ZALE, the indie alt-rock five-piece from Atlanta, GA, rocked Aisle 5 in a sold out physical release show for their new album, Eye See You. Zale is known best for their hardcore alt-rock style and exhilarating stage presence.
This show was no different, as the crowd immediately became enraptured in the sexy vibes given off by lead singer Hannah Zale, who’s tight fitting attire and sultry looks were enhanced by using a blower fan to blow back her naturally curly hair. The rest of the band followed her lead and created one of the most memorable shows ever played at this venue.
OpenEars contributors Alisa and Christopher caught up with Hannah Zale before the show and found out just what ZALE has in store for 2018, and about playing a very expensive cover of the wrong song:
OE: Let’s get started, tell us about yourself, and the band?
H: “I’m Hannah Zale, from a band called ZALE, we’re an alt-rock five-piece from Atlanta, GA.”
OE: How would you describe your band?
H: “It’s like if Royal Blood, Alanis Morissette, and something much, much weirder than that had a baby.”
OE: How did ZALE get started?
H: “It all started when I met my guitarist Christian Gerner-Smidt in college and we had a college band, and we just couldn’t give it up, so we formed ZALE!”
OE: What’s in store for 2018?
H: “2018 is gonna be a huge year for ZALE, we’re putting out our second full-length record called Eye See You! We made it at Madison Records, it’s 9 songs, we’re super proud of it. It’s definitely an evolution of our sound, we went from being like a singer-songwriter band, to a lot more of a full band sound.
OE: What’s the biggest show you’ve had as ZALE?
H: “TONIGHT! It’s the biggest show of the year! Seriously, it is the biggest show of the year, we’re at Aisle 5, in Little 5 Points right now, we’re backstage, I’ve got my shoes ready to go, it’s gonna be huge. We’ve had like, eighty percent pre-sales, and I’ve been freaking out ALL DAY!”
OE: What kind of aspirations do you have for ZALE? Where do you see yourself in the future?
H: “We have huge aspirations for ZALE, we wanna win a GRAMMY! Like, shoot for the stars and you’ll land amongst…where you can make a living. The goal is to be able to play original music for people that want to listen, I mean, we don’t care about being rich and famous, we wanna be able to play the music that comes from our hearts.”
OE: What’s your favorite “band story?”
H: “So we play this bar in South Georgia, we play it a LOT, so we have regulars that come to see us, and there was this one guy that was screaming “FREEBIRD!” over and over again during our set, and I said, for one-thousand dollars cash, we will play Freebird. And this guy started throwing $20’s on stage, and it was a thousand dollars. We don’t actually know Freebird, so we ended up playing Sweet Home Alabama instead!”
Zale’s latest album, Eye See You isn’t available yet online, so in order to grab a copy, you’ll have to hit up one of her upcoming shows:
3/15 at Venkman’s for the Atlanta Jewish Music Festival.
3/24 at The Loft in Columbus, GA.
4/13 at The Fernbank Museum in Atlanta, GA, for Fernbank After Dark.
4/28 at Terrapin Beer Co in Athens, GA, w/ Trash Panda.
Or wait until it launches on Madison Records in Spring 2018. Meanwhile, you can check out the lead single, Little Black Dress on Spotify, Google Play, and Apple Music, or the music video on YouTube.
Check out more info about ZALE at their website, Instagram, and Facebook.
Video Production, photos, and write-up by Christopher Little.
Interview conducted and additional video work by Alisa Malkova.
Check out more photos from the show by Christopher Little:
