Zoophyte

Zoophyte is ready to embrace 2009 with the audacity of hope and a swag full of bodacious guitar-based-psychadelic-influenced new tunes and a fresh band lineup featuring Cam Lee (Vocals & Guitar), Andrew Gilpin (bass) Az Cargill (Guitar) and Elvis Aljus (drums).

Collectively these four musicians have done it all - Az is a former member of the Offcutts and Elvis has played with a who’s who list of Rockstars and even supported James Brown. Zoophyte has circled Australia a couple of times playing live for ecstatic crowds in pubs, backyards, alleyways and festivals - basically you’ll find them wherever people with thirsty ears convene. Cam Lee and Gilps have enjoyed and endured the rigours of the proud highway and have developed a tight songwriting partnership since their adventures began mid 2007.

Over the years Zoophyte has flirted with a variety of styles and sounds and has finally found their sweet spot and 2009 is set to catapult Zoophyte fans old and new to a brand new stratosphere.

2007/08 saw the release of Zoophyte”s album “Another Point of View” and two national tours. The single “Better Days” was one of the sunniest tunes of summer and received airplay on Triple J, Triple R, PBSFM, FBI, 4ZZZ, Radio Adelaide and Fox FM. Zoophyte hit the road, touring nationally and cementing their reputation as a fantastic live band and picking up new fans and great reviews along the way.

Since the release of “Another Point of View” the band has been hunkered down in the studio, writing and recording songs for their next album, due for release in late 2009. Listen out on the airwaves for new tunes, coming your way soon and watch the gig listings for launch dates and tour info.

For all the Zoophyte Contact Details and email form, click here.

Press Quotes

• Peter Merritt – PBSFM

  Here is a cd that demands to be heard with it’s straight ahead attitude driven Rock’N'Roll, all power wrapped up with great compositions and playing melding all that is good in Australian rock into a cd of rare quality in an age when technology has overtaken talent. Listen once and it will stay in your player and with every listen you will discover more about where Zoophyte want us to be taken. Laden with Didgeridoo to keep a ethereal sound to envelope us all. Listen and you too will feel Zoophyte in your soul.

  This cd chose itself for us as nothing beats quality music!

• Singles by Simone – Beat Magazine: about Zoophyte’s “Believe”

  Zoophyte know how to build a song in grandiose bits and parts, using every piece of their rhythm section, horns, guitars, voice and didgeridoo to make a complex swagger of orchestral roots.

• Inpress Magazine Melbourne

  With the buzz rapidly spreading to all stations and industry heavyweights, these super friendly lads could just be the freshest taste on the menu this year…

• Herald Sun Melbourne

  One of the more progressive, exciting bands to emerge from Melbourne’s burgeoning indie scene…

• Time Off Magazine Queensland

  The (album) impresses from start to finish” “Zoophyte blairingly stand out from their slew of contemporaries…

• Stepping Out by Kate Moore – Central Coast Express Advocate

  No matter if you’re a fan of funk, roots, groove or rock, Zoophyte has it all. The different musical backgrounds of the band’s members makes for an eclectic mix of upbeat party tunes and sounds…

Zoophyte History

2004 — The 4-Track Days

Zoophyte’s incarnation took place mid 2004. Armed with a 4-track demo, the lads cut their teeth in Melbourne’s burgeoning indie scene scoring gigs at events such as The Indie Initiative and Collage.

2005 — “This Simple Groove”

They stepped it up a notch in April 2005 with the release of their debut EP ‘This Simple Groove’. Recorded at Woodstock Studios in November 2004, it was launched to a capacity crowd of 700+ in The Gershwin Room at Melbourne’s Esplanade Hotel. The CD was released nationally through MGM and found regular airplay on stations including Triple J, Triple M, RRR and a host of community radio stations throughout the country. The album’s opening track ‘Watching Waves’ was included on the Sydney Sun Herald’s ‘Sunday Sounds’ CD, 400,000 copies of which were distributed throughout NSW in June 2005.

2005 saw prolific gigging from the band throughout Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and regional Victoria including capacity headline shows at The Moomba Waterfest, New Years Eve City celebrations at Alexander Gardens, The Daffodil Ball at Melbourne’s Forum theatre and The Prince of Wales. As well as standout shows at The Brunswick Music Festival, Folk Rhythm and Life Festival and Warburton Winter Fest.

In late 2005, Zoophyte were invited to play at the Sydney Superdome as part of the AustralAsian Music Buisness Conference, were one of 20 bands selected for a promotional DVD developed by Austrade to showcase Australian talent throughout the globe and topped off the year with a two month residency at the Melbourne music institution known as The Evelyn.

