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Byron Zanos is an award-winning singer/songwriter out of NJ/NY. Most recently, his song, “Secrets and Lies” was selected in the Top 20 out of 25,000 entries by Simon Fuller and his A&R team for the first ever American Idol Songwriter which was an additional competition along side this year’s regular show. Last summer(07) Zanos played sidestage at the Jones Beach Theater (NY) opening for acts like Steve Miller and Aerosmith. This summer he returned to Jones Beach to play sidestage for Eric Clapton, Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, James Blunt, The Police, among others. He recently returned from a southeast tour opening for Geffen recording artist Matt White.
Byron Zanos’ lifelong love of music began in his parents’ living room, listening to his father’s opera collection. He started playing the piano almost as soon as he could reach the keys, but in 1992, the 12-year-old Zanos had a life-altering experience: he bought his very first CD, Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite For Destruction. “It was like a bowl of Lucky Charms after eating oatmeal all my life.” The piano obviously wasn't going to cut it.
Eventually, Zanos’ tastes grew to include Dave Matthews Band for its versatile musicality; Jeff Buckley’s haunting vocals; and Sting’s penchant for constant re-invention and experimentation. Zanos began to develop a voice as a performer and, not long after that, a style as a songwriter.
“I started writing my own music when I was 9 or so. It took some time but eventually, my piano teacher realized I wasn’t into playing the classics anymore – she started giving me writing assignments instead. After I got into guitar, the writing just took off.”
Surprisingly, Zanos had never actually planned on music as a profession. “Growing up, I watched performers on TV and in the movies and imagined I was them – singing to the crowd. Some kids daydream about being astronauts; others about beating up the school bully. I’m not sure what the school bully daydreamed about – probably about beating up more kids. Anyway, I imagined that I was on stage – that was my “glory moment” daydream. It’s funny that I never planned on doing it because as far as I can remember, music was the way I dealt with everything in my life.”
“It was in college that the possibility of doing this professionally occurred to me. I was majoring in economics – working at an investment banking firm as a junior broker - but my heavy textbooks spent more time in an ‘amp-tilting capacity’ than as study tools. As soon as I graduated, I started recording my first demos and putting together a musical team to take it to the next level.”
Byron’s debut release “Somewhere in the Middle” was engineered, mixed, and mastered by Grammy Award winning engineer Daegal Bennett (Tony’s son), and produced by Drew Yowell (Phoebe Snow, Sophie B. Hawkins, Herb Alpert). It featured the acclaimed song “Secrets and Lies.”
Selected as a Top 20 finalist (out of 25,000 entries) by Simon Fuller and his A&R team in the 2007’s inaugural American Idol Songwriter Competition, “Secrets and Lies” also received an Honorable Mention in the 2006 Billboard World Song Contest, and was a finalist in the 2006 Berklee College of Music We Are Listening Awards and the 2005 International Song Competition. Another cut from the Somewhere in the Middle, “Pandora’s Box,” won a Silver Medal (Pop Category) in the 22nd annual Mid Atlantic Songwriting Contest.
Byron’s most recent release (Winter 07) “Still in a Fight”, found him again working with Dae Bennett and Drew Yowell (the same team from ‘Somewhere in the Middle’). However, it was a completely different type of record for him.
“’Still in a Fight’ was somewhat of an art project for me. I wanted to write one complete piece of music – a ‘Pop Opera’ if you will. And that’s exactly what I did.”
Zanos’ ‘pop opera’ chronicles the emotional highs and lows of a failed relationship,” Still in a Fight has received rave reviews from music fans and industry tastemakers alike. To celebrate the CD’s release, Zanos appeared on CN8’s Backstage with Barry Nolan and was a featured artist on iTunes’ number one acoustic music podcast Acoustic Long Island. Music lovers who came to the Jones Beach Theatre in Wantagh, NY last summer got a taste of the tunes when Zanos opened on the WaMu Live stage for Aerosmith, Steve Miller, and other national acts; he is scheduled to return to the venue for dates with The Police, Eric Clapton, Elvis Costello and more in the 2008 summer concert season. He also just returned from a tour opening for Geffen recording artist Matt White.
“The record is best heard from beginning to end”, says Byron. “However, for those of us with time constraints, it’s broken down to 10 tracks - each one a story or anecdote in itself about the manic highs and depressive lows of a failed love. The end result is a rollercoaster ride of emotion in sound.”
“The industry says that ‘The Album’ is dead,” Zanos says, “Well, if today’s listeners want just another single on their iPods, I’ve got a few for them. But maybe… just maybe, ‘The Album’ isn’t dead – it’s just that nobody’s making them anymore… at least not good ones.”
We’ll be looking for all that to change now that “Still in a Fight” is available in stores.
Buy Byron's new CD Still in a Fight today!
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Q: If you could be an M&M, what color would you be?
Byron: “Red – to me, red suggests cherry flavored candy. Then you bite into it and you get chocolate – it’s not what you expected – it’s a surprise.. Then again, someone would be eating you… OK, I changed my mind - Brown – it looks the least appetizing. I don’t want to be eaten.”
Q: What were you like as a kid?
Byron: “I was definitely the troublemaker. Not intentionally – I just didn’t know when enough was enough. I was the example that’s currently used to administer Ritalin. I guess I wanted attention. But not in a bad way – I think I just wanted to be liked – I wanted to be cool – whatever that means. And of course, every parent teacher conference was exactly what you’d expect from such an example. ‘Byron is incredibly intelligent and gifted – he’s one of my favorite students. But he needs to apply himself more. He seems easily distracted and uninterested in the curriculum. Also, he just won’t shut the fuck up in class!’ end quote… something along those lines.
Q: Tell me a little about your writing style.
Byron: I try to write as honestly as possible – especially on this last record – it’s ridiculously honest – embarrassingly honest. Musically, it should be catchy, but ‘musically intelligent’ if that makes any sense. I try to avoid vague metaphors in my writing. Lyrically, it’s very specific – you either relate or you don’t. The hope is that when you relate, you REALLY relate. “Still in a Fight” won’t mean different things to different people – it will mean the same thing to everyone. And yes, I write from my own experiences.
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