Fastball’s Miles Zuniga Previews Upcoming Syracuse Show

Matt Brooks:[00:00:00] Matt Brooks here on X101 Always Classic. And with me on the line is Miles Zuniga singer songwriter and guitarist also member of Fastball. Coming up on July 23rd, Fastball will be performing at the Empower Federal Credit Union Amphitheater at Lakeview in Syracuse. This will be along with Sugar Ray and Barenaked Ladies, part of the last Summer on Earth Tour.
First off Miles, thank you for joining me today. 
Miles Zuniga: You’re welcome, Matt. 
Matt Brooks: All right. Well, now last year, fastball celebrated its a 30th anniversary and released the Ninth Studio album. But besides coming to terms that the nineties or three decades ago, how does it feel to be playing with the same band mates for so long?
Miles Zuniga: It’s been great. You know, we’re like brothers. Uh, it’s, I don’t have that many relationships that have lasted this long that have been this intense and hands on, you know? Um, there definitely been some very difficult periods. Uh, but well, the beauty of staying together, as long as you know each other really well and there’s a kind of, yeah, brotherhood or camaraderie that just develops [00:01:00] where you give each other the benefit of the doubt, and you’ve been through everybody’s BS a few times. And so, you know what, everybody knows the score kind of, and everybody respects each other and loves each other, so it’s great. 
Matt Brooks: Yeah, it’s on top of that. I mean, I mean, uh. Especially with a band that’s been around for so long, usually you have some sort of turnover. I mean, you might have a one or two founding members, but all three of you are have been around for the whole, for the whole run. 
Miles Zuniga: Yeah, we’re lucky. Um, more often than not, bands, somebody leaves or just shoved out or a lot of times people, uh, fire the other guys so that, you know, a lot of times the singer who fires the other band members so he can keep all the money from the shows, you know? 
Matt Brooks: Yeah. 
Miles Zuniga: And just pay side guys who are just happy not to be working at Guitar Center anymore. 
Matt Brooks: Yeah. No, no. But I mean, that’s the thing. I mean, you’ve been been tour, uh, touring for so long. You’ve had, I mean, nine studio albums. How does it feel to be still touring after, I mean, for 30 years? And, uh, [00:02:00] specifically on this tour alone, Syracuse is gonna be your 31st stop. 
Miles Zuniga: It’s kinda like the band sort of had this amazing, amazing couple of years in ’98 and ’99 and then after that they slowed down and after that, you know, it’s kinda like we went through the valley, you know. It got, that was kind of the proving ground.
Do you really wanna do this? ’cause you’d already had the hit. So it’s like if you were trying to reach the top of the mountain, you’ve already been there. I think a lot of people would’ve called it a day or, the band would’ve splintered or split up, somebody would’ve said, you know what, I’m gonna go sell real estate now.
Matt Brooks: Right. No, that’s the thing. I mean, all the main, All the Pain Money Can Buy, which is, I mean, it features your biggest hits, 
Miles Zuniga: Uhhuh. 
Matt Brooks: That was your, your second studio album. I mean, it’s gotta really shift your focus, like after you were at that top of the hill creating new music. 
Miles Zuniga: Oh, well, I’ve always just been, I’ve always accepted the implied bargain. The bargain is follow wherever it goes. 
Matt Brooks: Yeah. 
Miles Zuniga: Um, and it’s always, it’s always rewarding me in [00:03:00] some form or fashion the whole way. You know, it’s, it’s, it’s its own playing. Music is its own gift. It, it is kind of like, it’s great, um, to be successful and it’s great to play big, huge room. I love it. But if you don’t have that same kind of spark and joy at a tiny little place, you know, with a neon sign on the wall and, and capacity 120, then you should just quit.
I think, yeah, it’s, it’s all about that. It’s all about having passionate joy for the actual making, the music itself. A good example is, you know, when Billy Gibbs from ZZ Top is at work, oftentimes he’ll play in Austin. And he’ll play these same little joints I just described. Uh, you know, that guy fills huge rooms, these big stadium act goes all over the world. World. 
Matt Brooks: Oh yeah. I, I saw, I saw ZZ Top back in, uh, 2011, and I mean, they draw a crowd. That’s, that’s the thing. 
