MJP: Congratulations are in order for you! You have SXSW coming up, then gigs with VNV Nation and another round with Apoptygma Berzerk. All that must be very exciting! 

GZ: Yes, it's definitely something that we worked hard towards and we were at SXSW last year and we kind of just did some unofficial gigs, but this year we're actually on it officially so I'm happy about that, and we did play with APOP last year and it was a great time, and we're looking to have some fun with it again this year. And VNV Nation has definitely been an influence in my music for a while, so I'm glad we even got three gigs with them in California, so I think it's really going to work out great.

MJP: And with the APOP gigs, if I saw correctly, you're playing as Dismantled AND Aerodrone. So are you playing as both on the same night or some gigs as Aerodrone and some as Dismantled?

GZ: We actually did a tour in 2008 where we had to play as both and I really didn't like that. Mixing them up is not really what I want to do, so for the tour going into SXSW I want to do it all as Aerodrone because we want to get ready for SXSW, then after our trip back from SXSW to California it's going to be all Dismantled gigs because that's how it worked out with us setting up the shows and the promoters that book Apoptygma happened to know Dismantled as well. It's kind of weird to mix it up, but I think we have it where it's definite where one part is one band and the other part is another band.

MJP: Aside from the music being so different, just the vibes of Dismantled and Aerodrone are extremely different, so you think you'll have any problems kind of switching your mindset between the two in such a short period of time?

GZ: I think once we get started with Aerodrone it'll be pretty smooth. And after we play the gigs after SXSW, I think it'll still work out fine with us because we've done stuff like that before and now we have all the right band members for the job and we actually have two separate bands. So I think it'll go more smoothly than 2008 we when played with The Anix.

MJP: Well, I'll be flying out from here in Georgia to see the tour stop in Dallas, so if you do have any kind of on-stage freakout at that show, I'll be there to help you out!

GZ: Awesome, I'll need all the help I can get!

MJP: So has something like that ever actually happened, either before a show or during a show, where something happened, either mentally or physically, and you couldn't do it?

GZ: The last year we toured with Aerodrone it went pretty smoothly, but then we had a showcase for the National College Association, and it was really tough to get a showcase like that and we were really excited to do it, and an agent flew out who was going to sell us to a bunch of colleges to play, but then our guitar player failed to show up to the gig on time, and it was a nightmare. The agent was screaming at me saying that it was my fault. So I think that was the biggest freak-out that happened in Aerodrone history. It wasn't in front of a audience, but it was a big setback for us. But I think we're recovering this year and looking forward to the new gigs. So it's just something you need to learn from and put behind you.

MJP: OK, so right now you've got Aerodrone going on, new Dismantled about to come out, and you are also doing No Not Never, so I know electronic musicians usually work on a lot of different projects, but it's usually one after the other, not all at the same time, so is that just how your creativity works, kind of like ADD, but in a good way, a positive way?

GZ: Yeah, sometimes it is like that, other times it needs to be more focused. I'm more focused on Aerodrone right now, but at the same time as things come up, as opportunities come up, I feel like I need to switch and be more dynamic so you're not stuck doing the same thing. So in this case, I'll finish a few songs for the Aerodrone EP and release that, and then I'll focus my energy on the new Dismantled album. That will take a lot of concentration because it's more of an isolation process. You sit in a room and write songs and lyrics and record, so it'll definitely be a challenge for me to split apart from what I'm doing right now with Aerodrone and focus on Dismantled more, but at the same time I'm glad I can do a lot of different stuff instead of just one thing.

MJP: So is your songwriting process like you actually sit down to write music and focus on what type of style it's going to be, which band it's going to be, or do you just kind of randomly get ideas and go with them and see what direction they take you?

GZ: I think right now I just do it with lyrics, like I'll get a lyric in my head with a melody and I already know what project I want to put the melody in. Like for Aerodrone it'll be something poppy and happy, and for Dismantled it'll be a more cynical lyric and I'll think of a darker chord progression for it. So I think I pretty much know right away which band I want to put the music into. I had a phase where these two things would kind of clash, but I learned to keep them separated because you've got to get the balance just right. 

MJP: So was Aerodrone an intentional effort to get away from Dismantled, which is pretty dark, somber stuff, or is it just different sides of you coming out when they needed to?

GZ: I think it's just different sides coming out when they need to. At a point I did feel really claustrophobic just doing Dismantled and just seeing the same kind of results over and over. I felt like I could do more. And I felt that the in the social climate I was in, living up in Oregon, I felt that a lot of people didn't understand Dismantled and the only way they could understand me was through Aerodrone, so that went over a lot better for that scene. But it's one of those things where you kind of have to follow your heart and do one or the other and hope people will understand you and support you, and I've been really lucky to have people support both bands.

