Zero Hour: “the time is now for us”
Zero Hour was quickly added to this year’s ProgPowerUSA lineup when the visas for Greek band Wastefall didn’t materialize and the band had to cancel. A bittersweet moment for Zero Hour and their fans, to be sure. But the band stepped up to the plate with typical good-naturedness, class, and exuberance.
Talking to Jasun is like having a conversation with The Simpsons’ Otto the bus driver as he channels motivational speaker Tony Robbins. Lots of energy. Lots of “Dude” and “Awesome” and “Bro.” Yes, Jasun’s enthusiasm can’t be denied. Neither can his talent. The man is a certified guitar monster and he – along with his twin brother Troy on bass, drummer Mike Guy and new vocalist Chris Salinas – are ready to storm the stage at ProgPowerUSA VII.
In this interview, I was fortunate to be able to speak to both Jasun and Troy, who picked up the phone near the end of my interview with Jasun.
BM: Is this Jason?
JT: Yeah, hey. This must be Bill.
BM: This is Bill, yes indeed.
JT: Hey, how you doin’, man?
BM: Good, doing well. How are you?
JT: I’m doin’ good, man, doin’ real good. Just staying busy, you know what I mean, [laughs], is all I’m doin’. How ’bout you on your part? That’s–I mean, I guess you’re taking care of all the interviews for ProgPower, huh?
BM: Yeah, and I didn’t even intend to, actually. I approached Glenn probably back in February or March and told him, “I’d like to do something for ProgPowerUSA this year.” He said, “Why don’t you do a behind-the-scenes report of some kind.” I gave that some thought, got with my web designer, and created the Notes From The Other Side web site. I thought a laid-back interview style would give people a chance to get to know the people behind the music. And behind the festival itself. It wasn’t until later that Glenn and Deron decided to use my interviews for the official PPUSA program. But Glenn pretty much gave me carte blanche.
JT: Oh wow! That’s fantastic. Yeah.
BM: I really like Glenn’s style and music savvy. So when he says my interviews are some of the best he’s read, I take that as a huge compliment.
JT: Yeah, absolutely, man. Absolutely. Well, really cool, man. Nice, nice, nice. Did you want me to call you, man? Is this gonna charge you a call or anything, ’cause I have free phone–
BM: It’s not going to matter either way. I appreciate that, ’cause all I have is a cell phone. We got rid of our landline when we got cable internet access. So it doesn’t really–
JT: Ok. Right on, dude. I am on, not on this line, but the other line that i could call you, and I got all this, you know I could call anywhere. It doesn’t cost me one extra cent, it’s all for the same price.
BM: If you’d like to, if you have a different phone you’d like to use, go ahead.
JT: Oh no, this one will work fine. I just don’t want you to get charged for the phone call or anything like that.
BM: Oh, that’s ok. It’s fine. Actually, I’ve got one of these cell phone plans with the rollover minutes, and I think between me and my wife, we’ve accumulated 4000 rollover minutes. We’ll never be able to use them all. [laughs]
JT: [laughs]
BM: We’ve got enough rollover minutes, we could talk to everybody in the world for a week.
JT: Yeah, exactly. I have the same plan. So, I mean, on this phone I must have just a ton of rollover minutes. So this number, what I do is I give it to my guitar students and then my fiancée has it, because she was the one who got me the phone, so there you go. [laughs] That’s how it works.
BM: Yeah, I hear ya.
JT: There you go, man. So–
BM: Well, I appreciate your time. This is real short notice, so I’m glad you worked me into your schedule.
JT: Oh, no problem, man, no problem.
BM: Tell me about your new album, specs of pictures burnt beyond. I don’t have a promo copy of your CD so I don’t know what the track listing is or anything. I know what the artwork is. I’m looking at it on your site right now.
JT: Yeah.
BM: You’ve got Chris Salinas as the singer now. I’ve heard a clip. Holy cow. The guy sounds like Geoff Tate in his younger days. Chris is a great vocalist.
JT: Yeah, he’s REALLY good, man. We’re really happy to have Chris. And I mean it’s just nice, ’cause he’s a breath of fresh air for us. In the past, we’ve always had kind of–and maybe it’s just a lack of focus with maybe the vocalist we’ve had–where, you know, Erik [Rosvold], we had, he was a great singer and just a great writer as well, and I got along great with Erik. But the problem is, unfortunately, he just–his mom passed away from Leukemia, and he just dived himself into a pretty dark time for himself. And, when we were talking to him, saying, “Hey,” you know, after a year went by and saying, “Hey, we need to get this album going.” “Yeah, this would be good for me to get out of the rut I’m in right now and just start getting things going for myself. This would be good.” And we had the music done like two years before he, you know, even had half of the album tracked. And it just got to the point where, it just felt like he was never gonna finish it. And he just was through a dark period. So we had to move on with another singer.
BM: Is that–are you talking about A Fragile Mind and picking up Fred Marshall [vocalist] for that?
JT: Yeah. And that was a whole different thing right there. You know, that one, that one, wow. I can just say that was an unpleasant experience, is all I’m gonna say to that one.
BM: [laughs]
JT: I’m gonna be as professional as I can be on that one, you know what I’m saying? [laughs]
BM: Well, there’s some good questions along these lines I was gonna ask you about, your first album–well, just the self-title in 1999, that was pretty well received. And I know it was later repackaged by Ken [Golden, Sensory] and re-mastered and re-released it as Metamorphosis.
JT: Yeah.
BM: The Towers of Avarice seems to have blown everyone away. That’s like the benchmark album. Really cool.
JT: I know. I know, yeah.
BM: Reading some reviews of A Fragile Mind, it’s like, “Huh?” You know, somehow some fans didn’t get it. Or didn’t like it. What about that album do you think didn’t click with fans?
