It was an unusually wintery night on the streets of Virginia Beach, where naught a single trace of warmth was to be found easily and the icy roads threatened to throw you off course.  However, one place and its collective residents defiantly worked together to warm the mood up in the halls of the Jewish Mother.  On a night when few others dared traverse the treacherous highways, this restaurant was packed to the brim with lovers of ska everywhere.  Where else could you find fedora wearing slicksters in checkered shirts?  Where else would you see horns played with the respect and admiration they deserve?  Where else would a sun composed of willing bodies and electronic rhythm illuminate the weary souls of Virginia?

Don't mistake the Jewish Mother for a normal restaurant, however.  A quick inspection revealed a somewhat intricate, if somewhat old sound system in the back and row upon row of pictures of people who had performed here.  Not just your typical famous person, either; this venue truly supports the local scene and shows it with the countless faces of bands popular in the area.  The back area didn't seem like a restaurant at all, and the stage was very low to the ground so you could get a good look at who happened to be playing.  Rude Zombie was set to break in the stage for the night and start the show.

First, let me introduce the band members.  The lead singer, Jessica Abbott, briskly leads the band with her sharp business sense and finely tuned vocals.  Matthew Cheatham is the original ska lover of the band, and that influence is clear anytime you see him take to his fretless bass.  Ryan "Johnny" Richards brings a distinct classical tinge to the table with his guitar, consolidating the bands departure from typical ska bands.  Shawn Atkins adds in incredibly fine tuned drums, being in a former Tool cover band.  He has a nasty habit of losing his keys during every concert however.  Brian Russel was a band geek in a past life, but now he brings amazing tenor sax with his experience and is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet.  Justin Norman, alto sax, is also a former band geek, and constantly has his eyes on the prize.  He won't settle for anything less, and strives to meet his goals both within and outside of the band.  Jeff McLaughlin is the band's keyboardist, this being his first gig with the band.  He's also a part of a four piece band known as the Gloom, which is his main squeeze.

Rude Zombie shows off how comfortable they are with each other by bursting right into their first song.  As I was unable to listen to any of their songs except the single, "Prince of Ska", I was elated by their initial sound.  They mix up punk style chords with a professional sounding alto and tenor sax.  They mix it in with a funky bass solo in the middle of the song and instantly the crowd begins to start clapping.  The entire band exudes spirit by rhythmically moving to the song.

The next tune starts off with a jazzy bass, and then quickly settles into a relaxed tone by way of the very clean guitar and just enough horn to give it that feeling of the sun.  I almost feel as if I should be in the sun rather than some dark hole in the wall at the back of the Jewish Mother, but I didn't see anyone else in the crowd complaining.  They have a fan base that has followed them for most of their two year life span, but also get the others in the crowd shaking their head and on their feet.  Jessica sings at a mile a minute, much like the band plays.  She manages to fit a lot into each line while still keeping beat, much like another famous 'almost' ska band you might have heard of.

Ultimately the bass carries the song and keeps it down along with the strong drummer.  You won't hear a standard drum beat from Shawn, the band's drummer.  He likes to mix it up and although drumming is based on repetition it doesn't always have to feel that way.  He proves that.  Jeff's first excursion into the live world of Rude Zombie seemed to be going good.  He seems to meld into the band well, and he definitely knows the songs, but his sound is somewhat overpowered by the rest of the band. I later found out that he asked them to do this, because he was making up the keys as he goes.

They don't stop to rest before going into their third song, "Prince of Ska".  By now there is a particularly rabid fan who is skanking across the dance floor all by himself, which everyone knows is a lot harder to do when nobody else is.  I believe this alone says something about the quality of the band.  This song shows off all the aspects of the band - from a powerful female lead, a talented fretless bassist, and two saxophones that refrain from being overly obnoxious topped off by the always in time drums and subtle keyboard.

The band takes a different turn for their fourth song, slowing it down a bit to let everyone understand what's going on.  The whole world can't move at Rude Zombie's speed.  They throw in another fast riff in the middle of the song and bring it back down to the almost addictive slow tune that gives a strong sense of fun wrong doing.  The bassist chimes in for powerful backing vocals, his surprisingly gritty voice carrying much weight.

Once again they refuse to stop in between songs and go right into the next song with the drummer laying down a commanding set of drum rolls.  The band just seems to be getting a little crazy at this point.  The bass definitely shows a different tune for this one, giving the crowd shivers as they are pulled in by the temptation of RZ.  The guitarist throws in a small solo without distortion, which was just loud enough to be heard and add to the song in a good way.