MJP: I've noticed that in video interviews you're kind of shy and laid back, but when I've seen you with Aerodrone it's total Rock Star, and I mean that in a good way, very animated and very into it, so are those two equal parts of you that you're able to explore?

GZ: Yeah, I think it's a Jekyll and Hyde thing. When I'm around my bandmates in Aerodrone I act a different way than I would with Dismantled because it's just different scenes, different people. Yeah, it's kind of a bipolar thing. I switch one off and switch the other one on. A lot of times people do get confused, like "I've seen you with this band, but you're in another band...", but after talking to them and letting them explore the two projects I think they get it more.

MJP: So as we've been talking about, there is a big difference between Dismantled and Aerodrone. So when you came out with Aerodrone did you get a lot of complaints from Dismantled fans?

GZ: Yeah, I did actually. I had people say, "what is this Emo bullshit? What are you trying to do here?" And for me as an artist I think it's always important to provoke people, to keep them guessing and to challenge them, to show them that I'm not in a box, like you can't say I'm this type of musician or that type of musician. I'm dynamic and the way I do things changes. So for me I think it was healthy to explore how people shape their opinions and I think now a lot of people are accepting of both bands. The new album I'm doing for Dismantled I think will satisfy the Dismantled fans much more so than in the past.

MJP: I've always thought that was really weird. How a lot of people in the Industrial community can be so restricted and judgmental when they're supposed to be about being experimental...

GZ: Yeah, it's just how scenes work. It's close-minded. That's what makes a scene be what it is. Yeah, I'm just happy for the people who support me and support both projects, and that's really all I can hope for.

MJP: Speaking of scenes and genres and communities, you've had a lot of success with your song "Sceneboy" which is kind of a good-natured jab at scene culture, and right now there are so many scenes and genres and subgenres, especially in electronic music, so what's the good in that, what's the bad in that, or do you just keep yourself away from it, and let it happen around you?

GZ: Music, you can view it on a global level, or just view it as a scene. People sitting in a cafeteria in high school will be in all sorts of different cliques. There's Punks, Skaters, Goths or whatever. And now there's all these Scene Kids, which is kind of the new Emo thing. And they listen to a lot of bands like Brokencyde and Jeffree Star. The music scene keeps shifting and finding these new people to take over, and in "Sceneboy" I just wanted to portray a timeless look at that. Just like "I want to fit in, I want to be a part of something bigger than I am, and I know it's just a phase that I'm going through and I'm doing it to fit in, but it doesn't matter to me because this is just how my life folds around." It's just one of those things where people will look back in time and say, "why did I wear those clothes or have hair like that?" But I think it's just important for development in growing up. It's such a part of you, being into something for a while, then saying, "I'm done with this, time for something else."

MJP: Yeah, but it can get dangerous when people start to restrict themselves in that category and begin to get judgmental like we were talking about before...

GZ: People eventually grow out of it, there's only the few hardcore followers that take music as their whole life and their whole existence and will define themselves through their life by the music they listen to. Either way I think that whatever a person has to latch on to and whatever they can express themselves with is what works for them. I just want them to open up and see that there's more than just what they're wearing and what they think is cool.

MJP: I've discussed with several people lately about just how awful the music industry is these days financially and creatively, and I saw that you mentioned problems with record labels and such in the past and how you're just doing a lot of the business stuff yourself. So does dealing with that interfere with the creative part of things or does it actually make it a little easier because you know you're in control of everything?

GZ: It's a double-edged sword. It's a mix of both. You can say that artists are more empowered now because of the internet and because they can do everything themselves, but to do it well you need to have business experience. Music is a business. It's very hard to promote music for people who are not business savvy. That's kind of a hard lesson that I learned doing all this. Ultimately it'd be great for an investor, which is basically what a label is, to come in and have a network of distributors and have a network of people that they already know and push it through those channels. That's really the ideal way for me to express my message of "Sceneboy" or "Hold Me Like A Microphone", but to do that you already have to be on a certain level and you have to put a lot of work into it. You have to tour, you have to have the right image, and you really need to have the right amount of luck to really make it work. It's a difficult time for musicians right now. Even though there are so many outlets and so many places on the internet where you can post your music, there's just an over saturation of bands right now, and people get sick of it, and it's hard to break through, and say "look here I am, listen to my music." We've had some run-ins with labels before. We released our "Sceneboy" EP through Cordless, which is a subdivision of Warner Brothers, and we had a deal with them. We actually made back the advance that they gave us and I still get checks for royalties, so I know that there's some money being made. It's one of those things where the person who signed us left the company so it's a dead end deal basically.

MJP: I've seen bands with major management and labels and publicists who just let all the business stuff get handled that way and they think automatically everything's taken care of, but just because you have a manager and a label and a publicist, it doesn't mean that they're good at what do, that they're doing their job...

GZ: Right, you don't know if they really have your attention or if there are other bands they're focusing on. It's more of a business thing. Once you hit that threshold where you're popular and you have a buzz, people snatch you up and say, "I'll do this for you, and I'll do this for you", but to actually get to that point is really difficult. It's just the right combination of promoting yourself and a lot of luck.

MJP: I was reading another interview you did and one quote that really stuck out to me was when you said that you're more in love with music than people, and that relationships were secondary, and I thought that was great. I thought to myself, thank God, here's a musician with his priorities straight, because we all know people who've given up their music to save their relationships, which never works out anyway because of the resentment involved, but do you think having that attitude, kind of a detached, observer's point of view, actually helps you to write songs about relationships?

GZ: I think it does. It's not something that I choose to do, it just kind of happens that way. The connections I've made with people have always been based on music. I don't know any connections I made in high school or college that didn't involve music. All the people that I met, all the girlfriends that I met were through music, so it had to be something that really attracted people to me in that way. So looking at it from that perspective, putting myself out there through music is what's going to make other people reach out to me. That's more of the way I interact with society, through my music. Other people are more social, they meet people, they have a lot of friends... I can do that too to an extent, but it's not who I truly am. I think I'm more of an isolated, kind of observer person who just sees these relationships and puts music and lyrics into it. That's just the way it comes out.

MJP: So would you say it's a mix of your own emotions and experiences and what you see other people doing?

GZ: Definitely, like what I go through with people and bandmates and relationships helps me shape my lyrics and just observing how the world is and revolves around people - it's just my unique perspective on how that all happens.

MJP: On top of being a fabulous musician, you are also a very stylish dresser, so do you think fashion is just fun, or can fashion be art as well?

GZ: I think everything has a lot of value. Even if you don't think about different things you see and you just say "oh this is so stupid, the way they dress..." But I think fashion is very targeted, not just as a business tool, but as a control tool to make sure everyone looks a certain way and everything is branded accordingly. I actually had the privilege to do a runway show where I was modeling Hot Topic clothes for their manager's conference. So they put me into all these clothes and I would go on the runway and show them off. I thought it was a cool experience, but I thought I was just a body with clothes on it and that's it. I don't think I could be a model for that reason. But when you put music into it, and put a lot of different things into the mix, then it's definitely something that's defining. So it's important, I just have my own way of looking at it. There was a point where I wanted to look like a Scene boy so I wore all the clothes that matched with that, then I kind of grew out of it, and now I want to dress like I did in high school with like baggy jeans. It'll be ridiculous, but looking at the way things are now, I think everything's ridiculous, so it kind of makes sense. If you can convince other people that your style is the hottest thing right now, that's all that matters.

MJP: You have a huge presence on the web, with music and information and downloads and even contests and chatting with fans, so tell me everything you've got going on right now and every website people can go to for your stuff...

GZ: Our main spot is still MySpace, at MySpace.com/Aerodrone. We have a contest there where we want people to show off their look [inspired by] listening to our song "Ready To Love". We've had some great entries with people writing "Ready To Love" on their hands or making pictures that go with the lyrics. We also do Facebook, which I'm actually doing more than MySpace now because so many people are on Facebook, and that's Facebook.com/Aerodrone. And we have a lot of fans on YouTube as well, there are always kids posting comments on our "Sceneboy" video, so it's always like a big chat session there.

MJP: So do you think you're addicted to technology?

GZ: Definitely. Technology is all I've known ever since I was in middle school actually. I remember chatting online when it was really basic with black & white screens and the internet was a much smaller place. Now everyone has the internet and at shows there will be little girls coming up to us and they're doing things on their phones that I can't even figure out. Now phones are like laptops. They had us sign their phone, and it showed up as picture on the phone. It's crazy. I think everybody right now is just technology addicted. Tza's always on her Blackberry, just texting and chatting. Everyone I see on their iPhone or Blackberry is so into it. We're just so hungry for Twitter and YouTube and Facebook and all that stuff... You just can't get rid of it.

******