BIOGRAPHY
By: Jonathan Widran (All Music Guide, Downbeat, Los Angeles Times)
Other DIY bands in the highly competitive world of indie music making are turning green over Zealousy, the popular Los Angeles-based band that’s setting a high bar for hard-won success. Driven by the powerful vision, blistering energy and witty, hard hitting songwriting of founding lead vocalist and keyboardist Amarie Darvai and guitarist/keyboardist Christopher Cody, Zealousy began rising through the ranks via their 2007 teaser EP Girl On The Edge, but, as they convey over the course of their compelling full length debut, they’ve encountered some major—but not insurmountable—Complications along the way.
Darvai, Cody, bassist Chris Babin and drummer Bunny Brooks Jr. are proud of the tagline they’ve been using to describe their ascent on the L.A. club scene: “This isn’t the story of overnight success. This is a story of hard work that is granting impressive results.” Darvai and Cody began writing together in 2005 and found their perfect complement in the other members, which as they say, “grew on like limbs, off shooting into different areas of genre and ideas.” Somehow, the vastly different backgrounds of each of the principals added up to an incredible unforeseen interaction.
Developing this exciting chemistry quickly led to Zealousy having their songs spun on stations in California, Illinois, Nashville, Germany and Canada and vast critical acclaim for the ongoing frenzy of gigs they’ve done at some of the city’s top hotspots—The Whiskey, The Gig, The Joint, Santa Monica’s 14 Below, the Cat Club and The Derby. Some of the raves: “Zealousy is melodic, passionate and dynamic”; “Zealousy examines angst in a mature and empowered fashion”; and “From What I’ve seen, Zealousy is quickly creating a frenzy of fans who can’t seem to get enough of a band who aims just slightly left and centers on EPIC”—a reference to their penchant for long jam versions of their songs that defy conventional radio ready, cookie cutter wisdom. Their lyrics have been praised as “illustrative,” which Darvai’s powerhouse style is indicative of a “bold ambitious vocal style.”
For a band that’s only been on the scene for three years, Zealousy has also received a huge number of accolades in the local music awards community and beyond, including Honorable Mention at the 2008 Malibu Music Awards, Honorable Mention in the 2008 Billboard World Music Song Contest, a Soundraze Top 20 Artist Award and a semi-finalist at Emergenza 2007. In September 2008 the band performed at the Knitting Factory as part of an industry showcase presented by the Hollywood Music Awards.
At that show, in addition to ensembling with violinist Jonathan Morin, the band presented video montage projections behind their performance; the most powerful of these being the one illustrating their socially conscious, hypocrisy exposing song “Wanting,” juxtaposing images of starving children overseas and news coverage of gluttonous eating contests in the U.S. In this year’s L.A. Music Awards, Zealousy and Darvai are also nominated for Best Female Vocal Performance for the haunting, emotionally revealing power ballad “Girl On The Edge.”
“We titled the album Complications because for the most part, everything about writing and making music is very enjoyable and almost every aspect of the music business for indie bands is full of many little problems,” says Darvai. “Because each member of the band has a uniquely different background and varied influences, there are also complications in finding a middle ground for us. Some of the big obstacles happen when people see us as one type of group and then start having preconceptions of what we’re supposed to be. They want to pigeonhole and turn us into something we’re not! They think if you play dark and moody music you can’t also enjoy life. We like to delve into those darker, raw emotions, but we’re also happy people who experience a wide range of them. Then there’s our love for epic versions of songs like ‘Wrong Man’ and ‘Chemical Imbalance,” which run six or seven minutes. Industry folks tell us we shouldn’t do such long tunes, but these are among the most requested in our set.
“We chose Zealousy as our name because we wanted a moniker that wasn’t an actual word but reflected the way life can be full of so many climaxes and zeniths,” she adds. “Everything we write comes from our own lives and things we have witnessed in others. Because we never shy away from this kind of honesty, it made sense to address those Complications that are always part of the journey. The same passion that brought us all together is the reason that, no matter how many setbacks may come our way, the fire will never go out. This music is part of us. It’s in our blood.”
