|
Truly jacks-of-all-trades, The Zero Four have more tricks up their sleeves than skeletons in their closets, and that's saying a lot. The Zero Four shift their weight between rock, pop, progressive, and acoustic music, showcasing unique harmony, soaring melodies, and a tight groove backbone. With their varied confluence of individual influences and musical backgrounds, the members of The Zero Four cannot seem to agree on what style of music they actually play -- except, of course, for their wholehearted agreement that it sure does rock, whatever it is.
The group's front man and primary songsmith, Jared Salvatore, keeps the group focused on a singer/songwriter ethos. Jared's lyrics range from love-gone-awry to love-gone-nowhere to the everyday yearning for the simple and transcendental. He is a proud student at Boston's Berklee College of Music, where he is pursuing a degree in advanced rock star mechanics and applications (yes, that's something you can major in). He has already compiled an impressive resume, having worked with Grammy winners Kathy Mattea, George Massenburg, and Elliot Scheiner, and he shows no signs of stopping. Even through a simple turn of phrase or a change of key, it's easy to see in Jared a glimpse of what the Fates are weaving for him.
When he was fourteen, future lead guitarist Jamie Balmer wrote a what-I-want-to-be-when-I-grow-up essay for his middle school German class. In it, he sketched out (in broken Deutsche) his dream of becoming a heavy metal guitarist of great renown. Well, things didn't quite turn out that way; in the subsequent years Jamie's growing affection for jazz and improvisational music would see him become a funk/rock guitarist of modest renown. Soon thereafter, Jamie stopped playing electric guitar for the better part of four years and grew seriously involved with the classical guitar, indulging a long-held love for that instrument and its repertoire. However, it's said that a dog will always return to its own vomit, and Jamie has since rediscovered his longhaired adolescent roots tucked away with his distortion pedal and Slayer t-shirt -- which still fits, tightly.
A relative newcomer to the Boston scene, bassist Alex Lowery was imported direct from the Minnesota post-hardcore arena, where the grooves are as hot as they are cold. With his melodic yet technical stylings, Alex has saved many a frozen crowd full of frostbitten listeners, all huddling together near his amplifier for warmth, and now he brings his impressive range of creativity and soul to The Zero Four. Alex has studied under metal/jazz bass great Scot Hornick and is recently a proud graduate of the Berklee College of Music. For anyone feeling left out in the cold in this time when bass lines are just as easily forgotten as they are remembered, Alex is sure to warm your spirits and fuel your fire with a heated and energetic dose of gut-busting bass goodness (or at the very least, post-goodness).
As The Zero Four's resident beat-keeper, drummer Steve Shannon has brought a hard-hitting and technical dynamism to the band that they appreciate and admire, albeit not enough to refrain from slipping laxatives into his Diet Coke. Taking notes from prog and rock bands like Planet X and Soundgarden, Steve's deep understanding of complex rhythms combined with his earth-grounded sense of time allows him to contribute a creative yet controlled rhythmic nuance to the band's already multidimensional sound. He will often relate that his intentions are ever to solidify and sculpt that sound into a cohesive yet energetic force -- one he hopes you will always find worthy of your attention. Steve has already sacrificed a full semester of his life to writing, recording, and producing his first solo album -- he has been told it makes a great stocking stuffer.
|
..
