By Paul Freeman [2005 Interview]

It's one of the most recognizable voices in rock. Colin Blunstone's heartfelt, soul-stirring vocals can soothe, simmer or sear; whisper, cry or shout. And they have helped propel The Zombies to greatness for more than half a century.

From 1962 to 1967, the English band created inventive, irresistible music, mixing marvelous original material with imaginative remakes of American R&B numbers. The colors of jazz and classical, blended with rhythm & blues and rock 'n' roll, gave The Zombies an expansive palette. They rode the crest of the mid-60s British Invasion, with the ultra-cool hits "She's Not There" and "Tell Her No," both penned by keyboardist Rod Argent.

In 1967, The Zombies recorded their masterpiece, the album "Odessey and Oracle." (the misspelling of Odessey in the title resulted from a typo by the LP cover designer] It was a critical sensation... and, initially, a commercial disappointment. By the time the single "Time of the Season" neared the top of the U.S. charts, nearly two years later, the band had already dissolved.

Both Blunstone and Argent went on to successes on their own. But interest in The Zombies would not die. The pair appeared in several concerts together in 1999 and within a few years, were touring together internationally again.

The Zombies released brilliant new albums -- 2011's "Breathe Out, Breathe In" and 2015's "Still Got That Hunger." The four surviving band members -- Blunstone, Argent, Chris White and Hugh Grundy -- reassembled for a 50th anniversary "Odessey and Oracle" tour. The Zombies have been thrice nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It's an honor that is long overdue for one of rock's most distinctive and influential bands.

We had an opportunity to interview Blunstone in 2005. In a gentle voice, with a charming manner, Blunstone graciously answered Pop Culture Classics' questions.

POP CULTURE CLASSICS:
In your sets, in addition to a couple of your solo tunes and a couple of Argent classics, the band has featured not only Zombies hits, but lesser known vintage Zombies material, yes?

COLIN BLUNSTONE:
We started doing some of the tunes that we first started recording. People tend to know all the "Odessey and Oracle" tunes, which was at the end of our time together. We've started playing some of the very earliest songs that we recorded like "Sticks and Stones," which is an old sort of rhythm & blues classic. And "Can't Nobody Love You," which is a Solomon Burke tune. Both of those are on our first album.

And "Goin' Out of My Head" was an early single for us, which we recorded after we played with Little Anthony & The Imperials, because I think they had quite a big hit with that tune, certainly in the States. And we played with Little Anthony & The Imperials and we loved that song. You know, I haven't sung that song since 1967... until two or three months ago. And quite a few of the songs that we've put in are going to be from the very early period of The Zombies -- '64, '65.

PCC:
The early albums had wonderful original material, but also great covers.

BLUNSTONE:
I think it's been quite illuminating for us to go back to those very early recordings that we did, because that was a time when Rod Argent and Chris White's writing was in its infancy. And so we still were relying on the songs that we'd been playing as amateurs, playing around Hertfordshire, where we come from. And loads of them were American rhythm & blues tunes. And going back and rediscovering these tunes, we realized what fabulous songs they are. Hopefully we can give them a little bit of a modern twist, but basically, we're playing them as we recorded them.

PCC:
Back in those days, all the British bands were covering American songs. The Zombies' versions always had a distinctive feel. They were so unique-sounding. Were you conscious of putting your own imprint on them? Did the sound just come from a melding of all your diverse influences?

The Zombies, 2018, left to right: Steve Rodford (drums); Tom Toomey (guitar); Soren Koch (bass); Rod Argent (keyboards, vocals) and Colin Blunstone (lead vocals)

BLUNSTONE:
Well, I think there were two things driving along our interpretations of these songs. One is that we tried to be faithful to the original material. And the other thing is that, subconsciously, there was such a wide spectrum of musical influences involved in the band, going from early church music through to modern jazz, rhythm & blues, rock 'n' roll and pop. There were so many different influences coming in.

British bands would copy one another. They would give it, for the time, a more contemporary feel. And then other British bands would copy that, rather than the original. But we always tried to get back to the original. But because there were so many influences going on in the band, it did often have that original feel. But it wasn't something that we did consciously. It was subconscious.

PCC:
Some of you were still in your teens when you started recording?

BLUNSTONE:
We were all in our teens, I think [laughs]. When we started recording, most of us were about 17. Chris White was a little bit older. He was two or three years older.

PCC:
It's amazing that, even at that age, you had such a sophisticated sound.

BLUNSTONE:
In some ways, it's difficult for me to judge, really, because we were just doing what came naturally. And it was a good, fun time. We really enjoyed ourselves. And we just did what came naturally.

