So anyway, I'm going to reminisce about some of my "firsts" in music, if that's ok. I'll probably veer off topic. No big preface, I'm just going to jump right in.
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Where to begin….
THE EARLY-EARLY YEARS:
When I was very small, I made up this chant that went "lala lala bush-ball, la-lala bush-ball"…and since "chanting" is a form of song, I guess that would technically be the first "song" I "wrote". I was 3 or 4 years of age.
We always had this instrument hanging on our wall called a "mandolin". My mom played it when she was small, but ever since I had known it, it was wall art. We owned a karaoke machine, which I guess was nothing more than just a tape deck with some plug-ins for microphones which you could use to record yourself on to cassette tape. My friend and I used to record radio shows on to tape and then pop them in for people to listen to, and pretend like it was a real radio-station (cute or lame?). We would have guests on our show, do our own commercials in-between segments, have people call in (literally), the whole 9 yards. We eventually decided to have music on our show, but to make it fun, we would record our own music. With the help of that old dusty mandolin and some sesame-street drum with some cymbals and sticks, we recorded a song called "The Justin Song" about a kid named Justin who lived up the street. It was a hit in my household, then across my neighborhood. We were 10-11 years old. A first…
Prior to that, a few years before, my sister and I had recorded "an album" in our upstairs bathroom using a small portable "playschool" tape-recorder-with-microphone thing. She did a cover of "A Whole New World" by Princess Jasmine, and I wrote a song called "Flyen' High" about a bad-ass dude (myself) who rode around town in a corvette, running from cops, and having kids named Mike and Julie with a girl he met "with her underwear down". The tape was lost when my sister moved. I was in the age range of 6-8.
THE EARLY YEARS:
I received my first guitar when I was 12 years old. It was an early Christmas gift from my eldest sister and my folks. My two best friends had recently purchased instruments of their own (Andy –drums, Nick – guitar). I decided to be vocalist, but after a while at a band "meeting" we decided I should play as well (so I got the guitar). We wanted a band name that sounded the way sunglasses look combined with a leather jacket. I asked Nick, "Nick," I said, "what is the highest gear you have ever seen in a car?"… "Sixth I believe." Was his response…and so "7th Gear" was born. And that was the first band I was in. A few weeks later we changed the name of the band to "Rove" because in some obscure dictionary we thought we had read that a "Rove" was "a pirate who practices piracy" (which is pretty awesome to think about). I don't remember what dictionary it was (if any) and haven't since seen anything that says THAT about the word "Rove" (which means simply "to wander"). The name "Rove" was twice as sweet, because in the song "Wherever I May Roam" by Metallica, James Hetfield uses the word (and Metallica was our favorite band).
As a joke I wrote "The Rove" on the bass drum and as a result, at our first somewhat big gig with our first press, everyone thought our name was "The Rove". In the newspaper it mentioned us as such… so we changed it. We recorded 2 tapes and later two CD's in my basement. The first tape was called "Rove" and had a bunch of killer velociraptors on the cover. We were 13 years old. It included four songs, two originals as well as a cover of "When I come Round" (Green Day) and "Under the bridge" (Red Hot Chili Peppers). Our second tape a year later wasn't called anything. It had a bunch of originals on it. CD's finally took over 100% and so later that year, we recorded our first CD (in my basement) called "The Rove". We were freshman in high-school. The Very next year, as sophomores, we recorded "CrappleJuice"… a CD with 9 originals. The Rove was a punk/metal band by the way…
THE YEARS AFTER THE EARLY YEARS:
As a sophomore in high-school, at the age of 16, I met a guy at a "The Rove" show, who eventually wanted to take me on tour with John Mayer, and Maroon 5 as "Zack Weber". That was my summer of 2004. I didn't do much my junior year of high-school but write music. I was slowly planning a solo career. I started playing out as a solo artist and slowly stopped playing out with "The Rove". I became an acoustic artist. My senior year of high school I signed a letter of intent for "Natas Records", an indie label. I had to miss a few weeks of school, including prom, recording an album…my first professional album. My mom had to call my school everyday for a while and tell them I was sick. When I returned to school, I had to pretend like I was previously deathly ill. I felt guilty when my teachers would say to me, "Zack, we are all just so glad you are OK, we were praying for you". I would think to myself, "yeah, praying for me to ROCK HARD!"
Early on the next year, we had struck a distribution deal and my CD was to be released across the ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />US on May 27th 2007 with small distribution. I was in New York on the 27th and my manager had texted me to remind me. I wasn't sure what it all meant. Surly my CD wasn't being sold anywhere. Who would buy it??? I walked to Times Square and went into the Virgin Records Mega Store. I wasn't even sure what type of music I'd be categorized as. I also felt silly for walking into the place to look for myself, but I had to see. I found the "pop/rock" section and then the "W's". I found "Weezer" and right above it… "Daydreams and Day Jobs"… "Weber, Zack"… I stared at it…noticed that I was laughing…looked around to see if anyone noticed me laughing, staring at myself on the shelf. Throughout the day I received texts from friends and family, "hey! I just bought your CD in Best Buy!!!"… "Hey, I just bought your crap at Slackers bro!!!"
It wasn't long until one day, listening to the radio at a friends house (Y98) I hear them announce "We are going to play a new one by a new artist named JACK Weber." I thought about how bad my luck is that there should be a JACK Weber on the radio. Then I hear "In Your Head" and realize that I am JACK Weber!!! The lady corrected herself at the end of the song, and changed it back to ZACK. I was getting phone calls for HOURS afterwards. Later on driving down Mexico Rd. in St. Charles, I decide to turn on the radio and listen to some music, I thought somehow my CD was in the player and tried to get it out…There I was on the radio again. I was embarrassed so I rolled the windows up…Got a job over the summer, and was at work helping a customer… "In Your Head" comes on. My boss tells the customers that it's me…It's a double edge sword.
THE LATER DAYS:
…a platinum album... tour with Metallica and a few Grammys. A movie of my life with, Johnny Depp or Jim Carey playing the part of me, and Keira Knightly playing the part of my girlfriend…Natalie Portman plays the part of the obsessed fan who throws herself on me and I have to say, "NO Natalie!!! I'm with Keira!" …