About the Artist
Zipper Club is comprised of Mason James of Cerebral Ballzy, Lissy Trullie of Lissy Trullie, and Damar Davis on drums. "If it sounds good I don't care if it's from the 1920s or the 2016s. As a musician, you take little tidbits of cool sounds you hear and combine them into something completely unique. Music needs to reflect on itself," says Mason, the no-nonsense guitarist and founding member behind the addictive assault of a new-wave inspired band alongside multi-instrumentalist, co-writer, and vocalist Lissy Trullie.Such a lack of musical inhibition goes a long way. Mason, a raucous punk-rock kid whose life goals were once to "thrash around onstage and get wildly drunk" with his previous band, Cerebral Ballzy, and Trullie, a successful solo artist coming out of the New York art scene. "At that time in New York," Trullie says "I was part of a crew of kids who were hell bent on making art and having as much fun as possible". Incidentally, that period of her life landed her image on the wall at the Whitney Museum as a part of Ryan McGinley's first solo show. With a shared spirit to embark on the unknown, the two threw caution to the wind and concocted pop music unlike any they've made before. "I really respect and love well-written hooks. With Zipper Club, I'm able to be playful and unconstrained albeit still making serious pop music." Trullie says. "It's a huge change and not a logical one," Mason says with a laugh of Zipper Club's pop missiles, which he began penning two years ago. At its core, Zipper Club is a union of like-minded musicians who have each navigated the rocky waters of the music industry. The result is a blissful head rush of a band armed with fuzzy guitars, spacey synths and magnetic melodies via their debut single, "Going The Distance." "It's music that's not trying to be something it's not," Trullie says of the band's addictive, brain-lodging sound on its forthcoming debut album, produced by James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins, A Perfect Circle). "Going The Distance" is in many ways a perfect encapsulation of the no-holds-barred attitude of Zipper Club. "It's a song about constantly moving places but going nowhere," the duo explained. "'Going the Distance'" is our account of the apathetic feeling arising from a meandering trip.Mason began writing the songs that formed the backbone of Zipper Club principally out of creative necessity. After touring for several menacing years — "I was falling apart at the time due to too much time on the road" — the remedy was to hole up in his apartment. He began writing songs inspired by the diverse musical tastes of his childhood. He decided he was going to do something new and hook-heavy pop gems quickly sprang to the surface. When out in Los Angeles, in 2014, Mason linked up with Iha with whom he'd previously worked. "He was the only producer I had on my list," he says of the producer whom the band characterizes as a "subtle mad scientist." In short, Mason laid down some early songs, brought accomplice Lissy into the fold, together writing the remainder of the record, and solidified what became Zipper Club. For Lissy, Zipper Club marks an invigorating new creative path: no longer carrying the sole weight of a solo project, she's now found a creative partner to share in the collective musical journey. "I was looking for a breath of fresh air and a new creative outlet," she says. "And I found it." The connection was an undeniable one. "It was instantaneous" says Mason, both musicians are at their core songwriters and storytellers, who recognize an infectious hook when they hear it. They also share similar musical sensibilities: Mason was raised on a steady diet of Motown, while Lissy similarly gravitated towards early R&B and soul due in large part to her record-collecting father. To add to their complimentary musical histories, upon meeting, the duo realized they had both sought out and recorded their last records with David Setik of TV on the Radio. Mason reminisced, "I was like, this is going to be cool. She's rad!" "My ears perked up as soon as I heard the demos," Trullie recalls thinking, "Yeah, I definitely want to throw down on this!"Zipper Club soon hunkered down for additional writing and recording sessions Iha at Eye Sky Studios in North Hollywood. Collaborating with Lissy created "this spark" that Mason could never have foreseen. Additionally, as the pair has subsequently co-written what became the rest of Zipper Club's debut LP, their musical cohesion has only grown stronger. "It feels like it's opening up more and more every day," Trullie says. Adds Mason:. "It's been super constructive. You're building a car and the machine starts to work. We are in cruise control and it feels really good." Mason points to the pummeling, echo-laden "Regrets" — on which Trullie sings, "Talking to you makes me second guess/Living my life with no regrets" — as one of the earliest and most powerful collaborations between he and his new musical counterpart. "A light bulb went off when Lissy sang" says Mason. This was the moment when they realized, "This works!" – and that feeling is what it's all about." "At the end of the day," Trullie says, "It's about making good music." By adding Damar Davis on drums, the duo, now a trio, found its final element laminating this notion. The band aren't slowing down: they added drummer Damar Davis to the club, put the final touches on their album, and turned heads by going #1 most added on Alternative Radio. It promises to be a busy year. Their multi-sensory live show promises to be every bit as much an endorphin-releasing adrenaline shot as their scorching new songs. "It's all about trying to come out there with a bang." Trullie couldn't agree more: "It's full-speed ahead."