IndyWeek.com:
Lorenzo Ferguson, or Zo!, as he's known to fans, released his new album ManMade — a rakish collection of house and ghettotech-tinged slow jams — back in May. It's another idiosyncratic and uncompromising release from Foreign Exchange Music, fueled by intense collaborations between Zo! and the Foreign Exchange's Phonte Coleman (credited as writer and producer). The second single, "Count to Five" featuring Gwen Bunn and Phonte, is propulsive soul-pop about real-life concerns like anxiety and transition. And don't miss the charming video, which pays homage to the '70s era of Sesame Street when the kid's show was almost activist in its embrace of multiculturalism and positive vibes. We spoke over the phone about the new album, being doggedly independent while the music industry crumbles, "jheri curl music," and even afforded some music nerd trivia about '80s softies Mr. Mister. Zo! is celebrating the release of ManMade at the Casbah in Durham tonight along with the exploratory jazz trio the Hot at Nights.
INDY WEEK: Can you just explain the meaning behind the title a little bit? It's striking as a declaration that also has some modesty to it. In contrast to, say, more obnoxious declarations like "self-made."
ZO!: ManMade is actually the first album I've done as a full-time musician. I was teaching in the Washington, D.C., school system for five years. I taught music to Special Education high school kids. And when the school shut down, which was right after ... just visiting three was released, I became a full time musician tossed into the fire. I had planned on doing that already but, you know, it was a little bit earlier than I expected. So, ManMade is based around the grind of the independent musician. It's definitely not a 9-to-5. It is a 24/7 job and you're doing all your own business. It's very, very difficult.
The cover looks like you're headed to a factory job, which also suggest this indie musician grind.
Definitely. On the album cover, it looks like I am walking to work, but work is this broken-down building that represents the music industry as we know it today. You know, the music industry now is trying to adjust to everything that's going on with the Internet and digitally, and you know it's almost seeming a little outdated and going through some struggles. The cover is me, the indie musician, going to work and walking into this dilapidated building and bringing my shine to it.
In my opinion, a crucial element to the artistic success of your music and the whole Foreign Exchange crew's music is a certain old-fashioned sense of collaboration. In sharp contrast to the way a lot of music now is less about collaboration and more about different people stitching different things together. ManMade just sounds like people in a room working closely together.
I always give the example of, say, Earth, Wind & Fire "After the Love Is Gone." In the beginning of that song, the tempo is a lot slower than what it ends up being at the end. Simply because they're playing those instruments and they're playing them like it was live. And when you start playing, certain energies and emotions increase, and when you start vamping out, the tempo has climbed from five to seven beats-per-minute. By the end of it, those guys are really going in and that's part of recording. Recording is about capturing different feelings and emotions, musically. The more feeling that you're able to capture, the more you can connect with listeners.
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