Outside of the chaos of 6th Street at a little cafe that had just opened, Bethany and Joshua met up with two Austin legends. The first was a delicious breakfast taco, which I highly recommend everybody finds a chance to eat at some point in their life. The second legend was Fastball singer Miles Zuniga. We talked to the him about the industry, what they have been up to for the last five years and their new album, Little White Lies.
Bethany, PopWreckoning: You guys have had kind of a break since your last album and you're about to release Little White Lies. How have you changed and developed over those years that you didn't have new music coming out?
Miles Zuniga, Fastball: Oh well, we played with other people. I started this other band called the Small Stars, which is kind of like a cabaret rock. We described it as De Hoopla meets Frank Sinatra in the women's restroom in Denny’s. That was our description of the music. That's what we were going for: to get the rat pack swaggered old school thing. But also, we were really into a lot of glam music, kind of like Queen and David Bowie–a meld of the two. Some people liked it; some people thought it was awful. So it just depends on my listener, but it was fun to sort of do that. It was like a best man's holiday.
Actually there's a bar down the street called Emo’s and we got a Tuesday night residency there — basically get loaded and play and that evolved into some small stuff. I can only really speak for myself. The other guys went and did other stuff, too. It was fun to do stuff that had basically zero commercial expectation, zero career expectations. Just do stuff for the fun of it and try it out and I learned a lot of new things. Playing with other people you just learn more and more about yourself.
While I was doing that, the music industry was just busy imploding. Just year after year, it just seemed to get—record sales kept falling, and it just seemed to get more and more caving in on itself. So I guess we're entering a brave new world. Who knows what will be? At this point it doesn't really matter to me. I'm too old to do anything; I’m too old to change. Now I'll be this. Now I'll go to law school. I've been playing music my entire life, so that's basically what I do.
Joshua, PopWreckoning: What do you think is responsible for the drop in the record industry? Do you think it's downloading or do you think…
MZ: Uh-huh.
JH: Or do you think it's record sales?
MZ: I think it is. The internet is just a giant flatner and you see this in every single business. It is an unstoppable force with the technology. It destroyed the travel industry as far as travel agents. You can't be a travel agent now. I mean you can, but good luck. People can do it themselves. It just guts all the fat out of everything and also lowers kind of the profit margin unless you are a chip company or something.
If you're in something that's in the forefront of technology, you're going to do well, but all the traditional older businesses, a lot of them have been destroyed by this. Intellectual property in general is no longer protected and some people argue it shouldn't be. I don't know what it all, I can only do what I do, I'm not going to worry how it all will work. My own biz, if there's no real big money left in the record industry, then hopefully all the people that are in it to make big money will go away and hopefully the only left will be the more adventurous people making music. That's kind of already happening. 
JH: Nice. I never thought about the concept of big business record company going away, but I like the sound of it now that you've brought that up.
MZ: Well consider something like a Britney Spears or things like that, that was all built around this model: get the right girl with the right song, and the right dancers and make all the right choreography and we're going to sell gazillions of albums. It's OK if we sign 9 or 10 other things that don't work, as long as this one thing works, it will pay for all the others. And if it hits, we can find someone just like her or we can use her as this year's model.
There's a million of —like Nirvana-wow Nirvana. Let's sign everything that comes out of Seattle. That's what they did, well now, people aren't going to buy the entire album. People are going to buy "Hit Me Baby One More Time" for 99 cents off of iTunes, if they don't steal it. That destroys the whole profit model, that destroys the whole “we can take a gamble on this and it will pay for all the other shit.” They can't do it anymore so maybe it will make it so they don't—do you honestly think that anyone is going, “Let's sign a Britney Spears because this is great art?”
JH: No. I don't.
MZ: They're not. That's not the reason. There's nothing wrong with that, and if you think you can sell it, then more power to you. I actually think you got to look for the silver lining and maybe the silver lining is wow maybe we can get back to like the 1950s where there are all these little tiny labels- Chess, Sun Records, etc.-and there are all these bands that have these little hits in different parts of the country and it was exciting and I think that rock and roll was basically invented. And I think the only types of people that wanted to do it were all these people that were crazy people—the gypsies or the people that were like fuck it.
