Manual Dexterity Music Zine #001

music crapzine #1

Song of Zarathustra SIgnal TO Trust Book of Dead Names

Cover: Song of Zarathustra Photo: Matt Rezac Here: Signal To Trust Photo: Jason Dickman

What is in store for the future of Signal to Trust?

Pete: The 7 inch is gonna come out. Its like our version of the band operates on more of a grand sense.

Brian: After we discover the last herd of unicorns and the cure for cancer, we’re going on tour to the moon.

Dave: Were going to tour the satellites of Saturn.

Pete: We’re gonna tour MIR. Brian: And were gonna take on the Dahli Lama, four on one.

Pete: And show him what's up.

Jon: We’re gonna play for the Dahli Lama.

Brian: He has one of those double neck guitars, like he totally rocks because he’s omnipotent and shit.

Pete: We met a couple of dudes, who live in Europe , that are really into our band, that set up tours.

I think in the grand scheme of things, maybe we could go to Europe. We might sometime in the future future like past the 7 inch and our maybe tour next year and all that stuff. And playing a lot of shows.

Jon: The point being when you network with people, the longer you start doing it, things pick up a little momentum if you keep it up, and that kind of been demonstrated by a lot of the bands we really like, Ten Grand have been around for 4 years now, you know the shit takes time.

Dave: And were like, I think were starting to find that there is people that like our band, that always help when people like you.

Pete: If people say they like your band, they want you to play more and sell more records Brian: Or they pretend to like your band because they think its cool, that works too.

music crapzine #1

Song of Zarathustra..5 SIgnal TO Trust...7 Book of Dead Names...8

I’m a fan of music.

I’m doing this zine once.

Maybe.

Things like this are for fun.

Enjoy and have fun.

Adam

SONG OF ZARATHUSTRA Interview with Travis Bos

When did Song of Zarathustra form?

Originally, March of 1997.

How many albums have you put out?

2 full lengths, 5 seven inches, a 10"/cd picture disc, a few different comps, etc...

Where did the name Song of Zarathustra come from?

2001 Space Odyssey What is Song of Zarathustra's biggest influence?

Things that don't suck.

Who makes up Song of Zarathustra and what does each member bring to the group?

TJ = guitar/vocals, Mark S.= bass, Travis = vocals/keyboard, Mark J.= drums. We all write and add opinion. Some songs certain people do more than others.

Who writes the songs, and where do the lyrics come from, are they personal or fictional?

They're generally fictional portraying personally moments. Musically, TJ and I did most of the writing and composing.

Where has Song of Zarathustra traveled to?

Most of the U.S. and 13 countries in europe.

In what country do you get the best response?

Germany. Then I would say France or the U.K.

Why did you decide to break up?

It was just time to. I think we all can agree on that.

At what point did you decide to pursue music as a career?

When you realize that, that is what makes you:music. When you live, eat, breath music, you may tend to lead more of a lifestyle that centers around just that. At least,that's how I think.

I,personally, would like to be more active as a band(tours,etc.)

What can we expect from the last shows?

Jan 11th. sat. 2003 at the 7th St entry. All ages show at 4PM and the 21+ show is at 9PM. It will be So Fox ( ex Selby Tigers ),the Soviettes, End Transmission and us. $6

What do you do when your not playing music?

Handling emails, mail orders, band stuff for a few hours a day, work, have a drink or two at the bar here and there. Random show,etc...

What kind of music did you listen to when you were growing up?

When I was a young kid, I grew up with 3 older brothers. They were 10,11 and 12 years older than me. So, I grew up on the Sugarhill Gang, Journey, Boston, AC/DC, Queen, David Bowie, Run DMC, etc, etc... Middle school,high school,I listened to metal, thrash metal, death metal, punk/hardcore, as well as goth, new wave, death rock, noise,etc...

What do you listen to now?

The same stuff, as well as brit pop, glam rock form the 70's era, hip hop...

What's worse, long drives or long plane flights?

They both suck.......probably long flights....cause you have to deal with tons of passengers...