JT: Well, I think everybody loved Erik’s vocals, for one. And Erik did bring a lot to the table on that. So Towers and Metamorphosis were definitely very focused albums. And you know, to me, A Fragile Mind has great riffing and great music about it, and I mean, I don’t–how do you–I guess the problem is, when you have something going on for that long, the focus…that was a big blur, that time period for us. I mean, because we had our tracks done for that album, gosh, I wanna say in late 2002. And then you’re waiting for your vocalist to get things going, and it’s just not happening. I mean, the CD ends up coming out in 2005, you know, [laughs] so that’s a lot of time to be just down on something. And you know, there’s a lot of great music on that thing.
BM: Oh yeah, I agree with you.
JT: And I mean, yeah. I mean, if everybody, hey, if they buy it and they don’t like it, they have the right to say whatever they want about it. Because they purchased with their money, so I don’t have anything against them in that way. And people, you know, and when they’re respectful, you know, people have just not liked Zero Hour from the beginning, and they’ve all looked to bash at us, and there’s just nothing you can do about that. You can be like, “Well this guy’s never gonna like us, and I’m surprised he’s still picking up our albums.” [laughs] But you know, and just, that’s the best was I can say it. Maybe the focus, when it’s drawn out for that long, we were in a bit of a blur. It wasn’t that–I thought we had really strong music, I know when we laid that down. And I’ve also heard many different versions of these songs, which is crazy. I mean of course you’ve got like, Erik’s version, and then there were some written versions that we were trying to put together that didn’t even go through. And then you add Fred, and it just gets to the point, you’re like, “Wow”, you wanted to get the album done, at the same time you get that sort of half done for yourself. But I can’t say that we rushed it, because we really did put a lot of hard work into that album. It just happened through so many years. And things change, you know, people were waiting for another album from us, and Fragile Mind was not an easy album, you know what I mean?
BM: In the interim period between Towers and Fragile Mind, [the band] Death Machine emerged. Was that something to fill a gap? Or was that running concurrently with Zero Hour anyway?
JT: Well, it was to fill a gap in the sense to play live. We never looked to get signed with Death Machine. It was really just an accident how that all came about. This guy just said, “Hey”, you know. He was a good friend of mine, just a funny guy, and it was just great to see. He always had a really great attitude. You know, which was something that was very refreshing compared to what we had. You know what I mean? Because, this guy was naive, but just such a cool cat. I mean, he’d go, “Let’s just go out and just barrel everyone and play live and just enjoy it.” And we’re like, we were sidelined anyway due to Erik, so we’re like, “This will keep our chops up, but also allow for us to play live.” And it was a good thing for us, ‘cause it kinda kept us sane. You know, we were waiting for Erik, and nothing happening, so you try to fill that void. And we started playing out, and people were saying, “Man, you guys should really do a demo.” And we’re like, “Yeah, I guess so, we’ll do a demo.” And then, all of a sudden, you know, people–it was being played on all the local radio shows here, it was doing really well. And also, that kind of, the music style was kind of coming, that was kind of in at the time, you know when we were doing that. And we were just out having fun. We never took it like, “Hey, you know, this is our band.” Because Zero Hour has always been our baby. You know, we’ve always love that. But at the same time, you need to have all the members feeling the same way, where you just go, you know. I’d loved Erik’s voice for so–I loved his voice, is basically what happened. And we waited as long as we could, you know? But at some point, you know, you have to go on. So I guess that’s the best way to answer that.
BM: That’s a great answer. How did you hook up with Chris Salinas? How did you guys get together?
JT: I just remember when I saw Chris Salinas at ProgPower in Chicago, the very first one. And we talked to him, and he was THE nicest guy. And then I heard him sing. I mean, you hear him sing live, and he hits everything. You’re like, “Ok, this guy is amazing.” You can tell he’s pretty smooth in the studio. He records quick because he knows what he’s doin’. You know what I mean? And he really uses, he’s really serious about his instrument, in vocals. I mean, that guy, when he recorded for us, it was the fastest of anyone we’ve ever had go in there, and he just knocked it out so easy. I was like, “Wow.” It was pretty impressive. And when we heard him sing live, we said, “Man, you know, that’s a guy we would love to have.” You know what I mean? Of course, we loved Erik, but when you saw what he did that night, and how cool he was, and how he really loved, just, he was really into doing the music, and I just was like, “Wow, this guy’s the real deal. He would be someone–” But he’s always been in Power of Omens. So when we approached him, we were going through a little, you know, we were working with other people trying to find the right vocalist. And we always said, I remember Mike said, “We should get Chris.” And I said, “Yeah, but he’s in Power of Omens. You know, what I’ll do is call Chris and ask if he can do live shows with us.” So I made the call to Chris–and you’re the first one to get all this info–but you know, I called Chris. And I said, “Chris, you know, I know you’re in Power of Omens, man, and I’m not”–And I can be really honest about this, we didn’t go in with the intention of taking Chris out of Power of Omens. We did not, you know what I mean? We just said, “Man, we have some East Coast dates that we can do, and we’ve been asked to do this festival. We need someone to live, man.” ‘Cause we already knew Fred was just not gonna work out. And so, at that time he said, “Yeah, man, I would love to do it. Send me the material.” And at the time we were working with Shawn Ames. And we sent over some tracks to Chris that he did, — it was “Falcon’s Cry” and “Evidence of the Unseen” — and I tell ya, man. You know, Shawn Aimes is a very good writer, but he couldn’t sing those songs anywhere–no one could sing those songs anywhere close to where Chris was. Chris knew how to put together the timing, his voice sounded just fluid, he added things where his voice was going higher. And it’s just nice, because he has that low end, he has a middle voice, and high. Usually singers, when you’re dealing with them in the studio, there is that problem area. It’s not for Chris. Chris can actually hit all these things. And when talking with Chris, Chris was all, “Look, man, Power of Omens is not happening. You’re like one of my favorite bands, I want to do this with you guys.”
