Interview: Austin Scherzberg of Zealot
I got a chance to sit down and talk to one of the members of Zealot and get an idea behind the band and the future of their trek. I was amazed at the origin for what the band was in the beginning to now. If you don’t know them, check out their release here.
Unwanted||Unloved
Squ1DDoS – How did the band come to be?
Zealot – I started the band in the basement of an ex-member with another ex-member. Those two never got around to actually being in the band when our first show happened. Our current drummer was a good friend at the time so he was always there hanging out and brought most of the members together. The original lineup was made up of me, a drummer, two guitar players, and a bassist all of which never played that first show (except me) as they either left or were kicked out by that time of the first show. But losing members and having other new members joining who of which had better equipment and skills was a great thing. We refined the lineup down to the core group of players who are almost all still with us today.
Squ1DDoS – Have you kept the same vocalist for both releases?
Zealot – Yes I have been the vocalist since the beginning and technically formed the band.
Squ1DDoS – The lyrics, who provides them?
Zealot – David Anderson writes the music and for learned hate Michael Gleaves wrote the lyrics along with the lyrics for Unwanted||Unloved. I wrote one song out of the album on Unwanted||Unloved.
Squ1DDoS – I was curious, it just seems that you write the songs. The passion and hate behind it. Which song did you write?
Zealot – I wrote Open Doors, Michael is an extremely talented writer. Life is one big mess so our music sorts and shows the craziness in life within the song structure and pacing, going through emotions and situations.
Squ1DDoS – Do you have any plans for touring the east coast?
Zealot – We have an East Coast run at the end of May. May 20-29th. I believe it may be longer if we add some.
Squ1DDoS – Hopefully you hit up Michigan. Is there any new music in the works?
Zealot – I believe we are. I will know in the next week. We are working on our new full length at the moment.
Squ1DDoS – Do you have a tentative date of completion? What do you think this CD will deliver for the listeners?
Zealot – We have no idea yet on when we plan to release it or when it’ll be done because we are taking our time with it to perfect it. I believe this CD will be much more relatable for listeners along with a much different sound from us. You will get parts of U||U mixed with Learned Hate, but then a totally different side that no one will think they’d hear from us. It’ll be a very cool ride for listeners. We have the East Coast tour in May, with The Cambion and The Hell I Call Home.
Squ1DDoS-What was your favorite song from your releases?
Zealot – Long Forgotten, Butch Me, Unloved, Dirt, Hate and Hope For You.
Squ1DDoS – That’s multiple. If you have to choose one, what would it be?
Zealot – Damn, that’s difficult. Long Forgotten.
Squ1DDoS – I figured by the list you made.
Zealot – Yeah it’s a ton of fun to do.
Squ1DDoS – Has there been any talk of possible signing to a label?
Zealot – We are in the market to pick up a label support, but we have yet to find one.
Squ1DDoS – I know there are a lot out there. I’d have to check into them. Who created the name and album titles?
Zealot – The band name? The album names we kind of just collectively came up with after we had a bunch collected. Then we chose which fit the best the CD’s content.
Squ1DDoS – Yeah, the band name.
Zealot – We were juggling around a bunch of names; we were also a Christian band back then. Our friend Tim Meyering said Zealot and it stuck and we stayed with it since we loved it.
Squ1DDoS – Christian, really? What happened?
Zealot – Well no one else in the band is a Christian (as far as I know) except me. The guys wanted to write about emotions and going through things in life. They also couldn’t relate to anything Christian since they aren’t. So yeah.
Squ1DDoS – I understand that. It is amazing to hear about this and know the band
Zealot – A lot of people don’t know this stuff about us, very very few people.
Squ1DDoS – Do you think the band itself is unique or?
Zealot – I personally believe a lot of our new music will be unique in ways. I believe it’s extremely hard to be unique and to stand out in our genre or in metal in general as so many bands over the years have done the same thing over and over again. We are definitely wanted to try and break the mold and stand out
Squ1DDoS – I understand. Do you have any bands you like or would love to tour with? As far as the band, what does everyone else do?
Zealot – My brothers in Sworn In, my bitches in Animal, Slaughter to Prevail, Stray From The Path, Kublai Khan, Colossus, my boys in Yüth Forever and Darke Complex. I (Austin) do vocals, David does drums, Mike plays guitar, Kevin plays guitar and Matt plays bass.
Squ1DDoS – That’s great to know. Did you try out Lanterns or Spite?
Zealot – I just started getting into Spite and they are definitely good and i haven’t heard of Lanterns before.
Squ1DDoS – When it comes to being in the band, what inspires you to keep going?
Zealot – Releasing music that people enjoy and that I enjoy and being with my friends and meeting new people out on the road/seeing new places.
Squ1DDoS – Sounds like a great way to enjoy yourself. Do you have any questions for us?
Zealot – I definitely would if I wasn’t heading to bed at the moment. But how long has Squ1DDoS been out and what made you get into doing that?
Squ1DDoS- Well in the beginning I use to own Total Deathcore. Long story short I did not like the illegal downloading of bands and I wanted to do something good. Promoting bands is what we set out to do. Then we started doing reviews. Once we started this we finally came up with a name and domain and have been doing this ever since.
Zealot – That sounds pretty cool, how is the domain going? Like is it going successfully?
Squ1DDoS – We are getting a lot of bands reviewed from mainstream labels to underground bands. Is there anything else you want to add?
Zealot – I believe that should be good besides telling anyone to buy a shirt because I have too many. I don’t have too many, I just like selling them.
