The Black Lips - In Conversation
Interview & foreword by Beau Croxton
Black Lips by Alexandra Cabel
For our sixth cover story and installment of In Conversation, we are thrilled to have an interview with Georgia’s garage-punk saviors– The Black Lips. They have kept rock n’ roll alive and thriving (..and slightly off kilter) since 1999.
On a personal note– For me, back in the early 2010’s, Black Lips were a perfect meshing of both of my worlds. I was a New Yorker who just moved to Savannah, Georgia for college– and I worshipped CBGB-punk groups like The Ramones and The Heartbreakers. At the time, the Black Lips felt like Georgia’s own modern, southern-fried, garage-rockin’ answer to those bands– so the band served as a perfect soundtrack to my college days down south. I caught The Black Lips playing at The Jinx in Savannah, and I previously met and hung out with (guitarist/singer) Cole Alexander at a mutual friend’s afterparty for their 2012 show.
Now in 2025, the group is still spearheaded by their founding fathers, Cole Alexander and Jared Swilley, despite band members shifting over the years. Since 2018, the band has settled into a steady lineup– a family that includes newest members Zumi Rosow, Oakley Munson and Jeff Clarke. (...Although Rosow has performed with the band since 2013!)
Well into their third decade as a group, the band continues to surprise. With their more recent output, it seems that Black Lips are more concerned with their disography aging gracefully into new sonic pastures. The band has ventured further into country, western, doo-wop, 60s girl-group sounds and many other styles that have birthed many amazing, recent gems, like the yearning anthem “Crystal Night”, the Chuck Berry-esque “Angola Rodeo” and their excellent rendition of a long-lost Velvet Underground tune, “Get It On Time”.
On September 19th, the band will return with the release of their 11th studio album, Season Of The Peach, paired with a “detours & offcuts” compilation called Bebop Armageddon. The band got together at drummer/producer Oakley Munson’s studio in Upstate New York to record directly to tape– and the result is a diverse, retro-sounding collection of new Black Lips classics and oddball anthems that mix the early spirit of the group with their more recent songwriting style. It feels like an wild, free-spirited party— and the band is inviting the listener to get lost in the beautifully bizarre festivities.
Some notable moments include girl-group-pop throwback “Tippy Tongue”, the Sardinian-infused, zany honky-tonk-hybrid “Zulu Saints”, the epic, western misfit-anthem that is “Wild One”, and a goth-y rocker about the power of having a “Prick”.
A few weeks ago, I caught up with Cole Alexander and Zumi Rosow of Black Lips via Zoom, and we spoke on Upstate New York, the “Optigan” by Mattel, the Coast to Coast AM radio-show, Season of the Peach and then some.
Check it out below.
Black Lips by Cate Groubert
BEAU CROXTON: Hey Cole! Whatsup brotha!
COLE ALEXANDER: Hey! What's going on? Zumi is around, she's gonna be straggling in here in a second.
BEAU CROXTON: So– “Tippy Tongue” is such a great song man– there’s a total classic Black Lips vibe on that one, how did that one come together?
COLE ALEXANDER: I personally have always had a hard time doing the really poppy stuff. With our other poppy songs, maybe Jared or Joe would kind of take the reins on it…. except for “Dirty Hands”-- I did write that one. I like them, but I just have a hard time making the real poppy ones. I had to sit down to try to get past my comfort zone and just do it– because I've been listening to a lot of bubblegum music lately. I love all those old 60s songs… stuff like 1910 Fruitgum Company, and Tommy James & the Shondells “Crimson and Clover’. I wanted to do some research, so I had asked some friends to know more about that kind of stuff– I knew I liked it, but I didn't know a lot about that sub-genre. So whenever I saw Don Bolles of the Germs do a DJ set, he would spin some of that stuff. He invited me over one night and he just gave me like an hour long teacher/student lesson on the history of bubblegum, and played me through all these obscure classics that he had, and then some of the bigger classics we all know. So it was kind of fun to have a little study session for that song, with Don Bolles of the Germs (the drummer), it was fun.
