Interview: Miles Zuniga (Fastball)
“Ninety minutes is a very, very different beast than 30,” says Miles Zuniga.
But a half hour is what the Fastball vocalist/guitarist and his bandmates will get each night while kicking off the Last Summer on Earth Tour 2025, and they plan to make the most of it. Barenaked Ladies headline the two-month experience, with Guster taking the middle slot on the June legs and Sugar Ray inheriting it in July.
“Thirty minutes is so fast that you gotta play ‘The Way.’ You gotta play ‘Out of My Head.’ You gotta play ‘You’re an Ocean.’ And you gotta play ‘Fire Escape.’ So, that right there is probably about 15-17 minutes. Your set is more than half over,” Zuniga says.
“Then you've only got a few songs. You don't really have time to slow down and play something really mellow, 'cause then you gotta get out of the mellow, right? And in 90 minutes, that's not a problem. But with 30 minutes, we just have tried to boil it down to what we think are the most exciting songs and the ones, obviously, that people wanna hear and get it all to be one big blast of music.”
The abbreviated assignment also means Fastball will tour without its usual second guitar player, leaving Zuniga and fellow founding members Tony Scalzo (bass/vocals) and Joey Shuffield (drums) — a lineup that holds a particular appeal for the frontman.
“There's also something interesting about the three. The three is kind of, as the song says, a magic number. There’s something about the triangle that's real powerful. And since it's the same three guys, there's something about that as well,” Zuniga says.
“It's exciting when it's just the three of us. That's how the band was formed. As we walked into the room and started to play, I went, ‘Wow, there's something to this — the three of us.’ There's nothing else on top of it. It's just the essence of the group: the two voices and the bass, guitar, and drums.”
Prior to the tour’s Saturday, June 7, stop at Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre in Charlotte, Zuniga spoke with Asheville Stages from his Austin, Tex., home about loving great songs, experiencing people’s true nature, and the commodification of Eddie Vedder’s style.
Edwin Arnaudin: I know y'all played a bunch in Charlotte, but do you have any personal or professional history with Asheville?
Miles Zuniga: I've heard great things about it, and I think we played there one time only at some cool little room that seemed like it was also a music shop or something. I don't remember.
EA: That sounds very Asheville.
MZ: [laughs] I've heard it's a great music town. We were there one day, probably seven or eight years ago.
EA: Well, if you ever want to come back, let me know. I'll be happy to help. [laughs]
MZ: [laughs] Alright.
EA: So, how did this upcoming tour come together?
MZ: Barenaked Ladies asked us to go on it, and we accepted it because we really love them. We toured with them a long, long time ago — back in ‘98, we toured with them on the H.O.R.D.E. Festival. They're great guys and they're a lot of fun, and it was just a no-brainer.
EA: Do you have any history with Guster?
MZ: No, I'm very interested and curious about Guster. I did go to a songwriting sort of thing — like, a week of songwriting with the Hansons, the “MMMBop” guys. They have a compound near Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I was there and the singer from Guster [Ryan Miller] was there. So, I did hang out with him a little bit, but that was, like, 2005 or something crazy. It was like 20 years ago. I didn't get to write with him, but he was a very interesting dude. And judging from their social media and stuff, they seem very creative and interesting. So I'm looking forward to checking out their deal.
EA: Yeah, it's a really good lineup. I think all three of y'all have really distinct sounds and have followed your muses over the years and are still all putting out really strong records this far into your careers. So, I think it was a really inspired decision. When I saw it first pop up on Instagram a couple months ago, I was like, “Hell yeah. This makes a lot of sense.”
MZ: I do, too. And I can honestly say we've never been better at what we're doing. We've gone through periods where there have been bends in the road and stuff, and different lineups. It's always been the same three guys, but sometimes we've had a bass player and Tony's playing keys and doing something else, and sometimes we’ll even tour with another guitar player. We've just gotten really good at what we're doing over 20 — it's actually been 30 years, so we know how to make the soup at this point.
EA: I wanted to ask one more Barenaked Ladies question, especially since you were there when they really burst on the scene. Are there any songs of theirs that you're especially looking forward to hearing live from them this tour?
MZ: My favorite song by them is “Brian Wilson.” And when they did the H.O.R.D.E. tour, I'm pretty sure they went on right after us. I can't remember exactly. We'd go on pretty early, so I wouldn't want to eat before I went on. And then I would go eat after, making a point to finish my meal by the time they were gonna play “Brian Wilson,” because I wanted to see it every night.
