Nonpoint (phoner) – Andrea Leigh
I was about to start a long week of preparation for the upcoming Rock on the
Range 2010 weekend. I started looking into the first band I was to interview,
which was Nonpoint. They’re out of Florida and have been around since
the mid-late nineties. I had first heard of Nonpoint several years ago while
watching the Miami Vice remake. That great cover of “In the Air Tonight”
came on so I had to find out who that band was. One characteristic of their
music that is noticeable right away is that their music has a distinct blend
of harmonies and melodies that overlay some of the fist-pumping heavier riffs.
When going through the songs from their early albums and moving on to their
more recent albums it was obvious the band had more growth and continuity which
shows that Nonpoint is not a band who is not content with where they are. They
are constantly improving.
During the week leading up to ROTR I was able to speak on the phone with guitarist Zach Broderick from Nonpoint:
Cover: You’re music has such a distinct blend of different
harmonies and melodies on top of those heavier riffs, does that come from any
bands in particular who have influenced your style of music?
Zach: Why you’re probably hearing such a diversified
sound is because all four of us pretty much have our own influences. I don’t
think any of us would name the same person twice. There’s not really one
single band, the four of us just take all of ours and then it’s kinda
like making a gumbo or something. There’s really not one band that we
would say ‘oh, we love this band’, we all just love different stuff
and that’s what gives us our unique sound.
Cover: When you were growing up what bands did you look up
too, maybe couldn’t wait to see their next show, or get their next album?
Zach: Well yeah, my own influences were Pantera and Guns ‘n’
Roses…I love Clutch and Black Sabbath. Those are some of my personal favorites.
I couldn’t wait to get my guitar out and play their songs.
Cover: Nonpoint has been together for a long time, but how
did it all start?
Zach: Basically it started back in Ft. Lauderdale and the band
just sort of came together and did some independent stuff and then a video,
then the record deal hit. When it hit it was just touring nonstop from there
on and making records Then we were just full time musicians.
Cover: You seem to be a heavy touring band…
Zach: Absolutely, that’s the only way to make a living
is to keep on working. There are a lot of lazy people out there who just want
everything to be handed to them. On top of that we love doing it and we love
seeing our fans, we owe it to them. They’re the reason we keep on doing
what we do. We live these really great lifestyles and I love my life. It’s
great and if it wasn’t for them buying the records and supporting the
band then we wouldn’t be doing it. It’s because of the fans. So
we love going out there and getting to see them and they keep on coming back
so we keep on going out. We have a new record that just came out last week,
two weeks ago actually, and it’s getting such great reception, which is
awesome so like I said we love being out there on the road. We just kicked off
our tour Wednesday in Ft. Lauderdale, what better place to do it? We’re
going to be steady for a long time on the road and we’re just getting
geared up for it.
Cover: The artwork on the new CD really is amazing, how did
you come up with that?
Zach: We started our own label in partnership with Rocket Science,
a label service. We were meeting the label for the first time in LA when we
went out to shoot the video for ‘Miracle’. They have everything
done in house at the label service so it was really cool and Brian Porizek,
who is a grammy nominated cd packaging guy for his artwork, was there. We saw
some of these three-dimensional things he was doing with these bands and we
were like, “God, that is the coolest thing we’ve ever seen we’ve
never seen any bands do this” and he said “yeah, no one’s
really ever done it, it takes a lot of math and really some crazy long hours”
so we were all like, “well, we wanna do that” (laughs), and he said
we could do it. We had already named the CD Miracle and I think it was Ken,
our bass player that had the idea for it. He used to do all of our old artwork
prior to this one. He’s a really great graphic designer guy as well and
he basically had the idea to do this thing that was complete mass destruction,
like a holocaust, where there’s no way that anything could live and no
way that life could grow and then this little root comes out of the ground in
the middle of the ash. It’s a little bit of a metaphor for this band that
keeps putting stuff out. There are a lot of bands from our genre that were around
in 2000, or the late nineties and they’re not around anymore. Blame it
on whatever, the industry is not that great either, but we take a lot of pride
in the fact that we persevere and continue to shoot from the hip and we give
our fans good honest music. Obviously that’s why they still buy it, because
it’s real. There’s nothing fake about our stuff. That’s how
the artwork came about and then as far as all the dimensional stuff that’s
all from Brian at Rocket Science. He’s great, really awesome!
Cover: Who writes your music? Is that a group effort or more
of a lone wolf thing?
Zach: Everyone does their part. I’ll come up with a riff
and then we’ll just jam around with it for a while. Or Ken will come up
with a riff and then Rob will throw some kind of a cool beat on it or he may
come up with a beat or an idea. Elias always writes the vocals and the melodies.
That’s always his thing, but everyone just does his own thing.
Cover: The lyrics are what I honed in on right away, you can
hear the feelings and the passion come through and that is one thing I like
about your music.
Zach: Great, I will tell Elias that.
Cover: Nonpoint has toured a lot and has put on many shows
and played at festivals as well, but is there anyone playing this year at ROTR
that you’re really stoked to see?
Zach: Yeah, pretty much everybody. I can’t remember what
the lineup is off hand, but I know it’s going to be a really fun day.
I know some of the guys in the band are really excited to see the Deftones.
We just got off of a run with Sevendust right before this and they’re
one of my favorite bands. They’re just so awesome and honest, really great
guys so I would never miss a chance to see them. I know they’re playing
the same day. Drowning pool is awesome, we’re just starting a tour with
them right after ROTR and we’re really good friends with them also. There
really aren’t any bands that I don’t want to see.
Cover: Is there anything that Nonpoint is able to give to
the fans that sets you apart from other bands that are out there in your genre?
Zach: We don’t really compare ourselves to other bands
so much. We pride ourselves on our live show because we really just throw down,
we go crazy. We play to the fans and not away from the fans and really just
go out there and do what we do. If people want to compare us that’s cool,
but we don’t.