Interview with OneSideZero by David Lee Wilson

It is a little sad when a band can be singled out as "intelligent" but lets face it, Rock music is generally pretty dumb on its face. Not that big, dumb Rock music is necessarily a bad thing it is just that it is nice to get something more significant than "Baby, baby, baby" or "Die, die, die" now and again. Here is something of that minority of intelligent Rockers who not only manage to string universally coherent sentences together but who have mastered the art of emoting as well and the combination is nothing short of brilliant.
ONE SIDE ZERO were conceived and birthed in Los Angeles where artists of every kind gather to craft the bulk of the entertainment industries products and this fact is not at all lost on the members of OSZ. There is a sense of seasoned showmanship and mastery of pace to both the group's stage and recorded presence but there is also an infectious impulsiveness that ignites a charge at every strike of a chord or spit of a phrase.
"IS THIS ROOM GETTING SMALLER," the group's Maverick Record's debut, is instantly recognizable as something infinitely more solid than the calculable pomp-pop inflicting the airwaves at present. Sure, all is on the edge of explosion during the playing of this disc still, there is an underlying confidence that if things do come apart the members of OSZ will know where the pieces are going to fall.
Jasan Radford, ONE SIDE ZERO's Rock Laureate singer/lyricist/front-man, phoned in during a lull in touring and offered some insight into the group's workings and to explain how they became the perfect meld of brain, brawn and heart.

You are at home and about to play a big show tonight, I am told. Is this a big show because a lot of people will be there or big as far as the "industry" aspect of Rock and Roll?
Well, both.(laughs) Every time that we play in LA it is "back home" so it is always huge for us and we have been on the road for nine months so yeah, this is a pretty big one for us, pretty crazy really.
When you say, "at home" is this where everyone in the group is from originally?
Yeah.
Mom and Dad, Sister, Cousin and everyone else shows up?
Of course!
I can imagine that it is a little different playing in front of people who know you intimately opposed to people whom you have never met?
It is definitely differently to play Los Angeles compared to, I don't know, Pocatello, Idaho but since we have been on the road for so long everyone seems to know who we are especially because of the Internet.
That and people are probably starting to glom on to you because of your touring with Ozzy.
Yeah, people are checking us out because of that and we have really been lucky enough to get some good tours. We have been on the road with 311, INCUBUS, SEVENDUST, STATIC X, ADEMA, SOULFLY so we have been up there with some pretty big acts and people have got to know us a bit. We have been playing in front of four to six thousand people every night so I think the word has spread a bit through these people.
How long has the record been out now?
Five months now.
And you were obviously touring before it came out?
Yeah but we originally had a different release date which I think was September, 20th or something and then we had an August date as well and our label decided to bump it back a couple of times while we were on the road and then it ended up coming out in November while we were on the road with INCUBUS.
Wow, that must have been hard, everyone's interest was definitely elsewhere after Sept. 11, how could it not be though?
Oh yeah, definitely. Our first date with 311 was on September 11.
Did you actually play?
No, no. Our first date was in Las Vegas and no one could get in or out and it was kind of a ghost town, it was very surreal.
Well, you had all of the hookers to yourselves at least.(laughs)
Yeah, that's right.
Well, this record of yours was written long before all of that and it is still an incredibly emotionally driven record, how did you manage to convert all of that inner turmoil to a recorded product? And then, was this the same record that you had in mind to make before the powers that be at the label got to it?
Well, thanks a lot for that first of all. You know, we signed with Maverick because they had a reputation of staying away from the artist and just basically "let the artist be the artist" and that was the biggest, most important thing. We had watched the DEFTONES career and they have such a hard core underground following and that was what we wanted to so it was perfect. We were always a very melodic band but we were much harder before we wrote the album. There was not so much screaming, I always sing, but there was a lot of heavier things going on and I come from a Punk Rock background so that is where a lot of my lyrical phrasing comes from. We wanted to write the most honest record that we could write without concentrating on being honest, if that makes any sense. We didn't want to have any pre-conceived notions of who we were or anything like that and we were given this opportunity out here in LA that not a lot of people get here and there really are so many good bands here and so we wanted to go in and write a very honest record that lets people know what is really going on with us an we feel that is what we got, it really happened.
With all of that thinking about not thinking, how long did it take to write the record?
