Music Out Now

Zebra & Giraffe - The Inside

The memories have been collected. It's time to put them to use. Enter Zebra and Giraffe's second full-length album, 'The Inside'.

Their 2008 debut, 'Collected Memories', garnered local and international acclaim and saw them win a 2009 SAMA Award for Best Rock Album, and nominated for three SAMAs in the categories Best Newcomer, Best Album Packaging, and MTN Record of the Year for 'The Knife'. They also won the MTV MAMA Award for Best Alternative Group.

They've used the momentum built up over the last couple of years to propel them into the studio with tunes and enthusiasm to spare. Greg Carlin (vocals and guitar), Alan Shenton (guitar), Andrew Maskell (bass), Darren Leader (drums), and new member Michael Wright (keyboards) recorded the majority of the album at RBF Studios in Johannesburg. Produced by the acclaimed Darryl Torr, who also produced 'Collected Memories', the album was mixed by the renowned Cenzo Townshend who has worked with U2, Snow Patrol, Kaiser Chiefs, Editors, Graham Coxon, Babyshambles, and Florence and the Machine.

The mandate for the new record was simple yet challenging: be better than anyone has any reason to expect. Songwriter, lead-singer, guitarist and frontman Greg Carlin and his bandmates wanted to prove that they could produce an even better album than 'Collected Memories' and explode the expectancy inevitably attached to the follow-up of a successful debut. 


The songs that they wrote for 'The Inside' are songs that appealed to them, that they thought were good, and challenged the parameters of their sound.

'The Inside' is a document of the last two years. Relentless touring has solidified Zebra & Giraffe as a band and allowed them to evolve from its roots as Carlin's solo effort.

"All of our gigging and hard work has paid off on the music side however, this combined with some of the success lead to many complications in our personal lives," explains Carlin. "It was a tough two years from that angle but it allowed for a lot of new lyrical material! Where 'CM' explored the emotions met with me leaving my childhood home and an exploration of the past 10 years, 'The Inside' deals specifically with the experiences of the last two years. It's a very personal album, a lot more so than 'CM', but it really was a cathartic process writing and recording it."