BEAU: Is there any really old material that made it onto this record? Or is it all fresh stuff ?
COLE: That's a good question– “Judas Pig”— I know we tried on the last record with Saul from Fat White Family, but we didn't really shape it up in time. So we kind of put it on the side and then re-approached it again on this record. Actually, the “Tippy” song is something I've been kind of kicking around as an idea in my head for a long time, but didn't come till now.
ZUMI ROSOW: (walks in) Hi!
BEAU: Hellooo !
ZUMI ROSOW: Sorry, I look like I just woke up, clearly (laughs) I was trying to find Cole’s peach-colored shirt for the interview…so it was taking me a minute. Interestingly enough, the 2024 pantone color of the year was “Peach Fuzz”.... Initially, I thought “Peach Fuzz” would be a good album title– but then Jared came up with Season of the Peach, which I like.
COLE: I think it's supposed to be a spin on “Season of the Witch” by Donovan–
ZUMI: Yeah, I like Season of the Peach. I really love it. I’m glad it evolved there.
Black Lips by Cate Groubert (left to right— Cole Alexander, Jared Swilley, Jeff Clarke, Zumi Rosow and Oakley Munson)
BEAU: Season of the Peach is a very awesome and fun record. I just spent the weekend listening to it in Upstate New York. It’s great, and of course— it was the best setting to listen. So, how did you all enjoy recording at Oakley’s studio up in the Catskills?
ZUMI: It’s so beautiful up there. It was amazing, it felt like a total luxury having the time and space to let it evolve. Because normally, you're renting a studio to record, and you have this limited amount of time. I think limitations can be good, because they force things to evolve in a certain way. But they can also can be something (for me personally) that can fuck with the fact that a song has the capacity to become something bigger, and you don’t get there because because you run out of time, basically. So “Wild One”, for example, was one we tried on the last record, but it needed more time to evolve. So it was truly a gift to be able to have the time to evolve the work together.
COLE: Yeah at Oakley’s– it wasn't like a normal studio, like where you only have a limited time– we had like…unlimited time.
ZUMI: Yeah and Oakley was figuring out his studio, that was also part of it: him creating in his studio space, and bringing it to life in the way that he wants to. As a band, we're all over the place. Cole and I are in LA, Jared is in Atlanta, Oakley's in Upstate New York, and Jeff is from another planet… so we're never together— we really rarely have time as a band to to work on work on music.
BEAU: So, the record also has a nice little retro sound, and you were recording to tape and all…. The drum sound has got this light 60s vibe– like “Be My Baby”. I was definitely getting a Ronettes vibe on “Tippy Tongue”.
COLE: I'm glad you picked up on that. I wasn't sure what you could hear come through.
ZUMI: Yeah, The Ronettes! That's definitely a major influence as a band. I'm glad you picked up on that. Since I was like…. you know, five years old, I choreographed dances to “Be My Baby”
BEAU: What was the different approach with this material, versus your recent records like… Sing In A World That’s Falling Apart and the others?
ZUMI: I think literally the studio, and Oakley working in his studio and sort of being able to self produce…and him being like “Hey let's try and get this kind of sound” and then you know making it happen to our best abilities.
COLE: Yeah– more experimenting, and also having more time to work on stuff. Also, our friend Garett helped engineer and produce this record– he used to work with the Ramones in the 80s and stuff. It’s cool to kind of get his take on some of the punk-rock sounds, because he had experience working with everybody from like William S. Boroughs and the Ramones….. He did like a Hulk Hogan rap record (laughs) you know but yeah– kind of getting somebody's outside perspective as well.
BEAU: I actually did get a slight Ramones-vibe on “Happy Place” at the end of it!
ZUMI: Exactly!…. “dadadada… HEY!” exactly!
BEAU: You told me a little bit about “Wild One” that’s one of my big faves, I really love that epic western vibe— I would love to hear more.