They actually stop to take a break this time, just long enough to thank the Jewish Mother and the Slackers.  They reveal that they are playing a fresh song called "Staircase" and seconds later the crowd is captivated by an atmospheric guitar you would expect from someone like Tool instead of a ska band.  The band playfully brings it back down to a funky interlude and lays down another relaxing tune before the first word is even sung.  You can definitely tell there are a lot of influences in this band, all mixing around and trying vehemently to break the genre we know as ska, in a way that would make you second-guess it while also knowing deep down that there is no way that this ISN'T ska. Then they throw in an ear cringingly fast punk riff that brings the song into the outro, which is a barebones slow down. The guitar throws in a clean riff every once in awhile along with the bass, and the horn slow down a bit to bring you down gently.

The next song has the horns still slow, but in long, ringing notes that could tell a story all on their own.  The guitarist goes into a John Frusciante-like riff while the bassist continues to show us that funk is something anyone can feel.  With a gritty "One-two-three-four" they force their timing to do what they want rather than the other way around, and show the power to create music that would absolutely topple with just one instrument and make it sound wonderful.  They go into a blisteringly fast sax solo that titillates the ears, the best effort from the horns so far.  They finish with the timing breaking riff along with more "too many cigarettes" vocals from the bassist and instantly move into the next one.

This song has a very reggae bass, mixed with a little jazz and funk from the guitarist.  The thing that makes it unique is the horns, which makes me question the use that effects can't be used on them.  It was almost like they faded out and came back up before it was humanly possible.  It was then that I noticed a swastika on the lead vocals jacket, which was crossed out.  I thought it was kind of amusing for her to choose to wear that at a place called the Jewish Mother.  I then get distracted by another classical solo from the guitarist, who kicks up the distortion for the chorus, which has the whole band throwing their vocals into a moving anthem.

Their set finishes too fast as they announce that they'll be playing the song titled after their band name, "Rude Zombie."  All of the fans get up and start skanking all over the place, obviously having their minds taken over by the ridiculously good sax coming from Brian, a tenor master.  Immediately followed by Justin, a blind man could see why this song embodies the band.  Everyone has a chance to show off, and everyone is having a good time.  The thing about this band is that their music fits the mood set by them perfectly.  The music IS the mood set by them, but even if you couldn't understand the mile a minute lyrics you would still subconsciously understand the thing they are trying to convey just by being an avid listener.  They're all happy to be there and playing music they spent countless hours crafting together.  You can really see the experience shine.  Did I mention that Jeff makes an amazing finish for this song?  His keyboards mix into the swing with style now, giving it a synth finish that fits perfectly with the rest.  He is definitely a worthy addition to the band.  The song finishes with guitarist Ryan (Jhonny) departing from his classical roots to show he knows how to throw down, showing the world blisteringly fast fingers and bringing the song to an amazing fast finish, albeit a slightly sloppy one.

 

33: So, how long has Rude Zombie been around?

Jessica Abbott: It'll be 2 years June 9^th.

 

33: That's not bad, pretty cool playing for only 2 years.

JA: [laughs] I guess so, I mean we've played a couple big shows, done two tours, uhhh...gotten screwed.

 

33: Gotten what?

JA: Screwed. Like every band gets screwed by the music industry.  Had a record label for awhile, then they kinda dicked us over.  Uh, you know.

Shawn Atkins: Before our tour.

JA: Yeah, right before our tour.

 

33: So are you in one of those things where you can't join another record label for a while because of that?

JA: Oh no, it was a, um, very new label who didn't know what the hell they were doing and said they had more money than they actually did.  Promises promises kind of thing.

 

33: What drew you to ska music? I'm not, you know, against ska music but it isn't exactly the most popular genre of music.

JA: Well, none of the band aside from Matt, the bass player, he had been listening to ska since he was in diapers basically.  I had mostly a jazz swing influence, that's where I was trained vocally.  Shawn has been a Tool nut since the beginning, and Brian's a Christian rock kid, and Justin's Avenged Sevenfold, and Ryan, our guitarist, is our classic rock guy.  We all had different ideas but Matt and I started the band in June, and we decided that's what we wanted to go with.  You know, we both liked it, I had recently gotten into it.

 

33: So nobody else had any problems with that?

JA: Well, everybody, everyone we picked up after that kind of, they didn't really have a say.  I mean, what do you think, Shawn did you have a problem with it initially?

SA: No, not at all.

JA: We had already started playing gigs, you know?

 

33: What's your opinion on the local ska scene?

JA: Um...

SA: Love hate.

JA: Yeah.  I think any scene's gonna be love hate.  We've made a lot of really good friends and there's a lot of people that can't stand us.  I think that just comes with anything, I think if we were in the cover band scene, or the classic rock scene, or, you know, emo, I think there would always be people who hated us and always be people that loved us.  And then there will be the people that are indifferent.  So, any scene's a good or bad thing I think.

