Zollie Maynard
of the Sight-seers/solo artist

photo by Steve Rucker

October  29th, 2003- In the Madcap Studio

LK: Talk about some of the earliest music you heard that you dug.

Zol: I remember getting that “Rappers Delight” record, the light blue one with the swirl drawn onto it. Red and Yellow. I think that was in fifth grade. Me and my sisters got “Saturday Night Fever” and “Grease.” Got both of those records and bikes the same Christmas, and I think Brad got a bike too that year. I think they were called Rangers. They had the banana seat. We’d go do a couple of laps around the neighborhood and then come back into the living room and listen to records. I think “Rappers Delight” was the first record I actually bought. It’s beautiful. That record cover is as beautiful to look at as “Shout at the Devil,” by Motley Crue. You’re looking at that record cover, someone brings it to school and you’re looking over your shoulder. The Stalin tick, you know. Are we going to get sent to detention or something?

LK: As a teenager what sort of stuff did you listen to?

Zol: We hit middle school and we listened to some heavy metal. Black Sabbath; that was some of the more cool stuff. What else? Iron Maiden. Of course with Iron Maiden you’d want to collect them all. Your collector instinct kicked in. I lost the collector instinct pretty early, but Brad didn’t. We ended up in high school, and all of a sudden it’s The Smiths and The Cure, from Ozzy. Even cheesy stuff too, like Night Ranger. But that doesn’t end up sticking. It doesn’t last long. There’s just not much emotionally you can invest in that. Like AC/DC, didn’t they go on with another singer?

LK: Van Halen did. They actually sold more records with Sammy. I think that had more to do with his business acumen. He was almost a Panama City Andy Warhol figure.

Zol: Panama Warhol.

LK: When did you start singing? Why did you choose your voice as your instrument?

Zol: I remember looking forward to kindergarten in the morning because we’d sing songs to start the day. I remember loving singing the Carpenters’ “I’m On Top Of the World” and looking around and realizing that some of my classmates were not into it at all; just bored; not their thing I suppose. So, I recall that basic difference; I couldn’t wait to sing, but some kids were anxious to get onto something else. So that’s my first memory of realizing that I was someone who loved to sing, although something might’ve happened before that.

We had guitar lessons at our house growing up. Because the elementary school teacher that gave the guitar lessons on the side lived too far out of town, so my folks had her do the lessons at our house. I picked up the guitar and wanted to play it left handed. She said to go and flip it over and play it right handed, which works for plenty of people, but I only had a certain level of rhythm in my right hand, and it was enough to discourage me and make me think that this was something I can’t do. I still loved music. I Took piano lessons a little bit. I really hated it. “Mom if you make me take piano lessons any more this year…” I loved singing with the radio in middle school. Daryl Hall and John Oates, and seventies stuff, you’re Mom’s driving you around and stuff…

You hear people say it over and over, “I just like good music.” Our age group, it was more acceptable to like a lot of different kinds of music. You may go through a phase where you are only listening to one kind of music, like indie rock or metal, but hopefully you end up being able to say, “I just like good music.”

LK: Talk about your early rock moments.

Zol: I remember I got arrested for vandalism on New Years Eve. My sophomore year in high school. With this guy we used to always raise hell with. I’d think of something to do. Like, Let’s throw this…what are those things you have at hotels that you load your clothes onto? Let’s throw that over the fourteenth floor of this building. In Gulf Shores Alabama. He would convince us to do it. We’d do that, and egg cars all the time. Then you’d get to the point to where you’d buy a couple dozen eggs and pull up next to a car and just dump them onto it. You’d take the sport out of it. Just go ahead and tear it up.

I had to go to a private school for a half of a year after I got arrested. We broke into a newspaper machine. We were wasted, and we had convinced the taxi driver to buy us liquor. We got a cab to a party which you don’t really do in Tallahassee Florida, and the driver, he bought us cases, wine coolers, whatever…So we’re superstars. We arrived at the party with just cases... and it was like, “How did you do it?” We were so successful there that we had it in our heads that that’s how we were going to get home too. In a cab.

