Hi Lec, to kick things off , would care to introduce your self and the other members of The Lec Zorn Project to the readers of HardRockHouse.com?

LZ - I’ll be happy to introduce myself and thanks for the opportunity to do so. My name is Lec Zorn. I was born on December 14, 1970 in Madison, Indiana USA and have resided in the state of Indiana my whole life, including the last four years in Indianapolis. I come from a very accomplished musical family and my mother, a classical piano teacher, began teaching my when I was six or seven years old. I didn’t care much for it, though I regret not sticking with it because I think if I had, I would be a much better keyboardist today. But I became a melodic rock fan since the 1981-82 school year, when I was in fifth grade, and three years later got the desire to be a melodic rock recording artist. For most of the next decade, I put that dream on the backburner, concentrating more on school, but in 1995, I decided that I was going to make a melodic rock album. I’m sure I would have eventually decided to make an album anyway, but I think timing was the reason I made the decision when I did. 1995 was the year I graduated from university and also the bleakest year of my musical life. Melodic rock had crashed and burned commercially and it wasn’t until the next year that I got online and discovered that there were thousands of other people around the world who loved melodic rock and that many artists were still making music in that style. Ever since I discovered melodic rock, it’s always been a great friend to me. It’s helped me get through the bad times as well as celebrate the good times. I loved it when I was an introverted and emotionally troubled 11-year old who watched cartoons and whose parents had recently divorced. And I love it as much now as a 36-year old who has experienced much of the real world and whose love life has hit both extremes several times. To me, melodic rock is the ultimate form of expression, doing something that words alone can’t. The simplest way to say it is that melodic rock music is an inherent part of who I am.

Lec Zorn

I perform bass guitar and synthesizer on the album, produced it and wrote all of the songs except for one. Joining me on the album are Eli Hludzik of Dakota, Ray’s Music Exchange and Our After on drums; Mike Walsh of Departure on guitar and organ; Tracy White of Intruder and Shotgun Symphony on vocals; Michael Riesenbeck on guitar and co-producing on three tracks; Eric Ragno of Vox Tempus, Takara and China Blue and several other projects on synthesizer; Lars Säfsund of Work of Art and Phil Vincent on vocals; the ubiquitous Tommy Denander on guitar and synthesizer; two of his collaborators, Pierre Wensberg and Chris Demming, on vocals; and Ivan Arnold, one of the album’s engineers, on drums.

Who are and were your personal heroes and influences?

LZ - The first musical act I remember being a fan of was Daryl Hall and John Oates. Though by the mid-‘80s, I had l gotten more in the AOR format than the top 40 format, Hall and Oates were very important in my musical evolution. They, more than any other artist, introduced me to the kind of infectious, feel good hook that I’ve always loved and that has been sorely missing from the mainstream of music ever since the grunge invasion began 16 years ago. I later became a big fan of ‘70s and ‘80s AOR and also some ‘70s prog. I largely caught up on the ‘70s and embraced many of the big rock acts of the day. My favorites in my late teens and up into my early adulthood were Kansas, Shooting Star, Styx, Boston, Queen and Pink Floyd. In the ‘90s, I got heavily into new prog such as Dream Theater, Magellan and Glass Hammer. I also gradually became a huge fan of Vince DiCola, especially from his awesome music for “Rocky IV.” And my overall number one musical hero and influence is Jim Peterik. I followed Survivor only moderately in the ‘80s but in the ‘90s, I listened heavily to their studio albums for the first time and became fanatical about the band. They have so many wonderful songs that should have been hits but weren’t. And my growing love for Survivor led me to discover and get into Jim’s solo albums and Pride of Lions plus many other albums from other artists, to which he contributes. It would be hard for me to overstate what his music means to me. His songs are such deeply effective portrayals of emotions and real life situations. Almost everything I’ve experienced in love, good or bad, is expressed through some of his music. And his music also does a great job hitting other areas of life, too. His music is largely the soundtrack of my life.

What other bands have you been involved with and have you released any albums before forming the Lec Zorn project ?