They weren't thinking that I'm going to have a career. The notion of career didn't really happen until the Beatles came in the 60s and late 70s and all that and people were like, wow you can make a shitload of money doing this. The rock star as a way of life wasn't really cautified until basically when the Eagles and shit came along and people were doing blow and living in Laurel Canyon. Oh this is a full on industry, you can have an actual career. I think we're returning to where we're like, “Well no one can actually make a living doing this and if you want to do it just to do it, then it's better than naught.”
JH: Sort of the new rock and roll renaissance.
MZ: Well, one would help. I just got out of the Little Steven thing and he just went on a big tirade about how music sucks, I disagree. I think there's a ton of great music out there. A ton of it.
JH: I think proper exposure may suck, but the music itself does not suck. What else do you got now that we both ranted for 40 minutes?
MZ: Yeah, we both basically are done.
BS: I guess, I just wanted to talk about the new album a little bit more. With everything you said, how do you see it fitting into the new online world, how do plan on getting it out to people?
MZ: Ultimately it is all about promotion and getting it out to as many people as you can. It's getting back to what I was talking about, it was the muscle of record companies past. They could get you on MTV and get you on the radio. It is harder to do that now, but we just want to go out there and make real fans. We have very realistic expectations of ourselves. It is kind of like when, after our last record, I just thought, maybe that's that. We won't do another Fastball record and I really thought the band would just naturally die off.
But what happened was that the people that liked us, found us, and we just solidified our following via the internet. Basically people finding the records and then finding us and we have a fan base. I just have been making a living off this band for 10 years now and I thought, it is time to water the tree. I have been feeding off of this tree now for 10 years and I haven't done jack shit since 2005, it is time to water the tree. The tree needs water, let's make another album. Let's play for the people that want to hear us and play live. That's basically it.
Our goal isn't to make too many new fans, obviously. We're not like, “Oh God, we're going to be huge,” I mean, what does that even mean? There was a time when we had a number one song on the radio and it's all kind of surreal. It's not tangible to me. What is tangible is playing a good show, meeting new people and doing it again the next night. That's it. It is very simple.
JH: Something that I noticed that you guys did and I don't know if you guys did this in every city, but I know you did it in Kansas City, is you–we were coming out of a venue, I don't even remember who we saw–but you had a street team outside. And as we were leaving, they were handing out tickets to your show. I guess that your concept with that was if we get people to come to our show this time, the next time we come through, we will have that.
MZ: See, I had nothing to do with that. That probably happened. That was probably the record company. What they call that in the biz is papering the show. What it is, that show, probably didn't sell well. Haha. So they were just doing an effort to try and make it look better or whatever. It's not bad. I do want people to hear us. So even though there were people there working on our behalf, I had nothing to do with that. That was probably several years ago, I'm thinking.
JH: It was a year ago. It was probably…
MZ: OK. I remember that show. Yeah I had nothing to do with that. It was probably the promoter or somebody. I had a good time that night. Some of the places we haven't played in ages and to some degree we have to rebuild a following. There are a lot of people that follow us, they're just scattered all over the globe, basically. I mean, the camera man, the woman that was taking pictures at the thing said, “You're a big band in India,” and we're like, “That's cool, you could have fooled me. I didn't know that,” and she said, “They play your songs there all the time.” So we'll see. Maybe we'll get to go touring.
JH: That would be cool.
MZ: Sorry, I'm being awfully long-winded.
JH: Oh no. We like that actually. We had a string of three or four word interviews, so this is refreshing.
BS: Your band has been together for 15 years. How do you do that when most bands are going through constant line up changes and break ups, yet here you guys are putting out a new album? 
MZ: Well, I mean, we go off, I like to say we go off to molt. You know, like an animal sheds its skin or its feathers or whatever. I do think it is important. I look at a band like an aquarium where if you don't change the water, it is going to go bad. So you have to go with other people and do other things and maybe even stop playing music all together. You know? If you feel like it.
