Rainy days are good for staying in and spending your time watching movies, playing board games and catching up on reading. For Vancouver BC quartet the Zolas, the gray weather of the Pacific Northwest lends itself to deep contemplation and challenging the system via energetic electro tunes perfect to soundtrack a raging party and also worthy of a closer listen. Over keys and chords with lyrics made to sing along with, the band tackles topics like gender and equality with an open and sultry edginess. Fresh off the release of a new EP and full-length album, we spoke with Zachary Gray about the importance of feminism, the contrasts Vancouver represents and what's to come.

Hometown/Homebase: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

How long did the EP take to come together?

We've been recording for about a year and a half and these are the first that we finished and wanted to bundle together. Since then we finished a proper album's worth and are putting together a release for that.  

How did you first meet and start creating music together?

Tom and I met when we were 13 or 14. We lived in the same neighborhood and were mutually devoted to music, basement ping pong and raiding his mom's freezer. DJ and Cody are a similar story but just in a neighboring town. They played in bands together in high school and came to Tom's first basement studio to record a song. That's where we all first met. Eventually the timing was right and the two duos started making music as The Zolas.

How did feminism first start appearing in your lyrics? Why is it important to you?

It's just in the air right now: The funniest show in the world is written by and starring two 20-something women (Broad City) and somehow that's happening at the same time as "Pick-Up Artist" websites teach college freshmen exactly how girls can be manipulated into putting out like it's a cheat code in a video game. It's fascinating to write about both sides and that's what a few of the songs on this EP and upcoming album are about. There's a feminist wave breaking online and offline right now and I think every man needs to help be a part of that wave and not the undertow.  

As a band from Vancouver, how does the city effect your output and creativity?

Vancouver is like a mini version of planet earth. We have natural resources and the dilemma that goes along with that; we have the world's wealthiest people living in glass towers and the poorest people in the country sleeping in the alleys between them. We're decently multicultural. All of this is encased in a little snowglobe-sized city that you can bike around in an afternoon. Living here makes you aware of how many different perspectives there are, and for writing that's a gold mine.  

You have a song about falling in love with New York. What are the best things about the city? What drew you there originally?

We first came to New York to mix our Ancient Mars album with Caleb Shreve and lived in my cousin's artist commune in Queens for a week and a half because it was the only affordable spot. The great thing about New York is all the people that move there because they want to struggle. Most people have comfortable but limited lives laid out for them wherever they come from and moving to New York is the act of rolling the dice again.

How was it finally playing your first show in NY during CMJ?

It was beautiful. Since we'd never played there before, lots of people who had found us online drove from all around to cram into this tiny music hall. People were singing our lyrics and shouting out requests. It wasn't what you'd expect from your first show in a city that size.  

What would you say is the perfect setting to listen to your music?

 I'm having a hard time answering that because we're a band whose songs are all pretty different. Some artists have an aesthetic that is so consistent that it goes well with repetitive tasks like driving or washing the dishes or studying. I think our music demands a little more from people than a passive listen, so I'm really not sure. No, actually I think I can answer. The best place to be listening to our album is on a long-distance bus trip in a new part of the world where you can smoosh your face against the picture window and stare out at the foreign landscape as it slides by and the light shifts from blue to yellow to red.

What are your goals as a band for the year ahead and beyond?

This coming year will be a lot of touring in Europe and the US and some festivals. We already have a few new song ideas for an even further future release so maybe we'll take some time to record a sneaky one-off single for later.