BM: Really?
JT: And I was like–yeah, it just came out like this. He’s just all, “Dude, I’ve loved you guys. I’ve been waiting for this call for like over a year.” [laughs]
BM: [laughs]
JT: I started laughing, I’m like, “Really?” And I was shocked. So I didn’t know how to go about this. I went and talked to the guys. I’m like, “You know, it’s really strange, but Chris said, you know, ‘Hey, we should do this together.’” And all the guys go, “Well, let’s do it, because he’s the guy.” And so, because we knew we’d make a great album with this guy, and he would listen to what we–you know, that’s the problem. A lot of singers, now Erik was cool about this for sure, but you can kind of add things up from here on out. He listened to what we talking about, and then we said, “Hey man, try this.” He didn’t get it, like, “You’re not hearing it the way I’m hearing it.” You know, someone tells you, “I’m here for you guys”, and you’ll hear, pretty much just selling everything, saying, “Hey, it’s gonna have all these harmonies, it’s gonna have all this.” And we’re saying, “No, you should be doing it like this.” And he’s saying, “No, you’re not hearing it the way I’m hearing it.” And we’re like, “Wait a second, you said you’re here for us.”
BM: Yeah.
JT: “What’s going on all of a sudden, you know? I think we know.” You know what I mean? And Chris was just like, “Anything you guys want. You just let me know, because I want this”–you know, it felt like a band. It wasn’t like–I want us to put together the best Zero Hour there is, and I just love his attitude, and he’s just with us, he’s like, “let’s go do everything we can.” Before, we could never do that. We were like sidelined, you know, we’re asked to do certain tours and stuff like that, and we’re sidelined because Erik said, “Oh no, can’t do it.” Or something like that. Now, we’re all full-force and we can go do things.
BM: Holy cow, that’s amazing.
JT: Yeah, it’s really an amazing story, and redemption for us, man. ‘Cause I tell ya, this new album, you know, I’m just really excited about it. I love it, and I can honestly listen to it and say, “Oh, this is–” And you know, you can listen to certain songs and you keep rewinding them and rewinding them, like, “I didn’t get enough of that one, I didn’t get enough of that one.” And it’s, this album is truly special, and I feel it’s like, it’s got that power sort of–I’m not gonna say it’s like–it does have, everything’s gonna sound like Zero Hour at some point. Even, like, you know Fragile Mind, it sounds like Zero Hour, you know what I mean? But the thing is, it does have that vibe where you’re like, “Ok, there’s something in the air, something there, it’s just grabbing me, it’s grabbing me and it’s making me hold on and just keep listening.” And Towers was that way, and this album is definitely that way too.
BM: Cool. So it sounds like you guys have a rebirth of sorts. I mean, everything feels alive and fresh again for you?
JT: That’s a great analogy. It’s the perfect way of saying it. We are reborn, and we feel, I mean, we’re just ready to go everything again. We’re just so pumped about this album, and we’re ready to do–you know, it’s so, you know, we’re not getting any younger–[laughs]
BM: [laughs]
JT: –and we, you know, the time is now for us. And we love doing this, and we just love doing music, you know? So if we can take as many opportunities as we can, this is what we’re going to do. I love music, and obviously, this is not a genre where you’re gonna make a lot of money or anything of that nature, it’s obviously, we do it for the love of music. And we love our fans, and we love to play out. And hell, you know, I’ve been doing it for this long, and I can’t see–it would definitely be a piece of me taken away if I didn’t do Zero Hour.
BM: Oh yeah.
JT: Yeah. Hopefully you’ll fix this up. I know I’m kinda going–there’s so much you wanna say, ’cause there’s so much that’s happened over the years for Zero Hour. You know what I’m saying? So… [laughs]
BM: You can say anything you want, ’cause I can transcribe this. I don’t know if you’ve looked at my Notes from the Other Side site or not, but my interviews are basically word-for-word. Whatever you say, people are gonna read, so you can say anything you want, man.
JT: Yeah, yeah.
BM: [laughs] It’s your time to shine here.
JT: Well, if you see anything where I really need to gather my words up, if you can make me sound a little better, [laughs], I’d appreciate that. What I liked about your interviews is they flowed real nice.
BM: Oh yeah. But I don’t like to edit too much because that takes away from the personality of the person I’m interviewing. It makes every interview ready like it’s me talking. I like to keep things as pure as possible.
JT: There’s so much I wanna say, maybe I might cut into something else, that I’m saying it over again. Maybe there’s some way you can fix it.
BM: No, some of the things you’re saying are kind of preceding my questions, so we’re thinking on the same track here. That’s great, I like that.
JT: Ok. Cool, nice nice nice.
BM: Tell me about let’s say the three main albums of your career, not counting the first one or Metamorphosis, but Towers, Fragile Mind and Pictures–what comes to mind when you think of each of those points in your life? What’s the first thing that comes to mind?
