Featuring members of Ghidrah, Coheed and Cambria, Skarhead, Agents of Man, and more, alt-rock-infused post-harcore outfit Zero Trust cuts a windy, catchy wall of melodic fuzz path across heavier territories to powerful effect.
This week the band dropped a video for the track “Clouds,” which blurs the line between the animated and real world as it explores “intergenerational care/love.”
Decibel asked Zero Trust and animating partner Jeremiah Dickey to walk us through the process of creation…
Zack Thorne (Guitars): I was watching the Paul McCartney/Rick Rubin special while playing my guitar when the main riff came to me. With my new recording rig I immediately threw it down and the second part came to me while recording. I sent it to [drummer] Evan [Rossiter] and he organized it and added the crunchy part and everything fell into place.
Evan Rossiter (Drums): Zack sent me these two driving riffs, which were a style not necessarily what we were typically doing and I immediately got inspired to go the Barrel — the spot where we record and create. As I was listening, I felt that space — like, breathing room — was needed. So I added my part with 108 and Voivod on my mind. I dropped drums in two takes and sent to [vocalist] BJ [Allen] a couple hours later…
BJ Allen (Vocals): When Evan sent me the track I immediately thought of a soulful, almost Faith No More thing mixed with Ronald Isley type vibe. As the song progressed it kinda gained a Deftones-ish feel, so I leaned into that sound a bit more with more guttural screams.
Jeremiah Dickey (Animator): After talking to BJ about the ideas behind the song, I spent a lot of time listening to it and the idea occurred to me of a kid walking through a dystopian landscape, listening to headphones as the gateway for the story that happens. I had in mind a short film from 1968, Ryan Larkin’s “Walking,” but put to much darker effect — like walking through a Jodorowsky film. The visuals that follow came together pretty organically after that. A lot of the roots/veins stuff and cloud imagery were largely inspired by the paintings of Magritte.