ZUMI: I was gonna say– in terms of being able to have the time to work on the songs, that was important for “Wild One”, because the Optigan was really important for me on that song– I wrote it on the Optigan. We have one– it's right here, can you see it? I'm in love with the Optagon, it's super magical!
COLE: It takes old recordings of session musicians, and you can play the recordings, so you can slow down the drummer. It's like a toy from Mattel. After Harvey was a success, they got an experimental toy division, which made this. And then you play the band, any key. There's these discs you insert.
(At this point in the interview, Zumi and Cole plugged in their optigan and demonstrated how it works)
ZUMI: They each have their own nuances too, because they're each fucked up in their own way. So they each have their own beautiful, particular warble. It's completely impossible to nail the timing down, because you can speed it up and change the pitch, but it was really important to me to have the Optigan on the recording, I played it live basically on the recording. It didn't happen in Paris, because we didn't have time to figure out how to work it out. I really appreciated that we had the time at Oakley’s.
BEAU: So tell me about the song “Prick”, because I love that one. It's very funny and clever. I love the keyboard sound there, it's sick.
ZUMI: Yes– Also, with that– we had time to figure out which keyboard to use. Cole is really good at playing piano and keys these days– he's been practicing. So we recorded it a couple of different ways with different synths. There was a Russian synth that we used. Figuring out the right sound is very important because it can completely transform something. Particularly, I feel like when you're doing keys– there's this magic sound that can like ....kind of haunt a song.
BEAU: Yeah, it gives “Prick” a little spooky/Halloweeny vibe kind of.
ZUMI: Yeah, I was going for a little bit of goth. But it's basically a song about how fun it would be to have a dick. (laughs)
BEAU: (laughs) Yeah, totally, that's the fun part! But I also loved the power dynamic theme in there– it's really cool
ZUMI: Yeah! And I love that I get to have these boys singing my backup vocals for the song– like I'm in a boy-band, and I get to write a song about how fun it would be to have a dick and then I get to have them sing my back ups!
(everybody laughs)
It's very exciting to me. And it's a universal song, for anybody wishing that they could have a dick– or maybe will have a dick at one point in life, you know?
BEAU: Yeah, or metaphorical…
ZUMI: Exactly! Yes– power and….particularly these days, we're living in a time of extreme abuse of power. There's a spectrum, the song really encapsulates the spectrum. So it's a love song, it deals with the imaginings of having that, and what it would be like to have ultimate power.
COLE: It might even have a little more of an 80s vibe than a 60s one.
Black Lips by Dani Pujalte
BEAU: Do you each have any personal favorites from the record?
ZUMI: I mean, I really love “Tippy Tongue.” It totally gets in my head and personally, I really love Jeff's intro and outro.
COLE: Yeah. “Zulu Saints”, I liked a lot. We played in Sardinia, and there's a weird instrument– it’s like an ancient bagpipe type of thing. When we played there, the guy got on stage and did it with us because we were interested in Sardinia and its history, and how it was kind of cut off and the rest of it was like the Mediterranean. So he sent in the track, to play over our track and it gave it kind of like Brian Jones-type ethnic flair on “Zulu Saints”
BEAU: So that’s that instrument, in the very beginning of “Zulu Saints”?
ZUMI: Yeah! We played with this guy and it's just anything he does sounds incredible. You have to do circular breathing– like with bagpipes, you know. It's really crazy, it's like… a primordial instrument– there's very few people who know how to play it. So, he played live with us in Sardinia. We got him to add it to the recording and it really adds this unique amazing thing, it's very special.
COLE: Sardinia is like a UNESCO national heritage site. They're trying to protect a lot of the culture– It's kinda dying off. So it's cool to have this guy let that culture breathe on our record, because it's becoming extinct. Some of these are old folk traditions. The style they do is called “pastoral folk”…You know, these sheep farmers and stuff will make music for the cattle and the sheep and the goats. (laughs)
ZUMI: And we also talk about magical coincidences… Do you know Coast to Coast? It's an AM radio show at night time that we love– the band loves it. We listen to it on tour when we can at night driving.. There's a lot about conspiracy theorists…. aliens… alien freaks. There's a lot of occult and cult stuff, speaking of which! (laughs)–so you should definitely look into it! “Zulu Saints” name drops Coast to Coast, and it's sort of about Coast to Coast callers. It’s his homage to them, and its name drops Coast to Coast and the host, Art Bell. Cole has been a guest…like four times.