 

33: I was just saying, when you think of ska in Virginia Beach, it's really only two people that come to mind, which is you guys and Jackmove basically.

JA: There's a couple of 'em sprouting out, I mean we've got, um, Man Eating Camels, which I think recently broke up, they were in the scene for awhile.  There's a new band called Ultra Panic coming around, I have yet to see them play but they're friends with us, so...you know.  But they're supposedly a ska band.  And then there's Thin Air Rising.

 

33: So it's kinda rising more.

JA: I think since the last couple of years it's starting to grow a little bit, which is probably a good thing.

 

33: You already answered this a little, but have you had any attention from record labels?

JA: Yeah, we actually are being 'shopped' at the moment.

 

33: Shopped?

JA: Uh, that's the name in the biz, when a record label starts looking and you and they tell you they are shopping you, that just means they're showing interest in you and throwing numbers at you.  Mostly trying to build you up so you want to do it, um, and they can make money off of you.  But we're being currently shopped right now, we have an offer to go to South Africa in the summer, to do a tour.  We don't know if we're going to do it yet, it's going to cost a lot of money on our end.

 

33: So what keeps you guys playing at the end of the day?

JA: [long pause] I hate everybody in the band.  [laughs] No, I don't know, no I love all of them, they're good guys.

 

33: At least sometimes.

JA: Yeah, I don't know, what about you, Shawn?  What keeps you going?

SA: Ehhh...Life.

JA: Justin, if you wanna jump in on this interview?

Justin Norman: No thanks.

JA: That's our saxophone player, Justin.

 

33: So life, and...what did you say again? Hating everybody?

JA: Yeah no I, uh yeah, there's a moment where I hated everybody in the band.  Um.  [pause] Shawn doesn't know how to control his drums.  And Ryan can't...can't operate without having a guitar in his hand and Matt, same with the bass.  Really only Justin and Brian know how to put their instruments down.

 

33: That should be a good thing, though.

JA: No, it is.  But...they all have their own things that annoy us, but I pretty much love...I love the band.  It's really just knowing that what we're doing is the world to us.  Every one of us has such a passion about music, that...I think I could be in a band with a bunch of people I hated and still want to do it.  But I don't hate the band!

 

33: So how was touring with the Ska is Dead tour?

JA: We didn't actually tour, we played one show with them.  It was when they came here.  It was insane, actually Mustard Plug approached us and asked us where we were playing next.  And I, uh, I said 'Uh, Virginia Beach,' [laughs] 'because we live here' and they were like 'No way!' so that was a really cool compliment.  Voodoo Glow Skulls had a bunch of things to say, actually in general we got excellent feedback from that show.  And, uh, you know, I have the lead singer of Mustard Plug's phone number, sooo, umm...call him every now and then.  [laughs] No no no, I think I've only called him twice and it was only because of the show, so...but if I ever wanted to.

 

33: I know you have a full length album you're working on now.  Is that your first one?

JA: We did an EP when we initially started, we didn't have the record quality that we wanted, so we didn't continue with it.  But we're working on the full one right now, hopefully we'll be in Nashville in a couple weeks, to be doing it.

 

33: Is that where you're going to record it?

JA: We're going to be recording at Sound Emporium Records, so hopefully that'll pan out.  That's actually part of the record label that we're being shopped by.  But it'll cost the greenbacks, so people need to come out to our shows. [laughs]

 

33: Is there anything you can tell me about the album itself?

JA: It's gonna...it's gonna be mostly our older songs, um, we're going to incorporate some of the new ones.  We're hoping to kind of take a, uh, a authentic view from it, kind of make it sound like an old record rather than, um, something more modern.  Which is generally our take on music anyway, we don't...we're not trying to sound perfect, we kind of revel in our flaws if you wanna think of it that way.  So it's not a concept album and it certainly doesn't have a huge message, but I think that the overall message would be, you know, we're different.  We've had a lot of animosity in the ska scene because we're not strictly ska.  We have a lot of punk influences, a lot of jazz influences.

33: Punk's kind of normal in the 3^rd wave anyway.

JA: Right, well, and really our goal is not to fit in between the lines, we kind of want to expand them and make it socially acceptable for anybody who loves a specific genre to be able to wave in between those lines and not feel pressured by the music scene that they're not doing it right.

 

33: Would you say this album is your best effort to date?

JA: Um...I don't know, what do you mean?

 

33: I'm not saying effort as in strictly how hard you're playing, but in the time you put into crafting your songs and making them as good as possible.

