Zillionaire: An Agenda-less Band
By Charley Lee
Photo by Marcus Laurenzi

“We’ve always joked that Zillionaire is an agenda-less band: taking a year before playing our first show, taking our time recording an album, doing things on our own terms.”
- Keith Ulrey

What sets a band like Zillionaire apart from the multitude of other bands spewing forth and overrunning our fair cities? Well, as Michael Waksman (singer and guitarist for the band Zillionaire) puts it, “Very few band names start with the letter ‘Z.’”

The boys in the band, Heath Dupras (vocals/guitar), Keith Ulrey (drums), Waksman and Bryan Bates (bass) have actually managed to make a name for themselves by revitalizing the shuffled slow-core and post-punk sounds of bands like Polvo and Low. And they’ve done it on their own terms. “Did we set out saying ‘Hey, we’re going to write/perform said genre of music’?” Ulrey says. “No, of course not. But, when you’re not going for a pre-determined style, the result is usually what comes naturally to you. I would say because of our being huge fans of and living through the great indie-rock bands of mid-’90s, I would have to classify ourselves as a throwback of sorts to guitar-driven indie-rock.”

Zillionaire came together three years ago when Ulrey and Dupras added Waksman to their current project and right before their first show, added Bates on drums. Drawing on a number of influences like Versus, Polvo, Superchunk and Low, Zillionaire set out to craft a band that sounded like the music they like to listen to. Inspired by any and everything, the songwriting process was very meticulous for the band, as Waksman states, “There’s a huge change that happens from when you write a song and play it, to when you listen to it played back for you. It can sound completely different to a musician because they are no longer participating in the song, just listening, and a little more objectivity creeps in. Experiencing that objectivity during the writing process can be helpful, I believe. But also, sometimes it’s nice to be surprised.”

Now that the band is fully formed, they are poised to lift more than a few eyebrows with their first full-length release The Streetlights Have Been Turned Down, an album that brings to mind the carefree and introspective days of youth and summer. Thematically, the album posits the normal topics of love, life and few lesser-mentioned themes, as Dupras states, “We have a song, “I Won’t Let You Down (This Time)” about a fictional situation dealing with a split personality. Another one, “The Gardener,” is about the homeless guy that lived behind my apartment, and, of course, the ever so popular topic about breaking up with a girl.”

Recorded over a year and half with engineer Mark Nikolich at Atomic Audio in the band’s hometown of Tampa, Fla., the recording process was not always an easy one. They dealt with the stress of time-consuming editing, undeveloped ideas and faulty organizing, but the band was finally able to walk away with their vision intact.

“We maybe could have been more organized with our approach to the album, as far as knowing the best ways to get what we wanted,” says Waksman. “We messed around with different approaches and some did not work, but I think, and hopefully we all do, that in the end we did find the right way to do things and we pretty much got exactly what we wanted with a few surprises to boot.”

Right now the boys plan on touring locally in support of The Street Lights Have Been Turned Down and look forward to some regional shows throughout the Southeast. Having already shared the bill with such bands like Ted Leo, Summerbirds in the Cellar, Six Parts Seven and Saxon Shore, there is no shortage of bands in the Tampa area for Zillionaire to play with, as Ulrey explains, “It makes playing shows worth your while, as the band and as a listener/patron of the show. We seem to be in a nice upswing of camaraderie and support within the scene, amongst bands.”

What’s next for the band is anyone’s guess as they begin writing songs for a second CD. As Ulrey states, “We’ve always joked that Zillionaire is an agenda-less band: taking a year before playing our first show, taking our time recording an album, doing things on our own terms. We wanted to make a record; we did it. We wanted to play shows; we do that as opportunity allows. It makes things a lot easier when there are no expectations and take things on a day-to-day basis. Without sounding cliché or sentimental, we all have personal lives to tend to; jobs, responsibilities, spouses, significant others, whatever. We just want to do something we enjoy. Have fun. And we do.”

www.myspace.com/zillionairetampa