And I think this tour will be no different. I'll figure out where it's in their set and build my day around it. I do that. That's a thing with me about songs. I love songs — well-written songs. I really enjoy them. And it doesn't matter how many times I've heard them — I don't wanna miss it.
It's kind of crazy: with every band we've ever gone out with, I act as if I've never heard them do it. It's like candy to me. Sugar Ray is gonna be on the next half of this summer tour, and my favorite song by them is “Someday,” and I do the same thing. I'm like, “Where is it in their set? OK, cool. I have time to go grab a beer or something off the bus. I have time to do this. I have time to do that, but I don't wanna miss ‘Someday’” It's like the fifth song in, so I have to be on the side of the stage when they play it. And with Everclear, it was “Father of Mine.” I built my night around “Father of Mine.” I wanna hear the song, and it's so much so that it doesn't matter what else is going on. I'm like, “Oh, I can't do that. I'll miss the song.”
EA: That's kind of a perfect segue, because I was thinking, prepping for this interview about, “What makes a great Fastball song? Why do I keep coming back to your discography over the years?” And a big part is the storytelling. I feel like that really stands out to me and separates y'all from a lot of bands over the years. How have you kind of consciously worked to develop that skill?
MZ: It all kind of folds in on itself in that I love a well-written song. I think it was Bob Dylan that said, “A song is [anything] that can walk [by itself].”
There was a time, probably 20 years ago, I was hanging out at a friend's house. His wife was there. I was playing a bunch of songs — my own songs and other people's songs. But then I played “Atlantic City" by Bruce Springsteen, and she dropped whatever she was doing and about the end of the song, she goes, “Did you write that song?” And I was like, “No.” And I thought, “There it is. There's an example of — I'm not Bruce Springsteen, but it doesn't matter who sings that song. It's so well-written that it's gonna deliver.” And I love songs like that and I'm always trying to land one of those. It's like a lifelong quest. It's like Moby Dick. “I'm gonna write the perfect song someday. I'm gonna write it and I'm gonna keep going after it until I get it.”
I also like to say about songs: Not all of your kids are gonna go to Harvard. Some of them are gonna end up in jail. [laughs] Some of them are gonna be a huge disappointment to you. Not all of them are gonna go to Harvard, but if one or two graduate Summa cum laude, that's great. And so that's the way I think of my songs. Some of them are gonna be just — no one's gonna want them.
The pursuit is everything. The pursuit of it is what it's about. The actual doing and trying to get it to go. Songs are very interesting in that they're just sounds and words put together. That's all they are. And yet they can evoke so much if you get it right — there's, like. a magic spell. It's kind of crazy.
EA: You mentioned going to songwriters workshops and things like that. Are there other tools like that throughout your career that have really helped unlock different parts of your creative brain?
MZ: The important thing is to do it. I find it most productive if I start trying to do it every day. There are fallow periods where I'm not doing anything and I'm being very lazy and I don't write songs. In fact, there was a point this past year I thought I may never write another song again. Like, “I think I've written all the songs I need to write.”
But then if you start, I find that, after a while, the muse likes to see you working. So, if you're doing it, all of a sudden the sparks are easier to catch and, all of a sudden, you get a surplus of ideas. Because, again, some of your kids are gonna end up in jail, but those kids might have a verse — there might be a bridge in there that's good. And so you leave the song for dead, but you grab the bridge and you put it in this new song you've got. That happens a lot. So, just generating the raw ideas and stuff is very helpful. And just getting a certain fluidity going. It's just like when you're working out or exercising: If you only do it once, you're gonna feel like you're gonna die and you don't wanna do it again. But if you do it regularly, it's no big deal and you start to look forward to it.
It's very amusing and I also feel very grateful because I think about businesses all the time, like restaurants or whatever. That restaurant closed or that place went out of business — yeah, 'cause they have all this overhead. And they have employees. And then if they hit a slow period, they're just burning money. Songs don't cost anything. There's no storage, there's no overhead, right? They don't spoil, they don't go bad. It's an amazing way to make a living. They're just ideas. They don't cost the thing.
EA: And the songwriting remains powerful, especially on songs like “America.” Did any particular event prompt you to write that one or was it more of a macro situation?
