Interview with Dan Weyandt
by Fay Jakymec

They are breaking up. They are not breaking up. Dan is leaving, Russ is leaving and Jesse is doing vocals. Only Russ is leaving and then suddenly Jesse is being replaced. They're evil and they hate God and people.

Anyone would be hard pressed to find another band active in the Christian genre that has had more rumors spread about them than ZAO. And this summer the rumors flew thicker than the dust at Cornerstone. Let's face it, the Christian music scene isn't exactly known for pushing the envelope, or for even being out there, so what happens when a band comes along that does those things? The good old Christian rumor mill starts churning. Want the truth? The real truth? Then forget about what your best friend heard from his buddy's sister that said her boyfriend knew a second cousin of Jesse's and thought that he was leaving. Forget about the rumors spread by frustrated hardcore kids who can't play guitars to save their butts and read on.

ZAO has survived some massive lineup changes, and still continues to put out albums that are light years from where they were on the last one. They've put out honest songs that perfectly describe the struggles in the Christian life, like "A Dark, Cold Sound," "March," "Autopsy," "I Desire the End," and also songs about devastating events, like "A Fall Farewell," "To Think Of You Is to Treasure An Absent Memory," and "If These Scars Could Speak." Yet they have also been bashed for some of those songs, because "God could not be in a song like 'A Dark, Cold Sound,' that has a line like, 'the root grows deep in my heart / a dark cold sound tears at my life / over and over...' Or could He? To some kids who realize that life is not holding bubble gum sticky hands and skipping in a circle while singing "Jesus Loves Me," these songs perfectly describe where they're at.

Stop listening to your buddy's sister's boyfriend who knows a second cousin of Jesse's, and read on for the complete and honest truth about ZAO.

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"There have been a lot of rumors going around that this is the end of ZAO...is that true?"

"As far as it goes now...no. We recorded our last album with Tooth and Nail. As of right now we're not definitely signed with anybody but we got an offer from Century Media. They put out Crytopsy and all that stuff. Right now we're kind of looking into that. We're just trying to find the best way. Jesse has a wife and kid, and I have a business that I run so it's trying to balance the band out and not have it negatively affect our personal lives. As far as right now...there is no plan to break up or anything."

"Are there going to be more lineup changes or is this a more stable lineup?"

"We might add another guitar player. As far as right now no one is going to be leaving...no one is going to be replaced. We might have...there is a local band called Subsist from around Illinois, and they have a guitar player named Brian, and he might play second guitar with us. That will probably be it."

"Are you guys going to be touring more frequently?"

"Yeah, we're trying to do a week a month. My busiest time are the weekends, and before what got really hard for me, and why we canceled shows is that we ended up getting like three weekends a month set up, and that's when I make money to more or less pay for my shop...take care of expenses and things like that. We're trying to work it out and do a week a month, so that I only miss one weekend, and we can get out for seven or eight days. You can get pretty far in seven days...tour out pretty far. So right now we're working on doing a week a month."

"...the venue got cancelled like the week before, and he wanted us to play, and he never told us that, so we showed up and we played in the kitchen of a pizza shop, and we didn't even make enough money to cover gas."

"Is that mainly why you guys have been missing shows?"

"Yeah, well, what happened is we had a couple people booking us, and there was a lot of communication problems, like shows would get set up without me knowing about them, and then like I would have a convention or an appointment set up already, and I just wouldn't be able to do it you know? Like things would get set up without people knowing...things like that, and then as soon as I would find out about it I would try to cancel them. And now we're setting up our own shows for the time being, and we're trying to keep the communications open so that doesn't happen."

"I've heard a lot of 'Oh, ZAO, they're not going to show up...blah, blah,' or whatever. Do you think that has negatively affected the band? I think that kind of goes along with 'Trashcan Hands?' Am I right?"