LZ - I was in a few bands in the ‘80s in my hometown but never did anything significant with them. Prior to my album, I played synthesizer on the song “Heart of Stone” on Michael Riesenbeck’s “Shouting Silence.” And tracks that eventually were released on my album were previously released on the samplers “Melodic Rock is Back Vol. 3,” “Melodic Rock is Back Vol. 4” and the first two MelodicRock.com releases. With the first MelodicRock.com album, my tracks was on the bonus CD-R that came with pre-orders of the album.

Why did you form a project a opposed to having a solid line up ?

LZ - I wanted complete artistic control and the freedom to work with any musician who I wanted on any track. Still, I would enjoy being in a band if it was 1) with musicians who I had a lot in common with musically and 2) who I got along with personally and 3) I would still have enough time to pursue my career with The Lec Zorn Project. And in the last few years, I’ve offered my services to Stryper, TNT, The New Cars, Steelheart, Shooting Star and Anthony Cosmo. I think to join a band with the right people – and especially to have a songwriting collaborator – would have a lot of potential to help me grow as a musician.

Do you have any plans to play live with these songs ?

The Lec Zorn Project performed at Rock-It Fest, a festival of new melodic rock acts, in Clarksburg, West Virginia, USA on June 16, the day of my album’s release. I very much want to tour but simply don’t have the money right now to do it the right way. I’ve thought about doing some acoustic or semi-acoustic shows with a two or three piece band but have decided against it. My music simply wouldn’t sound good enough that way. It’s meant to have a full drum, keyboard and electric guitar sound. And one disadvantage to having a project instead of a band is that I’m responsible for all of the expenses. For me to tour would require me to hire at least three other musicians – preferably at least four – and would put me at a major risk for a serious financial loss. I have recently applied to perform at some of the major melodic rock festivals scheduled for Europe in 2008 but other than that, I think at this point my money is far better spent recording my second album. However, I’m currently performing bass guitar in concert for a soft rock solo act named Chris Sullivan. That’s been a lot of fun and the concert experience is great.

I see that you supported Asia in 2003 how did this come about and how did the gig go ?

LZ - I opened for Asia here in Indianapolis on July 13, 2003. It was the first ever concert of The Lec Zorn Project and the one at Rock-It Fest is the only one since then. I got the gig because I’m a longtime friend of the promoter of that concert. Our performance was musically pretty good, especially for a debut gig, but the lead vocalist was an embarrassment. He got many of the lyrics wrong, acted like a clown, twice interrupted me while I was talking to the audience between songs and didn’t seem to take the gig seriously at all. That taught me a lot about using good judgment in choosing musicians to work with. Overall it was a positive experience to finally perform in concert and to present my music to an audience. I love being an opening act. I love the challenge of going before an audience and trying to convince them that I’m worthy of sharing the stage with the artist they’ve paid to see. And it was a great honor to open for Asia. Their debut album is my favorite album of all time. And Asia was cool to open for. They were very accommodating to us, making sure we had enough room to set up and enough time to do sound check and we went out to dinner together that evening, after the show. I’d gladly open for them again. And one final note on that concert, though I was embarrassed by my singer from that show, the words of two people in attendance later gave me a boost of confidence. A review of the concert online said that I “show some promise for the future.” And shortly after my album was released, someone else who was at the concert ordered my CD from me, telling me that he had been waiting for the release ever since that concert. That combined with the review told me that, despite the singer, the quality of my music still must have come through to these people. That left me wondering what people at the Asia concert would have thought had my singer done a great and professional job.

How would actually describe the band’s sound ?

LZ - Melodic hard rock with progressive influence and no regard whatsoever for the trends. The purpose of this album wasn’t to fit in with the music on major format radio. It was instead to capture the musical style that I love and has been shunned by the mainstream industry for the last 16 years. I hope the album reaches both people who miss that sound and people who are unfamiliar with it and ready to try something different.

What did each member of the project bring to the table in terms of style and sounds ?

LZ - The 11 musicians who join me on my album aren’t members but they each add something important. All of us have our own unique experiences in life that shape who we are. And that includes musical experiences. All of the musicians who I work with add something of themselves to it, which is the way I want it. I want people who play on my albums to look back on working with me as a very positive experience. I want them to look back and feel that I let them show their skills the best they could have on my album. I don’t want them to feel like I held them back from doing as much as they were capable of. I think that utilizing the full talent of the diverse musicians who I attain will help me create a sound that is even more special and unique.