But what happens is that Tipsy Taxi kicks in on New Years Eve, and they’ll come get you, but it’s going to take four hours. So we were at the convenience store, called the Sing Store, waiting for that cab. We got bored, kicked over a newspaper machine, quarters came out, and I had like four dollars of quarters in my pockets. Cool. We’ll go to put-put the next day. Two hours worth of games. Cop pulls in. Pulls away. That’s kind of weird. We’d put the newspaper machine back up, but we’d rattled the door and an alarm probably had gone off. We didn’t think about that. We were wasted.

So a car full of girls came by. “What are ya‘ll doing?” “Oh, we’re waiting on a cab.” As if we’re in the city or something. “You need a ride?” “No, it should be here soon.” That was the worst…We would have made it out of there just in time, in a carload of girls. It would have been perfect. Five or ten minutes after that, the entire canine team comes to the Sing Store. John’s like, “We better get outta here.” We start backing up around the store. I realize at that moment, I have the evidence in my pocket. And they’re behind the store too. I was like, I can’t throw these quarters. They’ll make too much noise, and they’ll be able to find them. I was planning on digging a hole with my heel when we got off the concrete, and into the dirt by the Dimpsty Dumpster, but right before I could get to the dirt, this cop comes up and was like, “What are you boys doing here?”

“Oh we’re waiting on a cab.” That’s good. Getting a cab. He was like, “You guys just hang right here for me, thank you.” He goes off, comes back, and said, “One of you got a quarter for me to borrow? I need to call my wife...”

“Oh no, I don’t have a quarter you can borrow. Not one you can borrow.” I didn’t lie to him. Didn’t say I didn’t have one. Or sixteen total. So, eventually we’re up against the car, and they’re frisking us, they put us in the back of the car. We’re like, All right man. We’d seen the movies. We knew they were going to separate us. Get contradicting stories. So John and I are in the back seat, and we had this story about how we had those quarters because we’re going to put-put tomorrow. It just didn’t work. We were wasted, and sobered up pretty quick being involved with the cops.

They took us to the station, through these thick doors. We ended up in the snack room. They never put us behind bars, so it was a tame version at that point. It sucks. You have your dad show up eventually, and I ended up at the private school. And on the varsity baseball team. Pitching. Because a friend of mine that played outfield said that he had heard the only way I was going to make the team, because I was left handed, is to tell the coach that you could pitch. I had never pitched before, so of course the day that they are trying me out, I’m not on the pitchers mound. It’s raining. We’re on the basketball court. Which probably helped me make the team in the end. There was no way I was going to make it at the public high school. They had a larger pool of people to choose from.

We went to play these guys near the Gulf. It was a correctional school for rich kids. So we kicked their ass, and we are driving home, and Josh Parsons Mom is driving, and I remember I was in the back left seat of the car, and Josh had The Cure’s “The Head on the Door” in, and it just looped. It just kept playing and playing, and I just laid my head back on the seat and it was a mind altering experience for me. As far as Rock and Roll getting you. Hearing that in that moment. I learned a lot. There were some great teachers at that school, but I couldn’t stay at the private school.

That summer, Brad had hooked up with Tim. We all lived in the same neighborhood. He was kind of looking for a lead singer, eccentric like you would. We had this guy, Taylor Bullock that had the entire look happening with the “Goth” thing. Even though he was a great break dancer. He moves to Tallahassee and gets the Goth look to a T. He did a great version at a rehearsal of one of our old songs called, “Carry Away.” He did sort of a shouting version of it. Pretty intense.

LK: What was the Sight-Seers first name?

Zol: Dla with a line over the “A.”

LK: You made a record?