"Nah...that was, uh...we drove twelve...ten hours to play a show – and it was only that show and another show – so I left work, Jesse left his wife and kid, and we drove ten hours. What happened was the venue got cancelled like the week before, and he wanted us to play, and he never told us that, so we showed up and we played in the kitchen of a pizza shop, and we didn't even make enough money to cover gas. Then we kind of talked to the promoter...we said 'Hey, when you bring bands out here you have to make sure, man, because, you know, this isn't like we came thirty minutes. This was ten hours, and we lost money. Jesse has to provide for his wife and kid, and I need to at least make a little bit of money so that when I come home I can make up for not working.' So we talked to him about it...if you're going to promote, be a little more professional. And then a bunch of kids got on the internet – and wouldn't leave their names – and said that...we could crap in a bucket and it would sound better than us live, and other stuff, and that we're cocky and stuff. And we didn't even really get an attitude with the kid. We just said, 'Man, if you're going to be like booking bigger bands and stuff you need to like come through with your bands.' And then they just like trashed us all over the internet. And when we tried to talk to them they wouldn't. [The song] was just like the thing of gossip on the internet, and how it's faceless. It doesn't take a lot of spine to...and a lot of it too is I don't think a lot of people...we get labeled as being cocky a lot, and I think all of us are like willing to do whatever, and I mean...sometimes like I'm a space cadet, so I think sometimes that's taken the wrong way.
"Like tonight, we came twelve hours just to play a show and then drive home...we just like to play. It just got really frustrating, because we really gave up a lot to play, and still people said that we're cocky and that we don't care about the kids, you know? And it's just like...it's not really about people in general...it's more about two people."

"How do you think all the member changes have affected the band, and the fans' perception of the band?"

"I personally think that everything...every album that we've done – each one we're happier with. When we did Liberate we liked it better than Blood and Fire, and this new one we like leaps and bounds better than anything we've ever done before. The only real member changes have been...I mean the last real member change was Brett leaving. I've been singing now for three years, and Jesse's been drumming. I played bass for awhile...we just try to always be out there even if we can't make it. I'm sure it all affects us negatively, but we're trying, you know? We're a bunch of disorganized goofballs...that's about it."

"...I was so in the church at the time, I was literally just sheltered. I went to church three days a week, I was going to go to Bible school...No, like, outside world affected me at all, and then when we started touring and stuff, and I got kicked out. It's like a lot of the outside world kicked in, and I realized that I was kind of living in a shell."

"Was it intimidating joining ZAO, as they already had a pretty loyal following before?"

"Yeah...I was really into them actually, so it was very nerve wracking. I was in a band that we played our first show ever with ZAO, and I met them....that was before All Else Failed came out. I was there...I wasn't there when they got signed, but I talked to Jesse after they figured out that Tooth and Nail was going to sign them, and I was just like amazed. It was cool, though, like when I joined it was me, Brett, and Russ, and Jesse, so I joined along with two good friends. So it wasn't quite as intimidating, because it was like a whole new band. It was almost like three new people against one. If it had been just me joining the old band by myself it probably would have been a lot worse."

"Were you hesitant at all of what people would say? Because your vocal style is a lot different than Shawn [Jonas]'s, and so are your lyrics."

"Yeah...I had put money down to go to Bible school, and I quit three days before I was supposed to leave, and I joined the band. Me and Russ, we both had our money like down and stuff..."

"You have said that with Blood and Fire you felt more pressure to write like Shawn – more ministry oriented. And then with Save Yourself From Hell...that lyrical approach kind of changed. What made you decide to do that?"

