Voodoo Bloo are an indie rock group based in New Zealand, an area we admittedly don’t get to hear much music from! I recently had the chance to check out their track, We’re here, Love is somewhere else, and I loved it!
By Jane Howkins
You recently released a track titled We’re here, Love is somewhere else, which we reviewed. What can you tell us about the song?
WHLISE is about the paranoia and social pressures that used to take up a lot of my mind’s hard drive, it’s a simple reminder that no matter how far in a rut you’re stuck, you’re only a few progressive footsteps away from getting better.
Has the pandemic hindered your work much?
Being from New Zealand, we actually have been very fortunate in having only minor downtime due to covid, and it does sadden me that this is not a luxury most other countries have – all of us from VB tried to take the privilege we were given to get as much done as possible, and considering the short time we’ve been around, I couldn’t be happier with how much we’ve achieved.
You’ve only been active since 2020. How have you managed to gain such musical traction in just a short space of time?
Honestly, I think it really does tie in to our situation with the pandemic. We were really able to spend lots and lots of time planning and preparing for what we wanted to do, being able to call each other up every day to flesh out new ideas and bring everything we want to life. Even though Covid seems to be slowing down here, we definitely won’t be.
Do you plan to release any more singles in the near future?
All I’ll say is I will be quite surprised if this is the last bit of music we release this year.
Have you started writing for an EP or an album?
Well, after talking to my therapist about the lows I feel after releasing a project, he suggested I just never stop working on the next big thing, I’ll keep you guessing for now, but the wheels are turning…
Your music has an indie rock sound to it. What/who influences you most as an artist? What have you been listening to recently?
Honestly, it’s a mixture of anything and everything. We love hip hop, indie, post-rock, shoegaze, jazz fusion, just anything that provokes emotion in the audio format gets us going. For this album though, it was definitely a lot of My Bloody Valentine and Interpol, and just a dash of Deftones too.
You’re based in Wellington in New Zealand. What is the music scene like in your part of the world? Are you influenced by your surroundings?
Not really, to be frank. Nothing against the people in the scene here, every single person keeping it alive brings something awesome and fresh and inspiring to the table. The unfortunate thing is that there aren’t really that many of us, or at least the culture hasn’t caught on with the locals of Wellington, just artists supporting artists. Then again, I think that’s all you really need at the end of the day, and we’re all here for each other.
Do you have any tour dates lined up? Any plans to tour the UK?
At this moment, we are prepping for our Australian tour beginning next week, in support of some of our buddies from the band Radicals. As I do originate from it, I would absolutely love to come and tour the UK, I’ve never even back on holiday to visit, so it’d be a pretty cool experience to do some shows at the same time.
What can people expect from one of your shows and why should people come and see you perform live?
As much as we love the studio, we try and bring a completely different energy to our live shows to make certain things you may not have heard stick out more than they do on the records, and being able to connect with our fans just gets us hyped up beyond belief, gigging is a drug to all of us, so please come and feed the addiction.
Any last words for the fans?
There are more planes in the ocean than boats in the sky.