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Tim Zimmermann / Blog

Oh my darlin'

I remember when I used to write blogs. Or blog entries rather. Some of them are kind of funny. Either me whining about something on the road or babbling about some bullshit whilst writing a song. I think they're funny anyway. I'm right there now. I know I need to write something. I can feel it. Like this little monster in my chest trying to crawl up my esophagus. But about what? I have this one thing that's kind of this gypsy spanish flamenco thing. Then I have another thing that's more kind of happy-ish sounding. I like both. Or something different? I have folders and folders of ideas I have yet to use yet none of them quite seems to fit. I'll know when it hits me, and I won't be able to explain why or put into words exactly what the thing is gonna mean. Really that's what the song is there for anyway so I'll probably do that. t-minus 2 weeks til we play live again. 4 til we record the live tracking for the new album. Boo-yah. Well, that's it for me for now, night night. TZ

11/28 - Destiny Beside the Great Divide Story

Hey everybody, I hope you've all had a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend. There's honestly nothing like a huge meal amongst friends and family. Actually most of the people I see at Thanksgiving is a select group of folks whom I only see on Thanksgiving, so really I get to see these people grow older one year at a time. It's amazing to see how some people stay the same and others change, neither of which is a bad thing! Anyway, I'm finishing up my final month in New York City, and though I love the big apple, maybe more than any other city, I cannot wait to get back to Nashville and start playing again! We have a good set of dates coming up, first thing in the new year, 2011. You can see that schedule at the bottom of this letter. We'll also be starting some contests soon in which you can participate on Facebook (www.facebook.com/zaszmusic) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/zaszrevolution)! These may span from some Trivia contests to telling others about Zasz, in exchange for prizes of course! I'll give you all an update on that in the beginning of December in a separate letter. Last, I'm happy to present to you the written tale of Destiny Beside the Great Divide. It is presented as a short story, and as some of you know, is just a part of a four part epic story. Please enjoy, and listen along with the song by the same name: "Today I awake like any other day. In these lands, twilight pays a constant vigil on fields stretching for miles in any direction. When night falls and the sounds of war subside, I am left with nothing but thoughts and fleeting memories. As I stand, the onlookers cast their attention to me, with stares of confusion, anxiety and unrest. Fight to live another day, kill to fight again. No idealists here. No crusaders to speak of cause to be won or territory to be gained. I am no different than these poor souls. We only fight because, in reality, that’s all we know. They just haven’t managed to cut me down yet. I doubt they ever will. Definitely not today..." Read the full story here: www.zaszmusic.com/destinystory.cfm Thank you once again for all of your continued support, and we can't wait to see everyone in 2011! Please keep updated with our schedule, and if you'd like us to come to your hometown please let us know! All the best, Dan, Tim, Word, Amanda, and Sean Zasz

10/16 - iTunes/October Update

Hey everybody, This Fall is really turning out to be a fast paced time full of preparations for the new year. We're currently working hard on new developments for Zasz including a revamped live show. We'll be posting our upcoming 2011 dates very soon! Big Update: Destiny Beside the Great Divide is now available on iTunes here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/destiny-beside-great-divide/id397828162 . Please, if you haven't already, purchase a copy on iTunes and leave a customer review telling us and the world your thoughts! Pass it along, and share this! Check out this review from The Mag, a music e-zine in the UK: Zasz burst into life with this refreshing fusion of pop, indie and jazz. Destiny Beside The Great Divide is a technically excellent, sonically diverse and stylistically displays a positive musical incarnation of dissociative identity disorder... See the full review here: http://www.the-mag.me.uk/Music/Articles/Item/Zasz-Destiny-Beside-the-Great-Divide/ Also, an interview with Zasz here: http://ventsinterviews.blogspot.com/2010/09/zasz.html You can now find us on thesixtyone.com, a great way to listen to and discover new artists. It features an extremely user-friendly interface, with a mainstay being high res background photos and the ability to favorite tracks. It's a fun site! Check it out here: www.thesixtyone.com/zasz Also, have you guys heard of Grooveshark.com? It's pretty controversial in the music industry right now, with Universal Music Group throwing a fit about it's copyright infringement. However, I tend to think that it's a fantastic medium for music discovery and playlist creation. Essentially, you can search for any song you like at any time, and listen to it in its entirety without paying a cent. This is different from Pandora in that with Pandora, you're incapable of picking which particular song you'd like to listen to. Now... This is essentially what Napster did back in 2001, however with Grooveshark, the music isn't produced from your hard-drive, rather streaming from external servers. Still copyright infringement... If Grooveshark were simply to track the plays on their site and to properly allocate advertisement royalties to the artists and companies they're allowing to stream, everything would, theoretically, be fine and dandy... Oh well. I still use it every day, and it's a fantastic tool and, in my opinion, is part of the future of the listeners. You can now listen to Destiny Beside the Great Divide for free on Grooveshark, and I, nor UMG is gonna hunt you down for it. Make your playlist, and enjoy your tunes. Check it out here: www.grooveshark.com and search for Zasz Please also take the time to look at and share this video. It is a compilation of clips from our shows over our most recent summer tour, which we are now using as our demo reel. It portrays our performance of The Sound that Brought the Barrier Down over 9 different shows. It's a cool video! Watch it, comment, and post it up on Facebook. Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QOJgeeRTOQ Again, if you haven't already, pick up your copy of Destiny Beside the Great Divide below or on iTunes for $5. Your contribution helps us keep working! Follow us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Zasz/6982074903) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/zaszrevolution)! Please help spread the word about our project. Your support is endlessly appreciated. Best, Dan & Zasz

