Authority Zero is a band that doesn’t give a lot of thought to product placement. Just ask AZ guitarist Bill Marcks. “A lot of bands would ask us, ‘Where you gonna put your disc in the record store-is it gonna be punk or reggae or ska?’ And that’s not what we’re about.”
Straight outta Westwood High School-the same Mesa, Arizona, institution responsible for Jimmy Eat World-Authority Zero started kicking out the jams in 1994 when Marcks met vocalist Jason DeVore and quickly learned that the Wyoming native “could write catchy songs in fifteen minutes with really sticky hooks.” Next, the pair recruited bassist Jeremy Wood, who had actually taught Marcks how to play guitar (Stone Temple Pilots’ “Plush” was his first lesson). A drummer or two later, Los Angeles transplant Jim Wilcox was a fixture behind the kit. “We’re all from different musical backgrounds,” Marcks offers. “I’m a Chili Peppers, Buddy Guy kind-of-dude; Jason’s into SoCal punk; Jeremy’s all about Metallica and Slayer, and Jim’s into hardcore and Hip Hop.”

After a best-selling local EP recorded between cigarette and skateboarding breaks, Authority Zero hooked up with Lava Records and released their full-length debut, A Passage In Time, in 2002. Loaded with nods to musical entities as disparate as Sublime, Bad Religion, Dick Dale, and Manu Chao, the album put AZ on the road for the better part of two years, thanks to the success of the singles “One More Minute” and “Over Seasons.”

Tours with punk stalwarts Guttermouth and H2O ensued, “which was cool, because those are the bands we listened to growing up,” DeVore enthuses. Stints on Warped Tour, the No Use For A Name/Starting Line tour, and Sum 41’s “Sum On Your Face” extravaganza followed. “Our audience has grown a lot as we tour more,” Marcks explains. “It’s good to see our efforts pay off-sleeping for four hours a night, driving for six to get to the gigs, partying all night afterward.” The Warped Tour was especially gratifying for AZ. “We loved it, because that’s our crowd,” Wilcox beams. “That’s what we grew up on. That’s what we based our band around.”

Remember the days before wireless Internet, Friendster, and email-when people used to talk to each other? AZ’s fans certainly do. “Whenever we go back to towns, we’re playing bigger shows,” Marcks confirms. "We don’t always have a lot of radio support everywhere, so it’s been word-of-mouth. It’s pretty cool