Is there a deeper meaning to the song “Zoot Suit Riot”?
I’m wondering if there’s any connection to the Zoot Suit Riots during WWII. Yes, I wrote it inspired by the Zoot Suit Riots. I guess it seemed like a Pachuco rallying cry that could double as a dance anthem for those of us interested in swing music and culture at a time when nobody else was. It was an expression of a proud marginalism. That’s not that deep, but there you go. How has your background in chemisty and molecular biology (Steve has a degree from the University of Oregon) effected your music and songwriting? They exist in separate lobes of my brain that mostly do not intersect. How did you decide on the name for the group, and did anyone try to talk you out of it? We had to come up with a name for the poster for our first show and a friend of the band suggested it as a joke. We were into Viper Jive and Race music at the time pretty heavily so I had been listening to a lot of Depression era jazz that had sexual, racial and druggy overtones that were disguised in the lyrics. CP
