Mesa band Authority Zero make the most of a second chance with new album release
BY THOMAS BOND
Get Out

While most local bands dream of signing a major label record contract, the groups that actually do quickly learn their deal isn't a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Mesa punkers Authority Zero will release their sophomore national album, “Andiamo,” on Tuesday and are grateful for the opportunity after the sales figures of their debut for Lava Records didn’t meet the company's expectations.

“Between the U.S. and Japan, we sold 140,000 pieces,” guitarist Bill Marcks says. “That was good, but it was about half of what they were hoping we would sell in order to be able to do a second album. They were really cool with us and believed in us and gave us another shot, so here we are with the new one.”

The band's tireless work ethic played to their favor.
“We toured for about two years straight,” Marcks notes of the promotional push for their debut, “A Passage in Time.”

In “Revolution,” the lead single from the new album, singer Jason DeVore intones, “You want a revolution? You gotta make a difference on your own” and the quartet takes that message to heart. Not depending on their label to get the word out about them, the band works a steady grass roots campaign through their web site, www.authorityzero.com. The group members make posts regularly, spend hours linking their site to other punk rock sites on the Internet and cultivate relationships with supporters around the country.

“That's one of the most important things,” DeVore says. “That's how we've gotten where we are — making sure we keep in touch with the fans. We let them know that they're a big part of this whole thing.”

The faithful urged the band to include “Rattlin’ Bog,” a traditional Irish/Celtic tune and staple of Authority Zero's concerts, on the new album and the track, featuring a breathless DeVore singing at hyper speed, closes the disc.

“A lot of kids were asking about that so we threw a live version on this album,” the singer says.

“That song is an icebreaker for us,” Marcks says, picking up the thread. “No matter what the crowd — be it the hardest of hardcore or the poppiest of radio fests — that's the one song that can bring everyone into the mix. People recognize it, it's almost like an old nursery rhyme, and people can identify with it.”

After originally forming at Mesa's Westwood High School a decade back, Authority Zero's current lineup — which also includes bassist Jeremy Wood and drummer Jim Wilcox — came together six years ago.

The group is excited that powerhouse punk tune “Revolution” is the first single from their new album. They feel it better represents their overall sound as opposed to “One More Minute” and “Sky's The Limit” from their debut.

“The first couple of singles we had were more ska and reggae driven and some people thought that was all there was to us,” DeVore says. “It's good for us to put something more aggressive out there.”

But Authority Zero still mixes those disparate elements and others into their sonic stew.

“Touring with other bands, you get influenced by their music and they're influenced by different bands which they tend to show you,” Wilcox says. “Our music style is so diverse because we want to soak up everybody's styles of music and try and incorporate it somehow into what we love.”

The band is also infusing political elements into their songs, specifically noting the war in Iraq and conflict in general.

“No one can escape what's going on right now in politics or in the world,” Marcks says. “We write about what we live so it's going to pop up in our music.”

Following a string of five dates on the Warped Tour, including Wednesday's Valley stop, Authority Zero will hit the road on their own headlining tour in early July.