Band Keeps Magic of Zappa Alive
Tacoma Weekly October 30, 2003

By John Larson
Tacoma Weekly Staff Writer

What could be better than forming a band with your high school buddies and touring the country to promote your album while still in your early 20s? Not much, except perhaps winning the lottery. The members of East Coast rock band Oddzar are living that dream right now. They are on a tour that hits Tacoma next week.

Singer Russ Eckell, guitarist Greg Jung, drummer Blake Silvea and bass player Travis Lockhart formed Oddzar three years ago. They all knew each other in high school in the hometown of Columbia, Maryland. At 22 Eckell is the oldest member.

Oddzar plays most of their shows around Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Prior to this month they hadn’t played farther than Boston and North Carolina. They are on their first national tour supporting Dog Fashion Disco. We caught up with Eckell at a stop in Dallas last week. The band is looking forward to driving through Washington. “I’ve always wanted to go there,” Eckell remarked.

Oddzar’s material ranges from heavy, fairly aggressive songs to more melodic, introspective fare. Their main influences include Tool, Radiohead and the Deftones.
“Our band has the luxury of no primary songwriter,” Eckell said in explaining how the group’s creative process works. “It is very democratic. It makes things tedious and time consuming, but creatively it works well.”

“Observations of the worlds around me” inspire Eckell as he writes his lyrics. “I related my experiences to those of others. I write about things of beauty and disgust and anything in between.”

The band has signed with DCide, a Washington, D.C.-based label. They have recorded a yet-unnamed debut album that will be released next February. It was produced, engineered and mixed by Drew Mazurek, who has worked with Nothingface and Linkin Park.

Eckell doesn’t have an explanation for the band’s name. The simply liked the sound of it.

For now Oddzar wants to expand its fan base while writing new material. “We hope to keep moving forward and challenge ourselves,” Eckell said. “We want to keep doing the same thing, but hopefully on a bigger scale.”