Onesidezero

By: Rei Nishimoto

It takes real commitment to keeping a bandafloat. It takes a solid group of people and hard work to keep thesound fresh and making sure the fan base continues to grow. Despite thestruggles Onesidezero had been through, the members made sacrifices tokeep the dream alive. Through various lineup shuffles and businesssetbacks, the band has found ways to keep playing and reaching newfans. For nearly a decade, the band has always found a way to havetheir music heard.

They began in Los Angeles in 1998, buildinga strong fan base across the Southeastern US through strong liveperformances and creating melodic rock songs that fans connected with.

They signed with Maverick Records and released their debut CD, Is This Room Getting Smaller?,in 2001. They followed this with tours with 311, Zebrahead, Static X,Soulfly, and SOiL, plus a live appearance on HBO’s Reverb with LinkinPark.

Things appeared to be going well for them, throughlanding strong tours and their name was getting out into the public.But problems with Maverick Records arose and the band requested to bereleased from their contract.

Onesidezero played sporatic showswithin the time off, with various members taking time away from theband. Frontman Jasan Radford and guitarist Levon Sultanian joined upwith former Soulfly members, guitarist Mikey Doling, drummer RoyMayorga and bassist Marcello Dias to form Abloom.

Abloomgained attention quickly through the rock press, but difference ofopinions led to the band’s premature demise. But in 2004, the bandreunited and began working on new material. They signed with CorporatePunishment Records in 2006 to release their long awaited second record,Onesidezero in June 2007.

Since that time, guitaristBrett Kane briefly left the band during the writing of their latestrecord. But he recently returned to the band replacing their otherguitarist, Levon Sultanian, who recently left the band. The band spoketo Blistering.com about the new record, the struggles through theirmusical journey, and surviving despite the lineup changes over theyears.

Blistering.com: What’s Onesidezero been up to since the debut release?

Rob Barile:Wedid the record. We did a lot of touring. People broke off for a littlewhile and did side projects. We started doing that a little bit. Thatkind of subsided. We started writing again with the intension of doinga new record. Then Brett [Kane, guitarist] left for a little while. Wedid the new record [Onesidezero] after Brett took off. Brett wasinvolved in a lot of the writing process, but Levon [Sultanian,guitarist] played on the whole record.

Blistering,com: Was there ever a point during the time off that Onesidezero would never resurrect ever again?

Jasan Radford:It’s one of those things that we talked about briefly earlier. Weworked really hard to get this thing done, so you don’t want to quitbefore the miracle. You don’t know if there’s a miracle about it…whenyou get a taste of it, you want to see what’s next. We didn’t feel thatwe got the full what’s next. There were people that believed in what wewere doing. So that’s what kept us going.

Every day, we’relike ‘are we kicking a dead horse?’ Then, all of a sudden, you startselling a few records. You get out there and tour, and then you getthat show. The tour does well and then ‘maybe not.’ There are peoplewho are still identifying with this and you come out with somethingfresh and people who supported the new record. Whether we do is biggerthan that. We did what we had to do. We put out the second record andnow we’re lucky enough to start thinking about the third record, whilefinishing this. To answer the question - every day [we think about it].We’re not getting any younger. We’re watching our friends succeedand/or fall. It’s constant.

Blistering.com: Jasan, you werein Abloom for a while. What did you learn from that experience? It wasa different band with different players and very different music thanwhat you must have been used to.

JR: I think that was thebest break that Onesidezero could have had, or for myself. I broke outof a mold that I was stuck in as a vocalist and as a writer. Workingwith people in a genre I wasn’t used to. I don’t know metal or hardrock at all. It expanded my mind. Working with Shavo [Odadjian, Systemof a Down bassist] and Mikey [Doling, Invitro guitarist] and these guysthat are all about this – this was something Levon actually was tryingto do a lot that I fought against forever. Working with other peoplethat weren’t so close and weren’t in the family, opened my mind to alot of stuff. I think it had me have the ability to think differently.

Ihad a great time. I met some really cool brothers. For me, it was a bitmore personal and selfish. It made think about things a little bitdifferently as a singer that wasn’t so caught in the box. It’s likewhat you said about the first record and things seemed so same. I wasstuck with that. I was stuck with the way I was comfortable.

Blistering.com:The songs on Onesidezero capture a wide array of sounds, from up temporock songs to slower songs. There’s even a faster metal song that isunusual for Onesidezero! Was that part of you breaking out of thecomfort zone?

JR: All of us in a way. When someone’s reallyinfluenced, if you’re not used to doing what you’re going to do, thenyou have to change. I couldn’t go up there and sing melodically and bethat guy on a song that was all riff metal oriented, because it wasn’tworking. With all of us, we tried to make it as close as theOnesidezero thing and feel that way. But yeah, I think that’s why itsounds different. It’s also where we’re at. We did consciously all sitdown, when Bret was involved with it too. We didn’t want to have a onestyle thing. We said let’s just write. Let’s write whatever happens andrecord and let it flow.
RB: I think in another aspect whereit was huge also was we were lucky enough when we were touring the bigtours to get dropped into everything from mellow, cool vibe-y Incubus,to balls-to-the-wall Soulfly. We were able to pretty much pull offboth. We could go out and open for either one. We would switch it upand literally sometimes go in from directly a mellow thing right into aheavy thing. For me, it’s hard to play…especially when you get to knowthese bands…it’s hard not to be influenced by that too. For me, playingwith Soulfly every night, it’s like a fucking steamroller. I think wetook little pieces of that individually too. Playing with that kind ofpower, it transfers into you, whether you want it to or not.

Blistering.com: You’ve had the revolving door ofmembers, where everyone’s left at one point or another. Do you feel youhave a bit more stability on that end?

