Punk Rock and Picasso: Q & A With Billy Zoom

Questions by Christian Lipski, Answers by Billy Zoom

Billy Zoom
Photo © Gully Foyle

In your opinion, was the late 70s/early 80s music industry more willing to take risks on new music, new bands?
The industry embraced Punk from the beginning. Unfortunately, they could only sell what the radio would play, and 99% of all the radio stations were programmed by the same computer. You should blame formatted radio. . . not the record industry. Today, MTV dictates what kind of music gets signed. I think it’s a very bad system all around.

What was your experience with the record-making process?
I don’t understand the question. As a record producer/recording engineer/audio equipment designer, I love the process. Next to my family and British cars, recording is the most fun thing there is.

I think it’s a shame that X wasn’t recorded better, but it was usually beyond our control. Los Angeles is my favorite X album, because it’s a pretty good recording of us playing live. It was recorded by Rick Perrotta, who later founded Matchless amps, and now makes the Royer microphones.

Rick did a good job, and he gave us much more recording time than Slash could actually afford.

DJ Bonebrake
Photo © Gully Foyle

Do you think it would it be possible for X to have the same success if you started out now?
No. There’s no music scene, and no way to make a living from playing music.

When you started, did you ally yourselves with any particular genre, or were you so focused on your own thing you weren’t concerned with any of the movements going on in music at the time?
We were Punk, which meant the Ramones, and the other New York groups. It was a very tight scene, and a very wonderful and special time. I feel very privileged to have been part of it.

There are musicians who would rather spend time in the studio than sleep on buses, and those who prefer the audience connection. Is it ultimately more fun/rewarding for you to tour or to record an album?
It’s more fun for me to produce other groups. The audience is always fun, but playing live is never as satisfying as recording. Nobody ever expected Picasso to tour around the world painting in front of an audience.

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