D EC 2 0 0 2, S O NG OF Z A R AT H US TRA BREAKS U P What are you planning to do now?

Well, it depends on when this magazine comes out. It's Dec. 20th right now. I'm talking to a few people about starting a band. A few others are in a band right now.

What do you want people to remember about Song of Zarathustra?

That it all started in a living room in Sioux City, Iowa.

Was this the best band you've played in?

To date,yes. I've accomplished more and had more memorable moments with the group.

How do you feel now that its over?

Relieved and sad.

Do you think you will play in another band like Song of Zarathustra?

I hope not. that would feel really generic. It's time to try something different. I like many genres...We'll see what happens.

Song of Zarathustra has broken up before and gotten back together, is there any possibility of that happening again.

That would be obsurd. Please hit me if that happens.

Would you like to thank anyone?

Anyone who gave a damn. Thanks.

The Book of Dead Names Interview with Travis Bos • Photo by Matt Rezac

How did the Book come together?

James R. and I worked together, Andy was friends with James M. and I when we moved here from Sioux City, IA, after Song of Zarathustra broke up (for 2 years.98-2000 ). We just decded to start a band. We weren't doing shit at the time for bands.

How many members have their been?

A total of 10 What other bands to the Book's members play in?

I play in Song of Zarathustra, James and Becky played in Cadillac Blindside, Andy and John play in The Crush, Eric plays in Heads N'Bodies, and the rest are either nowhere to be found or doing thier own thing.

With people paying in other bands, how did you get everyone in the same place to record a record?

Ha,ha! It's not that easy. We broke up in 2000 so I could rejoin S.O.Z. We decided to record what we had left over, which was 6 songs. 2 years later, we decided to finish it and make it an Lp/CD (which is on Blood of the Young Records ) Is the Book a side project, or a active band?

It's not active at all. I mean, it could be if we had the ambition but, our main bands are the focus at the moment. Who knows, maybe we'll play again.

How many shows has the Book played, and are they going to play some in the future?

I have no idea if there'll be more. As far as shows we played, I dunno....We went on a U.S. tour, several mini tours, shows in town, etc... Probably around a 100 or so. Not to much.

How is writing songs for the Book different than writing them for S.O.Z.?

The style's are different, people have their own ways of explaining parts, etc..... There's the little differences. Nothing exciting to talk about though.

When people hear the name of the band what is their first reaction? "......Oh,really...?"

"Oh,the necronomicon! Hey,do you like evil dead?"

What do you want people to think when they hear The Book of Dead Names?

That it's not Jimmy Eat World.

What is the musical and lyrical influence behind BODN? Musical influence? hmmm, fast, hard and entertaining live bands, I guess.

Lyrically? I like enemies for that. They are always helpful. They actually are a good source of inspiartion.

What musical genre does BODN fit into?

Metal based Free Jazz with a Mid 70's Glam Rock feel, but not to be confused with soul or ska. It's more like ABBA really...

The track "it never ends" did you do the ending in one take, and why didn't you make it longer?

Yes we did it in one take. It started to drive our friend Eric Olsen completely nuts.

We recorded both sessions in 2 days....Thats not a lot of time to do 6 to 8 songs each session. I think adding anymore to the length of that song would seriously have damaged his sanity.

Since BODN isn’t an active band, what do you want people to remember about it?

That it was fucked up.

Signal t

Interview with Dave Storberg // Brian Severns // Pete B

to Trust

Biasi // Jonathon Warnburg • Photos by Jason Dickman

How did you guys form?

Dave: That’s the worst question you could’ve asked.

Jon: He’s not saying that because it’s a bad question, it’s just the history of this band is so convoluted.

Brian: Allow me to answer that question with a story. The story involves Pete Biasi who’s on parole in Wisconsin, for flipping over a college security guard.

Pete: Probation.

Brian: Sorry, he’s on probation in Wisconsin. I was playing in another band at the time, and he called me from the MN side of the border, he would drive here two hours to practice, and was like “Dude I gotta get back to Menonomie tonight, my car broke down I’m not supposed to leave the state”.