The Mag UK Destiny Beside the Great Divide Review!

Heya! Check out what the Mag said about Destiny Beside the Great Divide!

Zasz burst into life with this refreshing fusion of pop, indie and jazz. Destiny Beside The Great Divide is a technically excellent, sonically diverse and stylistically displays a positive musical incarnation of dissociative identity disorder.

'Thirteen' provides the surprising starting place, opening with an odd intro that really suddenly blooms into a complex and tight song with funky guitars and indie-shine.

If you want things more traditional, 'Goodbye To My City' is the shimmering clever-pop follow up to this first track. It has a strong melodic thread with lots of vocal interplay to spice up the chorus. This song is like something off of Delays' 'Everything's the Rush' album.

'Destiny Beside The Great Divide' is the title track, the main thread of the story and the start of a four-part rock epic, with Zasz planning three more albums to complete the tale. The song is chilled and emotional with a soft melody, which is reminiscent of Radiohead's Thom Yorke.

I'm not sure about 'Michaela', which perhaps a bit too much of a cliché, which isn't to say it's a bad song, just a bit soggy and overwrought.

'The Sound That Brought The Barrier Down' is much more sparky and fluid, layering keyboards and guitars in a flurry of notes that generate a chaotic backdrop that gets tamed by a solid and colourful drum beat.

~ Michael Beck, The Mag www.themag.me.uk

I'm all smiles :)

TZ

July 11th - Detroit, MI

July 11th - Detroit, MI, Token Lounge

Well that was quite a drive, five hours to be exact. John Kay from Bat On Fire, a progressive pop metal band who ROCKS (code word for check em out), at the Token Lounge. John totally rocks at running sound, so we had a lot of fun here. Thankfully for this tired musician and his band, I accidentally bought a hotel room (fuck priceline). But, we get some r and r, eat some frozen shit in a box from the supermarket, watch family guy and go to bed. Which is exactly what I'm going to do. The latter I mean. GO NOW GET INTO THE CHOPPER DO IT NOW!

July 10th - Chicago, IL

July 10th - Chicago IL, Goose Island Brewery

Alright, so I grew up pretty close to Philadelphia and New York City. I've been up in the Empire State Building, and I was in the Twin Towers before Sept. 11th brought them down (I will always remember where I was when that happened. I'll bet you do too. I was walking into my 4th period Western Civ class in 10th Grade when I saw the first tower fall on television. But I digress.) Anyway, yeah big buildings. So I'm pretty well versed in skyscrapers and such. But the Sears Tower. Holy crap. Not only is it huge, its also angular, black and scary looking. Citadel of the Numbersmen inspiration? Perhaps. But that's still a couple records away from happening.)

So anyway Chicago. By now the heat is beginning to abate. We've gotten some rain, the pavement is steaming, things are lookin up for us in the Windy City. Right in the shadow of Wrigley Field, home of the Cubs, we walk into a nice sized brewery called Goose Island. Apparently they make their own beer and serve really great food. So needless to say, as a band on tour we took full advantage of our $35.00 bar tab. Wings, nachos, fried pickles and spinach artichoke dip

All in all, great show, cool soundmen and great bands. Crashing at Jordan's from Quite a Mob and watching Stepbrothers. What a life.

July 9th - Bloomington, IN

July 9th - Bloomington Indiana, 902's

Just when you thought he was gone. Just when you thought he was never coming back. BOOM! There he is in a beam of ultraviolet light to grace the stage....MATT FLOYYYYYEEEEEEEDDDDDAAAAA!

Ok, so Matt used to drum for us a while back, so we thought we'd take a trip to Bloomington to see the old bugger. Turns out he's rockin again with San Clemente, so what the hell, let's put two monstrosities together.

A nice day of lounging around playing with Charlie the dog accompanied by rowdy drunkenness in a super college town. Eric Radoux, a whiz kid with all kinds of loop pedals effects and electronics that turned out to be quite cool. Then we played. I found myself in front of a mirror on this one. Ohhh man for you guys that know me you know what that means. I couldn't resist turning around and messing with my stupid hair while I sang. Se la vie. So then San Clemente kicked fucking ass and the night ended with an almost fight.