"We broke up for awhile between those. I was a pretty new Christian when we did Blood and Fire, and, like, I went to church three days a week and stuff, and right when we started Blood and Fire I got kicked out of the church because of tattoos, and they were just totally not cool about it. I just went on the road and met people, and I just got much of a...I was like militant back then, like I didn't listen to secular music. I don't know...I just kind of didn't feel like my writing style is this...I don't sit down and say I'm going to write something...something happens, or something is on my mind really heavily – sometimes the only way for me to deal with it is to write it down. For me a lot of times my walk has become much more of a...not an angry thing, but much of a...not angry, but like laid back. I'm not quite as angry, as in a spiritual sense, and it just kind of like...I started dealing with a lot of things. I think I was so in the church at the time, I was literally just sheltered. I went to church three days a week, I was going to go to Bible school...I was like literally in church every day. No, like, outside world affected me at all, and then when we started touring and stuff, and I got kicked out. It's like a lot of the outside world kicked in, and I realized that I was kind of living in a shell. That's not good, because I was literally separated from everything. I mean that's not necessarily a bad thing, in a sense, but I mean I was like in a fantasy world I guess. I don't know...I just started dealing with a lot of things I was upset about. I mean I had....a lot of the stuff on Liberate is panic attacks. I was having a lot of problems. Like Blood and Fire, I mean, I was like that's when I was still in there a lot, that's when I still had a lot of zeal. I started having a lot of panic attacks, and that's why I think Liberate is kind of dark, because a lot of that was just like me writing about dealing with panic attacks. And then there's a song about my mom. Having a lot of panic attacks, too, brought it into a new light, and, I mean, there's a song about Savannah...that kind of stuff. The new one actually, there's a lot of like...there's two or three like love type songs...actually like broken heart stuff. I got hurt really bad. I had like a really bad relationship. I dated someone for like years and...I mean there's a song on the new album, it's called 'The End of His World.' I listen to a lot of Nick Cave and Johnny Cash murder stuff, and I was like 'I can write a song in the vein of my heroes.' It's just kind of a senseless murder song. 'At Zero'...I mean, it's about being at zero, realizing you need to focus on your walk more...just like waking up one morning and being like, 'I've kind of let things get out of control a bit,' and trying to get better before I die, and trying to not be like that before I die. I can like write well, but I can't speak well...you know what I mean?"

"Yeah."

"I'm not a very good speaker. I can't explain myself very well, so I don't say anything on stage. I would watch videos of myself, and I would be like...I would be embarrassed. I would be by myself and be like 'what was I saying?' I would blush. I'd be sitting there by myself and be like 'I'm a complete retard,' and I was just like 'I'm never saying anything again.'

"You did tonight."

"A little bit, but nothing long-winded, and not enough words to make myself look a fool."

"I just think it's become a formula...play four songs, say a little something. Everyone claps and makes all the non-Christians feel stupid, and you play another four songs and have an altar call. And it's like if you don't do that you're not doing the right formula, and people say that God's not in your album..."

"Is the name of the new album 'self-titled?'"

"Yeah."

"Okay, because people have been saying that it's 'Alive Is Dead...'"

"Well, we were going to call it Alive Is Dead, but then the Juliana Theory put out Emotion is Dead, and it was kind of like 'umm...' Actually, Tooth and Nail....originally the name was going to be All My Heroes Have Fallen Except For One, but then Tooth and Nail said all of our album titles are too long, and they wouldn't let us name it that. Then we came up...it was a joke, because 'Alive Is Dead' meant 'ZAO is dead,' because 'Zao' means 'alive' in Greek, and we thought that was appropriate, because at the time that's what was going on. But then the Theory came out with Emotion Is Dead. I mean...we hadn't talked to them about our record, and they hadn't talked to us about theirs, so it was like... We're friends so we didn't want to be like 'Emotion Is Dead,' 'Alive Is Dead.'

"And Rob did not play on the album, but he's touring with you guys?"

"Yeah. What happened was he had recently just come back, and we were like...it sounds weird, but we were having an intense writing process. We wrote...the first song on the new album Scott and Jesse wrote in the car on the way down with their mouths. That's the first new song we played tonight, and it was just in the vein where Scott was writing guitar so he knew what he wanted to do on bass. So instead of like trying to teach it to Rob – just because of how rushed we were with recording – we just thought it was easier to just have Scott do it, and teach it to Rob later to play. He knows everything now, though. If we do something again he'll definitely be on it. He literally came back like three weeks before the studio."

