Mark Zonder Interview Continuation

Mark Zonder Interview Continuation from Sick Drummer Magazine Issue 7

By: Craig Sternberg & noel Smart

 

SDM: Any chances of reforming Warlord?

Mark: The problem with that is Bill is a professor in Florida.  He teaches like an Ethics or Philosophy class, I think he has a PhD at this point in the game.  He just doesn't really have the time as much as he still loves it.  We were supposed to do a couple of shows this summer, actually, and it just got to that point where it was like, "You know how much time this would take for me to get this, playing-wise, back together to do a couple of shows?".  He also has a thirteen year old daughter.  So it was just too much for him.  He's definitely my all-time favorite musician, the guy is ridiculously talented, it's retarded.  That was the band I was in that was the "Coulda-Shoulda-Woulda" band.  Bill's so talented, it's ridiculous, and he's a great guy.  One of those guys I used to just sit there and watch play, and I usually don't do that with guitar players; it usually bores me.  He was so smooth, so effortless.  I love the whole minor style, that's what I was raised on.  But if he calls me tomorrow, yeah!  I talk to him all the time, he's just busy.

SDM: What was your involvement with At War With Self?

Mark: I just recorded tracks.  I was hooked up through Ken Golden at Laser's Edge, and he was putting out this record Glen Snelwar was doing.  He just sent me music to a click track, and I just recorded drums.  I'm fortunate enough to have my own studio, so I went in and tracked the drums, and that's it!  Nothing more to it than that.  Gig for hire.  He wanted me to do whatever I wanted to do, he just said do your thing.  I get hired to do that occasionally.  It works out well.  Never met Glen, never met Michael Manring.

SDM: On Redemption's sophomore record, you only appeared on one track.  What was that all about?

Mark: Honestly, I don't even remember!  I don't know if it was something I did in the past with Nick and he used it, honestly, I don't remember.  I think what it was, before they got the drummer, I was helping them record things or play things, whatever it was.  They sent me something, and I think he called me and said, "can I use this?", and I said, "yeah, whatever".  I pushed on Nick a little bit, and I told him I would do the entire record, but he was more concerned with having a band.  To be honest, that's not my cup of tea.  I can play that no problem, but it's nothing I would want to go out and do tours with.  It's not my favorite kind of music.  I'm not a big guitar lead for hours kind of guy.  Nick is a good friend of mine, and I've known him for a lot of years.  I told him if he gets stuck, I can definitely record your record with you, but he likes that band feel, which I totally understand.

SDM: What can you tell us about your involvement with Under-Radio?

Mark: I've known Eric for a lot of years.  Bottom line was, I wanted to start a band with my drum stuff.  So I was working with Eric, but had a real tough time finding a singer.  Tunes weren't quite going, just wasn't jelling the way it was supposed to.  We recorded a couple of things, and he just took it from there.  He went out and did his own thing, and he asked me if it's okay for him to use my songs, and I said, "Of course!".  That's his gig, not my gig per se.  It's definitely him, I just played the drums and helped arrange it.  Real nice guy though, we have a good relationship.

SDM: How did "Dead Air for Radios" and "Away with Words" come about?

Mark: I think "Dead Air for Radios" is the best thing that Kevin has ever done!  I'm hip to all this modern technology, that's cute and cool.  I think there are five songs on "Dead Air for Radios" that I played on.  This isn't an egotistical thing at all, but I think live drums make all the difference.  It doesn't matter if it was me or Joe Blow playing.  I think it's just a matter of the drums.  The thing that's cool about Kevin is that we'd sit in our studio at 10-11 o'clock in the morning and play.  Just him and me.  He had these different ideas and had definite ideas like, "okay, a little splash here, a little tom here", and some people said, "oh, well Mark Zonder isn't going to put up with that!", but I sat there and everything he said I did, because it made sense, it was his music.  A couple of them didn't make the record, but I had a couple of wacky grooves he actually wrote songs to.  There's a song called Chroma Key floating around that's a really funky groove.  That song Undertow and that Steely Dan kind of drum beat, that was me.  Kevin has his ideas, but he's receptive to other people's ideas, which is cool.

Now on Jim's thing, he just said, do whatever you want!  He had critiques, but they were very minor things.  It was a classic thing, because we've worked together so much, it was done in like three minutes.  It was easy to record.  Those things you come in overly prepared and go for the right performance.  Jim's record is brilliant as well.  I think compared to the first record, it's night and day; again, anytime you have live drums, it's another influence that goes in there.  I just adapted to the sound, the softer drums.  I think that's one of my strong points and I just think a lot of drummers don't do that nowadays.  You see some drummers and they play the same thing over and over again.  I listen to those two records all the time though, and I think the Chroma Key stuff should have been huge!

SDM: What's the latest with Slavior?  What can we expect in the future?

Mark: The new record is more focused.  What I mean by that is that I think the first record is brilliant, but it's a little all over the place.  You have to remember we were just starting off.  I think the stunning thing about this record is Phillip Bynoe playing the bass.  Not to take anything away from Wayne playing the bass, but if you know Phil from his Steve Vai days or anything else, he's an animal.  It makes all the difference in the world.  The bass is one of those underestimated instruments.  To me, if a bass isn't very good, you can kind of bury it in the background, but when it's good, it adds another dimension.

The songs are more focused, more edgy, more nice, tight songs.  Lots of tight grooves to bop your head to, great live material.  Can't wait to find a singer.  Very little keyboards, we use them a little bit, but more of a guitar thing.  Lots of air and space for vocals.  We are ready to go!  We're listening back to the stuff, and it's still holding up.  On the DVD, the song "Anomaly" from the DVD is a new Slavior song.