Zanois is a family band that was united by a divorce. The “hard-working, fun-loving" (The Hippo Press) weird-pop trio played their first gig shortly after drummer and dad Gavin McDaniel was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2008. With a smattering of lo-fi bedroom recordings on MySpace, younger son Zane (vocals, bass, keyboards) accepted a last-minute invitation to perform locally – with no band to back him up. He came to the two musicians he knew best: his older brother Justice (guitar, theremin) and his dad, who had taken twenty years off from performing in the Boston punk scene to raise a family. They assembled their first set list from pop songs about fetuses and outerspace, which they rehearsed in Gavin’s Franklin, NH studio apartment, next to a horse stable and across from a dog kennel. They spent the next five years honing their sound and playing anywhere from bookstores to bars to basements, as well as self-producing four records in a cluttered storage unit, all while guitarist Justice was earning his triple Bachelor’s in natural sciences at Brandeis University. Their exuberantly noisy pop songs draw inspiration from pioneers of weird The Flaming Lips and pirated cassettes of videogame soundtracks that Gavin made for his sons. In 2011, the Boston Phoenix dubbed them one of the best new bands of the year, as they went on to open for nationally-renowned acts The Antlers and Math The Band. With over a hundred shows under their belt, they’ve played with a seven-piece string and brass section, a vibraphonist, and a self-directed choir, among others. Their penchant for joyful annihilation onstage has forced them to adopt a DIY ethic, repairing their own guitars, electronics, and hodge-podge hardware store drum set. They are currently wrapping up production on their fifth album Selfie – a poppy bildungsroman packed with sloppy synths, gritty guitars, and explosive drums – as Zane enters his freshman year at Berklee College of Music.