INTERVIEW WITH ZACK SUNDERMAN (SOUL CRIES)

By Dhruva das 25/2/2003

1.please introduce yourself, the band and its members...

Soul Cries is myself, Zack Sunderman, on vocals, Gary Simon on guitar, Andy Watts on bass, and Jon Butterly on drums.

2.how did Soulcries came to existence? why did you named it like that?

Soul Cries was originally created as an experimental session with my friend Andrew from Boston (who sings in Bones Brigade and Cut The Shit), when we were in a band together called Direction. That was when I really started to develop and realize my musical writing style... There were a couple different incarnations of the band until we finally came together in 2003 to be who we are now. Gary, I'd been in bands with him years ago... Jon plays with my friends' band The Struggle, and Andy came along through a mutual friend and was definitely a blessing. The name I just thought of one day, it refers to a couple different things: One is, everyone is soul, a spirit - but encased within the world, it causes them to suffer. The other refers to the feeling one can feel when crying out to find the Truth, to understand their place in life, to understand God, to feel in touch with it all... All in all, it illustrates how the "soul cries," the individual, the spirit that each one of us ultimately is... how that cries out, to be free, and to understand.

3.i guess you have diff.musical preferences,please tell me each influences regarding music and lifestyle..

All of us listen to a lot of way different stuff, from all kinds of different areas of music... Soul Cries as a whole plays the two types of music that have always spoken to me the most deeply; hardcore punk, and reggae. I'm a very roots-oriented person, I think some people try so hard to write an "interesting" record that they go way out of whack and just write something that doesn't make sense. I like things to be fresh, unique, new, interesting, innovative... but at the same time, I like to be roots. So I think Soul Cries musically achieves that synthesis. Similarities, I've heard people say we sound like a mix of Bad Brains, Shelter, and Inside Out - which makes me smile 'cause those are some of my top favorite bands of all time. Lifestyle? It was definitely my bro Ray Cappo that got me to first think about my life, to decide what I was going to do with my time in this world... To eventually understand that I did believe in God and wanted to search for the Truth.

4.the bands lyrics tackles on what issues?

The lyrics are about the things I feel, and the thoughts that go through my mind. I'm a very spiritual person, I'm on a quest to live my life in love of God, so that is where my lyrics come from. I never preach religion or force dogma but I openly express what I need to say about my path. It's all personal. I want people to be able to relate, I want people to find meaning and inspiration in what I say. I also write about certain things I think about in light of how I feel, and what I believe... things I see going on in this world, in society, in human behavior, in leadership, and so on.

5..some say that spirituality cant be mix with hardcore..do you agree? please give me your views on this..

I don't agree! I've heard this a bunch of times and I just don't agree. I think that is a fundamentalist claim, people are afraid of intense music, you know... In the fundamentalist Christian Right people want to black-list all rock bands as Satanist. You hear about it all the time, heavy metal is the downfall of our children, all this... In Krishna Consciousness, some people want you to just listen to Indian bhajans, and everything else is gonna damage your progress. Because a song is hard, or fast, or has electric guitars and maybe some yelling, that doesn't mean it's somehow detrimental to a spiritual person, or anti-God. Music like that communicates intensity, urgency, emotion, inspiration. To me, hardcore music is an inspirational thing, real hardcore and punk is overflowing with an inspiring energy to change things, to fight for something worthwhile, it's revolutionary. And spirituality is all about revolution, it's all about revolutionizing oneself, realizing a whole new platform, fighting for Truth, reaching the Most High. That's pretty intense! There's no way that can't be mixed with music that has the same mood, that reaching,that revolutionizing mood. "Godly" or "spiritual" does not equal "mellow." It doesn't mean sitting back and listening to relaxing things, the spiritual platform encompasses so many emotions and hardcore can certainly vibe. I feel it myself and that's all the proof I need.

6.i knew you played with Run Devil Run, any great experience with them?

Run Devil Run was entirely a great experience. Dayal Nitai dasa / Don Foose is a great person and friend, and being on the road with him and the other guys (Jason Sparkes, Mike Dissolute, and Emery Ceo) in RDR was wonderful. My only regret is that we didn't get to finish the final album, it was good stuff!

