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[Editor's note: This story previews The Zero Sum's album release show this Friday at The Waiting Room with We Be Lions, Break Maiden and Awaiting Eli. The all-ages show starts at 9 p.m., and cover is $8. RSVP here.]
by Sean Holohan
Singer Wren Soryn moved to California six years ago hoping to garner a recording contract for his former band A.Symbiont. One hangup: The band’s other members wouldn’t move out of Nebraska, even though that had been the plan. Soryn was left in a new state without a band.
When Atlantic Records signed guitarist Tom Lynch’s former band Emphatic in 2009, the band let Lynch go because of the band wanted to go in a different direction — cutting him loose just before their big break.
Soryn and Lynch’s aspirations and sacrifices for their bands were now for all for naught.
And so, in 2011, after Soryn decided to return to Omaha to finish his college degree, he reached out Lynch about writing new music. In March 2012, after rounding out the band with drummer Lowell Owen, bassist Ryan Murphy and guitarist Tony Herman, all from the now-defunct Omaha band Aurasing, The Zero Sum was born.
On Friday at The Waiting Room, the band will begin a new chapter as they release their debut album, Dissident, alongside fellow Omaha bands We Be Lions, Break Maiden and Awaiting Eli.
For the members of Omaha’s The Zero Sum, this is a chance to be the authors of their own story.
But after years of its members being fully engulfed in the Omaha music scene, Owen says it would be easy for The Zero Sum to ride the creative coattails of their previous bands. Instead, he says the band wants people to listen to them based on their current merits, not what they did in the past.
“We have gone out of our way to not make affiliations,” Owen says over the phone. “There are bands who do that. People try to draw off of their previous projects. We try not to do that so people can listen to it for what it is and not because of who we used to be.”
The album’s name, Dissident, is a fitting one for the overall message of the band. Owen explains that one of the band’s main missions is to encourage anyone who listens to their music to think deeper and look closer.
“The name of the album represents that people should think for themselves, question authority,” he says. “Don’t let anyone talk down to you, don’t let anyone tell you how to do things. Think for yourself.”
The Zero Sum is an industrial rock, metal and electronic powerhouse. And on Dissident, the band flexes its muscles with an aggressive blend of hard-hitting guitars and heart-pounding drums. The keys and other electronics in songs give the album a spacey, theatrical feel.
The album’s first single, “Return,” is an ode to Soryn’s coming back to Nebraska from California to start life over again and his feelings for the local music scene. In the song’s chorus, Soryn’s soaring, emotional vocals scream over power chords and keys, “When everything begins to burn, we got this return.”
“‘Return’ speaks of my experiences of the Omaha music scene and what I feel for some of the bands in town,” Soryn says. “While some of the bands ride the coattails of others, I write my own music. Bands emulate and copy what is popular without giving any thought to melody or opinion.”
Owen echoes Soryn’s sentiments, saying the band made it a point to blaze their own trail in the Omaha music scene, but on their own terms and not at the expense of kissing up to bigger Omaha bands.
“We were trying to do things on our own without begging for help with larger acts in town,” Owen says. “People were bowing down to open for big local acts. We said OK whatever, we’re going to play our own show and do our own thing.”
The Zero Sum takes pride in doing everything they can on their own. Their DIY ethics are clearly present in the way the band produces its music and plays shows. They recorded Dissident in Owen’s basement and used an Indiegogo campaign to fund it. And when only part of the recording cost was covered, the band paid out of pocket to cover the rest of the mixing, mastering and packaging. At their live shows, the band creates montages and lyric videos to project on a screen behind them throughout the set.
But as far as the band is concerned, stage production is great, but the music always comes first.
“At the end of the day, we strive for quality not quantity,” Owen explains.
And even though the band comprises a cast of notable Omaha musicians, Owen says don’t call them a super group. That’s not what this band is about. This is The Zero Sum, and everything else can be forgotten.
“We just went out trying to make music,” Owen says. “People thought we were doing it for all different reasons. We are just here for the music — nothing more nothing less.”
Sean Holohan is Hear Nebraska’s editorial intern. He bought some guitar picks from Tom Lynch at Guitar Center once. Reach him at seanh@hearnebraska.org.