Mike Farrell has an abundance of enthusiasm, so much so that I could sense it through the first couple e-mails we exchanged. I contacted him and he almost immediately responded with interest about Dropout Entertainment and wanted to help us out. His newest project, International Zombies of Love, IZOL, a pop rock collaboration of talented people, played at The Drake Underground, so we decided to meet him before the show, hopefully to catch what these textual vibes transformed to in person and in his performance.

 

My first and lasting thought was shit, the energy from this guy is incredible. You feel like it’s literally Farrell’s voice vibrating the couches - and in turn, your ass - but then you realize it’s just the Drake’s awesome sound system. Then you think why am I sitting down for this, and you get up and start dancing. This is what it feels like to be part of IZOL’s show. He gets you onto your feet, and he gets you feeling like the music is spilling out of your ears from some inner appreciation and connection you feel for it.

 

That’s not to say he doesn’t have songs that are a little mellow. Farrell tones it down for a couple of songs to showcase the stripped down version of his talents. He shows his vulnerability in songs like Back to The Ball (which I later found I already have on my iTunes thanks to Blalock’s Indie Playlist), and Laughing on Instinct where it’s just him and his keys. 

 

From a brass section to something called an ace tone, Farrell is really taking IZOL to another level of experimentation in his musical career. The respected rock star is getting creative and exploring new spaces that really demonstrate his genuine passion for music.

 

How many people are in the band as a whole?

 

I started the project four/five years ago on my own but I’ve been playing for forever. I’ve been in a rock band called The Pariahs for like 25 years. We toured the UK and Europe a bunch of times, played with The Ramones and The Deftones and all that then took part in the punk-rock scene here. I’ve been around. But I’ve always done a lot of singer/songwriter kind of stuff in the past, and worked with guys like Greg Keeler from Blue Rodeo. He was a big thing in the 90’s and we’d have shows so I’ve played with a lot of people. But I’ve always done some more mellow stuff, I’ve been on CBC before doing this more mellow sound. But the rock back then was fuckin’ crazy shit.

 

Going hard?

 

It’s getting that way now. It was me and a piano at home and my girlfriend, still, 16 years were celebrating tomorrow.

 

Oh, congrats!

 

Thank you. She was studying in Amsterdam. So I was at home with our greyhound with the grand piano, you know just lonely boy, there’s only so much you can do for a little bit as a bachelor and then you’re like okay what do I do with my time. So I started writing a lot of material there and that distance allowed me to do that. That’s sort of where the idea came and I wrote a shitload of material and started playing and was like fuck this is great. Late night champagne drinking sessions I’m recording 3am and loving it and sending it over to her and we’re sort of going back and forth

 

And that’s when the project was born and the concept of International Zombies of Love. We could Skype and we would talk back and forth all the time but we still felt so distant it was kind of like we were like zombies right? Or you know we were like astronauts just out in the vacuum and you know then I started thinking. So that sort of fed into it and then I started calling the project International Zombies of Love and it kind of just stuck and I started playing a few festivals and that started happening. That album, that material that I recorded four/five years ago started morphing and then I with this guy Sean Beresford who is the bass player from Pariahs and also a producer, started co-producing it, and we started fucking around with some sounds and you know there is so much you can do with some weed and wine and infinity hours at your own studio.

 

You get creative eh?

 

You can do all this awesome stuff and it’s still kind of this low-rent kind of home-spun kind of feel but we had enough time to add some interesting stuff to it. The debut album is basically me on a piano very sparse have you heard the material?

 

Yeah I’ve been listening to it.

 

That album is just released now; it’s on We Are Busy Bodies records.

 

I saw the set you played in Trinity Bellwoods Park with just you and the guitar so I was curious tonight to see how your sound transforms with a full band on stage.

 

Well it’s morphed. So early on it was really, the way it started was me and a piano and I had these little twinkling Mexican lights and all those stage lights will be down. And people are like who the fuck, where are you. I was kind of like the nameless singer, like you can’t see me. I don’t know where that went. I wore my shades all the time. Whatever, but I still kind of dig that but eventually Shawn and I started playing. We love this album, the debut album’s just out now, the publicity machine is just started to amp up so I’m looking forward to making that happen. But as it’s happening of course I’m writing new material. And as that material happened I was running all these new different keyboards thinking about what I’m going to buy a keyboard and I sort of, started getting keyboards with more synth sounds on them or shitbox synths. Like this is just a crappy Yamaha keyboard (pointing to the stage) like that’s 139 bucks at Long & McQuade it’s like dirt-cheap. When I go on tour I bring like 1 or 2 extras just out of the box if I break one.

