2003
By Joey K

ZINNY ZAN 

20 QUESTIONS... & THEN SOME WITH

Zinny! GREAT to be doing this interview with ya. I've always been a BIG admirer of yours, this is truely an honor to be doing this. Got a few questions past, present & future. And, without further adue, let's just dive right into it. Shall we?

JOEY K.; Now I've always read that you left Easy Action becuase they (the rest of the band) were reluctant to break out of Sweden & consider giving a crack at the U.S. Was that what landed you in Kingpin? And how did the transfer from Easy Action to Kingpin transpire? (For some of you that may not know, "Kingpin" was Shotgun Messiah's name before coming to the U.S.)

ZINNY: Yes, I left Easy-Action cause they were not too thrilled of leaving Sweden for New York at the time. There are no hard feelings between us & they totally understood my decision to leave cause they knew that I always have had my aim on the U.S.

JOEY K.: So there never any hard feelings at all between Kee & you over that , that's great. Another thing I've always wondered: knowing what you know now (How things would go wrong with Shotgun Messiah) would you do it all over again? And did you even have a clue at the time that there was potential for conflict (In Shotgun Messiah)?

ZINNY: Well, like i said Kee & I have always been dead honest with each other so there were no hard feelings. Would I do it again??? Well yeah I would, but way different. I knew 2 hours after I had met Tim & Harry that this would lead to conflicts and trouble but hey, I also knew that with this tension this could be fuckin' dynomite between us and if we just could handle that, this could be something else ans that's what happened.
What you realize later on in a reletionship like ours is that it is draining you mentally, physically and also musically to have to fight for absolutely everything and off tour we lived very different lives.
After leaving Easy-Action I jumped on a plane to New York to work with Bill Aucoin Management. I lived in New York for about 10 months but didn't find any decent people to work with at the time. So I went back to Stockholm again. And then the phone rang and I tried out for Kingpin. They had only 2 singers in mind for the project and it was me or Mike Monroe.

JOEY K.: If you could put your finger on any given moment of being in Shotgun Messiah, what would be your most memorable experience of it all?

ZINNY: That is a hard 1. I can't really say cause let me tell ya, there was several memorable moments with us for sure cause with Shotgun it was either heaven or hell and those heaven moments were hilarious cause everyone in the band had a good sense of humor and the gigs were often a clean shot of adrenaline!

JOEY K.: One thing I've wondered about, since I FINALLY obtained my own Easy-Action record isabout your tattoo on your shoulder. Is that an American indian woman? If so, I always thought you had gotten it when in the U.S. with Shotgun Messiah. I realized I was apperantly wrong when i saw the picture on the Easy-Action cover. Where did you get the idea for that one & how'd that all come about?

ZINNY: I have always been interested  in the indians and thier way of life and philosophy. I think it started when i was 14 or 15 years of age. I believe I have read almost about all indian tribes in North America. If u look at the "Shout It Out" video u can see that on the back of my leather jacket I have a Navaho indian sign painted on the back. The indian woman  on my arm was tatooed in 1984 in Stockholm.

JOEY K.: You were in an all star Swedish tribute to the 911 catastrophy. Who started all that and how did you come into play?

ZINNY: The guy who started that project was Tommy Denander, an excellent guitarist from Sweden who has played with the guys from Toto and so on. He approached me and of course, I said yes and so did everybody else.

JOEY K.: You were also in a Swedish tv reality/ minseries. (Most of the American fans I assume, know nothing about this.) Care to fill us in on the details?

ZINNY: Not much to say actually. Swedish television wanted to do a documentary of a new and upcoming hard rock band and thier escapades along the way. I was there to be thier mentor and to help them out.

JOEY K.: Getting on more of a personal side,...who are your idols/ influences, musically or otherwise?

ZINNY: Musically there are many that i admire. Aerosmith, Thin Lizzy, Ac-dc, Sweet, Alice Cooper, Kiss, Sex Pistols and many more.

JOEY K.: Your music has more of a mutured point to it now, lyrically. Is ti a reflection of some of lifes experiences? I understand you went through losing your father, illness and divorice, did that change the way you look at the world now? I ask this because there is such a big difference in your writing now.

ZINNY: Yeah, there is a big change lyric wise between Shotgun and this solo album. Of course you reflect and absorbe things that happens in and around your life. Like when people around you die, I have lost more than 10 of my friends these last 9 years. Mainly because of them living in the fastlane but also from diseases and that makes you think "How the hell'd i manage to escape that trap?" and you take a look around you and hell yeah, you see things different after that. The second reason is that you have different sides to your personality. The Shotgun Messiah album was meant to be a party album, an "I don't care" attitude and that was 1 side of me and now I show another side.