Zack Zarrillo - Sound In The Signals Interview
The big POZ news this week is that the site officially turned five. That's a pretty big accomplishment. Can you still remember what you were doing the day you purchased propertyofzack.com
I actually purchased the domain name on March 26th, 2009. I used to say this a lot at the beginning of POZ - I don’t think the site could have been successful if it was planned. I didn’t go into building a website with a plan in hand, in fact, I didn’t even know you could really build a website. That might sound silly to say, but it definitely wasn’t for a 16 year old.
So, what was I doing when I was 15 in March of 2009? I was experimenting with Tumblr. The website/forum that changed my life, Punk Disasters, was shutting its doors and I didn’t have a place to talk about music anymore in a meaningful way. An old friend, Jedd Lopez, recommended I check out Tumblr. From March to November, I was just playing with the medium (as I still am today).
If you go through POZ’s 42,000+ posts and make it to the very end, you’ll find a 16 year old blogging about blink-182’s reunion dates because he had never been so excited in his life to go to a show.
The other big news is that in January 2015 and SpinMedia are parting ways. Tell me a little about the process, as much as you can disclose, leading up to partnering with Spin Media, what the overall experience was like, and how you regained control/ownership of your site?
It was definitely a process, one which I’ll talk more about on Off The Record over the coming months.
The point of selling the site to (then) BuzzMedia was to grow beyond our means at the time. There were never ads on PropertyOfZack. There was a web design that my mother graciously paid for over the summer going into my senior year in high school. There was a lack of “brand awareness,” as gross as that may sound. There was a promise for all of it.
Unfortunately, most of that just didn’t pan out for many reasons. Some of which was my fault. Some of which was SpinMedia’s fault. Some of which was nobody’s fault.
Getting the website back was not an easy process. I was ready to close the doors on the site this year, something I’ve never publicly said. The situation within SpinMedia, a company that has seen incredible turbulence, was starting to take a toll on my mental health. It was time for a change.
I’m so beyond glad to see ownership return to me on January 1st.
You also announced that when the partnership ends in January 2015 the site will go through a re-design. What are some of your new plans with the site? How will it change and how will it be the same? You used the words "singular focus" to describe the new site design what exactly does that mean?
One particular thing that we accomplished with SpinMedia was getting a new website design built, even though it took a long while. That design is the one you see now. The idea of it was great at the time, but it’s felt a little bloated since.
The idea with the new website design was to strip what makes this current design work and to focus it just on that. It’s simple, fluid, and responsive. The worst part about it is waiting two months to launch it.
I don’t want to spoil too much, but the drive of the site in the future will be much more focussed on what the people running it are passionate about. Just like how we cut the cruft on the design, we’re cutting the cruft of what we post.
I've read a lot of site owners who have partnered with SpinMedia have some issues with how things have gone. I just read James from Under The Gun write about how displeased he was with the company. You signed up with SpinMedia to become part of AbsoluteVoices and that idea never quite came to fruition the way I think it was meant to. Do you agree with that at all? Do you have any regret in signing the deal now that you can look back on it?
It never panned out. It would be incorrect of me to say that the initial AbsoluteVoices partnership didn’t help PropertyOfZack, because it absolutely did. Jason Tate, Thomas Nassiff, and Drew Beringer absolutely helped the site grow primarily with saturation coverage on AbsolutePunk. But eventually, a certain number of eyeballs became familiar with the site and it settled in. That’s not a bad thing either, but that’s just how it went.
Nothing James said, however, is wrong in the big picture.
Regret is a funny thing. I was an 18 year old that sold his baby to a faulty corporate machine. It was and still is an incredible accomplishment. I’m so proud of that. It also enabled me to grow myself into more areas of the music industry, where I have now found major happiness and further success as we’ll get into below.
I don’t regret it. I just wish it went a different way.
Outside of POZ you've become a label owner, you work with Jade Tree, and a band manager. How has POZ opened those doors and what's been your biggest accomplishments as a label owner and a manager?
Like I was saying above, the larger exposure of PropertyOfZack let me step into a new world, albeit by accident.
