ZacTheLocust: The Songs That Inspired Our Music

ZacTheLocust: The Songs That Inspired Our Music

South Wales newcomers, ZACTHELOCUST, have arrived with their anthemic new single, Hold On. The song and video are out now. With the band on the rise, we asked the rampant punk rockers to give us their top five tracks that have inspired their sound:

Basket Case - Green Day

Anything from Green Day, especially Basket Case in this instance. Billy Joe Armstrong’s vocals are what our singer Cory practiced to sound like constantly in his years growing up. Whenever he was say feeling down or having not such a good day, he would throw on the album" international superhits" and skip to Basket Case to start it off. The entire song for us is an instant hit of distressing goodness. The music video too is just kickass!!

All The Small Things - Blink 182The guitar sounds, the perfect pop song structure. The chorus is such a great sing along and it doesn't even have any words! Our love of vocal harmonies is no secret and this one was a big inspiration on them being in our songs in abundance! Also all the background synths and keyboards that bring it too life, we like doing similar things in our songs.

Thin Lizzy - EmeraldNot just the great guitar sounds that you come to expect with Thin Lizzy but the melodic guitar harmonies drive the tune along with Brain Downey’s shuffling feel made this band outstanding in their field and one of the most underrated bands of the 70’s. These Lizzy like harmonies in our own music coupled with the pop punk influences is a staple in the sound of ZactheLocust.

Hell Song - Sum 41This song is a personal favourite, but also a great influence in ZTL. You've got the heavy guitar riff for the intro with a heavy face melting solo. Then you've got the classic punk palm muted power chord for the verse and octave chords in the chorus. A massive sound on the drums and the bass there holding it all together. And then you've the very distinct and powerful vocals on top. I think it's amazing to take different inspirations and influences and put them all in one song. Which is what ZTL like doing too.

Monkey Wrench - Foo FightersFor us the song is in your face straight out of the gate with no messing around. It’s energetic, loud and kicks ass! The lyrics are really well thought out and marry perfectly with the music. And then infamous part where Dave Grohl sings for what seems for a lifetime makes you scream to the top of your lungs capacity! They pushed boundaries and did things with this song that no one had done before, it was their own sound, which I think is just like what we are going for with our songs!”