If you’ve got an appetite for alt-rock done right, then your new favourite band might just be Wellington’s exceptional outfit, Voodoo Bloo.
Formed by former Lucifer Gunne frontman Rory McDonald, Voodoo Bloo is a project that draws influences from a diverse range of sources. Though they might showcase a sound rooted in alt-rock, their influences from the heaviness of Marilyn Manson and System Of A Down to the carefully-crafted songwriting of greats such as Car Seat Headrest and Neutral Milk Hotel.
Needless to say, with something for everyone, Voodoo Bloo are on track to be one of the most exciting outfits to hit your ears in some time. Now, they’ve given fans a taste of what the future holds, sharing their powerful debut single, ‘MMA’.
Featuring punk-infused instrumentation that would appeal to fans of The Chats, and the unbridled vocal delivery of McDonald that shows he doesn’t do things by halves, ‘MMA’ is a majestic introduction to the group.
“This song is about that one drunk friend or even just an intoxicated asshole you meet when out in town on substance-driven adventures,” McDonald explains. “The characters you sometimes meet teach you great lessons about what an ego is, and how when inhibitions slip, you can see a person’s true personality come out, and it’s not always pretty.
“I felt that ‘MMA’ was important to create so that a lighter side could be seen to the dirtbags of nightlife, and try to understand in a very comedic yet surreal way why you can sometimes find yourself with a man you’ve never met before reciting his life story to you in an alleyway at 2 o’clock in the morning with no recollection of how you got there.”
Recorded at PlasticGrooveHQ in Wellington before being mixed and mastered at Hammerhead Studios with Niel De Jong (Alien Weaponry), ‘MMA’ managed to be completed just before New Zealand went into lockdown back in March.
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“Recording this song was actually a very personal moment for me and bandmate Don Mackenzie, as he came in to do a few guitar bits and pieces and the end of ‘MMA’,” McDonald recalls. “[It] was the final take he did before I had to take on the rest of the project alone, not to mention the fact that we were just days away from going on total lockdown as well.
“So even through the great performance and awesome track we ended up with, it was a very bittersweet moment with some hugs and chatting about the rest of the record before heading our separate ways for a little while.”
Voodoo Bloo are looking forward to announcing further plans for the coming year once things return to a semblance of normalcy, and gigs are once again allowed on stages around the world. In the meantime, ‘MMA’ is set for its official release on Friday, June 12th, but you can give it a sneak peek below.
Check out ‘MMA’ by Voodoo Bloo:
