Year Zero

Bob Reilly vocals, Brent Ballard guitar competed against a band headed by late comedian Bill Hicks and bass player Kevin Booth at the Stratford Senior follies talent show. When Bill Hicks decided to become a comedian bass player Kevin Booth joined up with Bob Reilly and Brent Ballard and the band relocated to Austin. After several line up changes and incarnations the three high school friends eventually joined up with drummer Pat Brown. Heavily influenced by the Police, Eric Johnson, Yes, Led Zeppelin and many others, the power pop trio toured the south and recorded several demos until attracting the attention of former Van Halen attorney and Crowded House manager Gary Stamler. In early 1986 the band showcased at an underage nightclub in north Austin to seven major labels including EMI, Capital, A&M and Chrysalis. On this faithful night while being judged by all these industry heavyweights the audience had a bizarre reaction to the usually very popular original songs. As it turned out a nearby deaf school had made a field trip out of this showcase unbeknownst to anyone in the band. A&R person Susan Collins from Chrysalis records was able to see beyond the strange performance and decided to give the band another try. Soon after, Year Zero signed a contract with Chrysalis records whom at the time were famous for Jethro Tull, Billy Idol, Pat Benatar, Huey Lewis and a long list of successful pop music. Then head of A&R Ron Fair decided to take the band under his wing and ended up producing the bands debut album. The record was primarily recorded at Arlyn studios then owned by W***y Nelson with many over dubs done at Cedar Creek studio known now as the Dixie Chicks main studio in Austin. One addition track was cut at Rumbo recorders in Canoga park and the final mix at was done at Ocean Way studios on Sunset. In the late summer of 1987 Chrysalis hired renowned art designer Peter Corriston to do the album cover shot on top of Enchanted rock close to bass player Kevin Booth’s family ranch in Fredericksburg Texas. Peter was made famous by designing the covers for such albums as Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti and the four consecutive Rolling Stones album covers: Some Girls, Emotional Rescue, Tattoo You. The band shot a video on the family ranch for the first single titled “Hour Glass” that ended up playing in medium rotation on MTV for over 6 months. The Year Zero album debuted to relatively good reviews and slowly climbed the charts, but due to inner label politics between producer Ron Fair and the old aristocratic guard of Chrysalis the label jumped ship on the band in January of 1988. Producer Ron Fair went on to discover Christina Aguilera, Black Eye Peas and head up several major record labels including EMI, RCA and Geffen.