BEAU: Oh, that's amazing!
ZUMI: We were getting ready to record. And then all of a sudden Cole's on the radio, he turns the radio up and I hear, “Okay, now we have Cole Alexander!”
So, the way Cole got on the show was… (...because it was really hard to get on just by calling)... He pretended to be a 16 or 17 year old boy calling from Manila from the Philippines.
COLE: Oh yeah– they like first time callers from out of the country! So they take the calls but they don't actually screen it. So I called the international line. And then they let me through.
ZUMI: They had a guest who they asked, “Have you ever read tarot cards for somebody who was younger, like under the age of 21?”... So Cole's like, “ding, ding, ding!” He thought this was his IN! So he's like, “We have your Cole, age 18, calling from Manila.”..... (laughs)
Anyway, it was the fact that he gets on the show… and is talking about magical coincidences…Its such a great Black Lips related story that we caught. It was an amazing, magical coincidence that we got this call — and that it fit onto “Zulu Saints”
BEAU: Incredible, well now I have a new rabbit hole to go down. I have two– I have the Optigan and I have Coast to Coast.
(everyone laughs)
BEAU: I've seen the Black Lips many times over the past decade (and then some), last time I saw Black Lips was with The Voidz, at the show at Murmrr Theater in Brooklyn around Halloween 2023. Now there is Black Lips/Viagra Boys shows coming up– there is always killer link-ups with y’all. How excited are we for the Viagra boys shows?
ZUMI: I'm really stoked. I was literally just saying…”God, I can't wait to tour with a band that is awesome that we really like”….. Like, a really cool band again! And then here we are going on tour with Viagra Boys.
COLE: Very excited– Yeah they have a lot of excitement around them– so many people are writing to me. And I saw the size of the venues were much bigger than I expected. So they seem to have a really good buzz. We have mutual friends, but I don't know them that well personally. So I'm excited for that.
BEAU: They are fantastic. much like yourselves they have a great signature sound that works any way they slightly alter it.
Besides the tour with Viagra Boys, is there anything else coming up for Black Lips or Crush you wanna shout out?
ZUMI: I'm just super excited about being in Europe.
COLE: Yeah, we're on the road and in a month will be in Europe. We're gonna play Istanbul–It's one of my favorite cities in the world. We're gonna play Paris which we've been way overdue to play since we recorded the previous album there.
ZUMI: I want to shoot some promo video stuff… like Warhol's screen test. Like taking shots of each band member eating peaches. So I'm gonna shoot some in a bathtub eating a peach, and like me wearing a nice dress and nice gloves eating a peach. I wanted to have fans shoot their own peach video…So, yeah– eat a peach and film yourself! Then send it to us if ya want!
BEAU: Yeah of course. We will get all the homies to do it! It's been a pleasure y’all. Before I go– are we gonna see y’all in NYC anytime soon, any New York shows?
COLE: Yeah… I'm sure we'll be there soon before you know it.
BEAU: Yeah! Cool! Hit me up!
ZUMI: Awesome. Well it was really nice chatting with you!
COLE: Yeah, definitely, come and say hey to us! Thanks man ! See ya later.
The new Black Lips album Season of The Peach is out everywhere Friday September 19th
Black Lips are currently on tour in Europe, and they are touring the US with Viagra Boys in October - get your tickets here.
You can pre order their Season of the Peach vinyl (in a “solar bleached peach” variant) and directly support them here on bandcamp
You can buy merch and vinyl directly from their website here.
You can check out all of their music videos here.
And you can listen directly below!