Vancouver’s, The Zolas, are a five member indie band featuring Zachary Gray, Tom Dobrzanski, Cody Hiles, Dwight Abell and Tom Heuckendorff.
Zachary and Tom were in a band together before The Zolas from 2003 until 2008 called Lotus Child.
The Zolas first album dropped in 2009 and have released three more albums since. The band name came from an 1800’s French writer, Émile Zola, who wrote about low class people such as hookers and beggars.
The band has been influenced by Vancouver itself as well as the local music around the city. They have been friends with many other local bands from Vancouver before any of them have had success.
Gray says, “Honestly every album I’ve ever written is about nostalgia and the apocalypse and this one’s no different”
Their third album Swooner was their break through record and was also their first Juno nomination.
For their most recent album, the band dropped one single at the Z day (the 2nd, if you were confused like I was) of every month until the end of the Summer in 2020. They called it “Z DAYS.”
COVID-19 got in the way of the original release of the album. The first single was Engery Czar and Zachary explains that it’s about “how with climate change the planet is starting to remind us that we’re not in charge here and never were. The song was written and produced by The Zolas and James Younger in the 604 record’s studio. The other singles featured in Z DAYS were Come Back to Life, Ultramarine, Feel the Transition Wreck Beach/ Totem Park.
Gray talked about Come Back to Life saying, “It’s nice to have a Kanye moment where you look at your output and go ‘This is the greatest s*** that’s coming out this year.’ As cute Canadians we tend to shy away from feeling ourselves like that but it’s the truth.” Safe to say, The Zolas are proud of the track.
They had one song in particular that drew my attention back in September, which was Wreck Beach/ Totem Park which sounds self explanatory. It is also about a truth to the way they grew up and it dives into living right next to the Musqueam reserve. Gray told VIA, he was never “taught or thinking to ask why they live quietly in a small corner of a land that used to be all theirs.”
WRECK BEACH/TOTEM PARK, one of the most important songs of our dazzling career, is up on youtube. Go listen and leave a comment pls it's good for the algo. https://t.co/sXMSnr4Pm8
— The Zolas (@thezolas) September 2, 2020
Gray continued,” The clear unfairness of it all really pulled back the curtain on the glossed-over, white-lie version we were given in Grade 10 social studies class.”