and pain. Both of those things exist in a cycle, going around and around in life. We have good times, bad times, in between times that are constantly on a loop. I wrote this album with that in mind. I hope people can resonate with it for that reason. Regardless of where they are in life. I think it’s an album that you can grow with, and find resonance regardless of which place of it you’re in. That’s certainly been the case for me. It’s a very experimental sound, I think for personal, sonic based reasons, I hope people enjoy the big shift from the old sound and the new. I hope that’s a big takeaway. It’s a very lived in album, to say the least. There are a lot of really fun intimate and tiny details, in very obvious sonic chapters that you can live in. I hope that’s a takeaway for people, they get to live in these little worlds of it. I hope it brings people peace, it certainly brought me a lot of peace. I hope it gives people comfort, in a way.
