New Zealand Alternative Rock band Voodoo Bloo have released their latest single ‘Small’ via PlasticGroove Records. The track is taken from their upcoming 2022 album ‘The Blessed Ghost’. We caught up with frontman Rory from the band to talk about his influences. If you're a fan of the tracks below be sure to check out 'Small' at the end of this piece.
1. The Strokes - Ode to the Mets
"Ode to the Mets just gives me this nostalgic feeling of older Keane and Arctic Monkeys
material, it may have only come out a short while ago now, but the melody lines and
emotional impact of the second half of the song are nothing less than memorising. It's a
feeling I can't shake every time I put my headphones on for this one, it's really everything you could ask for in an album closer, and more."
2. My Bloody Valentine - When You Sleep
"We'd been listening to a lot of shoegaze going in to make this record, and honestly, I don't
think anything has the emotional pull of this distorted symphony. I'll be honest, I barely know
a single word that is sung on loveless, it may be my ears or just a mixing thing. The feeling
they produced without even my slightest idea as to what's being said is truly fascinating and I still know exactly where mbv want to put me, a true masterpiece."
3. The Mars Volta - L'via L'viaquez
"Following along with that misunderstanding in content comes L'via, a song so deeply melded in funk and Latin that it makes me feel like the changes never completely fit into place, but they just somehow do. We're all massive fans of the Mars Volta for their balls to the wall approach to everything, it's so bold yet so captivating, just a shame they're not around to
make any tunes like this anymore."
4. Oneohtrix Point Never - The Pure and the Damned
"Good time is one of my favourite movies of all time, and if it wasn't for the final scene where this song is played it would've probably become just a burning memory, but because of its placement, it makes me cry every time I get to the end. If you've seen what this movie is
about you'll understand, but Iggy Pop's beautiful lyricism and cascading synthesis just does
something to me that I can never ever shake."
5. David Bowie - Life on Mars?
"I think in some ways every artist is trying to make the perfect song. The one that you hear
with nothing underproduced, every instrument laying where they should and every word
enunciated as clearly as can be. I don't think this dream is possible for anybody, but when I put on this classic from Hunky Dory I genuinely question where you could possibly go better from here. I was 3 when I heard this for the first time, I promise you that if I ever make
anything close to this standard I will retire from music indefinitely, as everything that I would
need to say will have already been said by the late Bowie himself."
Check out 'Small' by Voodoo Bloo