JR: For touring, yes.We have a unit that we could go out and do a tour. As far as therevolving door of members, you never know. Personalities andlife…life’s changing so fast and everyone’s getting older. Our bassplayer’s [Cristian Hernandez] not here today because he’s dealing withstuff. It changes so fast. As far as being on the road, we finally havea unit that needs to go on the road, or is willing to be on the road.

It’sa hard question because you have to give up a lot to be on the road andbe willing to do this. The three people that I would say have been hereall along – Rob, Cristian and I – we really got tight and it’s afriendship that the three of us have never really experienced untilgoing through this. As far as that, we found it. The fact that Bretcame back, all of the pieces that made sense, fell into place, andfinding a stand in to come in and join the band. I think we finallyfound what it was that needed us to be able to the job that we weresupposed to do all along that we weren’t able to do all along. It’shard to say. Who knows what tomorrow holds for anybody.

I’llput it this way…or bass player left [on tour] the day of hisanniversary. That’s a big fucking thing. His first yearanniversary…that shows where it holds and stands for us.

Blistering.com:By getting back on the road, you’ve been off of touring for a while. Doyou find fans that are reconnecting with Onesidezero where they werefans a while ago? What kinds of reactions do you get?

RB:The funny ones you get are “whoa! I thought you guys were dead.” Therewere people that were really surprised and didn’t know. We just playedColorado Springs a few months ago. The day after we played there, wegot a Myspace from some girl who’s like “I’m so bummed. I didn’t evenknow you were together, and I see you on the marquee the day after youplay.” So there’s a mixture. Some people have remained true and alwaysstuck around. There are the people we’re picking up that are brand new.I’m sure there are some that have gone away. That’s the other thingabout being on an indie. We’re not gang blasted over MTV. We don’t haveall sorts of press going on. Stuff like this, and being out on the roadis the only way to reach out again.
Brett Kane: And keepmaking good music. Good music will keep people coming. It happens witha lot of bands too. They make different albums and try different kindsof things. Sometimes it’s a revolving door.

Blistering.com: Something you didn’t get to do last time around is tour Europe. What’s happening with that?

RB:We had a tour all lined up. It was being booked. Some of it wasconfirmed. Our headliner, who we will leave anonymous, ran into somethings and we were unable to do that. But that being said, our Germanlabel, Tieff-Druck Musik, was working really hard at it, and seeminggetting cool responses. So they’re working right now on another one forus to get us out there before summer.
JM: I want to playLennon Live. It’s on the HD Channel. All of the bands that are comingthrough Europe…it’s like Reverb, except for London. It’s awesome. I’dlove to get out there. If we get out there, we have to work that out.It’s the victim of the industry right now. It’s not anybody’s fault.The headlining band, I’m sure is just as bummed, or more bummed than weare. We’re bummed we’ve never been [to Europe]. We’ve had theopportunity once before to go to Europe and our label said no. We hopeour day will come. It’s nobody’s fault. It’s the circumstances of theindustry is right now. It’s hard for everybody. We happened to be thevictims of it, because we’re the low man on the totem pole. But we’llkeep going. For us, we’re not going to Europe. Let’s start doing theStates.

Blistering.com: Have you just toured the entire US or just the West Coast?

RB: Probably five times over.
JR: There are very few states we haven’t been, like Montana, South Dakota, and Alaska.
RB: We’ve done it several times.
JR:To go back to the question you asked earlier, you asked about meetingpeople that either remember or forget…it definitely sets your mind. Theperfect example is Burger King taking the Whopper off in thecommercials they’re running about the Whopper. That would be this - outof sight, out of mind. You take it off, and they’re freaked out. Butnext week, if the Whopper’s gone, then it’s gone. So we never soldplatinum records and shit like that. But we do have a core group offans that keep us going and what keeps us going with hopes that maybewe’re reaching new people. Sometimes you get it. You play a show andall of a sudden, 16 year olds are hitting you up on your Myspace.They’re the ones who’re willing to go into Best Buy and hang out at themall and buy your record. Still there’s a little bit of that. It’s backand forth. It really is. Yes, people forgot.

Blistering.com: You got more airplay on KROQ (LA radio station) this time around than the debut?

JR:Wewere the “Catch of the Day” a lot on the first record. We made numberthree for a few weeks. “New World,” the single that supposed to startthe record and “Instead Laugh” was going to be the big push over. Withthe label not pushing it and the things that went down with Maverick,but Kat from KROQ got our back on this record 100 percent. Fell in lovewith the band and really pushed us. A lot of it is relationships. It’speople believing in us. We did get more airplay and we’re appreciativebecause it’s Kat…and Stryker. Stryker gave her the CD, because he knewit would fit for the Locals Only kind of thing. We weren’t comingstraight out of the box. There was no money to be put in. There’s nopush this single. There’s no major label to push it.
RB:And then we fell in love with Kat. Then she added us to KROQ LAInvasion, which was cool. We ended up headlining the second stage,which was awesome.

Blistering.com: That exposure must have helped a lot.

JR:You know what? Rebuilding is rebuilding. We got a taste of it and we’regrateful for it. So there’s no animosity. The fact that we go on tourand there are people at our shows on tour. I’m reading emails frombands that are like ‘how are you touring? Could you give me someinsight?’ We’re able to do it naturally. It becomes something that’seasy for us to go on tour. There’s nothing that’s stopping us. That’s abeautiful thing.
RB: The funny thing, along with that is thatour whole touring experience has been 100% backwards. We started inphat ass buses and now we’re doing vans and RVs. But the cool thing isthat there are no attitudes. It’s cool. We make our van into our bus.We get along good now. Obviously, any one of us would give anybody apart to be lying down in a nice, giant bus. But we’re still out theredoing it.

www.myspace.com/onesidezero