On his own
Pears frontman Zach Quinn takes ‘totally different’ solo act on the road
Zach Quinn is enjoying his iced coffee, sitting on the trunk of his car.
It’s a nice day in New Orleans, and he’s relishing the calm before he heads out on a short tour out West.
“I’m excited to be doing this tour,” he says. “It’s going to be totally different from any previous shows.”
Quinn is the frontman for punk outfit Pears. After the band’s most recent tour, Quinn and crew decided to take a short hiatus.
This downtime would also give Quinn a chance to tour in support of his self-titled solo album. The album was released digitally in May and physically in November.
The album was recorded in a week.
He worked with producer Joey Cape, who owns One Week Records, where an 10-song album is put together in seven days. The premise is to never overproduce an album.
“Collaborating with someone new can be a scary challenge, but when it’s with Joey Cape, the fear subsides quickly,” he says. “The concept of the one-week record produces such great results largely because of the immense vision that Joey has for songs. He’s seasoned and brilliant, and quite often saw through the fog when I couldn’t. He knew how to help me make my ideas songs we would be stoked to listen to. Hang-ups, lyrical or musical, Joey knew how to cut through them. I’ve never had this much fun making a record. I’m stoked for people to hear it.”
Quinn says that before he and Cape got into the studio, the album was about three-quarters complete.
“There was a little bit of stress,” he says. “I’m not the best writer under pressure. Joey helped me out a lot in getting it done.”
During his current tour, Quinn will also make a stop in San Francisco.
He plans to record a second solo album.
“I don’t know when it will be out, but I have some material to get recorded,” he says. “I’ll spend about a week out in San Francisco getting the ball rolling. I’m looking forward to getting some new material recorded.”
As for taking a hiatus from the band, Quinn says it was welcomed by all the members.
“I think we’ve earned a sabbatical from touring,” he says. “We’ve been on the road constantly for a really long time. We needed to step away from the band, and I think we’ll come back rejuvenated and ready to tackle more as Pears.”