Interview
1. Who are the members of your band and what are their musical backgrounds?
The members of our band are Zero Surico and Jack Burton. Jack does the drums, Zero does everything else in our band. Zero’s musical background: Zero self-taught himself all the instruments he plays. Through working in the pop-industry as a solo artist, and also being in several rock and metal bands, Zero gained experience that helped shape him into the musician he is today. Jack’s musical background: Jack was a classically trained pianist as a young child, and eventually was trained in jazz drumming. Through his experience with worship-drumming and being in various punk and rock bands, Jack honed his abilities as a unique drummer.
2. How long have you been in the music industry?
Individually, Zero has been doing music professionally for about 8 years, and Jack has been doing music for 22 years.
3. How long have you been performing under your present name?
Forest Hills formed in October of 2018. We’ve had the same name since our band formed!
4. What genre would you call your music?
We never worry about what genre our music falls under, we just make the music we like. Many fans say we fall somewhere between alt-rock and nu-metal, though!
5. Who are your major influences?
As a band, we do not have any influences, because having an influence means you are essentially saying your music is not unique, but rather a variation or rendition of another artist/band’s work. Zero and Jack both love rock music, which inadvertently “influences” what we create in Forest Hills, but we do not have specific bands or artists that we look up to and let ourselves be influenced by.
6. How old were you when you started following a musician’s path?
Both of us have always been creative at heart, so we cannot state a specific age where we really began our musician journey. However, Jack started learning piano at age 7, and Zero started writing music at age 12.
7. Tell me a funny story that has happened to you as you have traveled to play.
We drove cross-country after our first concert at the Whisky A Go-Go in Los Angeles, California, all the way back to New York City where our brand is based. On the way, we had several road issues including a dead truck battery and a blown-out tire, which caused quite a few delays in our journey. We haven’t really had anything ridiculous happen to us yet, though.
8. Where would you like to be in five years?
We are planning to go on an international tour within the next five years. We are going to continue making music, performing, and growing our fanbase. As a band, over the next five years, we hope to develop an even closer and stronger bond with our fans; we see them as family, not just strangers who like our music!
9. What inspires you to write?
Zero writes all the songs in our band. He is inspired by his past experiences and current emotions. Music is cathartic for Zero, so he writes almost every day.
10. What is your philosophy of life and how does it affect your music?
Our band is very anchored in our faith and drive to contribute back to our community and help others through music. We do not think our life philosophy affects our music, but rather our drive and will to continue living and creating coexists with our band and it’s continued activity.
11. Please add the names of the places you have played and the city they are in.
Some of the places we have played are in Los Angeles, such as at the Whisky A Go-Go, in New York City, and since COVID-19 started we’ve been doing lots of live stream concerts across platforms like YouTube (youtube.com/ForestHillsOfficialBand), Facebook (facebook.com/ForestHillsOfficialBand), Instagram (instagram.com/ForestHills_Band), etc.
12. Do you have any causes that tug at your heartstrings, or that you support? Abused pets, world peace organization, save the whales, etc…
Our band always donates 50% of our merch profits to charity. Right now, the profits are going towards BLM and George Floyd’s family. However, previous organizations we have supported are Breast Cancer, Alzheimer’s Research, Epilepsy Foundations, LGBT Foundations, Anti-Bullying, and At-Risk Youth Foundations, COVID-19 Relief, and more!
13. Do you have any new releases coming out?
Yes! Our second album “Renegade” comes out on August 1st, 2020! The album also goes up for Pre-sale on July 1st.
14. What is your upcoming performance schedule?
We are continuing to do Livestream events while quarantine is in place. We will not be scheduling any in-person concerts until the quarantine is over and it is safe to perform again because we would never purposefully put our fans in danger like that. We do have an upcoming show on July 1st at 12 am (EST) on our Instagram (@ForestHills_Band), to celebrate the pre-sale of our upcoming second album!
Social Media:
Instagram: @foresthills_band
Facebook: Forest Hills Official Band
Twitter: @ForestHillsBand
Snapchat: @ForestHillsBand
Tumblr: @ForestHillsBand
Website: http://foresthills.band/ forest hills band michael's music blog