"The whole Save Yourself From Hell controversy thing – with the lyrics and pictures – what was all that about? I don't read very many other 'Christian' magazines, and I knew that they edited versions, and I've read a few reviews that have said that 'God wasn't in any of your songs'...and all that..."

"Well, first, the name of the album...we wanted to name it that, 'cause it's a thing from Event Horizon, and they came up....we had nothing to do with the Dantes Inferno thing – that was like a whole...Tooth and Nail like made that. People were like what's the five levels and stuff? You know what that is? That's just some engineer did that. We had nothing to do with that. We didn't have a lot of creative input when it came to that part of it. And like I was talking before, I've just been writing like what I've felt that I should, and I've just been realizing a lot lately. What kind of bums me out is the whole Christian scene, and everybody...everyone is so into not putting God in a box, and not having a religion that I don't think they realize that the scene can become a religion, because they expect every band to be the same thing, and they expect, like...I think they feel like if you don't say something from stage nothing is going to happen, and it's just to the point where like...I've been reading a lot of Oswald Chambers, and he talks a lot about if you worry about other people's walks a lot, and, like, worrying about other people to the point...it can personally affect your walk, and I just got a much more relaxed view. I just think it's become a formula...play four songs, say a little something. Everyone claps and makes all the non-Christians feel stupid, and you play another four songs and have an altar call. And it's like if you don't do that you're not doing the right formula, and people say that God's not in your album... We met a kid tonight that at show a couple months ago said he got saved, and we didn't have to say anything, you know what I mean? Just the fact that we put an album out – that got him there – it got his buddy to open up to him, and, like, that's what I mean...everyone says that God is so powerful, and that you can't put him in a box, but people think that if you don't say something that you can't [do something.] Know what I mean?
"I think that all you have is your common sense. I mean, you have the basic guidelines of the Bible, but when it comes to actually doing things like that, all you really have is how you feel, and your conscience, and your convictions, and I mean, I'm not going to do something just because I feel that's what people want, you know? I'd rather put out an album that some kid goes, 'Man, I really related to that song.' It's just such a ridiculous theory anymore that people think you're not going to do anything unless you're...Maybe God just wants a couple of kids to have a good time and realize that a Christian show isn't going to be a big uncomfortable thing. And we really got bummed...another reason we don't say as much as...it really started making us mad that when you say something about Jesus everybody claps. Not that we're not glad that people get excited about it...but you look at the kids that are there and that aren't Christians, and it's just like they literally feel 'this big.' I mean, I don't want to win anybody by making them feel insecure and stupid."

"Why do you think ZAO has lasted for so long?"

"I don't know...I mean, we've lasted not much longer than any other heavy band in this genre, like Unashamed, Strongarm...Look for any other hardcore stuff that came out when like Splinter came out, and there's really nothing. I mean there's not really many bands that are still doing it. I just think that we're all like...I think part of it is like childhood dreams, and part of it's just like...I have no idea. [laughs] Like, you know...hey, maybe it's God. Even though we don't say anything, and we don't talk about him in our songs, maybe he still likes us."

"Why have you been giving out the new album...like, I've heard that you guys have been throwing out copies at shows. Why have you been giving them out already, and do you think that's going to hurt sales?"

"This may sound not nice, but we don't make any money off of sales, and it's not really anything to us. I mean, I've literally never made a penny off of our records, and I've met kids that think we live in big houses, and drive nice cars, and stuff, and think we're making all this money; and like the only money we make is at shows. We don't make anything off of our records, and we just... None of our records have ever been pushed...you know? We'll like get an ad in HM, and that's it. We're trying to at least put it out there...so at least people that don't want to buy it can listen to it. Kind of create a buzz a little bit...'hey, they put out their album.' Already it's on Napster and stuff. We're just trying to accomplish it ourselves a little bit, because we really have really no other help."

[Ed– Dan Weyandt left ZAO a month or so after this interview...]

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