Written by Katherine Oung
Photography by: Craig Hamilton (@bobrosshogg on Instagram)
Zach “Zook” Tittel, the frontman and namesake of the band Zook, describes their music as “a constellation.” Though Zook’s lineup currently consists of Tittle, Ryan Bigelow, Billy Campbell, and Husam Suboh, dozens of local musicians have done a stint in the band since its formation in 2017. Elements of acoustic, noise, and ambient music orbit the band’s system, as well as the talents and influences of all its rotating members.
How did the band first come to be?
It was a recording project that I started in order to meet people who played music. I just started making stuff at home, mostly as a way to break some mold in my life. I’d done music in a band in high school, and after that I went to school in Nashville where I made some friends, but I hadn’t found a music scene that I felt like I was a part of. Everyday, I’d just wake up and be like, I feel so disconnected from who I am. I always longed to find people who were interested in the same kind of music as me. So I just did that, and then, because of that, I just started meeting people. Over the years, there’s probably been like 15 or more different members of our band. So, it’s been a bit of a revolving door, but this lineup has come together to be pretty sturdy at the moment.
Are you originally from Nashville?
No, but I’ve lived here for 12 years, going on 13. I’m from Baltimore originally.
Do you feel like your music is influenced by growing up in Baltimore?
I love a lot of Baltimore bands. I love Dan Deacon and Animal Collective. They weren’t necessarily influential to me growing up; I was not necessarily even aware [of them], but I definitely learned a lot from people around me who were influenced by them. I feel like there was a noise scene in Baltimore, and when I started playing shows, I got exposed to some more avant-garde music super early, and I definitely didn’t get it at the time.
But looking back today, I now love that type of thing. I’m really thankful that some of my first show experiences were on the harsh noise end of things, because it kind of just made me aware of an attitude toward music that was a little less about songs and more about the limit of the physical experience of sound, and taking sound back to this very base level of how does sound make you feel and experience the world.
What kind of music did you listen to growing up?
60’s psychedelic and British Invasion music, mostly, early on, and then things that reminded me of that which were happening later. Later in high school, I saw Pavement. They didn’t really have a lot of press like they do now. They’re a very active band today where they are releasing things and talking about their band, and there’s documentaries and stuff. But at the time, they were just going on this kind of at-a-whim reunion tour, and they played a festival.
At the time, indie rock was the reigning genre that seemed to be popping off. Bands at the festival would have been like bands like Phoenix and LCD Soundsystem and all these bands that had tons of pedals on the floor and tons of lights, and tons of really amazing on stage production and everything. And then Pavement came out with string lights and basically no pedals on the floor, and they played this really amazing intimate set. It felt like it just cut through everything else. That was a big show for me.
How would you describe Zook’s style of music today?
I think that we try to find harmonies that are really close together. We try to make the sound feel like it’s pulsing, and like the notes are colliding. We like to go to more improvisational places when we play live, especially. A lot of strobing sounds. I guess there’s a physical component in our music. We want it to feel like there is a tangible, literal, physical strobing that happens in the music, but we still keep it as organic as possible, relying on the instruments themselves.
The words are not an afterthought, but they’re not over-thought either. They’re trying to be somewhat stream of consciousness, but stately enough that they’re not all over the place. Not trying to be inherently trippy or something like that. Just trying to talk about getting through everyday stuff. I really like blues lyrics, like Mississippi John Hurt and Lightnin’ Hopkins and Howlin’ Wolf. These people never completely go into full depth on what they’re exactly talking about, and there’s a little bit of mystery in that, but it generalizes itself in a way that feels hymn-like or profound in a general, overarching sense. I feel like that’s kind of the way I’ve started to lean with words in music.
Speaking of playing live, what are some of your favorite local venues you’ve played at?
Ryman 2 is an amazing venue that we love. We love Random Sample. We love Drkmttr — that was the first venue we played in Nashville, at the old location, before it was on Dickerson; it was in an old, kind of, barber shop-y location.
We like house venues and DIY spaces, generally. We like places that feel like they’re intrinsically tied to people, as opposed to the artifice of a typical venue. [Those venues] are not really accessible for young people who want to see music, and they definitely emphasize spending money. But we just want to play shows where people can access it very immediately and anyone can come.
Are there any local bands that you especially enjoy?
I’m a little biased, because I play in like 10 other bands, and I really like all the artists I play with. I play with a band called Melaina Kol. I play in a band called make yourself at home, and I love Billy’s songs. I play with Son of the Challenger, and I love Delaney’s songs. I can really keep going. But of things that I’m not in and really into right now, I’m a big fan of Impediment. Hell yeah. They’re the band of this guy named Happy, and he’s into a lot of similar music to me.
I hear bands that I would consider core taste of mine in what [Impendiment] makes, and I love the energy they have live. I like Andie Billheimer’s music, which is under Body Electric. I love Eve Maret’s music — really great ambient stuff and electronic stuff from her. There’s a band, The Cherry Blossoms, that’s an older band from Nashville. They started playing music here in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s, and they do what people call outsider folk. There’s really too many great bands to name. I love so many of the bands here and it’s hard to just pick one.
What would you say is next for Zook?
Well, more touring. We just put out an album on this record label called yk records, and the album is called Evaporating. It’s on vinyl, and it’s like my first time doing something like this. We just did a Midwestern tour. We had a lot of fun, and we got a lot better in a very short amount of time. I feel like the thing we all are talking about doing right now is trying to go and play out on the road as much as possible. There is this overarching network of people that exist in these different towns that are way smaller, community wise, than one would even think. In different bands I travel in, you just end up seeing the same people in every town, over and over again.
It’s kind of like how, out here [in Nashville], when you go to show, there’s people who you know will be there. It’s really cool because there are a lot of people out there who are really invested in DIY music, and they’re all living these parallel lives. That world seems to become even smaller and smaller when you go and travel and see them. There is an energy around the movements and music that are happening in DIY alternative music spaces that feel just really invigorating, about the way that people want to spend their time, and about the way that people see each other and want to be a part of a community, to put it in classic terms. It feels profound, and I want to see more of that. I want that to feel like a driving feature in what we make, because seeing other people’s projects is always influencing me.
Keep up with Zook and check out their latest album, Evaporating, along with the rest of their releases on the platforms below:
★ Bandcamp
★ Youtube
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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