JT: Well, Towers was a dark, cold time for us, because we had so many promises from labels that were gonna put out the first album, and we were selling the first album on our own, and we were doing really well off it. And they said, you know, “You need to stop selling these CDs, and we’re gonna sign you guys.” And we’re like, “Send us a contract.” You know what I mean? And then they would send us contracts, and all of a sudden it’s like, ok, we’re doing the negotiations, and we get everything negotiated verbally. But as soon as they set something in writing, it was like, it’s the same contract, maybe one thing was different, you know what I mean? And it was like, “Man, who do you trust? It’s like, are we talking to the same people who verbally were talking with us about the contract and people who are writing it? Is it two different people? ‘Cause it sure seems like it with the conversations we had. So, we were thinking, man, so at that time we really dived into our music, and it was a cold period for us, ’cause we were frustrated. Now, A Fragile Mind, to me, all I can say is that’s a real blur of a time, ’cause there was a lot of things going on with the band. And you know, my brother struggling with tendonitis, and he had to go to many doctors to try to get things taken care of for himself. He almost had to quit playing bass, and that was real difficult for me, because, well, “You’re my best friend, and I just can’t see playing music with anybody else.” I mean, Zero Hour started with him, Mikey and I. You know what I mean? And they’re the rhythm section, and with me in there, we’ve been doing this for over 12 years. You know what I mean, so it was a very difficult time. Also with Erik, and then things that went on with A Fragile Mind with Fred. It was a [laughs], it was a bit of a blur, man. And you know, I have to say this in a good way, we did that album, and I feel it was a good album, and I’m glad it’s done. Because it also makes you, it was just a chapter we had to get done so we could get this album done. You know, the way it is, and the way it’s presented, you know, I guess the best way to say it is, if everybody loves your albums 100% of the time, you just wouldn’t care anymore. You’d just say, “I can throw out anything, and this is, everybody’s just going to rush to the lines and buy it.” But and with Pictures, we have all the excitement back. You know, you do feel like–
BM: It almost feels like more, though. I mean, you have more with this album than you had with any other one before, don’t you? Now you’ve got a contract, you’ve got fans, you’ve got a killer vocalist. You’re in a different, I would say almost a better place now than you ever were before. Is that a true assessment?
JT: I would say that. I mean, when we, with Towers, I went to Ken Golden, and I said, “Look, Ken. I’m giving you first crack at this album, Towers.” And he said, “Ok.” “But if you don’t sign it, we’re gonna shop it.” And he said, “No, no, no, I will do this.” I said, “Look, you’ve gotta have the contract dialed to where everybody’s happy in two weeks, as well.” And Ken did come through, man. And that’s when everything started. And Towers sold very well, sold very well, and you know, that was, it turned into a good period for us, and we were excited to put on another album, but you know, how long it took to get that album out, that’s just that period, that just sucks the energy, man. We are in a better place than we ever have been, because it’s not like worrying about, “What’s this member gonna do?” Or, “Are we gonna be able to go play out? Are we gonna be able to jump on our opportunities?” Because this is what we’ve always wanted to do. You know what I mean, but sometimes, I remember there was a time period where Symphony X and Pain of Salvation was gonna go out, and the promoter made a call like, “Hey, we wanna get Zero Hour to open.” I mean, this tour never happened, because Pain of Salvation, something happened there, and but I also was talking to Erik. And I said, “Erik, we gotta go do this.” And Erik’s all, “Do you guys think we’re gonna do well off of this tour?” And I’m like, “Dude, we gotta go out and tour. We gotta go out and make this happen.” You know what I mean? He’s all, “I don’t know, I think the Europe thing would have been, I don’t know, I only have two weeks off from work that I can do.” And I mean, I understand that and all, and that’s great, but we went into it as a band and there’s expectations that we were gonna play shows and we were gonna go do things. And that, it was cool at the time, but as soon as it comes up, you know, “Oh, I don’t know.” And that’s just a terrible position to be in. And so, I mean, it really is, ’cause I’m like, man, we’re just trying to build the name, and someone’s holding you back. And that’s what ended up happening there.
BM: Tell me about the new Pictures album, then. First of all, have you published any track listing anywhere yet?
JT: I don’t know if we have or not, but probably not, so I’ll give it to you. It’s gonna, I’m sorry, I’m not the best with remembering titles even off our own album, so, [laughs].
BM: Well, you know what, you could e-mail that to me.
JT: Oh sure, that would be great.
BM: That way I’ll spell it correctly too. [laughs]
JT: No problem. I will definitely send it out to you, that’s not a problem.
[He did. And here it is:
Thank you for the great interview Bill and look forward to seeing you at ProgPower.
Here’s the song titles to “Specs of Pictures Burnt Beyond”:
1. Face The Fear
2. The Falcon’s Cry
3. Embrace
4. Specs of Pictures Burnt Beyond
5. Zero Hour
6. I Am Here
7. Evidence of the Unseen]
BM: Describe Pictures for me then. What is it about this that just blows you away, blows everybody away who’s heard little pieces of it? How does this differ from anything else you’ve done before? Explain the music, explain the songs, what’s going on there?
JT: OK. Right on. Well, the songs just feel really deep for me. The music, it’s really, as in like, take “Evidence” at the end, you have that song, it’s very powerful with the riffs, and everyone’s just totally in sync. The vocals, everything is very much in sync. And you get the emotion and current of dynamics in the vocals that you get from Chris, where you’re using whispers. Almost kind of a sense where you think you have keyboards on it, but its the vocals doing it? It almost gives you that kind of a sound, where it’s like, he’s doing a lot of layering in places to create so many moods. And when you listen to the album, it is kind of like Towers, the more you listen to these songs, you will hear something new. It’s gonna be a fresh listen many times over. Of course, you listen to it for two weeks, and you say, “I’ve had enough of that CD.”