Pete: And I gotta go to work at the plastic factory.

Brian: And I gotta go to work at the plastic factory by 8 o’ clock at nite or something, can you come pick me up, and give me a ride, and like before the cops find out I’m out of the state. Before a cop stops and offers to help me and looks at my license and figures it out. So, I drove like all the way to the border and then like another hour or whatever to Menonomie and dropped him off.

Pete: Then we formed Signal to Trust. We had a different singer at first, and then parted ways with Brandon, who was the singer, and then Brian joined the band. That was like last May, not this last May but the one previous, so that pretty much brings us to now.

How is playing in Signal to Trust different than playing in previous bands?

Pete: Well even playing in Signal to Trust has changed, just as its gone along. It is just a little more relaxed I guess. We’ve all been playing together so long, kinda know how each other work and we are more open about offering different things up or trying new suggestions. Usually in other bands you have to get to that point, so there’s a lot of just figuring each other out and kind of testing your limits with the different members of the band and there is not really that now in the band.

Jon: Everyone has played in more than one band, so we kinda of know that everybody's different to there little idiosyncrasies, so we kind of know what to expect that way. This is the most, for me, the most people that have been involved in the creative process and its a different way of writing. When we get together and we just play until something comes out. Whereas maybe other bands we’ve been in, somebody else will come in with a song and play with the rest of the band and let them interpret it. We don’t have time to interpret anything really, because we get together and play and sometimes it works. I threw up my hands, just a couple of weeks ago and said “Does anyone here know how we write songs, cause if you do please tell me”.

I’m really frustrated and then like that night we wrote a song. Like you have these little break throughs.

Brian: I think it’s very much about knowing how not to piss each other off. What each others idiosyncrasies are and how to avoid pushing the right buttons. In some form or another we’ve all lived with each other, so we know each other intimately.

Who wrote the lyrics to Folklore?

Dave: Pretty much Brian wrote his lyrics and then the couple of songs I sing on, I wrote those lyrics.

Brian: I sing on 5 of the songs, maybe 5 and a half and Dave sings like three.

Where did you get the inspiration for the lyrics?

Brian: When I was a kid my parents were into camping and fishing and outdoor activities. It’s some thing that took me a while to reinterpret, something that belonged to me and something they raised me to do. As I reinterpreted it, it became something I was interested in, in terms like, the fictional element and something I thought I was interesting to study and take part in, in whatever way I thought.

Will future songs follow the same song structure, no verse or chorus?

Brian: Well we just recorded last weekend and we did 3 songs that are, I think sort of interim between the last album and the next LP, which we have like 7 songs written for and its some what like a cross. We’ve started putting more chorusy type parts in, but still the songs are still somewhat abstract. The songs we’re writing right now have much more epic proportion, and maybe there not choruses, there more rhythmic and repetitive, and defy a chorus more.

Jon: You get better at not stepping on one another's toes musically.

Brian: I can’t write as many lyrics as I wrote for Folklore. Not repeating the same line ever gets really intense, and hard to remember.

Pete: And Brian’s in school, he slept 3 hours last night.

Dave: Jamming 30 syllabeles into like 4 measures.

Brian: Another thing, I’m kinda of getting more interested in singing like, singing in a rhythmic way, with the music and less singing or talking my way through things.

Signal t

Interview with Dave Storberg // Brian Severns // Pete B

to Trust

Biasi // Jonathon Warnburg • Photos by Jason Dickman

When do you think the new LP will come out?

Jon: When someone gives us a bunch of money.

Dave: We probably won’t even have enough songs to record an LP until next summer.

Pete: It’s a ways off, it’ll probably be a year from now, or a year and 4 months. There’s a 4 month bumper zone from when you record it to when it actually comes out.

Brian: The 7 inch is gonna come out in the spring and they’re putting out Folklore on vinyl and it’s gonna be a limited run of 300 with hand screened covers for it.