7. you said that Soul Cries is a spiritual band, now how do you keep yourself spiritualy active while at the same time playing agressive music.

My whole life, at least this is my goal - is spiritual activity. It's not that I take a break for music, my music is spiritual, it is part of my meditation on God. It is how I express my feelings and thoughts and communicate them with others. I put all of myself into it, because it means so much to me and I'm so in touch with it. It's been an amazing presence in my life and I'm very happy I have it. I would like my whole life to be spiritually active... this is a major part of how I do that.

8.do you have any released album or some project that you made? if so where can we get it..

Although I'm not a big fan of it, we have a demo CD-R available from the band. I'll give some contact info later in the interview, which can be used to order the demo... We also have completed recording our first record, "Beyond The Eyes," which I am extremely proud of. It's mixed and mastered and we're hoping to have it out sooner than later! We're just looking for that thing called a "label"...

9..correct me if im wrong, i knew you are also the one of the person behind the site WAR ON ILLUSION, what happen to that site?

I originally designed that site for Porcell and put it online. It's currently off the internet, but Porcell hopes to get it back up. He plans to transform it into his writings, rather than a zine.

10.hows the hardcore scene going on in your hometown?

Youngstown, Ohio is not going much at all, haha! The Struggle is going, they are great, I love them... Look out for some stuff from them soon on NGS Records. There are some great punk bands like our friends The Conceited and LSM. Crowd Deterrent is back... my good friends Bob and Dan are starting a new band, early hardcore punk style - AMAZING band to be on the lookout for, I'll be talking them up on our web-site when they get it together for real.

11.this question might iritate you but i have to ask this..is there any Krishna devotee in the band? are you? if yes, how and when do you started practicing?

Soul Cries isn't a band with a set ideological system... we're not a vegan band or a straight edge band or a Krishna band, although some of us embrace those things... we are just people. Trying to do something great. And like I said, music is a beautiful thing to me in so many ways. It can express, communicate, and inspire. And on the most basic level, it is completely entertaining, it is just all-around positive if done right. So although we don't have any agenda to preach to anyone, I'm using this music to speak my mind on what I feel. And to focus on it. Personally, I was a Krishna devotee from 1999 to 2003. I went through a lot of trouble with organizations. I don't appreciate politics, sectarianism, religious institutions, these things are anti-spiritual no matter how many justifications you may have for placing them within a spiritual path. They are the work of man alone, and they were being shoved on me, and I didn't take well to it. Eventually I had to get out. Then, when I came back, even after shrugging off all that institutional pain, I still became disillusioned. I still didn't feel right... I still appreciate Krishna Consciousness as a spiritual path, I don't deny its validity, and I still follow its principles in my life. I'm at a cross-roads now figuring out exactly what I believe, but I know full well that no matter what I always have God and my relationship with Him, and that's never going to change. And that's what I need.

12.is Krishnacore still very active nowadays in your place? please tell something...

I don't see Krishna-core very active anywhere, honestly. Although Shelter, who I am happily going to be doing some guitar with in the near future, is definitely still on the move. You never know what Foose is gonna come up with, either. He's working on a band with the guys from xDisciplexAD called Sons of War and it's very good...

13.before i forgot, i think PORCELL (aka Paramananda dasa) release a Krishnacore compilation isnt it? what happened to that project, are you included in that one?

Paramananda was working on a "War On Illusion" compilation a couple years ago, which is actually how I ended up meeting Run Devil Run in the first place. I helped him find bands, and my band at that time Direction was on it too. But it didn't come together for him. He's doing a straight edge compilation right now, I believe.

14..ok. i think thats it... any message you want to say and when can they contact you...

We can be contacted at zacksunderman@hotmail.com or you can send us regular mail at 3080 Fairview Ave SE / Warren, OH 44484 USA.

Our website is http://www.afoundationunshaking.com

Thanks for this interview - we appreciate it! - Much Love!