Zero
"We like to call this style of our music "Cybermetal." "Zero" has six rhythm guitars, with two line-in 12-string acoustics, plus those wacky Iha leads. Tracked live with overdubs added later, this is a true mover as well as the first song that was recorded for Mellon Collie, James has always said this reminds him of Judas Priest. "
-1997 - Guitar World
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GS: There are some really wild noises during that solo. Are you using a Digitech Whammy pedal?
Billy: No, not there-but there is a bunch of Whammy on the record. James uses a Whammy for his solo in "Zero."
-1996-guitar school
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Q: How in the world, James, did you get that effect on the solo for zero?
Billy: That was a digital effect program that we specifically tailored to fit James' nubile needs.
1996-Dublin Chat
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Caller: What's like the meaning of "Zero"? Like the song, with the shirt, and everything?
Billy: I don't know. It's supposed to be fairly obvious, but-I don't know. It's changed for me-originally it was kinda a funny joke, kind of an idea, but it's kinda caught on and people seem to look at it in different ways. I'm about ready to take the stupid shirt off.
Caller: No, no, no
Billy: But the band won't let me.
Caller: No, the shirt stays.
1996 - Rockline
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Interviewer - We're gonna watch the video for Zero. And...actually, I have the CD single for Zero, so there's like 5 or 6 extra songs.
Billy: 6
I: So did you try to show as much as possible as B-sides, singles...
Billy: (nodding) Yeah.
I: You know, as let's keep'em going, to show what the Mellon Collie period was all about?
Billy: Yeah, the thing about singles, we try to make every single kind of close to the song. With Zero, you get the B-sides that were the rock kind of B-sides that didn't make it to the album but they were kind from the same period. The songs are like it, if you liked Zero, you kind of get to like the rest.
Mtv Latin America - Dec 96
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Billy: Although I have to say that James' solo on "Zero" is pretty wicked. And we worked on that a long time to get it right. It's a mover, though.
James: It was so loud in the room: just the amp hiss and the roar of 13 different pedals hooked up together.
Billy: It made me nauseous. The sine waves coming out of the amp were coming through the walls and making me sick.
-1997 - Guitar School
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ATN: What about this line, "The fickle fascination of an everlasting god" from that song? What have you seen in your life over these past few years that led you to write a line like that? It has this feeling of divine randomness.
Billy: I'm speaking more to human nature. I use my life as a paradigm by which to stream information, but ultimately it's inconsequential. Oftentimes I assume — I wouldn't go so far [as how David] Bowie says he'll take on a character — but I assume an emotion that is not something you could hold onto for a week, but you could hold onto for an hour.
ATN: Or three minutes.
Billy: Yes. A lot of people question the line in the song "Zero" from Mellon Collie, about, "God is empty, just like me." People were like, 'Are you that deep in despair?' And all the religious 16-year-olds, their bibles came at me for like a year. I had lots of good religious discussions. [laughter] If you're exploring emotion, you have to explore all permutations of it. That kind of feeling is not something I hold 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but it does pass through me. And I feel it. It's easy to sit here and cerebrally deconstruct, but that stuff just comes out of my cracked head.
I don't believe in randomness. I don't know if you've read any of the studies that have been coming out lately, but you cannot mathematically prove randomness. I believe in divine order.
-3/00 ATN
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