Interview: Zilch Patrol

Photo by David Hall

Many debut albums are designed to be startling mission statements. Others provide a blueprint from which the acts in question can blossom going forward. And some are lightning-in-a-bottle masterpieces, casting shadows their makers can never quite escape. Zilch Patrol’s eponymous introduction falls firmly into that modest middle camp. When it was completed, the trio were yet to play their first gig. In fact, they hadn’t even practiced in the same room, with vocalist Hannah Bridgewater a musical novice who’d never performed in front of a crowd. Unleashed as a digital-only offering back in 2023, this was a roughly hewn, riff-heavy, lockdown-era fancy; a tantalising – if somewhat crude – prototype for Byker’s premier robo-rocking rogues.

“It was almost a demo of sorts; we were essentially saying ‘here’s what we’ve come up with… please give us some shows!’” guitarist Michael Bridgewater reflects. “I still love the songs on that album – and we still play plenty of them live – but by the time we began gigging we were already thinking of the next ones, and doing a proper ‘album album.’”

With bassist John Baldasera completing their line-up, that ‘album album’ arrives on May 1st in the shape of Glamour, a refined 10-song, 32-minute collection representing both a milestone and logical next step in Zilch Patrol’s trajectory. “We wrote and produced it specifically to be a vinyl LP, factoring in the length, programming, and to some degree sonics and dynamics,” Michael reveals. “We wanted to strike a certain balance: there’s some discernibly serious themes, tempered with daft shite and trips to the arcade.”

Having taken the reins for Zilch Patrol and retained much of the recording and production responsibility this time around, Michael highlights that Glamour was a far more collaborative, full-band-exercise. “Hannah is a great punk rock singer, but this is the first time she’s been in a band. At this point, though, a lot of that nervous energy has been reined in, and she even takes the chance to display some of her fluent Spanish. John had a lot more of a hand in the bass parts too. It wasn’t just a Michael Bridgewater Billy Corgan-style dictatorship, I’m very pleased to say – no one wants that!”

Building from rock solid foundations, the upshot is a record of greater depth and variety which nonetheless preserves the gnarly lo-fi grit which made its predecessor so compelling. Indeed, rather than tightening things up, Glamour reveals a looser, more unhinged Zilch Patrol, leaning further into formative hardcore influences, as well as the drama and performance of early post-punk evoked through Hannah’s tumultuous vocal. Harder and faster, it’s highly evolved yet never at risk of taking itself too seriously.

“When we began playing shows, we realised something pretty simple pretty quickly – that we really just like to rock!” Michael asserts. “In the time between albums I’ve really leant into Judas Priest. There’s a lot of K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton influences to be heard, and a lot of songs have at least one moment of simple one-note riffing.” This much is plain to hear on direct, unabashed cuts such as Domini Crab and Dumb Terminal; yet there are equally moments – notably the title track and simmering closer Mediano – where more scenic sounds take precedence. “We didn’t push the boat out that far on the first album as far as guitars go. It was mostly ‘fuzz on: off you go and play the riffs!’” Michael admits. “With Glamour, there’s a lot more experimentation with texture, and we started reeling out effects like ring modulation, where you don’t always have full control over what the riffs sound like. When the distortion isn’t distorted enough… bring out the ring modulation!”

Another ostensibly primitive element of their debut, however, remains steadfast and immovable. “The new songs perhaps aren’t as mechanical sounding, but there’s still that tinge of uneasiness that comes from using a drum machine,” Michael enthuses. “You’re always on the rails with it, which in itself introduces an element of jeopardy!” Obvious reference points come in the form of Steve Albini’s underground legends Big Black and the industrial pulse of electronic body music (EBM), though as with Glamour’s guitar sounds, much of the impetus here can be traced to shoegaze – specifically the early works of the Cocteau Twins. “Records like Head Over Heels and Treasure have really lovely guitars and vocals, both of which sound palpably human – but they’re anchored by something that’s completely unnatural sounding and machine-like. You can hear them fighting with it, and I love listening to that struggle.”

“We’re quite happy to let Rage Against the Machine be Rage Against the Machine,” Michael concedes, as our conversation turns to the themes beneath the beats. “I don’t feel qualified to be quite that explicitly political; for us it’s more of an implicit show-don’t-tell policy.” Even so, Glamour is hardly shy of addressing difficult topics. Exhibit A is Misadventure, the album’s most furious, intense punk rock rager, and with good reason. “It’s about a lad from Consett who was in the army, and took up a deal where he could submit to being a medical test subject in exchange for extra leave,” Michael details. “He was told they were trying to find a cure for the common cold, when in fact they were testing a nerve agent, sarin, and it killed him. ‘Misadventure’ was the coroner’s official verdict, and the Ministry of Defence were so desperate to cover it up they buried him in a steel coffin and bolted it shut. It wasn’t until The Guardian did some investigative journalism that it was exposed, and I still don’t think enough people know about it. I’m from Consett myself, so I felt we had to say our piece on it – it was never going to be a laid back one.”

The military industrial complex faces further scrutiny on Glamour, a title track inspired by glossy TV and radio ads and school presentations tailored to recruit young people into the system. “The aesthetics are very alluring… Travel the world! Become your real self! Look assured holding a rifle! They conspicuously fail to mention IEDs and the fact you’re expected to kill people, and that other people in turn will be expected to kill you. It’s a particularly thorny example of glamour being weaponised.” The album’s artwork – pained by Hannah – adopts a similar tone. Depicting a clothes shop named Glamour, its front is dilapidated and crumbling, while mannequins lie strewn across its window, naked and grotesquely hacked apart.

Fortunately, with Zilch Patrol there’s no shortage of levity to offset the darkness. “Pachinko Wizard began as a Commodore 64 tune!” Michael reveals, on the album’s opening gambit. “I make a lot of music for old games consoles and obsolete computers as part of the demoscene, and wondered whether I’d be able to play that one on guitar. I could, just about, and decided it’d be fun to fashion a Zilch Patrol song out of it.”

Revolutionary politics and absurdist humour collide, meanwhile, on Dumb Terminal – a number inspired by Portugal’s 1974 Coronation Revolution, when Paulo de Carvalho’s Eurovision also-ran E depois do adeus – transmitted over radio as a secret signal to rebel captains – sparked the overthrow of the country’s long-standing Estado Novo dictatorship. “We thought, what if there was a British equivalent, and it was transmitted over teletext?! A clue in a Bamboozle quiz question, perhaps? It’s flippant, but it’s easy to lose hope in a world of billionaires and warmongers. Things like that have happened throughout history, and will do in some form or other again.”

Short of sparking uprisings or even garnering radio play of their own, Zilch Patrol’s motto is determinedly low key: to keep their baggage light, and their ambitions strictly musical. “We pride ourselves on extremely fast setups and soundchecks,” Michael states; another strong pitch in their inexhaustible search for shows. “We like to turn up, be a weird sounding digital hardcore band, then fuck off. We like rocking. It really is as simple as that.”

Glamour is out now. Zilch Patrol launch the record with a show at The Cumberland Arms, Newcastle on Friday 15th May.