 

IF you break one, so it gets pretty wild up there?

 

Well I toss them all around, and I was playing really nice synths and one day the synths just broke on stage or something, I had to use the backup and everyone was asking ‘what did you plug in, those are awesome old bit sounds’ and stuff. And I was like this is fucking awesome people were coming up to me saying that was like you know, Alan Parsons Project in the 70’s. And that sounds like Cars in the 80’s.

 

It’s odd how there’s a better response from the cheaper ones.

 

It’s because it’s a little gritty, you know? Sort of garage-y.  So that’s sort of where the sound started going and then I wanted to work with Sean again on this. We’ve got some money from the government through We Are Busy Bodies to do another album so we’re already. So I said I’d like to think about getting other players on that so Sean introduced me to his drummer friend Greg. Sean basically said I’m not going to do it until you get a band. He said your music deserves a band, he said it could be Arcade Fire. I was like yeah okay, but he did have a point that it’s good to have a band. We’re now at a trio. I tour a lot on my own because it’s easier logistically and these guys have jobs. Sometimes I do a duo with the drummer but this is the core it’s the drummer, playing a battered old jazz kit, the badger. And then we have Sean who plays the guitar and bass, and then we also have this thing called the ace tone which is like an old, one of the first beat boxes its like they would do that to have along with bands, like big bands, like in the 50’s and 60’s. So it’s kind of like press Cha Cha Cha or Foxtrot so it has a lot of neat sounds to it. And that’s on a few songs, and then we just thought horns would be good on one song called Liquor Store that we’re playing tonight. Those guys showed up at the most recent session and we’ve been playing with this French horn player who I don’t know if you’ve heard the debut album but there’s some horn on that album he got me introduced to those guys so I thought I’d bring them up tonight. And that’s where we’re at.

 

So do you have a plan for where you’d like to go with IZOL?

 

Well I’ve been in the game for forever. To me, art is about putting it out there, especially music and you’ve gotta be out there playing and actively doing it to sort of make it happen so the goal right now is just to make it a going concern.

 

I know on maybe your main site or one of the sites, it said you were born in New Jersey?

 

Syracuse.

 

So you’re from there, but it also says you consider yourself a proud Torontonian.

 

Yeah I’m a Toronto boy I grew up here, I got double citizenship and it helps when I tour and stuff down in the states but you know, I spend half my time with my American family, making them realize that Canada exists; they’re starting to now. Culturally they’re getting it like Feist, Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, but up here I end up defending Americans to all my Canadian friends. They’re not all racist they’re not all fat they don’t all have guns.

 

So how do you feel then I guess as a Canadian artist, and the process of getting stuff out here as well as in America?

 

Having someone like Eric warner on your side is definitely an asset so I know that even a super indie label, like Eric’s will definitely help out on that level for sure. We’re looking for some touring down there because that’s where you wanna go but right now I’m just anxious to sort of make it a going concern and just see where it goes. I like Gordon Lightfoot and that kind of stuff. But the world doesn’t need another singer/songwriter of Canadian fame, we’ve got enough you know what I’m saying.

 

And that was always part of my mandate too I would write a good song but sometimes I would end up in that ghetto, that “and over here with his acoustic guitar singing for CBC radio 2”, I love all that music and Kathleen Edwards and all that stuff is awesome but the world doesn’t need another one of that so that’s how part of the idea was that if I was going to do acoustic or piano I want to always take it a bit differently, have different sounds. Maybe add some ambient stuff or something so that people will look at it a bit differently. Because I think that’s a challenge as a Canadian artist because a lot of people sort of expect that of you.

 

Expect what exactly?

 

Oh you know to be the Canadian singer/songwriter you know of that fame. I think you don’t wanna be the band that sounds like every other band so.

 

So in comparison to your past projects how do you feel that this one is another step forward for you?

 

I’m very excited about I right now. I was lead in the other band, I co-wrote material, I thought it was very rock and roll like ACDC meets Iggy Pop meets like Black Flag so you’re in a genre. Like guys sweating we wear dark clothes, we get the crowd going, drink beer, but you’re kinda stuck there you can’t do too much. There would be material I’d write and it wouldn’t fit that band. And the guys would be like that’s one for your solo project Mike, and then I was like oh now I’ve got a fucking solo project. So this is it, and I hate calling it that because it sounds so lame and it casts a light on the other band, and I kind of want to be seen as separate and I was thinking I don’t wanna go by the name, it’s just a new game kind of thing. So that’s where it’s at, it’s exciting and I think it is a step forward musically for sure because of that diversity and for me it’s personally playing with all these guys. I’ve never had horns on stage and playing with a bunch of different people, I’ve played with a lot in the past but this is good. I think we’ve just run the course with that rock thing and then I was like fuck I’m sick of this like, I’m very excited about this, it suits my vibe, the funny thing is as you heard in the first album it’s really kind of mellow, but of course you can’t take the rock out of me. The next album is synthy and I’m screaming and there’s echoes and punk rock songs and it’s gonna become a rock project.