BM: [laughs]
JT: I don’t think anybody’s gonna do that. Because I think it’s gonna be like Towers, because you keep listening to it and you find something new about it. “The Falcon’s Cry” is an awesome song, because, I read how it’s uplifting in the sense that you have this guy who’s hiking, it’s this old man hiking, and he’s trying to get to the top of this, you know, mountain. And once he does, he sees this beautiful view, and he just drops to his knees in awe, and looks up to, you know, if you say the sky, and just says, “I’m so happy I made this, I conquered this, even at my age, I conquered this so I could see something so beautiful. And I understand now.” You know what I mean? He understands what his life is all about, and it all kind of reflects bank. And that’s definitely more to all these stories in the songs. It’s just a real deep album. It’s a deep album for everyone, and we made sure that every single thing was strong on this album, so it’s like start to finish. You know, you always want to say, “Start to finish, man, I can listen to this, it flows, and I love it.” And that’s what I have with this. I mean, there’s just, there so much of it I could go into, because the playing is fantastic on it, and I think Mikey did an amazing job on this album. Troy always sounds great. The rhythm section is just fantastic on this one. And there’s a lot of deep, semi-strange stuff going on, but very focused. Yeah, it’s not like, “Yeah, this guy’s just grabbing his seven string just to play a seven string.” It’s really kind of dissecting and doing as many things as you can using that low B. But also not neglecting your other strings, where that guy can just be hanging on that low B all day. You know what I mean, this was using a lot more. Sometimes you using some fusion chords in some weird places, and the drums are kind of doing a power rhythm under you, and the bass is doing something totally opposite from the drums, but it’s flowing. It doesn’t sound like it’s all–it’s, if you were to really dissect it, it’s truly very technical. But the thing is, we try to make it where it’s easier for the listener, and it sounds like we play it so easy. That’s the thing. And some people, when they play technical music, they play it to force it, where you hear every jerky, like you’re on the most jerkiest roller coaster ever, you know what I mean? We try to smooth out that ride, is what we do.
BM: [laughs] THat’s cool.
JT: I guess that’s the best way I can say it, yeah.
BM: So this is, would you say this is your smoothest album, then, in terms of what a technical band could produce?
JT: Yeah, it’s pretty smooth, man. Yeah.
BM: [laughs]
JT: I would say so. [laughs] It’s pretty smooth. You know, I mean it all flows together very nicely. Yeah, yeah. So it’s very exciting.
BM: Well, yeah, send me the track list when you can. How many minutes does this top out at?
JT: I think it’s at 44 minutes, is what it is.
BM: That’s great.
JT: Yeah, we, unfortunately for us we don’t get the biggest budgets in the world. [laughs] But the recordings sound amazing, sonically, because we put a lot of–it’s either, you can have 70 minutes worth of music, and the sound will suffer on all ends–you won’t get like the best drum tones, you won’t get the best guitar tones, or things like that–or you can do 45 minutes worth of material and just give the best in all areas. And for us, it’s always about the sound. And we go in and just dissect everything, making sure everything has tons of separation where you hear the drums, everything’s separated from the toms, bass drums, snare–you can feel it in your system. On any system for that matter, you could take it on any system and you’ll get a nice even play. The guitars are separated, the bass is separated and the vocals, with the harmonies and everything have the right effects. It’s, Dino Alden is the man.
BM: Well, you know it’s not about minutes anymore, really. Because I remember some albums in the ’70s that were like 30 minutes long that were absolutely killer, you know?
JT: [laughs] Exactly, you know, that’s what I remember too. You know, I mean, there was some great material. And I’ve always been a fan of when I hear something, and you know, the guys poured all their energy into that 29 minutes rather than just drawing 80 minutes for the sake of having 80 minutes. It does show through, where you can say, “That one wasn’t necessarily needed to be on the CD.” And I like it when they put all their energy into 29 minutes, and you can tell. You’re like, “Yeah, that was well thought-out. That was 29 good minutes right there.”
BM: I don’t know if you recall the KISS albums like, Dressed to Kill or something was like 29, 28 minutes. That was a great album and it still holds up. [laughs]
JT: Yeah. Isn’t that crazy? It’s just amazing.
BM: And they released two albums a year. Remember when bands did that?
JT: Exactly. [laughs] I mean, every six months it was like, “Another album? I didn’t even know about this.” I mean, but yet there were some great albums. And on a totally different note, you know, I mean, I cracked up when it becomes a minute thing, because they say, “Oh, everybody, everybody wants 60 minutes or this or that.”
BM: No, they don’t.
JT: And then you come out–and not that I’m a fan or anything like that, but I respect them–and you know, you’ve got Linkin Park out there, their album was 36 minutes and it sold more than anything out there. [laughs] It was crazy, I was like, “Wow.” I couldn’t believe when I saw, it was like 36:33 or something like that? I’m like, “Wow, and this thing has sold how many copies?” And I haven’t heard anybody say, “I think it’s too short.” That’s why I’m all about The Dillinger Escape Plan. They put out EPs, and you can tell when they put out EP’s, they throw everything into, if it’s 8 minutes or it’s 22 minutes, they throw everything they have into it, and it’s amazing.
BM: [laughs]
JT: Yeah.
BM: Tell me about ProgPower USA. My wife and I were there for ProgPower III. We saw you guys play.
JT: Oh, right on.
BM: How many times have you played there before?
JT: Well we played there, we played ProgPower I and ProgPower III, and we also did the European edition, but just trying for USA, you know. I miss being on stage. And this is our, we feel like it’s our home, really, because we were at the first one when this thing was being built. You know what I mean, and we went to ProgPower III where it went to the big stage, you know? Glenn was trying to put together the big festival, and the second year it didn’t sell out. The third year, it did sell out, you know what I mean. And if that show didn’t sell out, I’m sure you wouldn’t be seeing it at this magnitude, how big it is now, you know what I mean? So, I just feel that in some way, we feel a special part of ProgPower, and that’s why this festival means so much to us in the first place. You know, all our friends and fans, there’s a lot of people we love out there that attend those events, and it’s great. And I’m stoked that it’s working out well for Glenn now.
BM: Since the new CD won’t really be out by the time you play (or is Ken gonna bring some CDs along and sell there?) will you be playing a lot of material from you new CD if it’s not released yet?
JT: Oh yeah, yeah. We will be. It will be available at ProgPower. That I know for sure. That’s the exclusive place it’s gonna be available at. And, yeah, we’re gonna do–most of our material that we’re gonna do at ProgPower is gonna be the new album.