MZ: I wrote that song a few years ago. I'm so sick of the division, but I feel like it's inherent in the technology we have today. In the past, someone might be a total racist or a total horrible person, but you wouldn't know 'cause they wouldn't be talking about it. And unless you were drunk at dinner, you're probably not gonna see or hear that. But now, people feel the need and the wherewithal to just pop off.
The algorithms encourage this. If you just say, “What a beautiful day here in Austin. I had a lovely time and everyone was so nice,” no one's gonna comment on that and it's not gonna pop up. And I'm not looking for likes or attention because I'm in showbiz and it's already a built-in deal. But I think your average guy [laughs], they want attention. It's a natural thing for humans to want attention. And now that you've opened it up so that everyone can get on a little soapbox, it encourages the most inflammatory kind of stuff, whatever that is.
So, on both sides, you have people saying stuff and fighting with each other and going crazy. And you have the news saying the country's cracking apart and there's gonna be a civil war and all these things. But then you go out on tour and you'll be in the most crazy, middle of nowhere place, and you'll encounter other humans and they'll be completely lovely people and they'll treat you like you're their long-lost son.
And I found that people, in general, are wonderful. I would say most of the people I encounter are wonderful people, as far as you can tell. And the world is kind of — whatever's going on inside you, that's the way the world looks to you. So, if you think everything is screwed up, that's the way you're gonna view the world. If you think that people are generally good, that's what you're gonna see because your brain will start looking for evidence to prove your hypothesis. And that's what happens.
But the song is just coming from a place of “love your brother.” Like, why does it have to be this way? America isn't just this crazy place where everyone has guns and everyone hates each other and we're on the brink of civil war and there's this huge divide between people and we'll never get together ever again. That's one way to look at it. And another way to look at it is you see how people come together when there's a disaster or you see the way people treat each other when they need each other. And you go, “The world's a beautiful place.” Maybe put your phone down and start looking for common ground with each other. And that's what happens at a show, usually, is people do that.
So, I guess I'm saying the media is a problem. [laughs] That's a very short answer to the very long answer I just gave you. Here's Answer A, here's Answer B. It's the same thing. Use whichever one you want.
EA: Like you said — you mentioned disasters and, as you probably know, Western North Carolina got slammed with flooding back in the fall and we're still picking out of it, but that unity was there. Politics did not matter at that point, even though there was an election coming up. It was, “This is what's right in front of us. This is what we need to do,” and it was powerful.
MZ: Humanity like that exists and it's very hard to — everything has turned into a for-profit concern. The news didn't used to be a lost leader. It wasn't something that made money. And then Ronald Reagan deregulated the industry and they could all compete. Suddenly it's like, “We need eyeballs.” Well, what's gonna get eyeballs? The most sensational stuff. The stuff like “the country's cracking apart” — that's what's gonna get eyeballs. The news used to be very dry and very boring, and now it's not. And now everything's a big, big deal. It’s like a feedback loop that starts to project outward to where, “Are you creating this? I think you're actually creating this.” [laughs] But what I see, though, is you turn all that stuff off and you're just out in the world and it's just you and the other people. Most of the time, people are cool. Most of the time, people come together. Most of the time, people have a big heart. And I've seen it for myself and I believe in humanity. I really do.
There was this story in the New York Times about this woman that got deported in a tiny [Missouri town] where everyone voted for Trump. And everyone was for deporting people. But then one of their own got deported, an Asian woman, and the whole community's completely upset about it. And it's like, “Well, of course.” Because you have these concepts, but when you boil it down to people, then that's the thing. What about the people? If you could see the people, everyone might feel differently. But it's an abstract thing. It's like, “Well, yeah, I'm voting for this 'cause I believe in it,” but when it gets down to the human level, it's a very different thing.
EA: Kind of on that note. I know y'all's Patreon is currently on pause,
MZ: [laughs] Because they make you re-pause it! It’s so insane. You can't just say “pause it.” You have to remember to turn it on and turn it off again. And so, we're gonna unpause it because we're gonna be on the bus, so suddenly there'll be a lot of content.
EA: I know talking with other bands that have started that, it’s been a really cool community creation and way to kind of re-spark things. Have any really cool connections or opportunities come from that so far?
MZ: Our fans have been so great about it and I love sharing stuff. We were, at first, gonna just put out new music and use it that way rather than put out records. And then the songs we recorded ended up being the Sonic Ranch record. We started to put out other stuff, just old demos and stuff, and we found that people liked it even more than something fully produced and brand new and slaved over. They really appreciated getting to see behind the scenes or getting to hear stuff that was an idea or this or that. So, that's been really fun — that they seem to actually enjoy that even more. I guess that's what the internet is really all about: you can see stuff that, in the past, you would never see.
