Interview with Paper Zoo after a 11/30/09 show with Roger Daltrey at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Florida.
Paper Zoo is Allister Izen on guitar and vocals, William (Billy) Thomas Wesley III on bass, Martin Lopez on keyboards and Monte Dyaami Najera on drums
I caught up with Paper Zoo backstage after their set, eating dinner and watching Roger Daltrey on the in-house television monitor. Although I knew that they were young, these guys looked more like a group of my son’s friends huddled around the kitchen table watching MTV, not a rock band that just wrapped up a tour with one of the biggest names in rock music. Hell, I’ve got kids older than them, as the saying goes. As I steadied myself for what I was sure would turn out to be a generationally-impaired interview, things took an odd turn.
Lead singer and guitarist Allister Izen invited me to have a seat and waved off my apologies for interrupting their meal. Jumping up to offer his chair, bassist Billy Wesley managed to turn down the sound on the TV before retreating to the other end of the table. As I took my place at the head of the table and set up my recorder, I was still a bit apprehensive and was sure that the mayhem would begin anytime. I have dealt with egomaniacal, pampered and out of control bands before, but was pleasantly surprised to find none of this with Paper Zoo. These guys are polite, friendly, humble and articulate musicians who have yet to grasp the events of the previous months. My hope for an interesting interview was renewed.
Jeff: According to your bio, I understand that you’ve been together for about six years.
Allister: More like five months.
Billy: Four months collectively, but we started five years ago just like fucking around. Paper Zoo, what it is now, is with Martin (Martin Lopez, Keyboards) and that’s been about five months.
Jeff: So let me get this straight. You’ve only been together for about four months, but you’re on tour with Roger Daltrey. How the hell did that happen?
Allister (laughing): It just happened, man. You don’t think we’re good enough?
Jeff (laughing): I think you’re good enough, but how do you make that connection with such a major act?
Allister: Being at the right place, at the right time.
Billy: Being lucky helps.
Jeff: Luck always helps. What about an album to follow up your EP release?
Billy: It’s only been speculation at this point. We don’t know where we’re going to be after this, but most likely another tour before we even think about releasing an album. But as far as writing goes, writing happens on the road, it happens in the studio and that’s how our demo kind of "frankensteined" into this.
Jeff: How would you categorize your music? Is it pop, pop-rock, alternative or what?
Allister: We’re scientific avant garde
Jeff: Scientific avant garde? Okay.
Billy: Sci-fi rock
Monte: How about sci-fi metal?
Allister: Is this going to be on a metal website?
Jeff: No, this will not be on a metal website.
Allister: Cause we’ve been getting reviewed on a lot of metal websites and I’m like why, we’re not a metal band.
Jeff: Yeah, I guess it goes back to how people hear your music and what they think.
Billy: People just take what they hear from our music, it’s all just a matter of opinion.
Martin: We always get that question and we’re not really sure how to answer it.
Allister: What do you hear?
Jeff: You know when I listen to your music, I hear strains of St. Pepper’s era-Beatles, some Zappa, a little Who and some Jethro Tull thrown in, but I just can’t quite put my finger on a specific genre. I really like it, but I just can’t categorize it.
Allister: I feel honored that you compared us to all those great people.
Jeff (laughing): Don’t get misty on me. So, this is the last night of the tour, and then you head back to California to play the Viper Room on the 6th?
Billy: The Viper Room on the 9th.
Allister (laughing): Then we’re headlining the Hollywood Bowl.
Jeff: Don’t laugh. You got where you are now with a little luck, so who knows what will happen next. Do you guys have any real plans past the 9th?
Allister: Ah, an African tour, but besides that, it’s pretty empty. There’s some talk about England, but the label isn’t really keen on that, so we’re just sticking to the African tour because there’s lots of clubs in Africa. Are you recoding this?
Jeff: Yes and anything you say may be used against you in a court of law.
Allister: Yes, there’s lots of talk about Africa.
Monte (laughing): Yeah, we’re going to play The Whiskey in Africa. Where’s this guy going? (as Allister exits without a comment)
Billy: Either to the bathroom or Africa.
Martin: So, our lead singer’s gone now.
Jeff: It’s not a big deal. So, tell me about how the whole tour came together.
Billy: We found out about this tour about six weeks before it happened. We’re taking it one day at a time. He (pointing to Martin) was in New York when we found out and he wasn’t sure when he was coming back.
Monte: Yeah, we didn’t have transport; we didn’t have a van, no crew.
Billy: We had a road crew the day we left.
Jeff: That had to be intimidating to find out that you’re heading out on your first tour with a rock legend like Daltrey.
Billy: It was more exciting than intimidating. We’ve been surrounded by lot of really great people who gave us the confidence to go out there.
Monte: Yeah, we were a bit oblivious to the facts or else we’d been terrified.
Billy: Of course we knew who he is, but we just pushed through it.
Jeff: But it still has to been intimidating.
Billy: It was too intense to fathom. It was just like oh wow, this is happening. I’m sure that a few weeks after I get home it’ll all hit me, but then it will be too late.
Allister (returning from Africa): It’s been really surreal, but I just hope that it isn’t all over when we get back home.
Jeff: I can’t imagine it will be.
Allister: Well, I couldn’t imagine we’d be out here with Roger Daltrey either. (the entire room erupts in laughter)
You can pick up their debut EP “Paper Zoo” on iTunes for a mere $3.99. For more information, go to the bands website or Facebook page for the latest details and show information.
This article appears in Nov 25 – Dec 1, 2009.