We wrote the first nine songs in about a week and a half. This was in pre-production just sitting there and playing and playing and we hadn't really had that opportunity before to do that, to be where you are not paying someone by the hour for a rehearsal room so we just sat there and played. For the most part the lineup was very new-ish, I mean we were only about a year old with our bass player and drummer, if that and so it was still a learning process for us, that helped actually. That year of playing shows and building the fan base and then just going in and writing as honest as possible was it. Lyrically, everything was written about things that we have all gone through either individually or collectively, it is all real stuff. We kind of look at the album as twelve days in someone's life from start to finish so all of that emotion is real. We didn't try to go out and be a STAIND or something like that, you know like "Sad-Core" or something.(laughs)
Hold on, "Sad-Core?"(laughs)
(Laughing) Yeah, I heard the term coined recently, "Sad-Core." We really didn't try to go out and be that per-se we were just trying to be honest. I can't relate to anything else other than myself and now that I am out touring, sure, there are other things out there going on, other things that I can relate to and that have influenced me in life in general. Now that I have seen more of the country than I have see before it is easy to relate to other things. There is a lot of stuff out there to draw inspiration from.
When you say that the songs represent twelve perspectives of "someone" are you really saying twelve perspectives from you specifically?
Of me or in the band. There are things that everybody can relate to though. The song, "Awake" is about the insomnia that I was going through at the time. You know, along with the gift that we were given there was also responsibility and pressure and so I was going through this insomnia thing when we were writing and recording the record, I mean, I just couldn't sleep. One of the things was that I was so excited to be going into the studio to do it and I was twenty-eight and I had been doing this since I was twelve so to actually finally have the opportunity was equal parts excitement and pressure and that is the story behind "Awake." "Shed the Skin" was when there were things going on with the band where we were a little frustrated with the music scene. There is like no scene in Los Angeles so it kind of felt like a fresh start for us and the whole band related to that . We don't write the lyrics collectively or anything but everyone draws inspiration off of it. We are so lucky though because we write so well together and you don't see that a lot, usually it is one person that writes either everything or a majority of the stuff and we have been lucky enough to really gel. I try and relate the songs to what they feel, to what is going on in their lives. Here is a prime example, for Christmas we wrote a song for one of our guitar tech's about something that was going on in his life. It probably won't ever be released and maybe it will end up on the Internet or something because everything always does but that was for him and that is how we write, real stuff for us.
Is it more often the fact that you have a structure for a series of words that express an idea that the other guys fit music around or is it that they will bring a song to you for lyrics to be added to?
When writing the lyrics, I also play guitar in the band on a lot of songs so we have three guitars which kind of sets us apart from everybody else as well, but when writing the songs I kind of just vibe off of what they feel and if they are into an emotional thing, I will just sort of start humming. For instance, we are working on a new tune right now that is really cool and I look at it like a kind of "Inside Laugh 2" because it is kind of that weird vibe, kind of emotional and hooky, but I just go with the vibe of it. If it is feeling aggressive to me then sometime my aggressiveness may be in a passive/aggressive kind of way and I will write something pretty over the aggressive part. It has got to be real and I write to them what I feel emotionally, at first, then I will ask them if they liked it.
You do get pretty deep on some of these songs and I know that you carry a good amount of personal ballast from your own life but are their just some things that you never ever want to touch? Where do you draw the line between what is for public or fan consumption and what should remain personal?
That is a good question, I have never been asked that before?(laughs) I think music is there for everyone to take and make their own impression of their interpretation of it anyway. What I might say, what I may be relaying to the world might get taken differently than the way I meant it so I don't know that I would need to put any boundaries on it. For me this is a sort of therapy. Obviously we have all been adolescents and some of us have gone a little further than others with their lives but with my life there is stuff that will come out and if people get it they get it and if they don't or manage to form their own impressions then that is cool. Some of the best things about music that really drive me are things that make me think like the lyrics or just anything where I can go, "God, I wonder what he was thinking." That is what feels the best to me, art is left to your own interpretation.
Has it happened that a kid has come up to you with an interpretation of a lyric or a phrase even that was just so off that you corrected them about what your intent was?
No. Yes, kids come up to me through our message board on our web site, there is a whole portion devoted just to that really, "What is your favorite lyric and why?" I trip out on all of that really. I remember when I was a kid and I watch my brother who is fourteen years old and I have watched him grow up and at eight or nine years old he was on the computer and downloading things and all that but when I was his age I had no Idea about computers, they were those big old gray things in elementary school. I look at kids now and how smart they really are at sixteen and seventeen years old they are relating to songs like, "Tapwater," "Throw your life away and it will still come back in the end if you still believe. . ." and they are relating to all of that, they know what it means. For me it was about dropping everything in my life and starting over and rethinking how I was going to live and it is personal but these kids are relating to it. The single that we are running right now has the opening line, "It is suicide but something is missing. . ." and some kids take this as an anti-suicide warning but that is not necessarily what it means. I am glad that they do because I have a brother that passed away because of suicide and this song was written years before that happened but if some kid takes it that way and they relate to it that way, more power to them, I hope that it gives a positive message. As far as what I meant in the song it was more about doing the same thing and expecting different results. It is that feeling like, "I am killing myself here, I am going back with this girl and I know it doesn't work. . ." it is that kind of thing. Drug addicts going back to drugs when they are trying to get clean, alcoholics, you know that kind of thing.
