Martin Zellar wasn’t sure he was going to ever record another album. Then came the pandemic and his upcoming album, Head West, is a definite silver lining to a weird time. It features his whole family. It’s feels like a road trip, when time stands still and past, present and future become one. There are visions of good time and bad but it all sounds great. You can hear him live at the release parties on Oct 20 and 21 at the Parkway Theater. Actually Oct 20 is already sold out so act quickly if you want to see him!
What inspired or drove you to release the first album in 11 years?
I had reached a point where I wasn’t sure if I would ever release new material, but the downtime during the COVID shutdown provided me a lot of time to sit around and think. I did a lot of looking back, and spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to do moving forward. Suddenly, songs started to emerge that I knew I wanted to record. Having my own studio made that part easy. Deciding whether I wanted to send those songs out into the world was difficult. That’s always been the hard part for me. After spending time with them, I decided that I not only wanted to send them out into the world, I was excited to do it.
I love the first line of the album (“I’m so tired of dirty snow”) because it hints at the songs on the album, such as The Road Led Here, where the picture reveals the backstory like dirty snow reveals a long winter. “There’s nowhere I’d rather be” is couched in descriptions of trials. Where do the stories come from?
I genuinely love Minnesota, and I’m incredibly proud to be a Minnesotan, but I have struggled all of my life with debilitating seasonal affective disorder. Winters have always been hard for me, but as I grew older, they became harder and harder to actually make my way through. As a teen, I would fantasize about hitchhiking my way south or out west in search of sunshine. So, I guess Head West represents my search for a way out of what would often be true despair. As an adult, it became clear that I had to make that happen. It was a matter of self-preservation. I guess The Road Led Here represents finding that light.
Texas Just Won’t End is an anthem for anyone who has done a road trip. How easy or hard was that to write? It feels so authentic, which might mean it poured out or might mean you spent days on every nuance. (Such as the amazing and timely line about Cormac McCarthy.)
That song, lyrically at least, wrote itself. I’ve spent a lot of time on the road over the years, but Texas Just Won’t End is about a specific, grueling trip I had to make a year and a half ago. I drove from Minnesota to Austin, TX to take care of some business, then I had to immediately cut west to San Diego to pick up my wife, son, and daughter. If I didn’t get there by a very specific time, they would have been stranded at the San Diego border crossing station. The drive west on I-10 was interminable. I was exhausted, and Texas just went on and on. The western third of Texas that runs along the U.S.-Mexico border is the backdrop for most of Cormac McCarthy’s books. I am a huge Cormac McCarthy fan (he was still alive at the time), and let me tell you, he captures every nuance of that area perfectly. One odd thing about the song is that I wrote the actual music (right down to the three-note beginning and breakdown in 9th grade. The original lyrics were awful and embarrassing, but I always felt there was something to it musically. So, I took all of the observations that I had spoken into my iPhone during the drive and made them work within the old music.
This was very much a family production. Tell us about that experience.
All I can tell you is that it was one of the most gratifying experiences of my life. It was magical, at least for me. Ultimately, to my kids, I’m not a musician or public figure. I’m just their dad. I know they love me, but I’m pretty sure they don’t think I’m terribly cool.
Please let us know about the upcoming release shows in the Cities.
I’ve assembled an incredible band, including my son Wilson on guitar, Nick Ciola on bass, and Scott Wenum on drums. We will also have a lot of special guests, all of whom played on the album. We’ll be doing all the new songs, but you’ll also hear a lot of the old stuff. The only thing I can say for sure is that I’ll be having a whole lot of fun.
Mostly Minnesota 