After the coronavirus canceled the touring plans of Southern California bands Zebrahead, Death By Stereo and The Adolescents, the players in these bands found themselves quarantined at home with idle hands.
It didn’t take long for Zebrahead vocalist Ali Tabatabaee to turn his frustrations into song lyrics.
“We had been on tour with Sum 41 in Europe and we came home and the pandemic hit and then George Floyd was killed,” Tabatabaee said during a recent phone chat.
He called up Zebrahead bassist Ben Ozz, Zebrahead and Death By Stereo guitarist Dan Palmer and drummer Mike Cambra who plays with The Adolescents, Death By Stereo and Common War to share what he had been working on.
It rapidly became clear that the quartet shared the same vision — and Fear No Empire was born. They had the same frustrations: The pandemic, anti-maskers, the treatment of immigrants at the border, racial and LGBTQ+ discrimination, police brutality and voter suppression.
All of this and more is addressed in a self-titled, six-song EP due out Oct. 28.
The first single, “Revolt,” dropped last month. It’s a fiery track — one that mixes the bite of Rage Against the Machine with the passion of System of a Down — that discusses the separation of immigrant children from their parents in detention centers at the border.
“It deals with that separation and how it’s been heightened by this serious health threat with the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said. “I’m an immigrant. I came to the U.S. from Iran when I was six years old. I couldn’t imagine coming to this country and being separated from my family. Not knowing where they are, not knowing the language, if I’d see them again and being fearful because there’s this spreading pandemic all around me and I’m caged up with other people with no social distancing.
“That policy is inhumane, and because I am an immigrant and came here as a child it has been very close to my mind. I just had to get my thoughts down on that,” he says.
Before Zebrahead, Tabatabaee was a pre-med student at UC Irvine where he majored in biology. However, the band took off and he didn’t continue with medical school. Since the start of the pandemic, he’s taken the situation seriously, as well as those who put politics ahead of science, which he sings about in the confrontational “Super Spreader.”
As the band worked on this EP, they did it separately and sent each other files via Dropbox and email. They recorded two songs at a time in the studio with producer Paul Miner and made sure everyone was healthy, had been social distancing or quarantined at home, and wore masks whenever possible.
“It’s science-based, and you have people who either believe in science or they don’t and that’s the issue,” he said. “And the fact that people don’t realize wearing the mask isn’t to protect you, it’s to protect other people. People like your mom, your grandma or someone who may have health issues.
“It has become politicized in this weird way that doesn’t make a lot of sense. It’s basic understanding that if you do this, fewer people will get sick — and that’s it. You can pick everything else out of that because it doesn’t matter; that is the only point.”
As well, Fear No Empire and this music is Tabatabaee and his bandmates’ protest against racial and social injustice. He said he believes systemic racism is a problem — and writes about it in “Feed the Pressure” and “On Fire America” — and he would be out peacefully protesting with the masses. But in the time of COVID, he couldn’t risk it. Two decades ago, he had a cancer scare, which leaves him immunocompromised, and he’s currently helping take care of his parents and grandmother.
“If I could be out there, I would,” he said. “But this is a way I could voice my anger. And I felt it was necessary for me to use my platform as an artist to write songs that I hope when people listen to them, it inspires them to use whatever platform they have to voice their opinion about what they want to change and what they hope to see in the future. That’s really all we wanted from this project is to inspire people to use their voice in any way that they can.”
While he’s also taken up mastering some recipes on the barbecue and tried not to kill his houseplants during quarantine, Tabatabaee said Fear No Empire has inspired him to write even more songs. He wouldn’t be surprised if the band had a full album finished shortly after the EP is released. He’s also hoping that eventually Fear No Empire could play some of these songs in front of live audiences. That could get tricky since some of its members are in two or three other bands simultaneously.
“I mean, what a good problem to have, to have to book a bunch of shows, travel again and work that all out,” he said with a laugh as he noted that all Zebrahead activity has been postponed for at least a year.
“Right now, I’m just super excited to write these songs,” he continued. “I think at a time like this, where everyone is cooped up, you have to find something that inspires you. Something that gets you excited to get up and have a routine of getting stuff done that makes you feel better and like you’re contributing to something. This has been a great outlet for that.”
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How the pandemic and protests led to the creation of super group Fear No Empire - OCRegister
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