Buzz’s Rhonda Lee Reali, a card-carrying fan of psych-pop pioneers The Zombies, was thrilled by their new album Different Game. Ahead of a month-long UK tour, including a Pontardawe stop-off, she let Zombies vocalist Colin Blunstone know about it and received sage insight in return.

Last time I spoke to you The Zombies had recently been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. Long overdue! With that, touring and your latest album Different Game [reviewed here], you guys are on fire…

Colin Blunstone: It’s interesting what’s happening, isn’t it? There certainly seems to be a great resurgence of interest in The Zombies. Of course, it’s great to be part of that. We’re a band that – apart from the pandemic when everything stopped – tour all the time, and I think that really helped in broadening the band’s fanbase. Since 1999, we’ve just been on the road all the time, and a lot of that’s been spent in America, so we’ve certainly built up the band’s profile there.

Before I forget, I have to ask you about the late, great Burt Bacharach.

Colin: You’ve just used two words that I would use. An absolutely fantastic writer who has so many wonderful songs and influenced so many other writers. I’ll tell you something people probably won’t know: our first tour professionally as The Zombies was with Dionne Warwick, and we were hugely impressed with her as an artist; she was singing a lot of Burt Bacharach/Hal David songs. [Zombies keyboardist and co-founder] Rod Argent was so taken with these wonderful songs, he used some of those Bacharach chord sequences in our second American hit, Tell Her No. It’s not obvious, but very much influenced by Burt Bacharach – all writers have been influenced by him! And I’m sure all artists would have loved to have sung an original Bacharach song.

I mentioned that because the last time I saw you live, you sang The Look Of Love.

Colin: I think we did that song back in the 1960s – when it was first written and recorded – live with the band, on a BBC show, and obviously wanted to attempt it again. The thing about great songs is that they’re timeless, aren’t they – and a really beautiful song is as relevant today as it was when it was first written. The Look Of Love is one of those songs. Dusty Springfield owns that song as far as the versions I’ve heard. She does a great version of it.

It would be cool if you or The Zombies did a Bacharach covers album – I could see you singing something like The Windows Of The World. I think your voice is so suited to his work: unique, like Dionne Warwick’s.

Colin: People do say that! And you can like it or not like it, but I think it is different. It’s the voice I was born with.

I did see the Zombies’ 2021 Abbey Road Studios concert online, and I thought the band were incredible. You did several songs from Different Game: You Could Be My Love and I Want To Fly brought tears to my eyes.

Colin: They’re beautiful songs. We just came back from America, where we played four new songs from the album – they all went down incredibly well. One of the amazing things for us is that when we play these brand-new songs, we still get an incredible reaction – pretty much the same kind we get from huge hits. It’s so heartening because the thing that energises us is to write and record new songs. It’s quite an art to be able to put a set together where people will accept the new songs as enthusiastically as they do the classic hits, but somehow we seem to be able to do that. It really bodes well for the future.

As soon as I heard those new songs, I thought if the rest of the album is as good as these few songs, it’s going to be fantastic. And I was right!

Colin: I’m so glad you had that reaction. Recording a new album, you never can be absolutely sure of yourself. It’s a bit like doing a painting. You never really know how it’s going to end up until it’s finished.

The 1960s incarnation of The Zombies seems – to me – musically wise beyond your years, especially on the Odessey And Oracle LP. With Different Game, you don’t seem to be pandering to a younger audience, but at the same time, the music is so fresh. The songs about love, heartache and life are universal, and they speak to teens and younger people… as well as us seniors. Am I correct?

Colin: I think you are, if I can make two points. One is that we never, never follow trends in what we write or what we record. It’s quite a simple process for us, in that we record the best songs that are available to the best of our abilities. That’s it. We’ve never thought, “is this radio friendly? Is this appealing to a certain age group?”

The other thing is, we’re always pleasantly surprised to have such a cross-section of ages that come to our concerts. People are continually surprised at this. They come along and expect everyone to be the same age as us. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are people that have supported us right from the beginning who still come to our concerts, but a huge section of the audience are teenagers and early twenties.

Different Game’s song Rediscover sounded to my ears like a combination of The Beach Boys and Gershwin.

Colin: That’s a very flattering observation! Just before we started recording this album, we toured with Brian Wilson’s band in America for about six weeks. We listened to all these wonderful harmonies that were coming from the band – maybe that influenced us a little bit – but Rod wrote that song. In no way are any of these songs copied, I’m not saying that! We are a band that do sing harmonies – I’d like us to do more of that, because we’ve got some great harmony singers in the band.

I knew you had been on tour with Brian and thought some of that sound rubbed off.

Colin: When you tour with other bands, I think, some of their music will always rub off on you, and hopefully it’s true the other way around – they’ll be a little influenced by us, too.

Other new Zombies songs are very much a mixture of jazz and blues – I guess because of Rod – but there’s rock in there, too, especially with the guitar. And Run Away reminded me a bit of My Funny Valentine.

Colin: I didn’t get that myself! But it could well be. Rod is so well-versed in all genres of music – he takes his influences from all over the place. So maybe there’s a connection there.

There were two triggers that started off Different Game the song. One was lyrically – he saw a documentary about a very big, very famous rock band. It centred on one of the guys in that band who was always trying to blame other people. That really hit home with Rod. The other thing – people have made the observation that there seems to be a connection with [Procol Harum’s 1967 hit] A Whiter Shade Of Pale, but I’d go a stage further and say both that and Different Game take their source from Bach. It’s very similar to a Bach progression.

Since The Zombies’ resurgence, you’re bigger now than in the 1960s, I believe. After everything that happened – the band’s premature breakup, money problems etc – is your success a little karma because you had such bad luck previously?

Colin: A lot of what happened to us in the 60s happened to many other bands as well. With the benefit of hindsight, managers, agents and record companies all seemed to be so short-sighted and didn’t realise that it was possible for artists to have careers. They seemed to want to exploit them to the nth degree over a really short period and then move on to the next artist. It was very sad that people couldn’t see you could nurture artists and lead them gently on to a lifetime’s career.

There’s never been a master plan with us. Rod and I are both committed musicians: we live for music, that’s what we’ve always wanted to do, and so it’s comparatively simple for us to just keep playing and trying to do the best we can. We always write the best songs we can according to the best of our ability and just hope that, eventually, people will start to enjoy the songs, and we will get some kind of recognition. Hopefully, that’s what’s happening now.

It definitely is, and I wish you continued success. Thank you so much for all the beautiful music!

Colin: It makes it all worthwhile when I have a conversation like this, and I can tell that you’ve enjoyed what we’re doing. That’s what we do it for.

The Zombies, Pontardawe Arts Centre, Wed 12 Apr.

Tickets: £30.25. Info: here

Different Game is out now via Cooking Vinyl.

words RHONDA LEE REALI