You got to be refreshed and that has been the key. We have taken extended breaks. It does get intense when you're doing it for that entire time. It is hard. It drives you insane being together with the same people. It is a weird sociological experiment. It's nuts. Your tolerance for it definitely goes down.
Two things happen as you get older. You gain insight and perspective, so you don't actually think, “He's such a dickhead, I never want to play with him again.” You're actually more mature than that. At the same time you're tolerance for, oh, a nine hour van ride goes down. So, when I was in my 20s, I'd do anything to play rock and roll. I didn't care. I'd sleep in a van. I'd sleep on the floor. It didn't matter to me as long as I got to play and drink and have a good time. That was all that mattered. Now all that matters is that I play a good show. All the recreational matters are not as important.
BS: You guys are Austin natives, so you've seen the SXSW scene plenty of times. Do you have any tips for first timers?
MZ: SXSW? Um…
BS: Well, what was it like growing up in scene that has stuff like this?
MZ: We kind of take it for granted. Our music scene is really good and then it gets insane, obviously this week. I guess if you're coming to this festival, my number one tip is don't bring a car. It is impossible to park.
The other thing is don't try to get it all done. It is OK if you miss stuff because you'll drive yourself insane if you try to hit every single little thing and in a way you might oversaturate yourself. Just do what you feel. If one day you don't feel like seeing any music, that's OK. If you just see one thing, it is not a crime. Usually about the third or fourth day man, I'm ready to just chill out and watch a movie.
JH: Yeah, I have no desire to see bands today.
MZ: Haha, yeah I can't go for long. But some people can.
BS: They should switch it and have the music portion first, followed by the films.
JH: That would be great.
BS: Yeah, that would let people unwind.
MZ: Did you do the whole thing?
BS: No.
JH: I may next year, though. I'm strongly considering coming for the entire thing.
MZ: Wow.
BS: Is there one thing that you wish people knew about your band that they don't?
MZ: We're better than you think we are. A lot of people only know us from the song and they think that maybe we're a record company product and we are a real rock and roll heartbeating band. We love music for all the right reasons and we'll be doing it a long time from now. So, if you wrote us off just because you think that we're some band from the radio, come to a show. Check us out one time and then make a decision. That would be my thing to say.
JH: I think that's fair. That's kind of the angle that I went with the review. If people are going to lump you in with the other bands of the 90s that were vital at the same time that you guys were vital then they're just chumps and dicks because you guys aren't Third Eye Blind. You're still making really good music.
MZ: Right. I wasn't going to say that, but you did. Haha. I don't, without naming names, there's a lot of music that I think was awful that was on the radio at the same time as us. And I don't know, we were lumped in there and it has taken us a long time as well and we keep getting better, so I don't know.
Maybe when we did have the radio hit, we weren't the best band or the greatest band, I'm not saying that. You just deal, er, play the cards you're dealt. It has taken us out of nowhere. All of a sudden, you're all over the place and you're on TV and maybe you're not there in terms of performance and all the other important things. Over the years, we've become that way. But it is fine to me. It kicked everything off for us, helped us turn the corner, and now we don't really need hit songs to survive. We're a self-sustaining unit. But I don't turn my back on those things either. It is great to hear yourself on the radio and it is the easiest way for people to hear you.
JH: I actually really liked that at the radio show, you didn't feel obligated to play "The Way". I thought it was really cool that you guys just did your thing, you played what you wanted to play and it was your set.
MZ: I have real mixed feelings about that song. Only because, it is funny, I read somewhere, some one commented on the show the other night and said, "Fastball rolled their collective eyes when they played ‘The Way",' and it wasn't true at all. The thing is if I go see Jane's Addiction, I want to hear "Jane Says" or "Coming Down the Mountain" or whatever. If I go see Motorhead, I want to hear the "Ace of Spades". I mean fuck. These are great fucking songs and they're the most popular songs for a reason and it is not like I don't want to play that song, it just depends on how we feel and what the context is.
