Zipper Club

Fusing the melodic style of '80s new wave pop with a contemporary sense of cool, Zipper Club is a collaboration between two unlikely musical collaborators, <a href="spotify:artist:6Y6W3JMaqLWeNNIzTvXZI3">Mason James</a> (formerly of skatepunk revivalists <a href="spotify:artist:1FY7W9h7Psub7EAXfiGRJH">Cerebral Ballzy</a>) and <a href="spotify:artist:5moMlImrbhn6le2o44Z28P">Lissy Trullie</a> (the indie rocker known to her parents as <a href="spotify:artist:5moMlImrbhn6le2o44Z28P">Elizabeth McChesney</a>). The Zipper Club story begins in 2014, when <a href="spotify:artist:6Y6W3JMaqLWeNNIzTvXZI3">James</a> decided he needed some downtime from <a href="spotify:artist:1FY7W9h7Psub7EAXfiGRJH">Cerebral Ballzy</a> after a long bout of touring. <a href="spotify:artist:6Y6W3JMaqLWeNNIzTvXZI3">James</a> began writing songs while holing up in his apartment, but rather than focusing on '80s-style punk, he began conjuring the sort of synth-based music that represented the poppier end of alternative music from the same era. As the songs piled up, <a href="spotify:artist:6Y6W3JMaqLWeNNIzTvXZI3">James</a> chose to form a new band to play his new music. <a href="spotify:artist:6Y6W3JMaqLWeNNIzTvXZI3">James</a> turned to <a href="spotify:artist:2rmvGSbuMaxn7ZXe3ANXMC">James Iha</a> (best known for his work as guitarist with <a href="spotify:artist:40Yq4vzPs9VNUrIBG5Jr2i">Smashing Pumpkins</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:4DFhHyjvGYa9wxdHUjtDkc">A Perfect Circle</a>) to produce the new project, and they approached <a href="spotify:artist:5moMlImrbhn6le2o44Z28P">Lissy Trullie</a>, leader of the band of the same name, to join the group as a singer and instrumentalist. Drummer Damar Davis rounded out the trio, and the group recorded an album's worth of material with <a href="spotify:artist:2rmvGSbuMaxn7ZXe3ANXMC">Iha</a> behind the controls. Zipper Club struck a deal with <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Epic+Records%22">Epic Records</a>, and their debut single, "Going the Distance," was released in June 2016. Word spread about Zipper Club, and as the new band generated a buzz among press and fans, a second single appeared in September 2016, "Small Town." As Zipper Club continued work on their debut album, two more tracks were released in February 2017, "Tick-Tock" and "Breath." ~ Mark Deming