Blowin’ Wind with Savatage/Circle II Circle Vocalist Zak Stevens: “I saw Bruce Dickinson on Iron Maiden’s Piece of Mind tour and I said, “Damn. I want to do that.””

From the nearly impossible task of taking the place of Jon Oliva in Savatage to Trans Siberian Orchestra to fronting his own band, Circle II Circle, lead vocalist and songwriter Zak Stevens has forged a career in progressive metal music for well over 20 years. I recently had the opportunity to talk to Zak and he was every bit as nice and gracious as I thought he would be. We talked about the his time in Savatage, how the influence of Savatage has bled into the sound of Circle II Circle, and just why he loves singing along with Night Ranger’s “Sister Christian.

 

Zak, thanks so much for taking the time to talk with me.

Thank you, Don. Thank you for having me.

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Ok, so I’ll be honest. I was a huge fan of your work with Savatage but I never gave Circle II Circle a listen until just recently with the latest album, Reign of Darkness and I dug the hell out of it. Do you find yourself running across people like me who never heard C2C and then are suddenly fans?

Oh yeah, I do from time to time. Most of our fan base came over from the Savatage fan base. I don’t see it a lot but it definitely happens and that’s cool. This is our 7th album with Circle II Circle and our most successful one. We have a great team of people and it took us about a decade to put this team together.

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There are so many bands coming out so fast these days that it’s virtually impossible to keep up with it all. I mean, these days, any and everyone can make an album so it makes it harder to keep up with everything.

Exactly. With everything out there like social media and, like you said, the fact that anybody can make an album at anytime, you really have to stay at it and you have to be dedicated and have your heart in it in order to kind of cut through the mustard. You have to find a way to rise to the top and make yourself stick out somehow. We’ve always got that on our mind. It also helps if you can stick around for a while because then you get name recognition but after that, you have to continue to have your heart in the right place and to be dedicated to making the right kind of music that will catch people’s ear. There is just a sea of bands out there.

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Obviously there are going to be elements of Savatage in your influences but how important is it for you to separate the two entities? Or is it at all?

Well, it’s really hard to get that separation. It gets a little too complicated when we start thinking like that. We’ve got five guys that write music in Circle II Circle that had nothing to do with Savatage so, let them do their job. I’m one of the ones that were involved with Savatage that writes in Circle II Circle so that right there is going to give it some of the comparisons from the vocal sounds. We’re always going to have those comparisons. We figured that out a long time ago. No matter what we do, we’re always going to be compared to Savatage so we might as well just accept that fact and just write the best music we can. If there’s some bleed over, that’s fine. Just make it your own and make it something you’re proud to call your own. Right now, it’s just about writing the best songs we can. If people hear a mood of Savatage in there, that’s cool and it’s a natural aspect of what we do. We can’t get too involved with trying to make that distinct line.

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I mean, at the end of the day, there’s way worse bands that you could be compared to.

[laughs] That’s very true. With Savatage, there’s a high level of expectation there in the music. I was so lucky to be with Savatage and have people like Paul O’Neil producing, Jon Oliva writing, and Chris Oliva when he was with us. That’s a high standard but it’s good to learn from that. That’s basically where I learned everything that I do. I got lucky enough to learn from those guys who made some unbelievable music; stuff that would just rip your heart out. When you get to learn from those kind of guys, that’s always an unbelievable thing and I’m still learning from them. We just had a reunion and we all got together and played again and we’re still learning from each other. It’s a beautiful thing really.

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Savatage pretty much was the catalyst for you and the other members to go and do some pretty amazing things.

Oh yeah. Savatage is a tough act to follow and it’s a high standard but we can’t think of it like that. I mean, in Circle II Circle we’ve played Savatage music. It’s kind of like, Savatage is the tree where everything comes from and all the bands like Circle II Circle, JOP (Jon Oliva’s Pain), Chris Cafferey’s band, we are all just branches off the tree and Savatage is the trunk. We’re all just really one big family anyway.

 

You’ve said a few times that you learned what you know from Savatage. Was being in that band like being taken to school for you?

