Passion Seeds - Zach Ziskin
By: Dominick A. Miserandino
DM) What are you most passionate about?
ZZ) I'm most passionate about good music, or at least what I consider good music, which would be great songwriting and timeless melodies. Examples would be the Beatles, early Elton John, Motown, Jeff Buckley, and so on. With the record "Release," I tried to capture that vibe of presenting an album of really strong songs and melodies that aren't tied to a particular trend or current sounding fad. I wanted to make a record that people could listen to in 20 years and not have it sound outdated.
DM) And how close do you feel you've come to that "timeless" feel on this record?
ZZ) I feel that we came really close. It was hard to tell how it would turn out, since we had no idea what the sound would be when we started recording. It sort of formed itself as the tracks were laid down, and a coherent picture emerged. I think that picture is one that lets the songs shine without a lot of studio and sound trickery getting in the way.
DM) When you write, do you write the words or the music first?
ZZ) When I write, the music usually comes first. Usually, there's a basic lyric that I come up with along with the melody--sometimes the lyric stays and is built upon; other times it's just a skeleton for the phrasing, and a whole new lyric is written. In some cases, the mood of the music just dictates where the lyrical content will go.
DM) And have you ever been stumped? Have writer's block?
ZZ) Yeah, it happens from time to time, but I never sweat it. If something isn't coming, I just put it away and come back to it when the urge strikes me. The best songs are always the ones that feel like they're writing themselves and you're just being the channel to bring them in out of the cosmos. If I feel I'm forcing something, then I'm not tuned to the right channel and I need to turn off and go do something else. I'm in a good position in that I'm not under any pressure to crank out a bunch of songs by a deadline for a record label; plus, I've already got at least three albums' worth of great material still ready to go.
DM) The entire album was recorded digitally except for the drums; why?
ZZ) The drums and bass were recorded on analog, and everything else digital. I definitely wanted analog for that because there is still no substitute for the warmth and compression that analog tape gives to dynamic tracks like drums and bass. I really feel that it made a difference in the sound.
DM) I was just reading an article that said your band's name actually alluded to something a little risque. What does that band's name mean?
ZZ) It was never intentional, but our fans have picked up on a few coincidences that they interpreted as double entendre. The cover of our record has a balloon with a squiggly string hanging off it which (according to them) looks like a sperm. The combination of the picture and the band name led some of our fans to believe that "Passion Seeds" was a euphemism for sperm. The reality is that the name is what I called my song idea tapes from years ago. I always thought of my raw song ideas as musical seeds, and they always came from a passionate place inside me, hence the name for my tapes and eventually the band.
DM) So when you first named the band, you didn't think of the implications of the name?
ZZ) No, not at all. Maybe I was being naive by not seeing the connection, but for me it simply came from the name I had given to my idea tapes. However, I'm not gonna complain if there is a kind of double meaning there that people can sink their teeth into (or whatever body part they choose!).
DM) What do you do to relax and recharge your batteries?
ZZ) Read, take road trips, go camping. Anything that allows me to turn my brain off for a little while and get out of my conscious mind.
DM) Is music your entire life, or do you have another job on the side?
ZZ) Music is pretty much my entire life. I do freelance as a recording engineer at various studios, but fortunately that job still ties into my music and has allowed me to use that knowledge to help myself when it came time to record the CD. I work engineering jobs maybe 4 or 5 days out of the month. Other than that, the music is my full time occupation.
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