 

Well at least you have more freedom to do what you’d like to do because it doesn’t have to fit that rock crazy rock star ‘woo let’s go’.

 

Which I love, but it doesn’t have to be so constricted now, so it’s good. I’m learning how to play the keyboard finally onstage. You’ll watch it.

 

What other instruments do you play?

 

I’ve been playing for a while. I play guitar, and keys, and sing, and that’s it.

 

Well that’s three more than me so that’s good in my books.

 

I’m still not the best guy at the campfire to do the sing along. I’m the guy that knows my songs. But I do have an okay repertoire with the sing along, I’ve never been that guy and even though I studied royal conservatory I’ve never been like the guy that can go like give me an A and how do you transpose that into C, but these horn players they showed up, they hear the songs and they show up with charts. The horns are a big deal.

 

How open were you to then coming into the project.

 

To me personally it’s my project but I’d always like to see how that project works in collaboration with others. I’ve always seen that as a really exciting thing to do so I’m open to ay collaborations I set out a couple rules and even though Sean was in the band I didn’t want to play with anybody else I’ve played with before just to totally add a new layer but you know, I’m meeting all these people.

 

So after tonight’s show are you touring anywhere?

 

We have stuff in the fall, we got some shows, I just played Sudbury we’re doing Hamilton and then we’re just gonna be doing the whole Windsor to Montreal thing in September/October. A little mini tour just some weekends here and there. Really the album was launched in the spring and we had a little bit of difficulty with our publicist and so we’re doing it ourselves so we’re focusing on September/October to start getting it out there and get the project the look it deserves. It’s a good album I’m very proud of it I know the response we’ve been getting is good and it’s not just family and friends.

 

So what do you do when you’re not partaking in the music scene?

 

I run a business, I’m in the marketing game I’ve been doing that for 15/20 years now. I’m a contemporary culture expert.

 

What does that consist of?

 

I’m a research guy, in the marketing gig that knows what goes on and translate that to people that’ll pay me more than you get paid at a gig. I pretty much say hey this is what you should be doing Coke and do this LCBO and it’s a consultation gig, but it pays the bills.

 

Do you find enjoyment in it too?

 

Yeah I do find it very satisfying for sure. I’ve got a family, I’ve got a kid who’s almost 3, but it’s still so new to me I love it. You got that, and your business that’s a full time gig. I travel around, speak a lot all over North America and I got this too. There’s a lot going on but I find, as you can probably tell, I’m an animated guy I need that energy. I’m creating something like this to create a friction in my life and if it doesn’t create a friction in my life it’s not doing what it should be doing. That mean’s Eric is doing his job, the projects going where I’d like it to go, I’m trying to give this as much of a go as I can. It’s doable these days too. The Internet’s been fantastic.

 

In a promotional sense?

 

Yeah I remember, stupid little example, I never toured Europe or the UK before and suddenly blogs and people like our band over there. That would have never happened before. It makes me happy to look at my stuff and like 7000 people are following me and listening to me they’re all over the place in Europe, Australia, Africa, so I’m studying it in my family life and I’ve had the privilege of being around before the internet revolution and after and there’s pros and cons. I love it. This is a good time for music. Challenging environments and challenging times are great. It’s an awesome art and there’s a lot of shit you’ve gotta get through I suppose because everybody and their dog can have a garage band and record now, but on the other hand awesome stuff happens by serendipity a lot more now that’s good for art. I believe this is an art project and all these people all these indie bands going around, everyone sees them as bands but it’s art, and we forget that. It’s a life’s mission for some people to do that and sometimes I think again going back to the rock band I found it was awesome and everything and we’re good at that genre, but there are more opportunities for that now. And especially with this project. Wow, That was like macro back to IZOL.

 

Watch a video from the night at The Drake below!

 

Fakebook: https://www.facebook.com/InternationalZombiesofLove?ref=tn_tnmn

YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/IZOLvideo

Website http://zombiesoflove.com/

Bandcamp: http://izol.bandcamp.com