Oh yeah, definitely. Back when I joined my style was a lot different and I had to change a lot of things. I had to change my vocal style. Everything about the vocal dynamic was a challenge. I felt like I was being taken to school from the moment I joined to now. I’m still learning and there’s a lot to learn about the processes, the business side, the recording side, the production side. There’s so much to learn and it’ll never stop.

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Even though you didn’t really “replace” Jon Oliva so to speak, you were the primary vocalist for Savatage. What kind of a mind fuck was that for you?

[laughs] Again, it could be terror or you just have to make it something that’s not terror [laughs]. I had actually met the band a couple of times when I was working out in LA and going to vocal school and then when I moved to Boston to join a band there. I was also a fan of the band since ’85 when I first discovered them. I submitted my demo to them just like everyone else when they were looking for a singer and my demo was the only one that was somebody who wasn’t trying to sound like Jon. It got their attention. By the time I got in the band, I understood the mood and what they were trying to do. The best thing is that I didn’t have to sound like Jon. I could just be myself and that made it not the horror film that it could’ve been [laughs].

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I read somewhere where you said that you felt like you were constantly auditioning while you were in Savatage. Did you feel like you were being constantly scrutinized?

In reality, we all knew we wanted to make it work. With every new song we tried, especially during the process when I first joined back in ’92 and we were just rehearsing the songs for Edge of Thorns, I kind of felt at times that I should never be comfortable; every day was kind of like a new audition in my own mind. That was back at that time where I kind of had known that anything could happen at any time. I could be there for 2 or 3 months and they could say, “You know, it’s just not working out.” That’s the way the music business is. I see it happen all the time. It was just coming from a point in my own brain: “You better not relax and you better be on your game.” I just didn’t want to hear that speech and I wanted to whatever it took to not hear that. I think that was my own paranoia at the time.

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What is one Savatage song that you never go to perform live that you would love to do so?

Oh wow [laughs]. We did a lot of them. I would say “Tonight, He Grins Again” off of Streets. For some reason, that one always alluded me somehow. We would put it on a setlist and then take it off and somehow we would change the set. I would have to say that one. It was always on the cusp and it just kind of got taken off the setlist a few times.

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Zak, you were originally a drummer. What was it that made you want to be a singer in the first place?

I had to start singing the minute I started playing drums [laughs]. We didn’t have a singer in the band I was in so I was always that Don Henley guy [laughs]. That was what really did it. I was just always singing so it was just a matter of jumping out from behind the kit. The front man thing just caught my attention when I saw Iron Maiden back in high school. I saw Bruce Dickinson on Iron Maiden’s Piece of Mind tour and I said, “Damn. I want to do that.” I like that role and it’s always been very comfortable.

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When you’re in your car driving, what song do you absolutely have to sing along with when you hear it on the radio?

Oh man, I would have to say that since I just saw Night Ranger, Sister Christian [laughs]. Every time I hear that song I just have to sing it. I don’t know why. It’s not like it’s anything earth shattering. I just have to sign it [laughs].

 

If you could sing in any band for just one night, who would it be and why?

I would have to say Styx. I’ve always been a Styx fan, from the early days. Maybe I would sing for Styx in the early days. Maybe I’d just stick to Tommy’s (Shaw) parts. I don’t know about Dennis DeYoung’s parts. We don’t have the same kind of vocal range [laughs].

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Zak, finish this sentence: If I wasn’t a musician I would be __________________.

I would say environmental consultant. I was thinking about when I get done with music maybe getting into the environmental business, trying to make it where we do less destruction of the earth and maybe gain back some materials. I’d love to find out new ways to just re-use stuff and keep everything cleaner.

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So what is next for Circle II Circle?

We have a couple of bands that we’re talking to about package tours that we’re booking for the US. We’re going to decide on which ones. In the Spring we’re going to do about 20 something shows in Europe and then we’ll go to South America and then back to the US. I’m trying to keep us on bigger shows and keep that reach out there a little bit more rather than going from club to club.

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Zak, thanks so much for taking the time out to talk to me today and best of luck with the new album.

Thank you, Don. I appreciate all of the support and thank you for a fun interview. It’s been great talking to you.

 

For more on Circle II Circle, head over to http://circle2circle.net/website/

 

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