Zol: We did a record with Everett Young, in ’86 I think. Nowadays, I think any high-school has tons of guys in bands. Back then it wasn’t really common. We’d play dances, and get a pretty huge reaction. We just thought that was normal at the time. It’s weird being in a band in high school because you are watching MTV and 120 Minutes, and it’s not entirely based in reality. You’re trying to progress forward and forge into some new sound to where you are not copying and you are aware of that. I hope that continues to be something that kids strive to do. Go ahead and find their own voice even if they’re not singing. Instead of copying, even though it’s going to be guaranteed to sell.

LK: How did you transform into the Sight-Seers?

Zol: We’ve had a ton of names. That’s pretty common I think. We’ve had some pretty rough names. We ended up with the Sight-Seers name because the name we were called when we made a record with Shotput Records had been taken. So we had two weeks to think of a name. We were called “Vent” which didn’t fit. I don’t know what they sound like, I never heard them, but it seems like it would be heavy. We all thought of different names. We had a board set up when we were doing pre-production for that record, if I recall right, and it had a bunch of names on it. I was in bed one night, and I don’t know why, that came to mind. Sight-Seers. Jeff Calder had suggested “Fun-Seekers,” I think he had a pair of shoes that were called that. I called him, and was like how about “Sight-Seers.” It seemed right. I seemed like it could end up being anything. We had gone through so many different genres.

LK: Talk about the first record you made as The Sight-Seers.

Zol: “Fun-Seeking with The Sight-Seers” was made in seven or eight days with Rage Against the Machine coming in the studio in the middle of making it, if I recall correctly. They came in for three days in the middle of it because they had some song up called “White Walls” or something like that. It was at Southern Tracks. It was the “Evil Empire” album. I think you can really appreciate an experience like that if you played an instrument. All of a sudden you’ve got a room of guitars, and get enlightened to why do you use this guitar? Or suggesting something and being right. Like acoustic on this part, or this type of electric guitar on that. Everyone was focused on the equipment. Why to use one particular amp for one song. Invaluable experience. But it was very tiring. We’d be there at four in the morning. I remember one time Tim was singing some background vocals and he was sitting down singing them almost falling asleep. In retrospect it was a blessing in disguise, because my singing was a little bit…you have to trust that where you can give the time is where you are at and where you are supposed to be.

You have an intro to a song that is over the top. And you’re glad that it was cut because it would be annoying. What is it really saying other than “Hot Shot, and Hot Rodding?” I can do this thing with my voice. Some trill or something. It was an honor to make the record in a studio that was as pro as it gets. How many great records have been made there? I think we all appreciated it in the moment. I’m glad. Some kids can end up stepping into that too soon, and just expect it.

LK: Talk about your new album.

Zol: Well, we did an EP in 1998 with Everett, kind of full circle because he recorded our high-school album, and we recorded “Now We’re In the Sun” with him in his house, and Tim was there every day tracking. Everett has a role more in mixing, but it was beautiful because we wanted to have the luxury of time. But you can’t spend months or years doing some recording unless you are a huge artist. You go to the Bahamas and record for three months. Or write your record in the studio. But we realized that experience with Everett. We learned a lot. But “Fun-Seeking” in 1996, that was done in eight days. So, now with this new record, it was the complete opposite. It was exhausting in a lot of ways, and it was difficult to capture the moment. How do you capture being in the moment when it’s being recorded over the course of a long moment?

With my part of it, I did intentionally leave a lot of lyrics unfinished so I would have to meet Tim in the morning and fill them in. It brought some moment to it. I think recording live is where we are headed though. Tracking live. That gives some energy to build upon. If you’ve been playing for over half of your lives together that’s a really valuable thing to take advantage of. Get that moment.

With “Fun-Seeking” we were in constant rehearsals, intense pre-production, and I think in your twenties it can all be confusing. I think you can be locked into certain fantastical perspectives about it all, to where you end up not experiencing it to the fullest. You can go through and be younger in your town, interacting with musicians in bands that maybe you don’t like, the kind of music they are doing is not your favorite, but still you are looking at a human that is doing the same thing that you are doing, and that’s your peer. It’s all local, and I think any time you can, it’s valuable to appreciate that, and you learn so much because they’re doing the same thing you are doing.