There is a good deal for the head in your music and the emotional connection is obvious but do you plan it that way, are you trying to make an emotional connection through a deeper lyric rather than through a scream or a distorted vocal?
I never try to consciously hit somebody. I don't want to be a preacher because I think that there are too many people trying to portray a message, be it positive or negative, so I wouldn't say that I am ever, "Hey, here is the point, or the message that you should get" but I am just as willing to say it is cool if it happens naturally but then again, does it happen naturally? That is a hard one to answer because you are thinking about what you are writing about and you are thinking about feelings. As I have been traveling on the road I am even more conscience about how things effect people, I do remember the things that are said and I do see how things effect people so I guess you do think about it a little bit but like I said, I don't write to "get them" or to make them feel a certain way, I just share my life and if it does happen, I guess that is cool. I don't want to sound like, "Oh it all happens naturally" it is a hard thing and we are just being honest and trying to relate where we come from and hopefully people can relate to that.
"I have been there and this is how I felt," that kind of thing?
Yeah, like I said, we have all been adolescents and I guess that we were an older band and would relate to twenty-one year olds and up and I never thought that we would be relating to kids that are fourteen to seventeen years old. Maybe that was my own ego or something but those kids are the ones getting it and are out there talking about it going, "I relate to this because I was thinking about suicide and this song really helped me out" or "I was going through a relationship and "The day we Lied" really helped me out." All of these things really happened and it is just so overwhelming to us because we didn't plan any of this. All we tried to do was be honest and it is just mind-blowing to us, the reaction.
It is interesting that you would have mentioned STAIND earlier because that was exactly the kind of vibe I got from this record. I remember when I first heard and saw STAIND I thought, "This isn't going to be for the kids but it is very cool" and then I turn around and see that the kids were the ones best equipped to understand the depth of emotion. It was arrogant to think that they couldn't in the first place I suppose.
Yeah. It is a very beautiful thing.
OK, from that to this before we have to go, have you met your label's mogul yet?(MADONNA owns OSZ's label, Maverick)
No, we haven't.(laughs) But, we did meet her brother.
Oh, the guy she dissed in her movie?
Yeah, but not Madonna actually. We have been in the office when we have been in there but we haven't quite had a chance to meet her yet.
She hasn't called you in to give you the "Go team" speech yet?(laughs)
No, I think you have to get to Alaniss status to meet her.
In all seriousness I have heard that she is actually very involved in the running of the label and so I would guess that she is well aware of who you are.
Oh yeah, yeah, that is the word that we got too. Our drummer worked at Immortal Records before we got signed so he was kind of like our guy on the inside and when these labels started coming to us we asked a lot of questions and with Maverick we asked, "Does Madonna even know or is she just the money behind this thing?" And I guess she really is hands on with her company. She was supposed to come out to one of our shows in New York because she was doing press at the same time but her press ran over and our show started so she couldn't come but the Vice-President came.
You have already scored some tour time with Ozzy but you are going to do it again this summer with the Ozz-Fest. . .
Yeah
How did you manage getting so much tour time with Ozzy?
Well, Jack Osbourne has always been a real big supporter of ours out here and it is kind of weird but he really has got a lot of pull. He has always been involved in the second stage, he sees all of these bands and it is like, his friends are Rockstars, they are all in bands. He has always been overly supportive of us and I am not sure how it came to be but Sharon just called our manager one day. I had the benefit of meeting Sharon once at a benefit thing and had some pictures taken with Ozzy and I was just like, "I can't believe that I am standing next to Ozzy!" He is such an icon and it was like, "Is this a wax sculpture or something?"(laughs) He is such an icon especially with the TV show and everything. "THE OSBOURNES" is definitely my favorite TV show now.
That show is so fucking cool!(laughs)
Yeah, it is. Meeting them and talking with them, you can see that that is really them on the TV show, that is really how they talk to each other. As for Ozz-Fest, I have been looking at the lineup and the bands that they are all picking are all a lot more melodic this year, there is a lot more melody coming into the show and we are really lucky to be in on all of that.
Are you doing the European Ozz-Fest dates as well?
We are hoping to but I am not sure what is going on with that yet.
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