Having said that, if somebody comes to our show and having paid money, I only have to assume that a certain percentage want to hear that song for sure and I feel like I'm ripping them off in a way by not playing it. We've done shows where we don't do it, but tomorrow we play the park. We're going to play that song because there are so many people there and why not? So many people genuinely love that song it just seems silly not to play it so those are my two cents on it.
JH: I like "Out of My Head" way better.
MZ: I agree with you.
JH: It is beautiful.
MZ: I think it is a much better song, I guess. I don't even think "The Way" is the best song we have, but for whatever reason, it struck a chord with people. I think it is the narrative involved.
JH: That guitar riff, too. That riff is catchy.
MZ: Thank you for that.
BS: I really liked how you guys led into "Out of My Head" the other day, too, when you were like, "I'd be out of my mind not to play “Out of My Head”."
MZ: Haha, that's when the radio people go out of their way. And sometimes they do and insist you come in and you play those songs. And when you have a brand new album, you don't want to focus and be like here's a song that was big 10 years ago and people still know us as this. So you're like, well is that really what you want to be leading with?
BS: Honestly, I thought, it was better when you played "Anjulie". That sounded fantastic.
JH: Yeah, I think the new stuff is great. I think it right on par, based on my opinion, with what people should be listening to in music right now.
MZ: I do think all we're looking to do is keep building our deal, and I actually think this record will help us. I don’t think it is the best record we made and I love all the songs on it. It is just very organic and from the heart, so it's not, there's no big, we are the record label. So it is a relief. Even the small promotion we've done, kind of makes me nauseous.
When you're not making a record, or hyping a record, you're just playing music and it is the greatest thing in the world. You show up at a gig, you drink some beers and you play your music. It is fun and really direct and pure. When you have, sometimes doing a lot of promotion, I go, “Oh God, I remember what this is like.” There's a danger that halfway through the promotional junket, you'll lose your hard on for wanting to promote the album. You won't want to do it anymore.
At that point, you're sunk because you don't want to be a phony. Because I don't want to feel like I don't want to talk about this record anymore or going on and on about myself, but what are you going to do? Sometimes you just have to keep doing it. Like I said, we're the record company, so there is nobody trying to order us about or recoup their investment. That's basically what it is.
BS: I did want to tell you that your cover was really good the other day.
JH: It was really good.
MZ: We love that band [Supergrass].
BS: You guys should honestly record that and at least offer it on MySpace or something for people to hear.
JH: I think it was every bit as tight and good as the original. I don't know if you guys had been playing it awhile, but I know you said it was the first time you did it, but I was like no. No way. Because it was tight.
MZ: I mucked the words up, if you really listened to it.
JH: Haha, we did catch that, but…
MZ: I couldn't remember what he says, but we saw that band, right when we got signed. We saw them at CMJ like 1995. And they hadn't, I felt so lucky and cool, because we knew who they were because our friends tipped us to them and this was before the internet had gotten started. I sound like grandpa, "Back in my day there was no splash page or place to check them out. You just had to check them out." And some of our friends were like, “This band Supergrass. They're the shit. You got to check them out. They're from England.” And so we bought their record on import and you know, you could buy Mojo or Q and read about them. And it felt really good, we saw them at CMJ, probably their first show on American soil. They played CMJ and it was a party in the afternoon. They were great.
JH: They are great. I was really excited when you played it because they're one of my favorite bands of all time.
MZ: They're killer. That drummer is killer.
JH: They have a very good drummer. As a drummer, I can say that he is in my top 5 drummers.
MZ: And certain things in rock and roll are important. They're an added bonus like when you had hair like he did. He had it all: he had the hair and his arms like a praying mantis. Killer drummer.
JH: Cool. Well, I'm good.
MZ: Thank you, guys.
JH: Yeah, we had a good time.
Fastball: website | myspace | stream KUT performance | @ 90.5 KUT
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