It takes real commitment to keeping a band afloat. It takes a solid group of people and hard work to keep the sound fresh and making sure the fan base continues to grow. Despite the struggles Onesidezero had been through, the members made sacrifices to keep the dream alive. Through various lineup shuffles and business setbacks, the band has found ways to keep playing and reaching new fans. For nearly a decade, the band has always found a way to have their music heard.
They began in Los Angeles in 1998, building a strong fan base across the Southeastern US through strong live performances and creating melodic rock songs that fans connected with.
They signed with Maverick Records and released their debut CD, Is This Room Getting Smaller?, in 2001. They followed this with tours with 311, Zebrahead, Static X, Soulfly, and SOiL, plus a live appearance on HBO’s Reverb with Linkin Park.
Things appeared to be going well for them, through landing strong tours and their name was getting out into the public. But problems with Maverick Records arose and the band requested to be released from their contract.
Onesidezero played sporatic shows within the time off, with various members taking time away from the band. Frontman Jasan Radford and guitarist Levon Sultanian joined up with former Soulfly members, guitarist Mikey Doling, drummer Roy Mayorga and bassist Marcello Dias to form Abloom.
Abloom gained attention quickly through the rock press, but difference of opinions led to the band’s premature demise. But in 2004, the band reunited and began working on new material. They signed with Corporate Punishment Records in 2006 to release their long awaited second record, Onesidezero in June 2007.
Since that time, guitarist Brett Kane briefly left the band during the writing of their latest record. But he recently returned to the band replacing their other guitarist, Levon Sultanian, who recently left the band. The band spoke to Blistering.com about the new record, the struggles through their musical journey, and surviving despite the lineup changes over the years.
Blistering.com: What’s Onesidezero been up to since the debut release?
Rob Barile:We did the record. We did a lot of touring. People broke off for a little while and did side projects. We started doing that a little bit. That kind of subsided. We started writing again with the intension of doing a new record. Then Brett [Kane, guitarist] left for a little while. We did the new record [Onesidezero] after Brett took off. Brett was involved in a lot of the writing process, but Levon [Sultanian, guitarist] played on the whole record.
Blistering,com: Was there ever a point during the time off that Onesidezero would never resurrect ever again?
Jasan Radford: It’s one of those things that we talked about briefly earlier. We worked really hard to get this thing done, so you don’t want to quit before the miracle. You don’t know if there’s a miracle about it…when you get a taste of it, you want to see what’s next. We didn’t feel that we got the full what’s next. There were people that believed in what we were doing. So that’s what kept us going.
Every day, we’re like ‘are we kicking a dead horse?’ Then, all of a sudden, you start selling a few records. You get out there and tour, and then you get that show. The tour does well and then ‘maybe not.’ There are people who are still identifying with this and you come out with something fresh and people who supported the new record. Whether we do is bigger than that. We did what we had to do. We put out the second record and now we’re lucky enough to start thinking about the third record, while finishing this. To answer the question - every day [we think about it]. We’re not getting any younger. We’re watching our friends succeed and/or fall. It’s constant.
Blistering.com: Jasan, you were in Abloom for a while. What did you learn from that experience? It was a different band with different players and very different music than what you must have been used to.
JR: I think that was the best break that Onesidezero could have had, or for myself. I broke out of a mold that I was stuck in as a vocalist and as a writer. Working with people in a genre I wasn’t used to. I don’t know metal or hard rock at all. It expanded my mind. Working with Shavo [Odadjian, System of a Down bassist] and Mikey [Doling, Invitro guitarist] and these guys that are all about this – this was something Levon actually was trying to do a lot that I fought against forever. Working with other people that weren’t so close and weren’t in the family, opened my mind to a lot of stuff. I think it had me have the ability to think differently.
I had a great time. I met some really cool brothers. For me, it was a bit more personal and selfish. It made think about things a little bit differently as a singer that wasn’t so caught in the box. It’s like what you said about the first record and things seemed so same. I was stuck with that. I was stuck with the way I was comfortable.
Blistering.com: The songs on Onesidezero capture a wide array of sounds, from up tempo rock songs to slower songs. There’s even a faster metal song that is unusual for Onesidezero! Was that part of you breaking out of the comfort zone?
JR: All of us in a way. When someone’s really influenced, if you’re not used to doing what you’re going to do, then you have to change. I couldn’t go up there and sing melodically and be that guy on a song that was all riff metal oriented, because it wasn’t working. With all of us, we tried to make it as close as the Onesidezero thing and feel that way. But yeah, I think that’s why it sounds different. It’s also where we’re at. We did consciously all sit down, when Bret was involved with it too. We didn’t want to have a one style thing. We said let’s just write. Let’s write whatever happens and record and let it flow. RB: I think in another aspect where it was huge also was we were lucky enough when we were touring the big tours to get dropped into everything from mellow, cool vibe-y Incubus, to balls-to-the-wall Soulfly. We were able to pretty much pull off both. We could go out and open for either one. We would switch it up and literally sometimes go in from directly a mellow thing right into a heavy thing. For me, it’s hard to play…especially when you get to know these bands…it’s hard not to be influenced by that too. For me, playing with Soulfly every night, it’s like a fucking steamroller. I think we took little pieces of that individually too. Playing with that kind of power, it transfers into you, whether you want it to or not.
