Zed Narley is a Canadian rock band comprised of Mar Smauel (guitar, bass), Zimmy Dandy (bass, keyboards, vocals, tinwhistle, drum programming), Nevik Houzanou (guitar), and Cthulhu (vocals). Its members come from various different parts of Canada, although they met in roughly the same area, which must remain undisclosed at this time for tax reasons.

The idea for the band came from an incident that happened while Cthulhu was visiting the area briefly, and he, Zimmy, and Smauel had assembled at the latter’s house along with Ben the Destroyer (a non-member who has made several miscellaneous contributions to the band). For a laugh, Zimmy, Smauel, and Cthulhu started jamming, with Smauel on bass, Zimmy on keyboard, and Cthulhu “singing”. After a few minutes, all three came to the startling realization that what had started out as a joke had turned into something not half-bad.

A few days after the event, Smauel discussed with several other people, including Nevik Houzanou, the possibility of forming a band. Zimmy soon after proposed the same idea to Smauel, and the list of potential members was whittled down to Smauel, Zimmy, and Nevik. Several names were tossed around (among them “Cheese Flakes”, “BTW”, and “The We’re-Never-Gonna-Make-Its”), but Zimmy and Smauel decided on the final one a few weeks later, at around 11:15 p.m., on the way back from a Contra Dance. The name was Zimmy’s idea, but to this day he can’t remember how he came up with it (aside from the fact that “Zed” was derived from combining the two words in “Led Zeppelin”).

Previous to this night, Zimmy had been working on some lyrics (including an early version of “Overdose of Dali”) and Smauel had a few vague riffs going (among them what would eventually become “Phoenix”), but that night’s brainstorm in the back of a Tracker gave a new unity and and direction to their creative endeavours. The name and overarching theme of their first album was also agreed on that night (Big Cardboard Robot being another band name idea, and one deemed too good to discard completely). Some song ideas were also tossed back and forth, several of which came to fruition and made it onto the finished album.

Zed Narley’s first song, “The System is Down” (which would eventually become part II of “The System”), was completed on May 27, 2008, and rest of Big Cardboard Robot was recorded over that summer. Cthulhu was brought on board during this time, after Zimmy discovered he couldn’t sing all his lyrics. Smauel also bought a Les Paul and started learning electric guitar, and Nevik started making significant songwriting contributions as well, lending a folk/roots-based influence to offset Zimmy’s pervasive synthesizers and sound effects.

Big Cardboard Robot was made available for free download on September 2nd, 2008, with physical copies (including album art by the band’s self-proclaimed #1 groupie) currently in the works. The band has various ideas for the future at this point, including heavy metal, more concept albums, and hiring a real drummer. One thing’s for certain: Smauel and Nevik are definitely driving the next album. Yes, Zimmy has declared they have no choice in the matter, bwa ha ha.

Oh yeah, and the boys will never stop bangin’. Unless that overdose of Dali kills them or something…