PCC:
And what about those fabulous harmonies -- is that something that also came naturally?

BLUNSTONE:
Well, I think a lot of that comes down to Rod Argent, because when I said to you, the spectrum of music, from early church music, Rod, apart from being an absolutely wonderful keyboard player, he was in the cathedral choir where we lived. We all lived and went to school in a place called St. Albans on Hertfordshire, which is just north of London. And Rod sang for years in the St. Albans Cathedral choir. And so he really understands harmonies. And what he would come up with would be very different. So when people tried to copy our harmonies, they'd sometimes come unstuck [laughs], because normally, when you do harmonies, someone takes the top harmony, someone takes the melody and someone sings underneath. We didn't do our harmonies like that.

PCC:
It must have been exciting as your were recording and hearing it all gelling.

BLUNSTONE:
Oh, absolutely, the only problem we had was -- of course, in the very early days, it was very exciting -- but then, as we traveled and, especially Chris White and Rod Argent's writing grew more sophisticated and also they were very prolific, as well, we had a producer that we started off with... He was a wonderful guy and we wouldn't have had hits without him. His name was Ken Jones. But I think everybody felt that we'd grown and Ken tended to always want us to record in the same way as we did when we very first started. There were moments of friction in the studio, as time went by.

And this ended up with, when we recorded "Odessey and Oracle," there wasn't a producer in the studio with us. I think in America, it's credited as "produced by The Zombies." But it was Rod Argent and Chris White who produced the album. And that was our first chance, and sadly the last chance [in the band's original incarnation] to show how we'd grown.

PCC:
It seems like the bands who were eager to grow are the ones who have the largest followings amongst new generations.

BLUNSTONE:
Well, I do hope so. With both Rod and I, we wouldn't just play our old tunes. Having said that, I'm sort of contradicting myself a bit, because, on this tour, we are going to emphasize them quite a lot. But when we've been together, we've recorded two new studio albums ["Out of the Shadows" and "As Far As I Can See"] of completely new songs. They happen to be all Rod's songs, but I write, as well. And I'm trying to do a solo album, as well. It's all new material. And that's what keeps us going, really. We both love to perform. And we both love to write and to push back the barriers to try new things. And neither of us could ever get involved in what we call here "the nostalgia circuit." It's not to say that we're better. It's just not for us to get involved just in bashing out our old tunes. We like to try new things all the time.

PCC:
When you do come up with new material that sounds so terrific, is it frustrating that, the way things have changed with labels and radio, it's probably not going to get the same kind of attention it might have gotten in earlier days?

BLUNSTONE:
I suppose it is frustrating, in a way. But you kind of adjust to it. And the important thing for us is creating the music. If we're allowed -- and we are -- to write songs, record songs and go out and play, that's an exciting thing for us. And if we don't get the backing of a major label and we don't get maximum airplay and the big radio stations, well, I suppose it's a shame in a way. But that's never what drove us on anyway.

PCC:
But it's wonderful that your music, without pandering at all, seems to appeal equally to young audiences and the Baby Boomers.

BLUNSTONE:
It does seem to. Most of our concerts are a complete cross section. There are very young people there and then people who have grown with us all the way through our careers.

PCC:
You must hear from a lot of young musicians, about how much you've influenced them.

BLUNSTONE:
I know. We do hear that, actually. And it's really heartening. I must say, that's really exciting to know that. Yeah, it's brilliant.

PCC:
You have such a distinctive voice. Was there a particular vocalist who influenced you, when you were developing, growing up?

BLUNSTONE:
Well, I was a huge fan of Ricky Nelson, when I was in my teens. And of Elvis Presley. And of all the big American artists, probably that American people of my age were listening to, as well. Once The Beatles happened, all the guys in the band, all the guys in The Zombies were completely knocked over by The Beatles. And we were huge fans of theirs.

I mean, I can hear slight influences sometimes [laughs] -- a little bit of Ricky Nelson... I'm not comparing myself to these people. I'm just saying that they were the people I was listening to. Elvis. Paul McCartney. John Lennon. And in the early tracks, sometimes there's a little bit of Mick Jagger, as well.

We went and saw them [The Rolling Stones] play. I don't know if it was the whole band. It might have been just Chris White, Rod Argent and myself. And we saw them play at this very, very small club in London. I think it was in '63. They'd just made their first record, which was called "Come On" [The Stones' debut single, a Chuck Berry cover] And it had just come into the bottom of the charts. They weren't really a huge band. But we saw them play in a small club and it was absolutely packed. They were just fantastic. And they were a bit of an influence, as well.