BM: Cool, cool.
JT: Yeah. It’s awesome.
BM: What surprises will you guys bring to the table from you other albums? Do you know what you might bring from Towers or Fragile Mind or something?
JT: You know, I, it’s gonna be, we’re gonna do a couple songs, definitely a song off of Metamorphosis, and a song off of Towers.
BM: Cool.
JT: And we’ll just see what happens. We’re kind of at the point where, unfortunately, we only get 40 minutes, but that’s all right. It’s totally fine, but, so we can’t–we really want to try out this new stuff, and show the new lineup. We have Chris in the band, and once we get him, you know, ’cause this is gonna be one of our first shows, too. We’re playing a couple of other gigs, but this is like, this is a big thing, and we want to come out with the big guns. And I feel the new album honestly has the big guns. Yeah, I really do. So it’s going to, I think people are going to see, the first three songs we do, it’s gonna be all off the new album, and it’s just nothing but pure energy with these songs. And it’s, and we love rocking these things out, too. We’re just gonna bring it this year. I mean, this is the year, we feel good as a band, and we’re reborn, and you know, you kind of find like, where are your opportunities. This is an opportunity for us, and we’re definitely going to make the best of it.
BM: Oh man, that’s great, I can’t wait.
JT: Yeah, it’s gonna be awesome. We’re really excited. I mean, this is good for us, because, like I said with my brother and the tendeonitis, and things that went on with Erik, and gosh, the period we had, man. It was a tough period, and I wasn’t sure Zero Hour was gonna continue. And that would have been terrible, because now, we’re gonna be doing, you know, people are gonna be seeing us for a while. And we’re gonna keep writing albums and we’re gonna keep performing live. So this is what it’s all about now.
BM: Oh man. Let me ask you a couple more things, if you have time.
JT: Sure, absolutely, man.
BM: By the way, I’m really enjoying chatting with you. Your enthusiasm’s infectious. I can tell you’re excited about where Zero Hour is at this time. It’s great.
JT: [laughs] Thank you so much. Right now, we’re, when I think about this album, I have nothing but happy vibes, dude. So that’s why you hear it out of my voice. So I’m very stoked about it. [laughs]
BM: Let me ask you, you’re an extremely technical guitarist. You’ve got these instructional videos out and I saw a clip of it on your MySpace page. Your fingers are a blur.
JT: [laughs]
BM: And when I was talking in my interview with IA, the Freak Kitchen guitarist–
JT: Oh gosh! What a fantastic player that cat is! Woo! That cat smokes!
BM: [laughs]
JT: He’s a good guy.
BM: What’s interesting, I found out, what i asked him was, his web site’s all full of these real technical, you know scales he likes to play and all these questions he gets from fans about all the tricky stuff. Do you get a lot of that where people come up to you and ask, “Now what scale and mode are you playing here? What’s this lick right here?” Do you get guys asking you, or gals, I suppose–real technical things about how you do things? Is that par for the course for you?
JT: All the time.
BM: Really?
JT: And I think you have to expect that in the genre we’re in. I mean, you have to expect that people are going to ask these questions. “What mode are you playing on? What scales? What modes are you playing? Is that string skip pattern? You know, what arpeggio are you doing, major or minor?” You know, all the questions come up. The big thing is, how do you come up with your rhythms, and how you do the time signatures, and how you interact with the drums and bass? And I would crack up. People would say, “Here’s a polyrhythm”, and they would do it for me. And I’d be like, “That’s not a polyrhythm.” You know what I mean? It’s a lot different from what you’re thinking. You can’t just take your right hand and start doing a beat here and trying to off the beat with your left. There’s a lot more to it. And you know, to me, the best advice I could give anybody in music is, just go with your vibe, what you feel. You know what you’re comin’ up with. And always try progressing yourself. You can’t just go by the number system. Like, everybody plays in 4/4. If you can count, you can do odd time signatures. I know it’s tough, and it’s not, it doesn’t feel natural, but that’s the thing, you have to overcome it, you have to do it for years to make it feel natural. And then when it starts feeling natural to you, you’re on to something. You know what I mean? And that’s just one little thing. There’s so much about being a guitar player, or any instrument that you take on for that matter. There’s so many years, and so much to bring out your own sound. Of course, take something from the players you love, but find something that is your niche, that you say, “This is my thing. I am this, I can feel it just pouring out of my fingers. This is what I’m going to show to people.” You know, making your own identity.
BM: Let me follow up on that a second before I ask you another question. Are these people who ask yo those kinds of questions, are they–how do I phrase this–are they missing the big picture? Are they focusing on too many little details? How do I phrase this? I mean, when someone listens to a Zero Hour CD, and they’re digging it, but then they come to you and say, “What are you playing at this precise moment right here? What are you doing?” kind of thing. Does that detract at all from the big picture of what the whole band is doing? Are you irritated? Maybe that’s not even the word either. But do you ever want to look at these guys and say, “Dude, just step back and let the music wash over you, don’t keep trying to analyze it.” Do you see what I’m saying?
