Zero Hour Offers Exclusive Track-by-Track Analysis of New CD
Well, the guys in Zero Hour outdid themselves. Again.
Obviously battling hard to unseat Shane DuBose as The Nicest Man in Metal, brothers Jasun and Troy Tipton and Chris Salinas (3/4 of California’s mighty Zero Hour) spent the past few days typing up a track-by-track analysis of their soon-to-be-released CD Specs of Pictures Burnt Beyond. Last night, Jasun sent me the last installment via e-mail.
For all of you eager to experience Zero Hour’s blistering set at ProgPower USA VII, I think you’ll be twice as stoked once you see what Troy, Jasun, and Chris have to say about their CD (the name of the person who wrote each analysis is in parenthesis). Here’s what’s what, straight from the fingertips of the guys who created it:
Specs of Pictures Burnt Beyond is about Specific events, memories caught in time by a photo. Visualizing the dynamic changes you’ve experienced in time. As you get older your memory fades and so do the pictures.
Track List:
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
“Face the Fear”
“Face the Fear” is a song on which Troy and I got together and collaborated. This song is basically about facing your fears in life, however difficult they may be. Everybody runs into a roadblock in his/her life eventually. This song is about that. It’s about the difficulty of overcoming this fear. In two days it was dialed and ready to record. This song will always remind me of picking Troy up at the airport in San Antonio and the cool time we had working on this song. Metal. (Chris Salinas)
“The Falcon’s Cry”
While I was in Oregon, Shawn Ames and I drove to the top of these beautiful green mountains. We had to drive up this steep and narrow trail to get to the top. Once we did, we got out of the truck and looked over the edge. The view was breathtaking. It made us feel small and we were scared to get to close to the edge. After the long drive back down the mountain we went back to Shawn’s house and started working on the lyrics. We actually started working on the clean part of the song first. I started singing “At last I can breathe, At last I can see.” From there the song took shape. The story begins with an old man’s hike up to the top of the mountain. Along the way he battles predators and becomes more and more tired and cold from hiking throughout the night. Eventually he makes it to the top of the mountain and falls down to his knees in awe from the beautiful view surrounding him. He closes his eyes and raises his hands to touch the sky. As the water runs below, the falcon cries.
My buddy Manuel’s father has been dealing with Parkinson’s disease for years. The shaking got worse and worse and before all of this he use to love riding his motorcycle up to the mountains. One day he decided to buy a motorcycle so he can take a ride up the hill again. He wanted to prove to himself that he could still do it. He took the ride and when he made it to the top he started to cry. He was so happy that he was able to make that ride one more time. (Troy Tipton)
“Embrace”
“Embrace” is an exotic instrumental that includes a great mix of many structures to create its sound. The acoustic guitar chord structure gives you a Middle Eastern-vibe and is layered with a Chinese scale, harmonized with a Pentatonic that extends into an octave inversion of these scale formats. For me using these different styles into one song creates a beautiful melody that goes deep into my ears and all my attention is directed to the music. Chris brings another element later into the song with his chanting. With a song that already had so much movement, Chris brings another wave with his voice to circulate the highest point. I’m very proud of how this came together. (Jasun Tipton)
“Specs Of Pictures Burnt Beyond”
This song was actually the first to capture my imagination. Specs of Pictures is meant to be “parts of memories.” Burnt Beyond means “lost and forgotten, or maybe too unbearable to remember,or the mind blocks them out.” I went through a very difficult time in my marriage right before I joined Zero Hour. I almost lost it. That is where the inspiration for this song came about. I love the power this song puts out both musically and vocally. (Chris Salinas)
“Zero Hour”
“Zero Hour” is something Troy, Mike and I jammed out in the studio and it really wrote itself. Troy and I start out with an exotic pattern and halfway through the segment Troy bounces out to follow the drums. The 2nd to the last part Mikey follows the double muting segment that Troy and myself provide with an amazing twist of patterns that are very articulate, separated and in sync. In the very last segment the guitars provide an awkward harmony while Troy rolls out two-octave arpeggios on the bass, tapping the sixth and seventh intervals. (Jasun Tipton)
“I Am Here”
Growing up in my late teens, I discovered I had a condition. It was anxiety. I had my first attack when I was nineteen and, let me tell you, it’s no fun. You feel like the world is ending, it’s so terrible. I have struggled with this since then and dealt with it. But it was a fight. When Jasun and Troy said, “This is your song Bud, have fun wit it” this is what I came up with. Such a beautiful guitar tone and simple melody, it brought out these smooth simple vocal melodies. So I write about it and here it is. A battle I will not lose. (Chris Salinas)
“Evidence of The Unseen”
The lyrics to “Evidence of the Unseen” were written by Shawn Ames. I would say the lyrics are based on his commitment to his wife and two boys, with a spiritual connection tied into the lyrics (Shawn is very much into his religious beliefs). The impossible dream of giving the ones you love and care about most the World. To let these feelings inside drive you every day of your life by just believing. (Jasun Tipton)
Thanks again for your time and generosity Jasun, Troy, and Chris. I simply can’t wait to see these songs performed live!