Pete: If the record writes itself really fast then it could be sooner. It kinda depends, like if we don’t write a song for 7 months. It’s really hard to tell just how we do it, hopefully not more than a year.

Jon: Money is an issue too, it’s economically getting harder and harder to put out a record. I mean Tom, who does Modern Radio goes out on a limb for us every time. It’s just really difficult, so you gotta be patient with that aspect of it. My point being, Tom is the only guy who does Modern Radio, it’s just him, but he’s in school so, he is kind of part of the process of putting out a record. We haven’t had anyone come along and offer to release our stuff, except this kid Colin, just came along and liked our band and offered to put it out on vinyl, part of me actually thinks...

Pete: I don't think it was actually him.

Brian: Yea, I think that wasn’t Colin.

Jon: Oh it wasn’t.

Brian: It was his friend, he said.

Jon: The point is we we’re broke.

Brian: We’re hoping someone offers to pay for it Jon: We want people reading this to give us a whole bunch of money.

Why did you decide to do two versions of the cover, one for tours and one for the release?

Brian: Well I guess technically because we couldn’t get the jewel cases by tour and I have school work to do. I said that if we can’t get them printed by tour, I’m just not gonna do them and I’ll do them when we get back from tour. We wanted the CDs in time, we wanted CDs to sell.

I’m sort of a fan of handmade artwork and especially mass produced, but handmade work. I found all these great opportunities to go nuts and spend way more time than we should, handmaking like 100 covers. A friend of a friend of ours actually printed them. We assem bled them after they were printed.

Pete: It was pretty much a necessity in order to have stuff ready.

Brian: I think it’s actually something that like, the next few things we’re gonna be doing, will be hand screened, and that’s not a matter of not paying for printing or not having designs done but actually handmade artwork is really beautiful and it lends a personal feel to it.

With Folklore only being an 8 track CD that come in just over 20 minutes, why did you call it a LP instead of an EP. Dave: I think there is some discrepancy on that, I would have never called it an LP. I don’t think its an LP. Pete: What are the criteria for an LP, I have to see official documentation.

Dave: I’m sure there is no set rules. If I bought an 8 song cd that was 20 minutes, I wouldn’t think it was an LP. Jon: Was that 20 minutes Dave and Pete: It was like 24 Pete: I think it rides the cusp of being and EP and an LP, cause there’s 25 minute LPs out there. I don't know, that's a really good question.

Jon: I’ll look it up.

Pete: Yea, see what the internet has to says about EP and LP. Brian: Infact lets look up all our answers on the internet from now on.

Jon: The internet has all the answers Pete: The internet says there is no answer.

A side conversation starts with someone asking how much the EP is selling for. One of the guys said 8, the other said9. John states that you should by the record from Modern Radio, and Pete says not to buy it from Cheepo Records. This turns into a conversation about stealing it from Cheepo. But don’t steal it get it from Modern Radio.

Most CDs you can burn to are 80 minute CDs. Why do most bands choose to 12 songs that fills up only half of that time.

Dave: I’ll take this one. I mean how many bands could you really stand 80 minutes of their music.

Brian: I would follow that up with, I think a LP length, I don’t know sound wise, if I prefer vinyl to cds, but I really like listening to vinyl, cause there is a side break. I think listening to music in 15 to 20 minute portions is a much more digestible amount and then you have a rest and you flip it or change. As soon as a CD gets over 40-45 minutes, I start to tire of the sound.

Jon: I think you have to be a certain kind of band, you have to be somebody, to have an 80 minute album, to have some kind of concept or continuity to it.

Dave: Most bands put out 13 song albums with 3 hits and 10 songs of filler.

Pete: I mean just because you can put 80 minutes on a CD, doesn’t mean that you should.

Dave: Sorta like cloning, like dinosaurs, like Jurassic Park, like they were so obsessed with if they could.

Brian: I think the one exception to that, would be Can. Their LPs are edited down to fit on a CD. Their songs are like 22 -24 minutes long each.

Several of my favorite records ever are EPs. Its interesting that were talking about this because were trying to figure out to do the 7 inch.

