VOT-When you first started TONE ZONE, did you see it hard at first, as a progression to something new, something better?
BOBBY JOE-Yeah, definitely. I always knew I was striving to get a better thing across to people. I really didn’t view it as a challenge, as far as getting the bands together, that all seemed to fall into place. Like SINISTER SIRENS, I ran an ad in the Public News “Female musicians wanted with no experience neccessary," and within three or four months we had a band rehearsing and writing songs under that name. So it wasn’t really that aspect of it that wasn’t hard, what was hard was coming up with a way to record on a professional level and produce a produce that was very professional and do it consistently and do it affortablly, that was pretty difficult but I owe a lot of that to Ken for figuring out a way to get these bands recorded and get the stuff produced and packaged. I owe a lot to Chris Edwards who really went out of his way to design all of our stuff, and to make it look state of the art, look just like any other professional record or CD you’d see in the store.

VOT-Give us a rough run down on what’s available on Tone Zone?
BOBBY JOE-Well, we produced a great tape that needs to be re-release it. The only copy I have I played the other night and it’s warped. It was called “Tales from the New World," it had three songs, it had a cover of “Somebody to Love” by JEFFERSON AIRPLANE, a real dance mix; a song called “A Tale from the New World”. We released it in ‘90. We didn’t do anything else professionally for BAMBOO cus we knew we were going to start making twelve inch Dance records. So we released a couple of home made demo cassettes that were really high quality. It was called “Gargoyle." Then there was a couple of demo tapes for BOZO that were really interesting. VIOLENT BLUE and SINISTER SIRENS did their own demo that were really good. Then in ‘93 we started recording BAMBOO’s tracks for their first twelve inch record. We released the record in Dec. ‘93, and by Feb. of ‘94 “Shapeshifter” was on the charts. It debuted)) ahead of MADONNA, MASSIVE ATTACK and a lot of bands. So then we had that record for about a year, then we released “Aftermath," another twelve inch record, that record is almost two years old and it’s still popping up on different charts in Europe. Then came the CD “51 Pegasi." Then we released VIOLENT BLUE’s CD, then we released SINISTER SIRENS’ first twelve inch record, “Brother Serpent." Within two months it was on the National charts, it’s number 35 right now. Then SINISTER came out with their CD and now we’re in pre-production for BAMBOO’s next twelve inch, called “Science."

VOT- You mentioned earlier (before I started recording) about coming back from overseas, mention about that.
BOBBY JOE- That all had to deal with TONE ZONE. I’m here running a record label here in Houston, I’m not in L.A., I’m not in New York, I’m not going out to lunch and running into so-and-so of another record label, I don’t run into publicist, it’s hard for me to get to good writers and people like that. So one of my tactics for the last five years has been going and getting my bands in different music confrences. There’s music confrences every month all over the United States, and basically all over the world. In ‘91 & ‘92 I went to SxSxW and got BAMBOO a showcase there. Most recently I went to Amsterdam for the Amsterdam Dance Event. It was really good for me, I met a lot of really important people in the European Record business. It gives me a chance to be with all those people and be in there face and they see me and they put a face to a name. That’s how I’ve gotten all my contacts in the music business, I go out and meet these people. Every March I go to Miami to the Winter Music Conference. That’s where the whole Dance Industry goes. It’s a really great conference. BAMBOO CRISIS was the first real live band to showcase. Most of their acts are solo singers that sing to a DAT tape. I went back there last March and I was on the panel with Ted Wrigley  who runs one of the biggest records pool in America, Progressive Dance Promotions, I sat up there with Marco Navarro of Roadrunner Rec. and a guy from Wax Trax Records. It was a big kick. This year I hope to showcase BAMBOO CRISIS and SINISTER SIRENS.

VOT-When ever you first started TONE ZONE you mentioned goals and everything. Have you reached them goals and are there some now that you’d like to achieve?
BOBBY JOE-Yes, I have a lot of goals that I want to make. When I started TONE ZONE my goal was making records. Even though we started TONE ZONE in 1990 and CD’s had come into being pretty prominent)), I wanted to make records. I just wanted to make a record and chart that record. Now, I’ve gotten a record up to number seventeen on the National Club Chart and I’ve charted a record for sixteen weeks. I’m really angry that nobody has picked up on this, it’s quite an accomplishment, if people only knew how hard it was to get something on the charts. These people get bombarded by major independent record labels. Within the last two years ever major label has started a Dance division, Epic, Sony, Columbia, etc. These record pools get bombarded with 50+ records a week, and for TONE ZONE to get a record on the charts for sixteen weeks is phenomenal, cus we’re not spending any money on advertising, we’re just putting the bands on the road, doing the shows, getting the records out there in different markets. For the future I want to build on that, the charts were on right now are very important charts, but I want to get to the Billboard Charts, their more commercial, industry standard. One thing I haven’t been able to accomplish with TONE ZONE is working out a suitable distribution deal for all of our products. It’s still really hard for people to get a CD, or to get one of our records. At this point we can’t afford to press a lot of them, and the ones we do press need to go out into promotion. So in the future I’d like to get TONE ZONE into a bigger scale, maybe hook up with another independent label that has world wide distribution, record our products and pass them along to the bigger labels and press, and of course getting my bands up to a more prominent level in the industry.

