A Conversation with Middle Class Rut’s Zack Lopez – 12.7.10

Mike Ragogna: Hello, Zack.

Zack Lopez: Hey how’s it going?

MR: I hear good things about you. You are from Sacramento?

ZL: Yes. We are both from Sacramento.

MR: Yes. You and Sean Stockham, the drummer. You recently had a lot of airplay with a song called “New Low.”

ZL: Right. They were playing it quite a bit here. It kind of existed in its own bubble here in Sacramento which we are trying to pop and get it out. But, yeah, they had heavy support for this band for a long time.

MR: Nice. Now, you guys go way back to the group Leisure.

ZL: Yeah. That was the first band that Sean and I started out of Sacramento 15 years ago.

MR: And you were on the DreamWorks label?

ZL: Yup. We got signed to DreamWorks in that band.

MR: So, what’s the evolution, let’s get the history lesson. Where do we go from Leisure to Middle Class Rut?

ZL: Leisure was our first project and I think throughout, we had a total of six or seven different singers. So, each time we would get a singer, we would actually record music, release it, get in the scene, play shows. But then, each time, it would just fall apart. So, we did that for a long time, and then we got the record deal, got another singer, and then the whole thing fell apart and went nowhere really fast. This band kind of came out of the first time Sean and I started playing together after taking about a three year break or so and not even thinking about hanging out or playing music. We kind of came back together in the same practice space and started jamming together, and we built this band from there.

MR: Nice. Does the album title No Name, No Color come from any specific lyric or from a concept?

ZL: It was the name of an old song that we wrote a while back that had a title that stuck around in my book. When it came time for looking for titles, I had always been logging-in potential titles, and this is the title that won the lotto and we ended up using it.

MR: Your last releases weren’t full albums.

ZL: We self-released two EPs by ourselves independently and once we got picked up by the label we are on now, we released a third EP. So, we have three EP’s out, a couple of seven inches. This is our first full-length album.

MR: Your approach to this record sounds a little different.

ZL: It is kind of the way that we do things in general. We came from a time where you are spending a lot of time in the studio, overproducing things, tuning perfectly, people looking over your shoulder to make sure you are doubling your guitar exactly right. Kind of a non-organic way of doing things. I think we knew with this band, we were going to go the opposite route. Sean became a pretty good engineer over the past couple of years, so we record everything ourselves. We essentially have the mic’s set up at all times, so if we are writing a song–once I know I have all the words I need for it and the melodies–we just kind of lock it in and record it right there on the spot, then just go back to writing. So, we are kind of constantly balancing and going back and forth between writing and recording, I think, whether it’s for our release or not. We are just stockpiling in the event that we need to release something.

MR: You have influences that seem obvious like Rage Against The Machine and Jane’s Addiction. Are there any other acts that have been either influential or that you guys are really crazy about?

ZL: What we listened to when we were younger is night and day to what we are listening to now. I think when we were younger, that kind of thing kind of sculpts who you are as a musician. I think as you get older, you’re not necessarily influenced by whatever you’re listening too, it’s just kind of what you’re listening to. It’s kind of like when you are growing up, your personality is already shaped and once you are an adult, you don’t change a whole lot from then on. We grew up in the ’90s so we are obviously influenced by all that. We were influenced by the sub-scene, like Quicksand, and those kind of bands. We are pretty much off the radar in terms of discovering anything new or groundbreaking that we are really into, if for no other reason, that we are out of that loop…you know what I mean? There is tons of music we listen to now like singer-songwriter stuff. We are huge Dylan fans, but stuff like that has no bearing on the way that we sound.

MR: Okay, who are your heroes?

ZL: When I first started playing the guitar, Rage Against The Machine was a huge influence just in terms of a band with crazy energy that I couldn’t get enough of. I discovered them at a time when I remember going to the store…you know, I have this tape and no one had even heard of them and they were really hard to come by and I remember being obsessed with that band. They are a super simple and raw band, that was a huge influence. In terms of singing, I didn’t even start until this band, so any influences that come out just happen to be how my voice sounded. I haven’t really been singing for longer than four or five years now. Back when I was listening to bands like Jane’s Addiction, I loved all that music but it is just a coincidence that when I open my mouth, it happens to be a high voice.

MR: It’s also interesting that the band has had six singers.

ZL: Yeah. We joke about how it took us a long time to come to that realization.

MR: Are you touring?

ZL: We just finished touring with Filter in the States, then we went to London to do a BBC session over there. I just got wrapped up with being out for a while.

MR: I imagine you are always writing and looking at the next project.

ZL: Not so much as of recently in the past month or two because the only time we are able to do that is when we are touring hardcore. I think over the summer when we were trying to wrap everything up, I put together tons of songs. We are already writing stuff. We don’t necessarily put it into any category, like this is going to make a second record, we already have a bunch of stuff to pick from. As long as there is stuff to write about and the inspiration’s coming, we are trying to get everything out in case it goes away at any point.

MR: What would be your choice of a Middle Class Rut theme song for any movie or television series?

ZL: Oh man that’s tough. I wouldn’t even know where to start. I’m not sure, man. I have been living in a van for the past four weeks, so I haven’t really seen any television or watched a movie. My brain is fried on that end of things you know.

MR: I got it. How an act usually discovers such things is when your manager, record label or publisher calls you and says “Oh, by the way, we got you on etc., etc.”

ZL: Yeah, it’s a lot easier to have something presented to you and you can say it’s a horrible fit, no way, you don’t want your music associated with a hamburger commercial. It’s way easier than trying to conceptualize something to have an opportunity brought to you and then just screen it from there.

MR: What advice do you have for new artists?

ZL: Just write good songs, that’s all you can do. You can find all these tricks to try and pull–online exposure or trying to get on a certain show. It all boils down to do you have good songs that seem to find their way to the right people. That’s all you can really do. Find opportunity along the way. If you are writing good music, people are going to gravitate towards it, and you are going to get opportunity because of that.

MR: Any other words of wisdom before we end?

ZL: Come out to a show and come check us out on tour.

MR: Thanks so much, Zach.

Transcribed by Erika Richards