Duo of the Year: Still Zrazy After All These Years

Even when they started out in the disparate Dublin scene of the early 1990s, female duo Zrazy were considered outsiders. Blending a curiously eclectic mix of cocktail jazz, synth-pop and dance-funk, Carole Nelson who plays saxophone and vocalist Maria Walsh - two gay women in what was then still very much a man's world - stood out by a mile.
"My memory of that time is that we were absolutely a square peg in a round hole," Walsh reflects, looking back almost a quarter of a century later. "We were surrounded by lads - Dublin guitar bands who were all either trying to be jangly or sub-U2. We were into all of those early Island records like Grace Jones and Sly & Robbie - a much blacker, more rhythmic music."
"We've always had this attitude that we're pleasing ourselves first and if other people like it, that's great," adds Nelson. "As long as it puts food in our mouths and a roof over our heads, that's all that matters. We did our first album independently in a basement in Maria's flat and we had no idea who our intended audience would be. Suddenly we were getting attention from the likes of Hot Press and winning their Best New Band award. It just blew our minds because we didn't think we were on anybody's radar."
They enjoyed some success in Europe and in the States where they toured several times, as Walsh recalls: "That was in the late 1990s - we did a mixture of small clubs, festivals and grassroots-type places. I don't think we stayed in a hotel more than twice - we always managed to make connections with people and stay in their houses and swim in their lovely pools. Being gay opens up an entire network around the world, though we did straight venues as well, especially in Germany where the audiences are wonderful and have very wide tastes."
The duo's sixth album, The Art of Happy Accidents, continues their unique approach, although songs like the catchy, up-tempo 'You Make Me Happy' and the Latin-tinged 'It's Alright' make for surprisingly accessible listening.
"It represents what we are," notes Nelson, "which is two creative people coming together to make music. I tend more towards singer-songwriter material and if Maria was left to her own devices, she would probably want to do a dance record."
"We've actually been more part of the jazz scene in recent years," adds Walsh. "There, everyone plays with everyone else, but this album takes us back towards the centre of things. We often get people coming up to us at gigs saying they didn't like jazz but they liked what we were doing."
The album was crowd-funded - something Zrazy see as a necessity in today's climate, where physical sales have almost disappeared.
"The world has changed so much since our last album," reflects Walsh. "In fact, it's turned on its head and imploded. When I was talking to the CD manufacturer about how many we should order, he said, '"Just start with 1,000.'"
"When we were in the States ten years ago people were enthusing about Spotify," recalls Nelson. "We didn't fully understand how it would affect things, but we realise now that it's killing music sales. Even though we're just a tiny drop in the ocean, we took a decision to withdraw fully our entire catalogue from Spotify. We just couldn't bear the thought that people would stream our music endlessly and that we'd hardly see anything from it.
"It puts the onus back onto gigging," observes Walsh. "We enjoy the live shows and if we can sell some CDs there, that suits us just fine."

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The Art Of Happy Accidents is out now