That's right. Imagine it for one moment. Drunk people call San Clemente gay. San Clemente gets mad. Fighting words are exchanged. Zasz exits van in the hopes that sheer numbers will deter said drunken idiots. Deterrence plan fails, Zasz strongman Will Presley gets involved, suggesting drunken idiots go home. Slightly less drunk guy apologizes for his idiot friends, multiple times, as drunken idiot friends exacerbate situation. Zasz decides this is stupid and we are tired and we want to go home...err, Floyd's. Drunken idiots stumble down street, hopefully into law enforcements loving arms.

What a way to end a night. Tomorrow, Chicago. I've never been there. I'm stoked. In the immortal words of Wesley Willis: Rock over London, Rock on Chicago. Wheaties, breakfast of champions.

Truer words were never spoken. Possibly.

July 8th - Cincinnati, OH

July 8th - Cincinnati OH, Dirty Jack's

Uh...wait. I thought this place was in Cincinnati. Well, there's Cincinnati and we're going right past it. I'm confused. Oh well. So we're really really early to this gig and they're not going to be here for a while. This place is in kind of a run down area of town and there's not much around it. EXCEPT:

Catherines Restaurant! My favorite type of place. Hole in the wall joint run by a Grandma who cooks and the rest of the family does everything else. This particular place happened to serve Soul Food southern style, which I, a PA native, happen to like. Collards, the oft lamented bane of many a southerner's existence, so happens to be one of my favorite foods. So we hung around with Catherine and her family for a good hour and a half and then waited by the van. We actually enjoyed this time off where we could relax as the temperature actually cooled down for a change.

The show tonight was good fun. The wireless monitor system I have is kind of a pain in the dick, but it goes right along with my water with lemons routine. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Unfourtunately its kind of difficult to set up, but it gets results, and that's all I care about. Phillies beat the Reds tonight! WOOO! All in all, Dirty Jack's was a good time. Great place for music. Heading to Bloomington to reunite with an old friend tonight. See you tomorrow.

July 7th - Louisville, KY

Louisville, KY - The Rudyard Kipling

Holy crap it was hot out for this one. We are also riding around in an '88 dodge ram van with no air conditioning. Hey, nobody said going on tour was easy at first. But before you get that big fancy tour bus and the roadies, you have to ride around in a hot ass van and schlep the gear yourself.

So anyway, back to the task at hand. The Rudyard Kipling was a pretty cool place. Like a house converted into a super chill Indian type hangout. I had some bean soup, some chili and some pizza, all of which was really really good.

I have this thing I do before shows all the time. I drink ice water with about three or four lemon wedges. I don't know if it really does anything, but I really like it. Apparently lemons help you retain water. But, I digress.

We played with Our Velocity, Astor Place Riot, OK Zombie and TreeTALK. All these guys were really nice and really fun to play with. I quite enjoyed working with all of them. I actually really enjoyed this show. If you ever get down to Louisville, make sure you stop in at the Rudyard.

We made a new friend tonight too. Pat was kind enough to let us bunk on his floor tonight in the sweeeeeet air conditioning. Actually, I should say we made two new friends...Indy the dog. He certainly took a liking to Sean. We also discovered Will has quite a talent. He can belch through his ass. Meaning...he can suck in air through his ass and then expel it in a tumultuous burst of flatulence. Ah the wonders of touring. Actually, my nose is now completely desensitized to that sort of smell. Fortunes of war as they say.

All in all, great show. I want to come back here next time. Ugh. Back into the hot. It's like a felt blanket outside. Today we head to Cincinnati. Til tomorrow friends.

Final Days in the Studio

Welp,

It's been a long year or so my friends.

Since we moved down to good ol' Nashville from Philly last January (09), much has changed. It's incredible what a short year can do when you're shoved full force into a new city.

Back when Tim and I moved, we really thought we knew a whole lot about this music career. Man, looking back now we were a hundred different types of naiive.

Nashville has brought a new light onto Zasz. It's odd that we had a whole plan set forth, and in fact we intended to do a completely different album. As we began getting settled, a new story began to develop... a story that just had to be told.

This is the culmination of Destiny Beside the Great Divide, after a year and a half of hard work, much sacrifice, and the help of a heap of new friends it's finally here.

We've had the greatest opportunities to learn the music business from a real perspective. We're no longer cradled by the comfort of the place we once knew as home, and have grown to understand much more than we could have had we stayed. With our first tour under our belts, and our second right around the corner, along with the incredible talents of our newest band mates, Will Presley, Amanda McCoy, and Sean Sunderland, we feel much more competent, confident and stronger as a band.

Thus, now we sit in the studio reveling at our newest creation... Something that couldn't have been done without the time that has passed. We're endlessly excited for it, and I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that it's gonna be great.

Dan Shyles Zasz