TOLEDO – Fastball, an alternative rock band widely loved for their catalog of hits from the 90s and beyond, will be playing at the Toledo Zoo Amphitheater on July 30. When we received an offer to interview someone from the band ahead of the show, I said that it had to be me. As an editor, I normally send assignments to other writers, but this one felt personal.
Like many fans of Fastball, my first impression of them was while sitting in front of the TV, watching VH1 music videos in 1998, and finding myself suddenly transfixed by “The Way.” I was eleven years old, but I was taken in by the three bandmates facing a storefront, watching a throwback aerobics video of a woman doing pelvic thrusts on the floor. It’s at that point that lead singer Tony Scalzo – his face deadpan – begins singing the song, a long narrative about an old couple with dementia who drive off into the sunset only to never be heard from again.
Scalzo wrote the lyrics, inspired by a story circulating in the news about the elderly couple’s disappearance. Despite the macabre ending of the real story (the couple being found dead in their car at the bottom of a ravine), “The Way” was a surprisingly danceable hit.
Miles Zuniga, vocalist and guitarist, spoke to me about the band’s beginnings in Austin, Texas, where he found himself drawing from the rich music scene there, with a strong infusion of midcentury British rock.
“I moved there in ‘84, and when I got there, I’d been listening to whatever was on MTV,” said Zuniga. “Culture Club. Duran Duran. ACDC. Whatever was on the radio. But when I got to Austin, Stevie Ray Vaughan had just become a huge star. So out of every doorway there was blues coming out, like people trying to do that. And The Fabulous Thunderbirds, as well, had hit songs. All these guys had made really cool records, especially those first couple T-birds records were really, really great.
“So all of a sudden, I was just getting a double dose of blues music, and that was something I’d never encountered. So that influenced me quite a bit.”
Another huge influence on Fastball? The Beatles. The influence for so many. But not every band influenced by them has gotten to collaborate with Fifth Beatle Billy Preston, who played piano on Fastball’s “You’re an Ocean” (Harsh Light of Day, 2000).
Zuniga and Scalzo are both songwriters, though they rarely co-write. Zuniga’s credits include early hits like “Fire Escape” and “Sooner or Later.” Aside from the Austin scene and midcentury British rock, Zuniga’s writing comes from a spiritual place: Buddhism.
“A man can’t enter the same river twice,” he said. “That’s one of my favorite quotes of all, because the man has changed. And the river has changed, so the circumstances are completely different. And I feel like that’s what life is. It’s just that most people don’t want to accept that, right? Life is impermanent. Everything’s always changing all the time in subtle, little ways. And that’s influenced my songwriting over the years.”
Those attending the show on the 30th will recognize Fastball’s older hits, but they’ll also be playing songs from their most recent album, Sonic Ranch (2024). One song that Zuniga has mixed feelings about playing from the album is “America,” a song he co-wrote with Scalzo. Its subtext is an indictment of today’s political climate.
“We almost never write songs together, but sometimes we do, like one of my favorite songs, ‘America,’ we wrote together, and we’ve had other ones over the years,” Zuniga said. “It’s nowhere in the song [explicitly], but it’s about how media – once it became for-profit… once Ronald Reagan deregulated the industry – it was no longer boring news. Now, it’s got to be sexy, you know. It’s got to make money. And it’s the worst. I really feel like it has destroyed the world, because the actual news doesn’t have to be politicized, but it is. It’s politicized to death.”
Zuniga laughed and said, “Events have gotten so crazy I don’t want to [play it]. I don’t really feel like singing that one song. I want to escape as much as the audience does. It depends on how I’m feeling.”
To get a another sampling of their latest album, check out the music video for “Rather Be Me than You” below.
Purchase tickets to see Fastball, Barenaked Ladies, and Sugar Ray at Toledozoo.org/concerts. The show begins at 6:30 p.m. on July 30 at the Toledo Zoo, 2 Hippo Way.
RELATED POST: Enter to win Fastball’s latest album, Sonic Ranch here.