PCC:
It's interesting that you mention Ricky Nelson, because, in addition to being able to rock, he could also sing very softly and yet convey a lot of honesty and powerful emotion.

BLUNSTONE:
Oh, I know. I think he had a wonderful voice. I really do. He also had a brilliant guitarist -- James Burton. He used to play with Rick on the early records. He was just fantastic.

PCC:
As with The Zombies, there has been a resurgence of interest in his music, as well, among young musicians.

BLUNSTONE:
It's interesting how a lot of the younger bands are discovering the forerunners of rock 'n; roll. I find it very interesting, because 15 years ago, I don't think there was any interest in that sort of era at all. And you know, Rod and I, we both came off the road in the mid-70s, something like that. And we just got involved in other things -- production, writing for films, jingles, commercials. I sang on many of the Alan Parsons albums.

Rod's been a very successful producer over here. I can't remember the catalogue of what he's done in America. He produced an album for Nanci Griffith ["Late Night Grande Hotel"]. But over here, he was really successful. Sorry [laughs] that sounds like he wasn't, with Nanci Griffith. I didn't mean it like that. I mean there were many artists that he produced over here.

And by a series of coincidences, we started playing live again [beginning in 1999, following a few scattered reunion events over the years]. And we realized how long it had been. It had probably been from '74, '75 to the late 90s, till we started playing live again. And as soon as we remembered and realized how long it had been, I think we both realized how much we'd missed it. Funny how that can happen. You think, "Well, I need a bit of a rest, I'm going to come off the road." And a year goes by. And then two years go by and you find that you've lost contact with your agent and your band, your musicians. Three years go by and you've lost contact with everybody [laughs]. And it starts to get a bit difficult to get back on the road.

PCC:
Do you think the time away enabled you to come back refreshed and allowed the music to be revitalized?

BLUNSTONE:
Well, in a way, it might have done. I'm not absolutely sure about the answer to that. But I think we are lucky in that the backbone of the songs we play, to me, seems to have a timeless quality to it. So people say to me, "How does it feel to get up there and sing 'She's Not There' or 'Time of the Season' over and over again?" But they feel fresh all the time.

It could be that, with "Odessey and Oracle," it was the end of an artistic circle for us. It was time for the band to go off and do other projects. It's not like anything ended. We went on and did other things. But the other side of the coin is -- I might be the only one in the band who thinks like this; I know Rod doesn't -- but part of me is curious, because it seems that "Odessey and Oracle" was so different to what we were doing before. I know it's crazy, but I'm curious, I would like to know, if we'd stayed together, what we would have done next. But I'm not sure that anybody else in the band feels like that. I think they feel it was the right time to finish. But I'm just curious.

PCC:
Was that what led to the split at the time? People were just ready to try different things? Or was there frustration with the reception to the great music you were making?

BLUNSTONE:
Well, what had happened was, we weren't getting airplay on our records. And we weren't getting chart position. And consequently, the live work was drying up. We just split with our agent. We couldn't find another manager or another agent [laughs]. There didn't seem to be anybody interested. Things had just gone very, very quiet. It really seemed to me as though life was telling us that it was time to go on and try other things.

PCC:
And then ironically, that's when you, out of the blue, have this huge hit with "Time of the Season."

BLUNSTONE:
That was a year or two years later, because we finished "Odessey and Oracle" in the summer of 1967. But "Time of the Season" wasn't a released as a single in the States until 1968 and then didn't really become a hit until '69. It was much later, a year or two.

PCC:
So it was really too late to try to put things back together?

BLUNSTONE:
Well, it would have been very difficult, because everyone was committed to other project. And so it was decided that it was best to just carry on doing what we were doing.

PCC:
Do you think the reason that the songs seem so fresh when you're singing them is that they are such challenging songs to vocalize?

BLUNSTONE:
Well, some of them certainly are quite challenging. You have to stay on your toes. That's for sure. You have to concentrate. I don't think that's the whole reason. I think that all really special songs have that timeless feel about them.

PCC:
Your voice seems as strong as ever. Is there a special regimen that you follow?

BLUNSTONE:
About four years ago, I went to a singing coach for the first time ever...

PCC:
Weren't you afraid to tamper with what had always worked so well for you?