EA: Absolutely. And then, getting back to this tour, are there any goals that you have for this batch of shows overall?
MZ: I have non-musical goals. I might try to write a book or Fastball might try to write a record — do something so that when the two months are over, there's something to show for it. Because normally, it's another tequila sunrise — it's so easy to fall into that lifestyle because every night there's drinks available, someone else is doing all the driving, you're on a bus, there's nothing really to do but sleep in, on the one hand. And so then you just go on this tour and it's a big party and it's a lot of fun. But then when the tour ends, you're just like, “Wow.”
So, I've been sort of setting goals for myself. Every night doesn't have to be Saturday night. When you're on stage, it should be. But when you're not on stage, then maybe you can have normal days of the week. It's very disorienting. It's like you're in a tube all day and then you're in a backstage that looks exactly like the backstage the night before that looks exactly like the backstage the night before. It's a weird kind of Groundhog Day experience that happens, and you’re around the exact same people every day. It’s easy to get disoriented and it's easy to feel like, “Oh, nothing matters. So why not have another drink and just have fun?”
So, that's my own personal goal. We've talked about finishing a record. We've got a few songs going and it's like, “Well, let's just write a song a week.” The tour is eight weeks. We can have an album done — it’s totally doable.
EA: I have one more kind of goofy question.
MZ: Alright.
EA: So, I'm not trying to throw shade at some of your peers…
MZ: [laughs] OK.
EA: But are you familiar with the viral video of this one guy and he’s playing Dave Matthews, Eddie Vedder, Scott Stapp, and Darius Rucker, and they're all hanging out and he's basically saying they all have the same singing voice?
MZ: I don't know about that. Do they?
EA: Well, they all kind of have that “hunhhhh” sound, you know? When they sing?
MZ: Right, right, right.
EA: I didn't know if that was something that was joked about in musical circles at the time, or if that was just something that this comedian is having fun with.
MZ: I used to do a joke about Eddie Vedder doing the traffic report. [laughs]
EA: [laughs]
MZ: And I love — let me say, for the record, that I love Eddie Vedder. I think Eddie Vedder is one of the good guys and a true American hero. I love that guy. I love everything that he's about. And I think Pearl Jam is a great American rock ‘n roll band. When they first came out, I was a little annoyed by his singing style on a song like “Alive,” because it's one word and he takes so long to get around to just spitting the word out. [sings the chorus to demonstrate] Well, those are three syllables, but you somehow turned it into eight. Like, I don’t know.
And then we'd go to radio sessions and I'd do a bit like, [sung to the chorus of “Black“] “Semi overturned — backed up everything!”
EA: [laughs]
MZ: You know, just kinda — he definitely has a singing style. But it's funny because there's always someone that's what I would call the source material or the icon or the template. Eddie Vedder is that person. Then all these people came in his wake and kind of did a more watered-down version of him. And then I'm like, “Come back, Eddie! All is forgiven. These guys are all just ripping you off and it's less than.”
And I feel like this happens in every genre. The voice I'm most sick of is the emo voice — are they doing Billie Joe Armstrong, or what is that voice? [sings a nasally riff] You know what I'm talking about. It's like anything that's played on the alternative rock station, it's a high-pitched emo dude with the haircut that's in his eyes and he's got a leather wristband. It's a uniform and a voice and they all do it. It’s kind of a blink-182, Green Day-ish pose, and I can't stand it. I'm like, “This is such cookie cutter stuff. Everyone is just imitating something that worked.” And so, I get really bored with that really fast.
It's always great to hear a voice that's just someone being themselves.
There's also the little girl voice [laughs] — the “girl with the acoustic guitar that seems like a baby” voice. I can't stand that, either. These things get commodified and then they become imitated to death, and it's like, “God, man — just sing like you would sing it, please.”
[laughs] I feel like I've alienated everyone now. [laughs]
IF YOU GO
Who: Fastball with Barenaked Ladies and Guster
When: Saturday, June 7, 7 p.m.
Where: Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre, 1000 North Carolina Music Factory Blvd., Charlotte, skylacuamp.com
Tickets: $40.50-$175.70
(Photos courtesy of Fastball)
