Geir Zahl
Geir Zahl (born May 25, 1975) is a Norwegian singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is most famous for being one of the founding members of Kaizers Orchestra, along with Janove Ottesen. His role in Kaizers consists of composing songs, playing second guitar and occasionally performing lead vocals. Outside of this role, he has served as frontman of two side projects - Zahl and Uncle Deadly - both of them heavily influenced by traditional Americana music.
Discography:
- Zahl - Nice for a Change (2007)
- Uncle Deadly - Monkey Do (2010)
Geir Zahl provides examples of the following tropes:
- Alter Ego Acting: Type 3. Always uncomfortable as a frontman in Zahl, for Uncle Deadly he devised a fictional personality based partly on himself that he would assume on-stage.
- Animated Music Video: "Sneakin' Up" features instances of 3D animation.
- Anti-Love Song: Several, most scathingly "I'll Try and Make You Cry".
- Award Bait Song: "Fortapt", an original composition for the soundtrack for Mannen som elsket Yngve, has shades of this.
- Awesome McCoolname / Stage Names: Geir/Gary "Hellraizer" Kaizer.
- Badass Boast: "Leave Me In".
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"It's okay if there's a battle tonight / I'm right here and I'm ready to fight / I swear I'm gonna kick daylight / Serves him damn right" |
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- Black Sheep Hit: Now, the extent to which it was a "hit" is up to debate, but "Sneakin' Up" sounds nothing like anything else on Monkey Do, being a Kaizers Orchestra soundalike.
- Cover Version: Performed "Romeo and Juliet" by Dire Straits on several occasions when Zahl was on tour.
- Creator Couple: The quirky(er) counterpart to Janove's songwriting. See Darker and Edgier below.
- Darker and Edgier: His compositions for Kaizers Orchestra are often considered this in comparison to Janove's songs. Initially, the primary contributor of cryptic Word Salad Lyrics, though Janove eventually overtook him in this department, as well.
- Day in the Life: "I Don't Mind", self-described by Zahl as autobiographical, at least to some degree.
- Deadpan Snarker: As at least Crowning Moment of Funny for Kaizers can attest to.
- Egocentric Team Naming: Zahl.
- Everything's Better with Monkeys: Monkey Do.
- Gratuitous French: Heard in both "The Game" and "The Subpoena Girl".
- He Also Did: Filmed several documentaries on Kaizers, as well as his own electronic press kit for Uncle Deadly, some of which may be found on his YouTube channel.
- In the Style Of: "Sneakin' Up" might as well be a Kaizers Orchestra song, at least musically if not lyrically.
- Mood Whiplash: "Until You Start Dreaming" is the track right before "Sneakin' Up".
- New Sound Album: Monkey Do is at least partly this. More varied, eclectic genres, and instrumentation than what's heard in Nice for a Change, although lyrically they're relatively similar.
- Record Producer: Co-produced both his solo project albums, as well as some of Kaizers'.
- Scary Musician, Harmless Music: Upon first glance, you may not expect an album by the artist "Uncle Deadly" bearing this cover art [dead link] to be an album of mostly harmless Americana. The publicity photographs and aforementioned Black Sheep Hit "Sneakin' Up" (and the accompanying music video) don't help in this regard either.
- Self-Deprecation: Claims Kaizers is the only band in which his distinctive guitar style (in his own words, "social anti-guitar") fits in.
- Shout-Out: "Born to Rain".
- "Songs About God" was written about the ending of The Deer Hunter.
- The very name "Uncle Deadly" is a reference to the character from The Muppets; Zahl claimed to have been intrigued by the duality of the name.
- Stalker with a Crush: "Sneakin' Up", coupled with its video, is creepy like that.
- Starving Artist: Back before Kaizers hit it big (and according to the band themselves, money troubles plagued the band for several years despite their success), was forced to make ends meet by working as a waiter at a café.
- Train Song: As is befitting of Springsteen-influenced Americana rock, Nice for a Change has several examples of this, most notably "Born to Rain".
- Unplugged Version: Made a few TV and radio appearances playing "Sneakin' Up" acoustically.
- Villainous Crush: In "The Subpoena Girl", a trial's defendant falls madly in love with a case witness.
- Word Salad Lyrics: Found occasionally in his songs for Kaizers Orchestra, especially "Toxic blod", about a cat with a hole in its shoe frying bacon in the kitchen, where a male dog stands on its hind feet, and... something.