Are you gonna do hand printed covers for the 7 inch then?

Pete: We hadn’t talked about it, there is 300 hundred of them.

Brian: I think the idea of a 7 inch is to get it out there and make it special in other ways, like were batting around cover ideas right know. The possibility of fabric covers to paper to felt.

Dave: Covers made out of sticky buns.

Pete: With the record between it, put icing around the outside to seal it, so you’d have to take the record and wipe off all the carmel, ohh that’s fucking hot.

Brian: That would be really great for the needle.

Jon: I’d throw a brick through all of our windows if we ever did that.

Pete: Yea dude, 4 bucks and you get 2 cinnamon rolls and a 7 inch. We’d have to get a big Coleman cooler to take on tour, to keep those buns fresh for 4 weeks.

Jon:

Do you guys plan on going on tour again after the new LPs out?

Pete: We’re planning on it but we’re not planning it.

Jon: It’s a really tough time to be on tour, practically, its winter, but Brian’s in school, I just started a new job.

Dave: I’m starting school.

Jon: We’re all pretty financially strapped right now, I mean we’ll recoup, but its gonna take some time.

What do you guys do for jobs or school during the day?

Brian: I go to MCAD right now and I have like a year left and I work at a comic book store.

Pete: I work with autistic kids doing behavior therapy. I have two kids that I work with now.

Dave: I deliver pizzas.

Jon: I’m an administrative assistant.

What does each member bring to the band?

Pete: Beer gut... Musically. Low frequencies.

Dave: I bring the money, I pay for everything.

Pete (to Dave): Loan Officer.

Jon: We both pay for things, come on.

Pete: Dave’s got the golden egg, I think Jon brings a real super strong rhythmic sense to the band, also like a super wider mental scope of music that punk rock or indie rock. He’s the one guy in the band that’s had some kind of music schooling, so he has a different angle that he originally came from. I mean not that he didn’t play music before he learned it about it, but he still has that where we all just kind of were playing music, playing punk rock and sorta developed from that. That’s the one thing I can say that one member uniquely brings to the band.

Jon: Pete and Dave, I think have known each other for a long time and have played together in a great incarnation of this band.

Brian: Did you say Pete and Dave?

Jon: Did I say Pete and Dave, I’m sorry, I meant Brian and Dave and they really, there’s a lot of interplay between the guitars and I think for that reason and even vocally sometimes, on Folklore, even though it may not have been intentional, there’s that kind of relationship. And Pete and I have known each other for a long time. So, you kind of got the rhythm section and the guitars and there will be times where we’ll be practicing and me and Pete kind of break off and discuss the rhythm section and Dave and Brian will work out the guitar.

Dave: I have some idea on how other bands write songs, the 4 of us I think it’s become unconscious.

A lot of time when your in practice, we will just start playing and a lot of times nothing comes out, but when they do, it’ll be things we don’t necessarily know what all of us is playing, but some how it works. I think that’s really interesting and sometimes magical.

Pete: If we work on a song more than the original time we would spend on it, it’s trying to recreate something that we all accidentally did. Like we’re trying to work our way back to this one single part that we all thought was amazing, but nobody was really paying attention to what they were doing.

Jon: Frequently you get a like a 50-50 deal where all of you may like one thing at one given time and other people might like certain things about that part of the song. It’s kind of a compromising for the sake of putting together two and then conversing the moment where it does come together and your all really jazzed about completing the song or some songs come out like in 5 minutes.

With any band you’ve been in before, have you ever called Radio K and requested a song?

Dave: No, I don't really listen to Radio K, not out of any dislike or spite, I just cant it in my car.

Pete: I listen to it when I drive, but that’s the only time.