JA: Well, I think our biggest effort is to put on the best show that we can, we put a lot of effort into making sure that our music is not only... the sound is appeasing but everything that goes into it makes sense and in a subconscious way clicks.  I'll give you an example, in our song "Staircase", we, um, I don't know if you know anything about music, but we put a note that's not in a scale at one part of the song, but it's at a negative part in the song so it's supposed to make you go 'That didn't sound right' but it's more so to trigger the feeling that it didn't feel right because the song is talking about not feeling right.  So it's really about, our biggest effort is making the music talk as much as the words are.  And I think that'll reflect on our album simply because it's a reflection of our upbringing.

 

33: So what do you see in ska's future, do you think it's dead?  Do you think that there will be a "fourth wave" if you will?

JA: Um.  The guys're going to kill me for saying this.  I think that there will be a fourth wave.  I think there can be a fourth wave because of how far the genre has gone out from the original version.  Honestly, I think waves are mostly marked by time, you know, I think that...the fourth wave is going to be...

 

33: Rude Zombie?

JA: Well, let's hope so.  I mean, I would love for it to be us, I would be okay with it being us, but, um, I think the fourth wave is going to incorporate a lot of different things. The crazy thing about ska is you hear it every day. You know, it's not a hidden thing, everyone says ska is dead, turn on your TV and listen to 90% of the commercials that play, and you'll hear the offbeat, and you'll hear the walking bass line, and you'll hear the horns, and the reason people dismiss it is because they write it off as reggae or they just don't notice it.  Ska is far from being dead, it's used in modern marketing, so I think there will be a fourth wave, and I think there will be a lot more ska over the years.

 

33: Do you have any last words for your fans?

JA: Um, come to shows.  [laughs] No, um, you know, we can't be any more than the people following us.  We write music because we love people, we want them to hear what we have to say, and the whole idea behind music is relating.  I went to a concert once and someone said this is the biggest group therapy session you will ever be in.  So, our goal is to make this show the biggest group therapy session you will ever be at, because it's the only moment in your life that you relate to everybody in the room.  Everybody in one room at the same time.  So...come to our group therapy sessions.  Experience what we experience with you.

 

33: Can you give me one sentence to describe yourselves?

JA: Well.  [long pause] If you say that ska is dead, then you must be Rude Zombie.

 

33: [laughs] I don't know if you thought I was talking about the band, but I was trying to get something from each of you.

JA: Oh, like me individually?  Oh, okay!  Well, that's for Rude Zombie.  Um, me in a sentence, oh.

 

33: You can use a comma.

JA: [laughs] Awesome, comma.  Amazing, comma.  No, um. [pause] I don't know...I don't know.  How about, umm...Proud to have flaws, that's a good one for me.

SA: Oh, jeez.  Um, quiet, I'm well known.  I've got a good side and a bad side.  I love to play drums.

Ryan "Johnny" Richards: I love music.

Justin Norman: Determination.  Willingness to succeed.  And a strong motivator.  An inspiring musician.

Brian Russel: Like for the band?  Just me?  Um, yeah, yeah.  I'm 20 years old, and I go to TCC studying computer science.  That's pretty much the way I heard of Rude Zombie, I saw a flyer at TCC actually, and it was an ad.  They needed a horn line for a ska band, and I was like 'That sounds really awesome', so I gave them a call and they had me come out the same day, and, uh, played for them, had a lot of fun, so... Since then I've been in Rude Zombie.

Matthew Cheatham: Um, fretless bass, um.  I like to walk a lot.

 

33: Long walks on the beach?

MC: Yeah, long walks on the beach, long walks on the bass neck, I try to play as originally as possible, um.  Yeah, I really like development of major/minor stuff, going to the fifth and third, all that good stuff.

Jeff McLaughlin: What are you looking for?  I don't know, man.  I play a lot of different styles.  Classically trained, some violin skills, some piano skills.  Um, yeah.

 

Ska will live as long as Rude Zombie does, so be sure to check them out as soon as possible if your fedora is collecting dust.  They're young guns but the bullets are loaded, so hopefully the future is bright for them.  There is a lot of untapped potential here, and I can definitely see them going places due to their fierce determination, if they have the opportunity and business sense to carry them through. There are ways you can revive the dead.

MySpace.com/RudeZombie757

RudeZombie757.com

 

By Author: Ryan Mason

Ryan Mason was born in Hampton in 1989. He grew up listening to the generic bands on the radio before discovering classic rock and expanding his horizons. Now you'll find him listening to just about anything, from Pink Floyd to The Sound of Animals Fighting. Naturally this lead to him playing music himself, and he is the proud owner of a Gibson SG and a 5 string bass guitar. Unfortunately he sucks at them both, but hey, there is always Magazine 33! Some other bands he likes are Stiff Little Fingers, the Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan, Incubus, Hendrix, Lamb of God, The Doors and the Gorillaz.

 

 

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