How is the typical Lec Zorn song written ?

LZ - Sometimes I write songs in my head, either consciously trying to write a song or suddenly getting a song idea in my head for no apparent reason. Other times I write songs by sitting at a keyboard and trying different things until I come up with something I like.

You chose to cover the Kansas classic Play The Game Tonight, what the reason behind that choice ?

LZ - For most of the last 10 years, I’ve been on a Kansas e-mail discussion list called People of the South Wind. In 2002, a member of that list, Bill Evans, who at the time worked for Kerry Livgren’s Numavox Records, announced on the list that he was coordinating a Kansas tribute album. He asked me to recommend artists for it. Of course, I recommended myself! I asked him if I could contribute “Play the Game Tonight” to the album and he said yes. I was very pleased with that because I felt I had something of myself to add to it. I wanted to take the power and intensity of the original and rock it up even more. And fortunately, Michael Riesenbeck and Eric Ragno seemed to have a similar vision of the song. Sadly, the tribute album ended up getting shelved and I doubt it will ever be released, but having recorded the song and been happy with the results, I didn’t want it to go to waste, so I put it on my album.

You mentioned earlier the next album, how’s work progressing on that and do you have a release date in mind as of yet?

LZ - I recently finished the first track for my next album. It’s a cover of the Europe classic “Cherokee,” which I did with Tommy Denander and two members of Mind’s Eye, Andreas Novak and Daniel Flores. That track is also scheduled to be on an upcoming Europe tribute album. I hope to have the album released in late 2008. I’m very excited about the album. I have lots of material written for it that I think continues the sound of the first album while branching out into several different directions. It will be at times harder rocking, softer rocking and more prog. I think it will give people a better idea of my full musical taste. My first album displays my love for Survivor and Kansas and the second one will, too. But in addition, the second album will also display my love for Dream Theater as well as my love for Chicago. It will go a lot further toward encompassing the broad spectrum of melodic rock, which is what my musical taste largely is.

And is there anything else in the pipeline for Lec Zorn?

LZ - My aforementioned second album, tentatively titled “The Test of Time,” and also a song for Ron Paul’s presidential campaign, which I plan to release for free online, plus hopefully a tour in the not so distant future. In addition, I’ll probably keep playing with Chris Sullivan for the foreseeable future and have also recently been in discussion about doing various live/studio/songwriting projects with other solo acts.

In the review of the album I made a comment about the second instrumental, Perseverance, was there ever the intention of adding lyrics to the song?

LZ - No, in fact that song began as a keyboard solo that I kept adding to and eventually decided to make it a full band song. So far, I’ve never felt that lyrics would go well with the song. But I find your observation of it to be very interesting and it does make me think about whether lyrics would work well with the song.

Whilst on the subject of the review, do agree or strongly disagree with any of the comparisons that were drawn ?

LZ - It’s obvious that we largely share the same musical taste and that you have picked out a long of my songwriting influence. But in general, I try not to discourage people from coming up with their own opinions and conclusions about music – mine or anyone else’s. There’s no right or wrong when it comes to musical taste and I get irritated by people who act like there is. If you and I went to a restaurant together, I wouldn’t expect that we would order exactly the same thing because people’s tastes are different. And it’s the same with music. If certain music resonates strongly with you, by all means, enjoy it, no matter what anyone else thinks of it.

And finally, the standard HardRockHouse question. Is there anything further you would like to mention that we haven't covered so far?

LZ - You did a great job covering all of the essentials. I just want to close this out by thanking you again for your interest and support of my music and to thank everyone who reads this. I tremendously appreciate your time. I hope that my music will mean to you what my favorite music means to me. Everyone’s musical taste is different, but no matter what you think of my music, please know that every time a new album comes out from The Lec Zorn Project, it’s going to be from my heart, regardless of the trends of the day. And I hope to see you at a concert soon, somewhere in the world!

The Lez Zorn Project album is out now and you can check out the HRH review via this link. To find out more about Lec and to order a copy of the album you can visit his official website @ www.leczorn.com or the MySpace site @ www.myspace.com/leczorn