BLUNSTONE:
Well, I think that was always the feeling in the 60s and the 70s, that you mustn't go and have formal singing lessons, because it would spoil what you've got. And maybe that was true then. But singing coaches know now that that can be a problem. And all they try to do is to make your voice stronger, because, if you're singing every night -- sometimes we play six or seven nights a week, with no nights off, six or seven nights on the trot -- your voice has to be strong, otherwise you'll lose your voice.

And so I went to this singing coach and he taught me, I think, a very good singing technique that I can use. And also gave me a practice tape, that I can practice with every day. Sadly, I've been running around so much the last few days, I haven't been able to practice [laughs]. But once on the road, I practice once or twice a day.

PCC:
And you enjoy being on the road?

BLUNSTONE:
Oh, yeah. I think that's what musicians live for. The performance is what musicians live for. The traveling can be tough. It's tough when you're young. It doesn't get easier as you older, especially in Canada and the States, where distances can be very big.

PCC:
Was it wild in the 60s, touring, with the mania, the girls screaming and chasing?

BLUNSTONE:
It was fun. It was. It was very exciting. And, as I said, when we started recording, we were 17, something like that. By the time we got to the States, I think I might have been just about 19. So of course, it was incredible. But at the same time, when you're that age, very quickly, you start to accept that a way of life is normal. It very quickly seems that playing to 20 or 30,000 people and having everyone screaming -- it seems quite normal [Laughs] I find that quite interesting, really. You accept it. It was wonderful.

PCC:
Once you've accepted it, is it difficult to have that removed at some later point?

BLUNSTONE:
That's a whole other story, Yes, I think it is quite difficult. But the whole time we were in The Zombies, we all lived at home with our parents. And with our school friends, where we grew up. So you don't get too carried away with it, really, because when you come home, you're shown reality. So it probably wasn't as difficult for us as it was for some people.

Especially the bands who came from Liverpool or Manchester or Birmingham, they often had to come down and live in London. So they were living in a hotel. So I think they probably had to live the rock 'n' roll lifestyle a bit more than we did, because we lived quite near to London, so we stayed at home. So in many ways, I think that helped us keep our feet on the ground and be a lot more realistic about what was happening. But when we were out and all that craziness was going on, I think we accepted that as well. So I suppose we had two completely different lifestyles.

PCC:
The 60s seemed to be such a golden era, so spectacularly creative, so much happening in London in film, theatre, fashion, as well as music. Why do you think all that erupted in that place at that particular time?

BLUNSTONE:
There was a very austere period in England after the war. This country was on its knees. If you see pictures of London in 1946, you would think it was Hiroshima. Not all of London, but a lot of London -- I've been quite amazed to see the pictures of the damage that was done. And this country was on its knees financially, I'm not talking about the people; but the country was broke, which kind of means the people, as well.

So I think that they came out of that period of austerity and suddenly the 60s happened. Now I don't know what triggered it. I know The Beatles were a lot to do with it. The Beatles changed everything. But I'm not sure if David Bailey [photographer], Mary Quant [fashion designer] and some of those other people came actually before The Beatles. I can't remember the chronology. But there was just this feeling in Britain, and maybe even more in England, from about '63 onward, that anything was possible. It didn't what your background was. And it didn't matter how much money you had. Everything was possible.

And when you start thinking positively like that, I think it happens. It's an interesting thought that, because I can sometimes be very negative. But I do believe that, if everybody starts to think positively, things happen. And that's what happened. I mean, there was Michael Caine, Terence Stamp, Albert Finney in acting; all the great playwrights. It was an incredibly exciting time. And then, on the coattails of all of that, we came along. But without The Beatles, none of the 60s English bands would have happened. It's all down to them.

PCC:
And now, what you get from music, has that changed? Is it a different sort of satisfaction?

BLUNSTONE:
I don't even know if I thought about it that much in the 60s. I was doing what I wanted to do and I was having a good time. What I'd really like to do, I had a manager called Barry Krost, and another artist he had was Cat Stevens. And I remember -- this would be in the 70s -- that Cat Stevens, almost precisely, used to go on holiday for three months, he used to write for three months, he'd record for three months and then he'd do a world tour for three months. And I was terrible impressed with that [laughs]. Ideally, that's what I would like to do, something like that. In an ideal world, I'd like to write lots of songs that I could record and then go out and play them. In an ideal world, that's what I would like.

But in terms of chart success and things like that, I'm not too worried. I want to be involved in making quality material... and, at the same time, try to make a living. And it's not easy. But that's what my aim is, really.

For the latest tour dates, visit www.thezombiesmusic.com.

Be sure to check out Pop Culture Classics' 2013 interview with Colin Blunstone: www.popcultureclassics.com/colin_blunstone.html