| This was my first experience with loud
amps and stuff. A bit intimidating, but I liked it. My poor Dad,
who had a Masters degree in Chemical Engineering was playing
roadie for his 12-year-old son.
"My parents were always
supportive of my drumming. As long as I practiced and showed
interest, I had my lessons. I actually never had a professional
kit until I was 12. I spent much time with a practice pad. I
recall one occasion when I got a snare drum that came with the
lessons and became very frustrated so I decided it was cool to
plant the sticks through the drum head. Well, this didn’t go
over very well with my parents and the lessons were put on hold.
"For the next few years I played
with various cover bands playing a few originals. We did
everything from heavy stuff to commercial music. This was a big
learning experience. I still really wasn’t giving the drums the
time and effort I should have.
|
 |
"While playing in a local band, I
met Bill Tsamis and I joined him with the Warlord band. We would
spend hours of just playing guitar and drums. This is when the
serious dedication started to kick in. It was a very musically
liberating experience. I was able to really stretch and grow
musically.
"Bill and I decided to move to
L.A. to follow our dreams. We moved into a small part of a big
building in North Hollywood. We auditioned singers for what
seemed like years and could never find our man. We recorded a
couple of albums and a self-produced video and things just sort
of fell apart. The first album “Deliver Us” was done for $800.
It was an eight-track recording with the two bass drums and the
bass merged on to one track. So much for high tech recording."
"As things fell apart, I sort of
wound up with our building/rehearsal studio. Since I played the
drums, I needed the space. One day a friend of mine asked me to
use the space and pay me $20. A light bulb went off and within a
year I had taken over the entire 10,000 sq. ft, building. That
is how my original rehearsal and recording studio known as
Bill’s Place was born.
"Long story short, 4 years later
I bought a 6000 sq. ft. building, designed and built the new
Bill’s Place. It took about 7 months for the builders and we
opened right after New Years in 1994.
"We have had some of the biggest
bands in the world as well as some of the smallest bands, and
everything in between. Bill’s Place is still going strong.
Anyways, back to music. After Warlord fell apart I dove into any
band situation I could. It did not matter the style. I would
rehearse with a funk band from 12 to 3, then a techno dance band
from 3-6 and then a rock band from 6-10. Since I had the studio,
my drums would stay setup and the other musicians would come in
and out. Needless to say it was a serious growing period.
"The Animotion Era: One of the
best musical educations I got is when I played with Charles and
Astrid of the band Animotion. They were coming from an entirely
different musical place than I was. I was willing to learn and
they were willing to teach.
"I remember the initial meeting
very well. They were coming off of a serious amount of success
with Animotion and when we met, everyone had long hair and the
rock look going on. As much as we were coming from different
musical places, at least the look was consistent, or so I
thought. Then we get together to play for the first time and
they had all basically shaved their heads and went for a
completely different look. Boy was I shocked and more
importantly was quite unprepared at that point in my life to go
Kojack. Everything worked out and I learned so much about
electronics, sequencers and click tracks. This was a situation
that I was playing all pads through an interface that was
triggering a very early Akai unit. I was getting the click with
the keyboard player that was also tied to a couple of
sequencers. Like I said, I learned a great deal. Even though I
was an outsider, Astrid and Charles treated me with the utmost
respect and probably to this day the thing I remember most about
them was their character and qualities as human beings. This was
a great experience for me.
"The Fates Warning Era: We had a
tough time getting a deal for the band as the music scene was
changing. I got a call from Jim Matheos of Fates Warning. He
wanted to know if I was interested in playing with Fates as they
were thinking about a drummer change. Jim was a Warlord fan and
we had met a few times in the past as I used to do drum tuning
in the studio for Bill Metoyer at Metal Blade on many of the
early Metal Blade releases. As things worked out I started
working on material and before I knew it I was in Connecticut at
the Carriage House Studios recording the Perfect Symmetry album.
The past fourteen years have been spent with Fates doing several
albums, both live and studio and several American and European
tours. Recently, Fates toured with Dream Theater and Queensryche.
I am very thankful for all of my experiences with Fates. I have
been able to meet many people both in the music industry and
general public that I consider friends. The music has been
challenging as well as I have gotten to see the world doing what
I love to do.
"Currently I am involved with
several recording projects and plan to continue releasing albums
and touring the world.
"I appreciate all of the fan
support and encourage you to keep checking back to this site for
release dates, tour info and updates."
--Mark Zonder |
