Old Boys making their mark on the Dunedin music scene.

By Otago Daily Times | Posted: Monday October 10, 2016

There’s a new kick-ass surf band in town, and just in time for summer.

Called Koizilla, the group is a new project from brothers Zac and Josh Nichols and Connor Blackie, of the Violet-Ohs. The trio has just released its debut EP Blunder Brother.

"Well basically, I just listened to heaps of [Australian sonic madmen] King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and [garage legends] Thee Oh Sees and decided I had to be in a surf band,’’ Zac explains of the band’s origin.

"Josh and Connor were the closest people to me, so I got them on board.

"Josh showed me King Gizzard when we were in Australia once, and was like ‘you have to listen to the thing [album] without doing anything else’, and I was like ‘fine’, but then I ended up writing heaps of songs. They were great and I just went with it."

The trio recently won the OUSA Battle of the Bands, netting a bunch of prizes, including recording time at the Radio One studio with house engineer Steven Marr.

"The Battle of the Bands thing was more to just make us start doing stuff; we’re a bit slow-going. We applied before we’d really practised or anything," Zac said.

"The recording time they said was for two songs, but we figured a song’s worth of recording time is about four hours? And we thought we could bash out an EP in about eight hours so it seemed fine.

"You listen to King Gizzard and stuff and it just sounds like they went in a room and jammed out.

"There’s a Ty Segall quote about something like that, where he says if there’s one mistake it’s fine, if there’s two mistakes it’s still fine, if there’s three you can re-record it."

The EP has a wonderful live feel to it.

It’s fun, energetic experimentalism from a trio of ultra-talented musicians with plenty of wordless hooks, ripping leads and fuzzy freak-outs.

For Zac, the recording and performance process has taken a little getting used to, with him stepping into the lead vocalist role alongside his typical duties as guitarist.

"Singing was weird at first. I wrote all the songs really high, so I’ve been trying to figure out a way to sing them without ruining my voice."

If you’re looking for summer party music, go no further than single Krill.

Koizilla’s Blunder Brother EP is available now from Bandcamp.

Thank you to the ODT for the use of this article.