The band known as A-Z began when Zonder started working on material in early 2020 with a clear vision for the band he wanted to put together: “I was thinking beer commercials, car commercials and Cobra Kai. I wanted a very accessible band that would appeal to the masses,” he says. The band‘s name—standing for Alder thru Zonder—was an easy choice that would never pigeonhole the lineup‘s sound. “What I liked is that it did not limit what someone would think of the band,” says Zonder. “If we named the band Scary Serpent it would give a certain direction and didn‘t want people to prejudge us.”
The band members are legendarily prolific, which allows for an amazing dynamic where, as Zonder explains, “when you find the right guys, you just let them do whatever they want. Everybody‘s a seasoned pro and all the different ingredients come together, make it what it is. That live and recording experience allows A-Z to instinctively know how not to step on each other musically.”
“We‘re all about the songs, the band, not what each of us does in it. It‘s simple,” they all agree. “It’s about the music as a whole,” says Zonder, “I guarantee you everybody’s into something completely different musically, and that’s where the magic to me comes from, taking different influences and everybody doing what they do to create A-Z. We‘re not 20-year-old kids. We‘re at the point where if you’re gonna go, just go big. And that‘s what we‘ve done on A2Z2.”
