We spoke to Zhir Vengersky about crafting a sound he calls art punk and the harder side of new wave, blending avant-garde chaos with nods to Pere Ubu, The Contortions, Wall of Voodoo, and Captain Beefheart. He shared how his latest album Farewell, My Lovely channels subconscious visions, surreal storytelling, and a tribute to Pere Ubu’s David Thomas, while continuing his evolution from playful zolo-punk roots toward darker, more abrasive and abstract territory.
How would you describe your music to someone who’s never heard it?
The most concise answers I’ve given in the past are “art punk” and “the harder side of new wave”. More glib options have been “avant-garage”, “Z-List Simian Rocket Rock”, and “Real Fake Music”. If you want established artists to compare to… a filet of Pere Ubu with a Contortions sauce and a side of Wall of Voodoo, garnished with Captain Beefheart.
How has your sound evolved since you first started making music?
Every Zhir Vengersky release is the absolute best I’m capable of at that moment in time not only as a songwriter, but also as a producer and engineer. In the five-ish years I’ve been doing this I’ve gone from nil to reasonably adept in all respects. I started off thinking I was going to be some sort of zany zolo-punker, but the Path I found myself on was leading somewhere darker, more abstract, more abrasive.
What’s a bizarre or unexpected inspiration behind one of your songs?
Two songs of mine have melodies directly lifted from songs that were pervasive in my youth. The first is “Day the Fish Came Out”, on the album ‘Big Mac in a Small World’. That one interpolates a children’s classic, “Octopus” by Charlotte Diamond (though readers may know it as “the Slippery Fish song”), and part of the lyrics were adapted from some creationist video for kids that I thought was funny.
The second is “The Inauguration Song” from ‘Workforce to the World’. Believe it or not, this is a contemporary Christian hymn put through a Zvuki Mu filter. “They’ll Know We Are Christians” was played a lot at the church I grew up attending. I thought it was one of the best songs in the hymnal books and it stuck with me even long after I had left the religion.
What’s the most memorable moment of your music career so far?
Jamming extensively on “Shortnin’ Bread” for a week on and off with Monsieur Herr and some other musicians in Burbank. That same week I played “Megalovania” on Jack White’s piano and was given custody of a guitar previously owned by Jackson Browne. But the “Shortnin’ Bread” jamming stands out the most.
Tell us all you can about your latest release and where and when to find it?
‘Farewell, My Lovely’ is a different perspective of the three-dimensional object that is the Zhir Vengersky project, eschewing deliberation and artifice and embracing the metaphysical and the subconscious. As a matter of circumstance, the album is also a tribute to the memory of David Thomas, the underground titan of rock music, the genius behind Pere Ubu and Rocket From the Tombs, whose life came to an end on 23 April of this year. This installment of Real Fake Music was borne of hypnagogia, trains, virtual anime girls, and Raymond Chandler novels. It’s about traveling to Fallbrook to find a retired famous musician and interview him about one guitar. It’s about waking up at the crack of dawn to help a green and white automaton girl trebuchet the mayor of a coastal town into the sea, then escaping through the backcountry and avoiding fighter jets hunting you down. It’s about burying the Dead Man’s Chest in the Carrizo Gorge, in the shade of wrecked boxcars. It’s about watching someone you love be led to the gallows, sentenced to hang, only for her to suddenly grab a bishop’s ceremonial dagger and cut her own throat. It’s about true stories from places that don’t exist.
If you want to substantially support my artistic endeavors, visit <zhir.bandcamp.com> and buy the album there. A limited number of vinyl records are also available for those of you who wish to Own Something And Be Happy. For convenience’s sake, the album is also available on any and all streaming platforms. Just look up “Zhir Vengersky”. If you search “Farewell My Lovely” make sure the cover is a photo of a gimlet and nothing else.