2006 — A Hectic Year

2006 was just as hectic with the band officially closing the Melbourne Commonwealth Games alongside Killing Heidi at the Last Lap athletes after party, headlining their own show to a packed crowd at The Hifi Bar, selling out of CD’s at the Apollo Bay Music Festival, and having their clip ‘Watching Waves’ featured on RAGE. To top it off, they played a set at Make Poverty History along side some the nation’s best bands.

Zoophyte spent every Thursday in November packing out the top bar at Velduos in Acland Street St Kilda. They followed up their 2005 appearance at Folk Rhythm & Life with another stellar set in early December and rang in the New Year to an enormous crowd at the Docklands. The year also saw them play shows as part of both St Kilda and Brunswick festivals, showcase their talents at Adelaide’s Fuse Festival and hit up Apollo Bay Music Festival for the second year running.

2007 — “Another Point of View”, Touring and Change.

Late in 2006 Zoophyte recruited producer Aram Cargill (The Offcutts) and commenced work on their next disk. Come April 2007, their new album ‘Another Point of View’ was finished and the first single ‘Believe’ was released to a sell-out crowd at The Evelyn on Saturday May 19th. The guys then hit the road for the next two months, spreading the Zoophyte gospel on a 28-date national tour from SA thru VIC and up the East Coast of OZ through NSW and Queensland.

Friday the 20th of July saw the official launch of their new album at The Prince of Wales to an excitable crowd of 650+. Released by Melbourne label Dust Devil Records and distributed by Stomp Records, ‘Another Point of View’ was finally available in stores and on iTunes throughout Australia in August. It was also later released throughout Asia gathering some serious interest in Japan, being showcased as a CD of the week in Tokyo’s massive Tower Records Music Store.

2007 was fast becoming the busiest and most successful year to date for the Zoophyte boys, but with this came several set backs and a lot of change not only in their sound but in their line up. Zoophyte first lost joint front-man Andy Lee in May due to conflicting work commitments. The loss of his energy and live presence, not to mention his large input on writing and production proved a big hole to fill. Zoophyte worked hard to refine their sound and began experimenting with different instruments and musicians, later settling as a four piece developing a rockier edge to their past folk/rootsy catalogue.

At the completion of a tough 7 week tour throughout May/June/July, founding member, bass player and all round nice guy Yiorgo Sgourakis called it quits. It was sad to see him leave having shared nearly 5 years playing and creating music together. His exit led to the big haired Andrew Gilpin joining the fray, adding fresh legs and a new spark to the line up.

The last 4 months of 2007 saw plenty of bitchimin with another 3 week tour up the East Coast culminating with 2 slots at the Caloundra Music Festival on the Sunshine Coast. The boys also returned to South Australia, then took their tunes to Western Australia for the first time playing the Indi Music Festival, the Blues and Roots Review amongst their 10 dates over the course of 2 weeks.

The year finished with a bang playing 2 sets and counting down to the New Years Eve fireworks in front of approximately 4000 people in Melbourne’s Alexandra Gardens.

2008 — More Change And A New Beginning

The beginning of 2008 saw more set backs for Zoophyte with the last founding member, guitarist James Johnson deciding to part ways due to personal reasons. Drummer James Majernik soon followed jumping ship and joining friends Bonjah. Without a Guitarist or Drummer, Cam and Gilps took several months off before locking themselves in the studio in late March. With the goal of writing a minimum of one song a week, the boys re-emerged in June with a bag of 30 new songs ranging from the good the bad and the ugly.

Next came the task of searching and auditioning for Guitarists and Drummers. During this time they found Elvis Aljus, who is an extremely hard working and dedicated drummer who has been in the scene for many a year, and has played music with a countless number of great musicians.

With a new drummer on board the 3 began fine-tuning the new material and continued searching for a new guitarist. In early September they where approached by Oakley Sunglasses to be a part of their Square O Tour around Australia, playing shows in Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast and Perth alongside Californian Kelley James and Sydney-sider DJ Anna Lunoe. It was only 10 days before the beginning of the Tour when old friend and guitar wizard Aram Cargill agreed to join the band and Zoophyte were finally back up and running. It was a busy week of rehearsing leading into the tour in October but the boys managed to pull it all together playing energy packed shows all around OZ.

October also saw Zoophyte once again on the Caloundra Festival bill, closing the Friday night and playing in between headliners, Kate Miller Heidke and Pete Murray on the Saturday night. The new material and live show was warmly welcomed by punters, with Zoophyte further extending their fan base and receiving a great feedback from old fans.

On a high from 3 weeks on the road, the boys drove straight into the studio in mid November to demo 9 new songs. Joining forces once again with engineer Troy Trigwell of Woodstock Studios, the rest of the 2008 was spend working and refining the demos.