Zebra & Giraffe

Zebra & Giraffe (abbreviated to Z & G) is an alternative rock band from South Africa. The band's debut album, Collected Memories, was released on 5 May 2008. “Atmospheric, sophisticated electro-pop… in the vein of New Order and the Killers” FHM (5 Star review) “A blend of MTV friendly, dark-tinged, pop-meets-rock” Cosmo Rocks “Imagine Foo Fighters mixed with Duran Duran with a touch of New Order” Sunday Times (4 Star review) “A sonic feast of electronica-spiked indie rock” Entertainment Africa "The band that’s redefining local indie rock” Obrigado “Dark stuff, wrapped in sweet melodies” Cosmopolitan “Heavily influenced by 80’s electronica and 90’s rock” Pulse Magazine The memories have been collected. It's time to put them to use. Zebra and Giraffe have just released The Inside, their second full-length album. Their 2008 debut Collected Memories garnered local and international acclaim and saw them win a 2009 SAMA Award for Best Rock Album, nominated for three SAMAs in the categories Best Newcomer, Best Album Packaging and MTN Record of the Year for “The Knife”. They also won the MTV MAMA Award for Best Alternative. But complacency is for bands with less ambition and bloody-minded dedication to their craft. They've used the momentum built up over the last couple of years to propel them into the studio with tunes and enthusiasm to spare. Greg Carlin (vocals + guitar), Alan Shenton (guitar), Andrew Maskell (bass), Darren Leader (drums) and new member Michael Wright (Keyboards) recorded the majority of the album at RBF Studios in Johannesburg and it was produced by the acclaimed Darryl Torr, who also produced Collected Memories. The album was mixed by the renowned Cenzo Townshend who has worked with U2, Snow Patrol, Kaiser Chiefs, Editors, Graham Coxon, Babyshambles and Florence and the Machine. The mandate for the new record was simple yet challenging: Be better than anyone has any reason to expect. Songwriter, lead-singer, guitarist and frontman Greg Carlin and his bandmates wanted to prove that they could produce an even better album than Collected Memories and explode the expectancy inevitably attached to the follow-up of a successful debut. The songs that they wrote for The Inside are songs that appealed to them, that they thought were good and challenged the parameters of their sound. The Inside is a document of the last two years. Relentless touring has solidified Zebra & Giraffe as a band and allowed them to evolve from its roots as Carlin's solo effort. "All of our gigging and hard work has paid off on the music side however, this combined with some of the success lead to many complications in our personal lives. It was a tough 2 years from that angle but it allowed for a lot of new lyrical material! Where CM explored the emotions met with me leaving my childhood home and an exploration of the past 10 years, The Inside deals specifically with the experiences of the last 2 years. It's a very personal album, a lot more so than CM, but it really was a cathartic process writing and recording it." Zane Henry, September 2010 Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.