JT: [laughs] Yeah. And I, you know, there are a lot of people, I think it is about just listen to the music. I think it’s good, if you’re trying to better yourself as a player that you ask these questions, and that you’re really actually going to apply them, as opposed to just asking. I’m sure there’s some people who ask, and they just figure, they just want to know, but then they don’t do anything about it. They’re like, “Well, that sounds a little complicated, I just don’t want to apply that.” You know what I mean? But I was a person that, when I went to some of my friends’ houses–there’s many, many amazing guitar players out there. And the thing is, you always want to gain some knowledge from them, and you take that knowledge and make it your own. That’s the best thing you can do, is that if you are going to ask these questions, then don’t do exactly what they were doing, make it your own. Because that’s what’s going to make you the player. And also, it is about the music. Listen to it and feel it, and if you’re in a band, and you want to do something like that, don’t just keep listening to all these other albums and saying, “This is exactly what we’re gonna do.” ‘Cause it doesn’t really work that way. We go in and we don’t have parts written out. We actually jam it out in the studio. I’m like, “What do we got, guys?” ‘Cause that really makes it as organic as possible, ‘cause we thought about that before when we were writing riffs and stuff like that. We were like, “Wow, we have a riff here, and do the drums have to follow this way, or does the bass have to follow this way, but let’s just go in.” And my brother might throw down, and all of a sudden he hears a sick bass riff he’s got, and then Mikey starts kind of following, and I’ve always been really good where I can layer something on top of that. You know, and it can be three totally different parts. And it’s just an organic process. And I think that’s where you get a really exciting album, and also you get a little of the voice from every single member, not making yourself the only voice in there. You know what I’m saying?
BM: [laughs] Yeah. There’s a follow up to that. I’ve got a couple questions I’ll ask you, man, I could talk to you all night long. But I don’t want to take up your time.
JT: Oh, no problem.
BM: Here’s the followup to this. What do you find more challenging, as a guitarist of your caliber, creating the next cool, speedy, clever riff? Or creating something that’s slow and soulful that just comes from the heart? What is more difficult for you at this point?
JT: Wow, that’s crazy. I mean, right now, I’m just not going through any writer’s block, so you know, [laughs] I don’t have any problems right now. But I have had that in the past. I think when, I think you go by the feeling of what you’re feeling. You know, it’s good to have excitement, and that, when you have the excitement, you want to build something great. You know what I mean? ‘Cause it does take a ton of energy to do an album. So you wanna keep that positive vibes going. And there are days where you’re gonna feel, where you’re down, and it’s kind of funny, when you do feel down and things, you can come up with some really nice melodic, clean passage, or something that you put together into a song. And I guess how we just kind of go about it, I mean, luckily we found solace in each other. Now, we have had periods where it’s harder to do. I guess we don’t know, because we never know what to expect or what’s coming next. There are time periods where you come to a part, and you’re like, “All right, we don’t have the right thing.” And I think it’s for both. At times, it’s really easy to come up with the ideas, because you’re all bouncing off of each other. But when you’re stumped, you’re all stumped. And it can be on a slow part, it can be on a really technical, fast riff. It could be on so many things. So I think all of those have their challenges at times, where you have to keep working on everything you do, whether it’s technical, whether it’s melodic or something very slow, has a groove to it where everybody’s in sync, because technically, a groove is when the band’s in sync anyway. So I mean, I always hear people say, “Oh, that’s a groove, man.” And I’m all, “Well, a groove is when everybody’s in sync.” That’s what it is. It isn’t about a loose thing and everybody’s–there are so many technical ways to go about it, I guess. But it can be anything. I think it’s good that when you come to those parts, and then you find something that does work, that makes it the best, because you weren’t settling. Because we don’t settle. that’s the thing we will not do. My brother and I are completely honest with each other and have many fights over it in the studio [laughs], where Mikey thinks he’s gonna have to break something up. But that’s the beauty about Troy’s and my relationship, we can be 100% honest to each other, and we’re better players for it.
BM: Oh yeah.
JT: Yeah.
BM: Do you guys have–not you guys–do you have a favorite song off Specs? Is there one that just absolutely blows you away?
JT: Wow. You know, [sighs] they’re all pretty darn good, man. You know, “Face the Fear,” the first song. That’s a rad song, you know. “Falcon’s Cry,” you know, that one grabs me all the time. There’s so many emotions where I get the chills from that song. And that’s a song that people will have to listen to a few times, because there is so much going on. You might not–
BM: Is that the one with the guy climbing the mountain?
JT: Yeah, exactly. And then “Evidence of the Unseen”–what was that? [talking to someone in the room with him]
BM: I was gonna say, where did that song come from? Where did you come up with the idea for the lyrics?
JT: Bill, actually, you know, my brother would be the best one to ask on that. You know, you want me to give the phone to him real quick? [talking to his brother] Troy! You know, about “Falcon’s Cry.” Why don’t you tell him about “Evidence” and things too. Hold on, Bill. Here’s my brother, Troy.
BM: Cool, thanks.
[Troy Tiptun gets on the phone]
TT: Hey, what’s goin’ on, man? [laughs]
BM: How you doin’?
TT: Doing good, man. How you been, man?
BM: Doing well.
TT: Awesome.
BM: You know, I was just asking Jasun about, he’s really grooving on the songs on the new album, and I was asking him, where did they come from? Where did “Falcon’s Cry” come from? Where did you get that idea?
TT: Yeah. “The Falcon’s Cry”…what happened is actually, it’s a kind of a–well, I’ll try to keep it kind of a short story, in a way. I was out in Oregon, writing with Shawn Ames on this song, actually. And we were like looking for something to get inspired, and what we did is, in Oregon, they’ve got so many, obviously the mountains are beautiful.
BM: Oh yeah.
TT: So what we decided to do was drive up this, you know, huge mountain that had no path to it, and it’s where a lot of trucks go, where they chop down you know, huge trees and strap them in and bring them down. Well we decided to go up there, only it took a while to get to the top. And finally, when we got to the top of it, we got out of the car, and we’re going to the edge, and we’re really afraid to get to close, because obviously, it was a long drop down. It was so weird, but it makes you feel, but you’re just in awe of the view you see. And you hear the water running and stuff, and it was just gorgeous. And then so what we did is we started proceeding back down the mountain. We went to this place, and then we decided to work actually on the second half of the song, which is where it has this clean section with this bass line that’s all in sevens. And I started singing, “At last I can see, at last I can breathe,” and we started from there. So we actually wrote the end of the song first, and then went back to the front. And how the song basically is, I think Jay mentioned earlier, an old man basically, he’s getting up there in life, and this is something he used to do all the time. And he wants to just prove to himself, even at this age, that he can still do this. ‘Cause this might be the last time he can do this. So he, at night, he hikes up this huge mountain. And basically, you know, there’s so many predators out there and he has to like battle through that to stay alive, and it’s cold, and he’s tired, and then he makes it all the way to the top at the end. And it’s daylight finally. And he just drops to his knees and raises his hands to the sky in awe of what he sees. And below him, the water runs, the falcon cries. And that’s actually, yeah, that’s one of the lyrics from it.