I never thought I’d manage a band. I never thought I’d run a label (or two). I’ve found, however, that I really love doing all of the above.
PropertyOfZack enabled me to get my feet more than wet in the music industry. I made friends, I made enemies, I made lifelong friends.
My biggest achievement with Bad Timing: Forging a partnership with Kevin Devine, Devinyl Records, and Favorite Gentlemen Recordings.
My biggest achievement with Synergy Artist Management: Knuckle Puck selling over 2,000 copies of While I Stay Secluded in its first week and charting. Not the singular event of that, but it being how a year of hard work paid off.
Jade Tree has released a ton of quality releases. What's one you discovered since working with the label that had previously been a hidden gem?
It’s kind of crazy how deep the Jade Tree catalog is. On one hand you have the giants: Jets To Brazil, The Promise Ring, Lifetime, Kid Dynamite, Pedro The Lion, and Cap’n Jazz.
On the other hand, like, dude they put out releases from My Morning Jacket before that band was even a thing. The Alkaline Trio / Hot Water Music split.
The label has an absurd catalog. There’s a lot for me to still discover, but it’s fun just hitting play and going, “Wow, how did this even happen?"
You had the Jade Tree catalog put up on bandcamp for the more than fair price of $5. How, in your opinion, has that helped the label regain some of the prominence and visual recognition it once had among music listeners?
I started talking with Darren and Tim about the easy check marks to knock off for getting the label back into the punk scene’s eyes. Having each release on Bandcamp for $5 was an easy decision, with complete inspiration brought on by Run For Cover Records. An old dog is never too old to, you get it. Jade Tree has a lot of work to do, this was just one step.
What was cool, and a surprise, was that the move spurred tons of articles from publications like Pitchfork and AV Club on Jade Tree’s killer catalog.
Knuckle Puck has become one of the biggest pop-punk bands on the rise. A lot of that is due to not only their music but your work and involvement with the band as a manager. How do you work with a band like Knuckle Puck who has the tag “pop-punk" and help them to become more than just another band with an EP on bandcamp? How do you help them start building their brand and craft uniqueness to help them stick out amongst the tons of other “pop-punk" bands?
There’s nothing wrong with being a pop-punk band. I don’t want to make Knuckle Puck a non-pop-punk band. I love pop-punk. Hearing Knuckle Puck for the first time in August of 2013 felt like a breath of fresh air. I love this goddamn band. I love their music.
The songs were there. The guys are good guys. From there, what we’ve been trying to do is tour hard and get great exposure. Other things like well planned vinyl releases (via Bad Timing) and proper merch and music distribution has been very beneficial.
It’s been a ton of hard, but rewarding work.
You also have a podcast Off The Record. I know you originally hosted or guested on quite a few episodes (and recently returned to guest) on the AP.net podcast. What made you want to step away from the AP.net one and start on of your own?
The AP.net Podcast took a break for a while. When it came back, Jason assembled it with a true AP.net team, which was more than kosher with me. I had a lot of one dipping my toes into the podcasting game. It made me hungry to start my own.
I’ve had so much fun doing a weekly show with Jesse. Podcasting is my favorite medium in the world, and it’s humbling to be able to put something into it.
I recently interviewed your Off The Record podcast co-host. I talked a little about how at times he seems like your therapist, and he mentioned at times you seem like his. I think the dynamic you two have and the age difference offers a unique listening experience. What made you want him specifically to be your co-host?
I read the interview! I thought it was great.
What’s nice is that Jesse and I have bounced ideas off of each other for over four years. Doing a weekly podcast is essentially us just sharing those ideas and thoughts more frequently than we used do, due to him having a real job and life and me being a child.
I wanted to start a podcast for several months before I did. I just couldn’t figure out who to do the show with. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of Jesse beforehand, but the moment the idea popped into my head, there was no other choice.
I guess that about wraps it up. Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions. Do you have anything else you would like to add?
Just keep your eyes pealed. 2015 is going to be a really cool year for PropertyOfZack and Bad Timing Records.
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