When you are young and going through that environment with Rock and Roll, whether you like it or not, toxic moments get memorized and looped so to speak, and it becomes hard when you see those folks again; it’s confusing. Everybody is experiencing this for the first time, even if you’re not learning those things through the filter of the music industry, or Rock and Roll experience. Fan and Music Maker. As you go through your twenties, you hopefully end up realizing that those toxic moments as you get older, you get the opportunity to heal some of that stuff that was silly. Those interactions. You get to have conversations with people that you’ve met doing music in your town later on, and mend it.

It’s sad if people aren’t afforded that opportunity. It’s inverse is sad. It’s spiritual. Everyone is allowed change. No matter how your immediate group around you, or family, or co-workers feel; If people are used to perceiving you in one way, you can always be calm in the fact that you are able to have the liberty and freedom of change.

You hear people say, “I’m going to work on myself. I’m going to really focus on myself and try to make some good change happen.” I feel like from what I’ve experienced, there is a ceiling to change looking like that. You end up having to trust that some outside entity, whatever God looks like to a person, or doesn’t look like, I believe true repose and change, and calm might have to happen to you. Not you being the agent of that change. People can’t control it. Let it be.

LK: Talk about Slow Fear.

Zol: I guess Slow Fear is like in dialog with someone face to face and realizing that you’re not going to add much to the conversation. Talking about a subject you don’t know anything about. You’d have to go study it, or care to go research it .To welcome that challenging adversity in those moments is where it’s at, because it’s yet another opportunity to strengthen your listening skills and learn from someone. It’s an art form that’s beautiful to see. When someone’s able to eloquently share knowledge and go several layers deep into descriptions and facts about subjects they’ve researched and are passionate about conveying to you. I suppose instead of fleeing adversity people are better off welcoming it because growth and freedom are found there in those moments. Let defenses down and realize that you’re not cornered, in fact you’re smack dab in the middle of an open field where everyone’s invited to be at all times if they’re capable by the grace of God. So, slow fear is to be welcomed and identified like a red flag going up, and then one might pray for repose in that exact moment and be given the wherewithal to reverse the insecurities ushered in under the black cape of slow fear, and succeed in those moments by asking questions and being fearless in voicing thoughts that come doused in insecurity. In other words, you just need to rock right through it. Fly on the fuel of faith.

LK: Hiding like a scared child.

Zol: Like is an important word. Because you’re not a child. You’re like an adult, most likely. Maybe intimidation of being overwhelmed by learning something new. That’s weird. There’s a woman on the T.V. playing an SG.

LK: Cold Seawater.

Zol: I think it might be a bright sunny day. But if you’re out in the middle of it you’d realize you are going to sink and it’s going to get real cold. I don’t know. I’m not really good at this for some reason. What am I supposed to do?

LK: Could you drown in a pit of ink and movable type?

Zol: Yeah, you could drown, absolutely. As soon as it covered your eyes, it’s black, so you wouldn’t be able to see very well. It would be very thick, it would be slow, be heavy around you, and the movable type? It would be all those words to all the people you wished you could say something to because you were on the way to drowning. You wouldn’t see it unless someone dumped typewriter keys into the pool! You could get to the point to where you couldn’t make words. You’re of the ink, but the movable type is all floating around like alphabet soup. Maybe that’s liberation. You end up having faith that you have ended up in a place where you can’t say or write and you don’t have any other option, you have to have the faith that words are just going to come to you.

LK: I’ll let my sweater figure it out.

Zol: That would be trust kind of. An environment of hot to cold. That might me hard to figure out. You know you have to wear some layers. Then you’re like, “Am I sick? I’m sweating a little bit, but I’m freezing.” So you trust that the sweater is the good medium. I don’t know. I don’t have a sweater. I hate all of my sweaters. Sweaters suck! You get them for Christmas.