Dave: Usually if I want to listen to music in my car, I will listen to a CD or a tape and if I want to listen to the radio, I’ll listen to talk radio

I will say this, that’s interesting you asked that, cause somebody accused me of that at one point, by way of rumor or whatever. There have been times where I have called to see if they’re playing what we’ve been sending them, or if they got it, because I hear other people talk say “Oh I heard this on Radio K” cause I don’t listen to it either. Then my friends tell me they heard it. Were the kind of band that doesn’t have, when I did college radio, people would call up or hire promotional companies to call up and DJs and say did you get whatever I sent you and what are you playing off of it. I called Radio K once to ask that question and somehow it got interpreted that I was calling up to request my own music, and this is the second or third time somebody asked that. I’d say to that person, were a fucking small potatoes band. We don’t have people that we hire to call up and find out if our fucking records getting played.

Sometimes we gotta call and find out ourselves because we don’t know what's gong on, we can only depend on what we've been told from people we know. I don’t listen to that station. I don't listen to the radio at all.

Brian: Yea, I don’t listen to Radio K, ever, let alone call and make a request really of any band.

Although sometimes I think I might be more informed about new music if I did listen to Radio K more often. On that subject, the thing that really bugs me, is this current wave of street teams. Especially small bands that are maybe trying to get bigger. I would imagine like having a team of people who your offering like merchandise in exchange for calling, not even merchandise but discounts on merchandise in exchange for calling Radio K and requesting your band is even more despising, than calling and requesting it your self.

Dave: Taking advantage of kids when your at that age when you get excited about, when you start getting into music, and your really excited about it, and you want to know about the bands.

When your 15 or 16, and the idea that, people in a band to who’ve had the same experience growing up, yet those kind of people would take advantage of that, I think is really disgusting.

Its just a way for those kind of bands to market themselves cheaply Jon: If you want to market your band, that's just a different thing, that's not something that, I don't know how to market shit.

Dave: I feel sorry for those kids because I really think its, those kids should be out handing out flyers, they should be buying guitars, or making zines or something. Its fucked up.

Jon:

What bands do you enjoy playing with and what bands do you enjoy seeing?

Pete: Ten Grand, for both questions.

Dave: As far as local bands playing? I think Ten Grand, we always have the best time playing with.

Brian: I’m still really into Heads N’Bodies.

Dave: Hopefully soon they’ll start playing out again one of these days.

Jon: It varies, sometimes you bond with bands over musical reasons and personal reasons, some times over personal reasons and sometimes over musical reasons.

Pete: I was honored to play with Sweep the Leg Johnny and Mike Watt. I was honored to play those shows and I would go see those bands even if I didn’t happen to be playing with them.

There's lots of bands that were friends with and sweet bands, but then there is also bands that we like playing with. Like would kind of recognize whether its through your own experience, or whatever, you feel this way just to see a band and to be playing with is like “Oh my god, what the hell.” They make these songs that are just so amazing and they play so well together, it inspires you to throw it out, inspires me more than just going to another place and playing another show and that kind of thing.

What is in store for the future of Signal to Trust?

Pete: The 7 inch is gonna come out. Its like our version of the band operates on more of a grand sense.

Brian: After we discover the last herd of unicorns and the cure for cancer, we’re going on tour to the moon.

Dave: Were going to tour the satellites of Saturn.

Pete: We’re gonna tour MIR. Brian: And were gonna take on the Dahli Lama, four on one.

Pete: And show him what's up.

Jon: We’re gonna play for the Dahli Lama.

Brian: He has one of those double neck guitars, like he totally rocks because he’s omnipotent and shit.

Pete: We met a couple of dudes, who live in Europe , that are really into our band, that set up tours.

I think in the grand scheme of things, maybe we could go to Europe. We might sometime in the future future like past the 7 inch and our maybe tour next year and all that stuff. And playing a lot of shows.

Jon: The point being when you network with people, the longer you start doing it, things pick up a little momentum if you keep it up, and that kind of been demonstrated by a lot of the bands we really like, Ten Grand have been around for 4 years now, you know the shit takes time.

Dave: And were like, I think were starting to find that there is people that like our band, that always help when people like you.

Pete: If people say they like your band, they want you to play more and sell more records Brian: Or they pretend to like your band because they think its cool, that works too.