Recent interview with Zest The Smoker, his debut album recorded in 2002/2003 is available now via Isolated Wax/Legendary Enterainment. Peace to Chris, Link
Death…At 27 (The Motion Picture Soundtrack) is your debut album recorded back in 2002, why did it take til’ /09 to drop?
I use to work a corporate job in Electronics, had plenty of money to furnish my own home studio. By 2002, I officially changed my label name to “Cryogenic Recordz” (original founded my label in 1997). I quit my corporate job thinking I had enough money to last another year. During that time I could release Death, record a solo LP and a Crystal Lake L.P. But my calculations were wrong. Everything in my life started to go down hill. First the money got tight after 6 months, then after another 8 months everything crumbled. By 2004 I started to work on another project called “Kill to Live”. I recorded the first song “It Aint All Good” by that point I was on a whole different zone. No more zoned out parables, I was talking about the drama of my everyday life. Due to financial priorities, Death took the back burner. Death mainly represented the “Nightbreed Era”, not that I didn’t like it, I recorded countless songs and Death is my only complete project. Meaning, I can actually listen to Death from beginning to the end and be in the same zone, I’m very satisfied with the end results, I just felt I elevated (hence the end track transcend). I actually played some of the Death tracks for RZA back in 2004, he like it. Said I reminded him of the late “Grym Reaper” and said the Gravediggaz might do another album, if so, he’ll reach out to get me on it. Dave always liked the Death EP, he called me up and asked me what am I doing with it, I said “It’s just waiting to be released”. He said he had a distribution deal with “Legendary Entertainment”, I was like “Whatever’s Clever”. It’s a very personal project, I did all of the engineering, even the cover art. I walked miles trying to find that skull, lol. Then I spray painted it Chrome, wrapped a Hundred Dollar bill around a pen to look like a cigarette, and use my boy Progress’s cheap digital camera he got free with his computer. It took forever to get that picture because the camera never captured what I viewed through the lens. If I had the skull in focus, the picture would capture a partial skull, or it would come out blurry, it was never consistent.
Previously: Zest The Smoker – Murder Psycho (Max Murder II)
