Zallen (aka singer/songwriter Michael Jones) is a native Los Angeles musician and visual artist. He has been performing professionally in numerous bands since the age of fifteen.
He co-formed the band "Eulogy" with Rusty Anderson (top session musician; and Paul McCartney's present lead guitarist). Eulogy won the battle of the bands at the Pasadena Civic and produced the song "When You're Young" for LA's powerhouse radio station KNAC.
After Eulogy, Zallen formed the band Eclipse and continued to tour and entertain packed high schools and college stadiums with his flamboyant stage antics.
Then Zallen, along with Daniel Van Patten and Chris Velasco formed a new band called Zicko Glick, an early incarnation of what eventually became the top selling Berlin ("Sex," "Take My Breath Away," and numerous other hits). Daniel went on to produce the first Berlin album.
Zallen co-composed, produced, and performed an independent release with his friend Billy Paul under the band name Bozart in the late 80's, garnering him attention from Prince's label Paisley Park and Janet Jackson's producers, Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam. The sound could be described as The Beatles meet Prince.
Zallen's band "Cryin' Out Loud," co-formed with his friend Steven James, was named Band of the Month by Los Angeles radio station KLOS (Mark & Brian) and the songs "This City" and "Handguns and Home Survival" were featured on the Local Licks program.
The song "This City" was featured in the film "Nature of the Beast," staring Eric Roberts and Lance Henriksen, and directed by Victor Salva, who's other movies include "Powder", "Jeepers Creepers", and "Peaceful Warrior".
Zallen recorded five CDs (I Live In A Box, Mook, Spintime, Top 10 & Spacetoy) from his digital home studio and released them on his mp3.com web site. He was a weekly featured artist and has had over 21 songs in the top 10 Psychedelic, Mod, Glam Rock, Brit Pop, and Latin Mp3.com Music Charts, with the song "Mars Express" holding at # 2 for three months straight on the Psychedelic Charts, and the song "Expensive Date," co-written with Rusty Anderson, hitting #1 In the Mod Genre. Sadly mp3.com is no longer in existence.
Zallen has composed music for MTV, VH1, Discovery Channel, numerous TV commercials, and TV shows. Zallen has also composed numerous commercial spots for one of his biggest clients 1-800-DENTIST, including two spots featured at a World Champion Anaheim Angels home game at Angel Stadium.
His six previous independent releases, "Afactsafact," "Smudge," "Yowza," "Absolute Elsewhere", "Everybody's Got Something To Hide","Eclectica" and the newly released "Crash Landing" are available at all online retail outlets.
Zallen is also an accomplished painter, specializing in Surrealistic, and Photorealistic works of art. He can be reached at zallen777@aol.com
| POSTED BY: radioindy | POSTED ON: 04 Feb 2010 10:11 PM | ||
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| POSTED BY: momof5pacs | POSTED ON: 20 Jan 2010 05:11 PM | ||
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The talented multi-instrumentalist Zallen, has put together a terrific collection of quasi-psychedelic pop/rock on his latest released album, "Crash Landing," that harks back to the days of classic rock, yet still retains a unique voice. "Mission To the Moon" is a fun number with enjoyable lyrics, solid lead vocals, a galloping rhythm, and vivacious drums and guitars. In "Out of Phase" we find more of an antiquated rock and roll beat replete with fiery piano chords and great guitar riffs which compliment Zallen's vocal prowess. "The Last September" is a sharp flowing rock song in which we hear how Zallen's voice delivers strong and melodic tonality. This album is for those who appreciate classic rock music with progressive modern touches and psychedelic expression. It is well produced and each arrangement has a nice dynamic balance between vocals and instruments. Fans of David Bowie or Muse will thoroughly enjoy the well crafted collection of songs of "Crash Landing" by the talented artist Zallen.
-Sean B. and the RadioIndy.com Reviewer Team |
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| POSTED BY: radioindy | POSTED ON: 12 Jan 2010 05:53 PM | ||
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Zallen: Crash Landing |
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| POSTED BY: Zallen | POSTED ON: 11 Jan 2010 10:11 PM | ||
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In my 16th year of life on this planet I was in a band co-formed with my friend Rusty Anderson and Dirk Vantatenhove called Eulogy. We had management, played gigs all the time and became locally very popular. It was a blast!!! But even though the whole band thing was amazing, there was something else we did that left a lasting impression on me. On our off time we would invite a very eclectic group of friends over, young and old, musicians, and non players. As the main band, Eulogy would compose quirky, silly songs on the spot with everyone’s help, and then we would teach the tunes to everyone, turn on the reel-to-reel tape recorder and record away. Sometimes we laughed so hard we couldn't get through a whole song. Didn’t matter if you couldn’t play the cheesy Wurlitzer organ, the autoharp, the banjo, the guitar, because you could still shake a tambourine! (If these tapes still exist only Rusty would know where they are.) I believe I was born with an improvisational spirit but Rusty truly taught me to embrace it and not be afraid to just “make **** up.” Although I entertained people for years at parties on guitar and piano making up absurd songs up on the spot about them and any subject they could dream up, I never incorporated this technique into a “serious” album. Well, I recently read an interesting article by this neuroscientist (sorry, can’t remember his name) basically saying that the human brain is so amazing it can virtually approach any problem or situation and figure it out in nanoseconds, but that rarely happens because we second guess everything and f*ck it up. They can watch the brain processing in real-time CAT scans. He also mentioned that when athletes, musicians etc. say they are “in the zone,” this is when the information is being transferred directly into our task at hand with no second guessing or editing. This is what inspired me to improvise this whole new project. That article and my childhood experience in Eulogy. I did not sit down as on previous albums and pre-write any of the songs on guitar and piano. I just turned on the digital recorder and away I went. It was an exhilarating way to work and I hope that spirit has been captured for the listener! And speaking of Eulogy, former Eulogy drummer Rod Mitchell graces most of the tracks with his aggressive backbeats. Friends Matt Donaldson (guitar) and Steven James (guitar, vocals) can be heard lending creative input on a few of the tracks. Thanks Rusty, thanks Mr. Neuroscientist, thanks Great Goo Goo Ga the god of improvisation! Zallen |
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