Zru Vogue

Zru Vogue formed in Palo Alto, California in 1980. They were an outsider avant-pop band inspired by dada and experimental songwriting when they started mixing up African tribal and Middle Eastern rhythms with ambient sounds, British art rock and funk guitars.

Zru Vogue’s first single “Nakweda Dream” was released by San Francisco label Adolescent Records in 1981. "Nakweda Dream" was a college radio hit, topping indie playlists. The B-side "Cumulonimbus" was an atmospheric experimental track that England's New Musical Express called “a neo-African avalanche" and it also received widespread airplay. "Nakweda Dream/Cumulonimbus" was critically acclaimed in the alternative press, including Sub-pop who named it the best independent single of 1981.

From 1982 to 1984, Zru Vogue released an album and an EP, and played clubs in San Francisco and the Bay Area. The group disbanded in 1985, but Andrew Jackson and Rick Cuevas each released a string of solo albums since then.

ZRU Resurrection

Jackson and Cuevas have resurrected Zru Vogue in the new millennium, writing and recording 6 albums of new avant-pop experimental art pieces disguised as songs: Beautiful Again (2004), Survival of the Cutest (2005), The Exile (2006), Eleven Eyes (2009), Club Zru / Galerie Zru (2010), and Zero: Exile II (2011). Patrick Coyne started playing drums in the band around 2005, and contributed to the recording of songs on Club Zru and Zero:Exile II.

Zero Risk Unobtainable

As for the name Zru Vogue, ZRU is an acronym for Zero Risk Unobtainable, a newspaper headline taken at random from a wall made from newspapers in the “Room of Concentration” in Andy’s apartment that he shared with Tad Williams circa 1979. “VOGUE” was later added, also randomly, with plastic refrigerator magnets in Tom and Rick’s kitchen (by a housemate that didn’t know she was making history, or anything else for that matter). In the spirit of dada that the band takes as its inspiration, the name ZRU VOGUE was adopted by the band in 1980, just before recording their first single.

Zru Vogue is:

Andrew Lawrence Jackson – Lead Vocals, Electric and Acoustic Guitars, E-bow Guitar, Synthesizers, Bass, Drums and Rhythm Programming, Hand Drums and Percussion, and Clarinet.

Rick Cuevas – Bass Guitar, Electric and Acoustic Guitars, Keyboards and Synthesizers, Vocals, Electronic Drums, Hand Drums and Percussion, Slide E-bow, and Toy Xylophone.

Patrick Coyne - Electronic Drums and Percussion.

Andrew Lawrence Jackson is an American independent recording artist. Musician, composer, singer-songwriter, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, producer, poet, illustrator, artist, modern-day surrealist, and love believer...

A San Francisco Bay Area native, Jackson began playing guitar and writing songs at age 16, and has continued writing and composing ever since. The psychedelic rock of the late 60's made a strong impression on him when he was growing up in the suburbs of Southern California. He credits "I Am The Walrus" by The Beatles as the song that first opened his mind to the sonic and lyric possibilities in music. 

After moving back to the Bay Area in 1972, Jackson discovered glam rock (Roxy Music, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Sparks), and a few years later in 1977 was immersed in punk and funk. In 1980, Jackson DJ'd on college radio as Bub Rhino (at KFJC Los Altos Hills), just when a treasure-trove of post-punk bands were exploding on the underground music scene. All these musical genres, as well as deep explorations into British rock, world music, pop, ambient, and electronic music, have made a strong imprint on Jackson's perspective as an artist.

A prolific writer and recording artist, Jackson has independently released 11 solo albums, 9 albums of his songs with Zru Vogue, and the "Bandit Ducks From Outer Space" EP with Science Patrol. Jackson continues to write, perform and record both as a solo artist and with Zru Vogue.

Rick Cuevas is a long-time Beatles/Lennon-influenced Bay Area musician, singer, and songwriter. 

He is a member of Zru Vogue, along with Andrew Jackson; and he has collaborated with a number of other musicians on various projects and produced soundtrack music for independent films and documentaries.

Rick was surrounded by music as a child. His parents were founding, singing members of the West Bay Opera Company in Palo Alto, California, where they dragged Rick to countless Opera rehearsals and three performances a year, for many years. He even sang in two Operas.

His dad’s collection of Spike Jones 78 rpm records utterly fascinated and amused him. He grew up in the heyday of the Beatles, the Stones, and The Monkees, whose music — and the summer of love — intrigued him greatly (though he didn’t yet know why).

It wasn’t until 1972, after the death of his best friend at the age of 14 in Fremont, Calif., that Rick felt the call to do something special with his life. In the summer of 1972 in Palo Alto, Rick decided to learn guitar — a decision also greatly influenced by a young fellow in Rick’s 8th grade class named Andrew [Jackson]. Andrew sat in the desk behind Rick at school. Andrew was already 6 months into guitar playing, lived just a few blocks away, and was willing to show Rick some chords and strumming techniques.

Over time, Rick & Andrew played in several bands, and they are still playing guitars and recording together almost 40 years later (with a few years off in between) — and still enjoying the therapeutic and transcending effects of music making.

Patrick Coyne has been playing drums and percussion since the age of ten.

Considered a more humane treatment for hyperactivity, Coyne’s parents thankfully both worked away from home during the day and were not subjected to the full force of their son’s therapy.

For the next ten years, Coyne played in numerous bands exploring the genres of jazz, rock and R&B. One such stint was with the glam rock band Idiot, where he met future Zrumates Jackson and Cuevas.

After a lengthy hiatus pursuing a career in graphic design, Coyne's interest in percussion was rekindled after he was invited to participate in an Idiot reunion event in the mid-nineties.

Not wanting to subject his family or neighbors to his overtly physical “Threshold of Pain” style, Coyne began exploring electronic drums. Finally settling on the Roland TD-12 drum set he plays today, Coyne finds them the perfect complement to Zru’s classification-defying approach and appreciates the flexibility they give him to explore the fringes of popular music.