"As things fell apart, I sort of wound up with our building/rehearsal studio. Since I played the drums, I needed the space. One day a friend of mine asked me to use the space and pay me $20. A light bulb went off and within a year I had taken over the entire 10,000 sq. ft, building. That is how my original rehearsal and recording studio known as Bill’s Place was born.
"Long story short, 4 years later I bought a 6000 sq. ft. building, designed and built the new Bill’s Place. It took about 7 months for the builders and we opened right after New Years in 1994.
"We have had some of the biggest bands in the world as well as some of the smallest bands, and everything in between. Bill’s Place is still going strong.
Anyways, back to music. After Warlord fell apart I dove into any band situation I could. It did not matter the style. I would rehearse with a funk band from 12 to 3, then a techno dance band from 3-6 and then a rock band from 6-10. Since I had the studio, my drums would stay setup and the other musicians would come in and out. Needless to say it was a serious growing period.
"The Animotion Era: One of the best musical educations I got is when I played with Charles and Astrid of the band Animotion. They were coming from an entirely different musical place than I was. I was willing to learn and they were willing to teach.
"I remember the initial meeting very well. They were coming off of a serious amount of success with Animotion and when we met, everyone had long hair and the rock look going on. As much as we were coming from different musical places, at least the look was consistent, or so I thought. Then we get together to play for the first time and they had all basically shaved their heads and went for a completely different look. Boy was I shocked and more importantly was quite unprepared at that point in my life to go Kojack.
Everything worked out and I learned so much about electronics, sequencers and click tracks. This was a situation that I was playing all pads through an interface that was triggering a very early Akai unit. I was getting the click with the keyboard player that was also tied to a couple of sequencers. Like I said, I learned a great deal. Even though I was an outsider, Astrid and Charles treated me with the utmost respect and probably to this day the thing I remember most about them was their character and qualities as human beings. This was a great experience for me.
"The Fates Warning Era: We had a tough time getting a deal for the band as the music scene was changing. I got a call from Jim Matheos of Fates Warning. He wanted to know if I was interested in playing with Fates as they were thinking about a drummer change. Jim was a Warlord fan and we had met a few times in the past as I used to do drum tuning in the studio for Bill Metoyer at Metal Blade on many of the early Metal Blade releases.
As things worked out I started working on material and before I knew it I was in Connecticut at the Carriage House Studios recording the Perfect Symmetry album.
The past fourteen years have been spent with Fates doing several albums, both live and studio and several American and European tours. Recently, Fates toured with Dream Theater and Queensryche. I am very thankful for all of my experiences with Fates. I have been able to meet many people both in the music industry and general public that I consider friends. The music has been challenging as well as I have gotten to see the world doing what I love to do.
"Currently I am involved with several recording projects and plan to continue releasing albums and touring the world.
"I appreciate all of the fan support and encourage you to keep checking back to this site for release dates, tour info and updates."
--Mark Zonder
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