Zen Rizing EPK

ABOUT ZEN RIZING

Music with integrity. Music that celebrates an individuals’ pursuit of self-enlightenment. Music that celebrates life itself. These are ideals that fill the ambitious sound of Zen Rizing.

THE BIRTH OF THE BAND

The idea for Zen Rizing came from singer Scott Foster Harris and guitarist Steve Preach. After joining forces in early 2008, the Nashville-based musicians began working as a band when drummer Buddy Iahn joined a few months later. Throughout the summer of 2008, the trio performed around Nashville, playing (with fill-in bass players) in live venues and studios throughout the city.

And just as the search for the sound of Zen Rizing had begun in earnest, so did their drive to find a fourth member. Touring throughout the southeast, the band gained a sizeable following, building a loyal and fast-growing fan base. With 97.1 RQQ, a local FM radio station discovering Zen Rizing, the station’s enthusiastic support for the band lead to their first significant airplay.

Then, in the fall of 2008 the still-incomplete unit met Cody Duke. Almost immediately, all three members of Zen Rizing realized that Cody was the missing piece of the band. There was an inexplicable connection that these four gentlemen felt instantly. Now, their musical family complete, Zen Rizing felt the need to make a big move. Relocating in November, 2008 to L.A., growing closer in the new environment…the spirit of “four against the world”…helped the band meld into a musical family.

Since arriving in California, the band has been playing steadily in and around the Hollywood music scene performing on such stages as the House of Blues, the Roxy Theatre, the El Rey Theatre and the Viper Room and winning such awards as the “Rock Single of the Year” for the 2009 LA Music Awards.

ZEN…The Back Story

Scott Foster Harris discovered that music was in his soul at the age of nineteen. While healing from an injury he sustained as a rodeo bull rider Scott became completely obsessed with music and poetry. Temporarily unable to ride, he began a completely different trip consisting of learning to play multiple instruments and, almost immediately, writing songs.

Briefly, Scott toured Texas and Oklahoma as a singer/songwriter. He then moved to Nashville to pursue a career as a writer. Once in Music City, U.S.A., he landed a publishing deal with Amylase Music; his earliest songs were cut by artists such as Stephen Cochran, Todd O’Neil and Vinny Van Zant of Trailer Choir. After leaving Amylase Scott began recording and performing with the band Seventy Seven. However, within a few months he grew restless to create and perform his own music thus beginning his search for musicians who would share his vision.

Born into a musical family, Steve Preach was a multi-instrumentalist before he was a teenager, but it was the guitar that became his love at age 12. One day, Scott was visiting Vinny Van Zant and met Vinny’s brother, Steve Preach. At the time Steve was playing bass for and touring with Trailer Choir (then Toby Keith’s opening act).

Shortly there afterward, Scott was in a songwriting session with Steve’s brother Vinny in his living room when Steve began to play leads to the music they were writing. He instantly knew he wanted Steve to play guitar in his band. Steve felt just as strongly, moved into Scott’s house in Nashville (a former church that had burned down), and they started writing together.

New Year’s Eve, 2007. During a party at their house, Scott and Steve walked into Scott’s bedroom and saw Buddy Iahn playing an electric drum kit. That wasn’t unusual. Buddy was always playing the drums.

From the time he began watching MTV (as an 18 month old) and went to his first concert (Van Halen at age four), Buddy had begun playing drums. First, he used pencils as drumsticks on a bar. At age four he began taking lessons and by age six he was playing in a church band; his father was on lead guitar.

Clearly a prodigy, Buddy appeared on the CBS Early Show "Living Room Live" contest where he was featured playing drums in his basement. Just out of his teens Buddy was playing with such country artists as Brandon Giles, Shelly Lynn and Julia Burton.

A month after meeting Scott and Steve, Buddy received a call from Scott to play conga on the TV show, “After Dark with Scott Burnette,” that Scott and Steve had been invited to play on in nearby Clarksville, TN. After twenty minutes of jamming, the three hit it off and Zen Rizing played their first public performance.

Once Cody joined, with the band united in purpose, the final stage of the creation on Zen Rizing was complete. All four minds and hearts began working in unison. Four became one.

Respecting the unit as something greater than the sum of its parts is the foundation upon which the strength of Zen Rizing is built. All four young men, keenly aware of the message they strive to deliver, aspire to define new avenues upon which their creative family can travel. Music with integrity, with spirituality, and the celebration of the individual pursuit of self-enlightenment are the goals and purposes for which Zen Rizing exists.

The road they've chosen to take has yet to be paved. It is this necessary journey down an untamed road of excess that feeds the appetite of Zen Rizing. And once you experience the group live and feel their assault of theatrics and all-encompassing melodic concussion you too will want to go along for the ride.