BW&BK Exclusive: SLAVIOR Drummer MARK ZONDER - "From A Business Point Of View FATES WARNING Is Going Downhill"
April 1, 2007, 17 years ago
In a recent interview with BW&BK;, SLAVIOR/ex-FATES WARNING drummer Mark Zonder discussed his reasons for leaving Fates Warning in 2005. The following is a brief excerpt from the conversation:
“I’ve always been sort of a leader type, whether it’s in business or music, so in the beginning the Fates Warning thing was cool and a great education, but it started to get stifling and it just wasn’t going where I thought things should go," Zonder reveals. "It wasn’t my place to say anything, and when it came down to it touring wasn’t fun. I’m not 19 years old, I don’t need to do this to further my career. It’s not that I didn’t want to tour, it’s who you do it with. It would have been one thing if we were opening for the Rolling Stones or Dave Matthews, but come on, we were doing the same thing over and over again. Saying that I stuck it out longer than I should have is dangerous, though. It’s not like I was held captive in the basement." "And if you step back, Fates Warning is on a downslide," he adds. "The label doesn’t care, there’s currently no record deal, the band’s direction is just sort of whatever, so it’s not like a band on the rise. So, from a business point of view it’s going downhill."Looking back on his time with Fates Warning, Zonder reveals his favourite album.
“A Pleasant Shade Of Gray; I love that album. I thought that was some of the best stuff we did. To me that was almost the pinnacle from a musician’s point of view; there was some pretty ripping stuff on that album.”
Go to this location to read another excerpt from the interview, in which Zonder discusses the new Slavior record. Watch for the full story in BW&BK; #104.