BM: You know what’s interesting about that, Troy? Is that depth of emotion doesn’t often go with a technical metal song, does it?
TT: [laughs] Yeah.
BM: That’s brilliant. That’s great.
TT: Right on, man. Right on. Yeah, it was really a cool experience, cool writing experience. And it gave things a new twist, you know, and I really dug that a lot. Basically, when you can take a real experience, but then make a story out of that, you know, putting a fictional character and a different twist to it, obviously with an old man. You know, just his time’s running out, and he wants to do this one thing, experience this one thing again. And it kind of reminds me, honestly, my buddy, he had his dad, you know, has Parkinson’s. And he used to ride motorcycles all the time, and he was really shakin’ bad, and he decided to buy a motorcycle again. And he drove it up this huge, you know, he used to make this huge round through the mountains and stuff. And he did that, and he just wanted to prove to himself that he could do it one last time. And the same thing. When he did it, after he got to the top and he made it up there, he just cried.
BM: Oh man.
TT: He just poured down tears, and he said he was just happy he could do it one more time, you know?
BM: Oh god, that’s intense.
TT: [laughs] It’s pretty crazy, man. And that song, that song when you listen to it, you will definitely feel it. You will definitely feel it, so it’s really cool, man.
BM: I’m looking forward to it.
TT: Yeah, man.
BM: Let me ask you one more question, then I’ll let you guys go. Which band–you’re familiar with the lineup this year at ProgPower, right? Do you know who’s gonna be there?
TT: I know some of the bands. Epica we played with out in Europe before, but this was when they were called Sahara Dust at the time.
BM: [laughs] Yeah. Well, it’s Evergrey, Jorn, Mercenary, Epica, Freak Kitchen…
TT: Yeah.
BM: Is there a band you guys are most looking forward to seeing play there at ProgPower?
TT: Hmm, I always, you know, Evergrey’s a great band. So they’re always cool to see. Freak Kitchen’s a cool band, you know, he’s just a great guitar player. It will be interesting to see Epica, because when we saw them, you know, they had not released an album yet, and so now it would be interesting to see how far they’ve come at this point, ’cause they sounded really cool when we first hear them. We were like, “Oh man, this could be really cool.” [laughs] You know what i mean?
BM: [laughs]
TT: Yeah, Pyramaze, we’re really interested in seeing Pyramaze. Lance King sounds great, so yeah, that’s one we’re really looking forward to hearing. And Mercenary. When I first saw them at ProgPower IV, I happened to go to that, and Mercenary was really cool. I was like, I thought they were one of the strongest acts on that bill. So there’s a lot to be excited about. I’m just saying, it’s kind of funny,it’s going to be a good ProgPower, I think.
BM: Well, I’m looking forward to seeing you guys. I mentioned to Jay earlier that my wife and I were there at ProgPower III. So we got to see you then, and it was great.
TT: Oh! Right on, man!
BM: With this new album, and Chris Salinus, we’re stoked. I’m telling you, we just can’t wait.
TT: Yeah, we’re–
BM: I don’t think Jasun could be any more excited, could he?
TT: Oh no, man. [laughs] We’re all like doing back flips, you know? We are really stoked. It feels like we’re bringing basically, I’ve described it where it’s like Metamorphosis, Towers of Avarice and [Power of Omens’] Eyes of the Oracle all together, you know what i mean? It’s just like with Tower moments and stuff, it’s really cool. But definitely with something new, because there is a new energy and a new life in the band. So we’re really excited. And we’re really gonna, you know, bring our best to the table when we perform. I feel we’re a stronger lineup than we’ve ever been, so it’s gonna be really cool.
BM: Well, this is great. Man, I appreciate you guys’ time tonight. I know I kept you on the phone a long time–
TT: No, man.
BM: –but I appreciate it.
TT: You conduct a great interview, man. It feels like it just goes by like that, you know? So [laughs]
BM: If I have any followup questions for you guys, can I send you an e-mail and ask for some more time?
TT: Yeah! Absolutely, man! Send it our way. So yeah, you know our e-mail address. So, totally!
BM: Cool. I appreciate it, Troy. Thank you so much. Tell Jasun thanks for his time.
TT: I will. Well cool, man. We will definitely see you at the festival, man! We’ll come up and see what’s up and hang out and have a beer or something, you know?
BM: That’d be great. We’ll be backstage taking some shots and talking to people, so we’ll be able to see you at some point along the way.
TT: Sure, sure man. Looking forward to it, man.
BM: You’re a great bass player, by the way.
TT: Thank you.
BM: Fantastic.
TT: [laughs] Thank you so much, brother.
BM: Take care.
TT: You take it easy, bro. Later.
BM: You too. Bye bye.
Jasun and Troy. A double shot of unbridled enthusiasm. I was on cloud nine for hours after that interview.
Zero Hour’s official web site is www.zerohourweb.com. Their MySpace page is www.MySpace.com/zerohourband. The official release date for Specs of Pictures Burnt Beyond is October 10th, 2006 — although the word is Ken Golden will have copies on hand at ProgPowerUSA VII.
In the meantime, Ken Golden’s fine LaserCD.com site is the perfect place to stock up on CDs by Zero Hour.