VOT-Let’s get into you growing up, the bands you listened to, and how you evolved into who you are now.
BOBBY JOE- I was brought up on Country and Western. At times my mom would have the stereo cranking to Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard, George Jones, and others. Then when I became a teenager I decided all that stuff sucked and I went into the Hard Heavy Metal. I was listening to IRON MAIDEN, LED ZEPPLIN, big into BLACK SABBATH. I can still remember one of the most pivotal moments in my musical upbringing was 1981 when RUSH came out with “Moving Pictures," that album totally blew me away. Here was a band using keyboards and technology, and then VAN HALEN came out with “5150” and I thought that was great. Then one of my friends turned me on to DEPECH MODE, which was mostly electronic. I thought that was awesome. Then I met this other friend of mine who was this totally Alternative type in '85 listening to MORISSEY, DEPECH MODE; and I though he was outrageous. We went out to clubs, stayed all night and such. I owe everything to him, Zall, I wouldn’t be in the music business if it wasn’t for him. One year we went to see this band out at Powertools, they were dressed all in black, dressed in makeup, and they looked like vampires. All the people there were so creepy and dressed really cool, and I just thought that these were my people. At this time I was still in school, playing in concert/ marching band, classical training in percussion, moved to Houston and played drums in this Heavy Metal band, and I started becoming Alternative. So, at this time Zall was a musician and was doing all this electronics, he called me up and wanted me to be the drummer. I show up for practice and there’s these four Alternative looking people, they all looked like they belonged in THE SMITHS or something. That’s where I met Ken, Zall brought in Ken to do the rhythm and bass programming. Ken bought out this octo-pad & showed me how to use it, so I started jamming on it. Ken started making bass lines on this keyboard he had, and before I knew it he had this keyboard playing this bass line automatically. In the meantime Zall was in the kitchen sitting on the kitchen counter writing a song. Nothing ever happened with that band, that was the only night we got together but that’s the night I met Ken. Ken told me he was in this band called BAMBOO CRISIS and that they were playing at the Axiom later that month and he wanted me to try and make it. So me and my girlfriend went and saw Ken that night, and I started to go to all BAMBOO shows. At that time Ken was just the keyboard player, there was another lead singer who played bass, a real drummer, and another keyboardist. Then, about ‘87 they played a club and the club owner was giving Ken a whole bunch of shit about starting early. I decided to talk to the guy and told him to chill out and wait till more people showed up and then they would play, and he gave in. Later that night we were at someones house and Ken made a joke about how their manager fixed everything up with the club owner. We all laughed and I didn’t think anything about it. Then the next day I get this phone call from Ken mentioning how they talked about how we were joking about me being their manager and he asked me if I would be their manager. I thought about it and called him the next day and told him I would do it. We’ve been together ever since. Then in ‘91 I came up with the concept for BOZO PORNO CIRCUS, I thought Houston didn’t have enough Industrial bands. I talked to Ken about it and told him we should form a new band. I got a few people about it and got them to play. I told them that I didn’t want anyone to know who they were and that they were all going to wear makeup, look weird, jump around, and do weird stuff. They thought that was cool. I went to Zal and asked him to be the lead singer but he only would do that if I played drums. I argued with him that there would be a conflict with me playing and being manager and that I wouldn’t have time. For two days we were in limbo because of that, so then I called him and told him I would do it. So that’s how my musical background came into doing what I’m doing now.
BOBBY JOE - If one thing comes out of this interview is that we’re making really good music in a really good format that’s really progressive. When the time comes, we’ll turn TONE ZONE over to people that can run it but I’ll still be the personal manager.

VOT- For the record let’s get the address’ numbers for TONE ZONE RECORDS.
BOBBY JOE - TONE ZONE has a state of the art world wide web site on the internet, that address is < www.tonezone.com >. You can send e-mail to any of the bands, there real easy, BAMBOO is - - crisis@tonezone.com. BOZO is - - circus@tonezone.com. VIOLENT is - - blue@tonezone.com.. Our address is 4212 San Felipe, Suite 251, Houston TX, 77027, USA. Phone line is 713-622-8023. Our fax and computer data line is 713-626-7920.

VOT-Ok, well is there anything you’d like to add about TONE ZONE, about the bands, etc.? BOBBY JOE - America is fed up with being spoon fed classic rock. Classic Rock and Z-Rock radio need to be on it’s way out. I’ve been all around the world and every one’s moving to Dance music. They want to go to the clubs, dance their brains out, and forget about their troubles. We’re making good Dance music that’s deep. We’re going to work hard this year to make this music easier to find and easier to get to. I just want people to be ready for the change that’s comming. There’s a lot of good bands out there that are making good music, and I wish people in the industry, as a whole, would get away from the philosophy of cloning a certain band and throwing it all up against the wall and seeing what sticks.

CONTACT TONE ZONE RECORDS AT http://www.tonezone.com for more info on the bands and info on the record company. There are also some sound files to check out. You can also go to  http://geocities.datacellar.net/SouthBeach/Marina/7913/calendar.html for show dates and othe stuff.

photos -
1st from top - Bobby Joe in BOZO PORNO CIRCUS
2nd from top - BOZO dancer
3rd from top - David in BOZO PORNO CIRCUS
4th from top - VIOLENT BLUE
5th from top - Chris O and dancer in BOZO PORNO CIRCUS.
 BACK TO HOME PAGE