Miles Zuniga: Yeah, and he’s been through, he’s been through it all. He has had success, massive success since the 70s. But you know, he’s got nothing to do on a Thursday night. He wants to go out and play. It’s just, it’s just the way it is when you’re a [00:04:00] musician. 
Matt Brooks: And as long as you have that spark, as you said, it’s.
Miles Zuniga: That’s what it is. Yeah. 
Matt Brooks: Yeah. As soon as music becomes work, you probably should, uh, punch out. 
Miles Zuniga: You should. There, there’s also the, news flash, there’s easier ways to make a living.
Matt Brooks: Now, getting back to the tour itself, I mean, you, the first half of the tour, you, you’re tourin’ with Guster, um, Barenaked Ladies is, the headliner’s going through the entire thing. But how, uh, how is it touring with Guster Barenaked Ladies and Sugar Ray for the second leg of the tour? 
Miles Zuniga: Well, we had never really met Guster. I was at a songwriting thing one time with Ryan Miller from Guster, the singer at, at the Hansen’s house, in, uh, somewhere in Oklahoma at an undisclosed location in, in Oklahoma. But I don’t remember, that was so long ago, and we probably did it. I, we didn’t write a song together, so I, I probably met. ’em in the hallway or something, but they were such great guys. God, what a great band and what a great group of people. We had such a [00:05:00] fun time hanging out with those guys. They were just a blast. Very, of all the bands I’ve ever toured with, they were the most proactive in trying to find like if there was anything, fun to do in the surrounding area. 
Matt Brooks: Oh yeah. 
Miles Zuniga: I’m talking, I’m talking like a 30 mile radius.
Matt Brooks: Wow. 
Miles Zuniga: These guys would go out and do it, and if you were lucky enough to be around when they were hatching their plans and it worked out with your schedule and soundcheck and everything, you could go too. I went rafting with ’em. You know, they, they were always look, oh, there’s a museum of, there’s a Frida Kahlo exhibit. There’s this, there’s that. They had their figure out the post, so they were more than just, oh, let’s do the gig. They. 
Matt Brooks: I will tell you, so we’re located in, uh, Homer, New York, Cortland area. We are within that 30 mile radius when you hit Syracuse. 
Miles Zuniga: Okay. 
Matt Brooks: But, um. 
Miles Zuniga: Well the Guster guys would know, the Guster guys would know what was happening and what the local attractions were.
But as far as, uh, Sugar Ray, we’ve, toured with them multiple times and we love those guys. We’re like, it’s, it’s just such a [00:06:00] brodown. So we have a long shared history with Sugar Ray. Bearnaked Ladies. We’d actually toured with them, uh, during the Horn Tour. 
Matt Brooks: Mhm. 
Miles Zuniga: In 98, but that was so long ago and we probably didn’t really get to know ’em that well on that tour.
As, as we are this time. They’re just such gracious, wonderful hosts and such cool people too. 
Matt Brooks: That’s the thing with these groups. I mean, you have a distinct sound. It’s not like you just pulled three random groups that are on tour. All of your, your sounds kind of meshed together. 
Miles Zuniga: Yeah, they do. Uh, I was talking to, uh, someone that interviewed me a few days ago about just, there was this weird time in the radio where the radio was wide open and all these bands were on the radio.
Um, and then very not long after that, the radio became kind of do metal and then, and not long after that rock and roll just died, you know? Yeah. It’s like, uh, as a cultural force, it just kind of expired, unfortunately. I mean, it’s still, there’s still a lot of rock bands. And stuff, but I, you know, [00:07:00] it isn’t like the dominant thing, like when Nirvana was at its peak. 
Matt Brooks: Right. Yeah. The, that’s the interesting thing being a classic hit station here. I mean, we have a lot of play on what we can play with and especially since the classic hits just kind of keeps widening up. I mean, the 90s that you get, you got that grunge, you got the, the Seattle grunge scene like Nirvana and uh, stone Temple pilots.
But there’s whole swath of like just plain rock music in closer to the core genre where Fastball lands, Sugar Ray, Barenaked Ladies, and then you can go swing the other way. I mean, you have the 90s, uh, country pop that, I mean, Shania Twain, Garth Brooks, all that such, that really took the airwaves by storm in the 90s as well.
Miles Zuniga: Yeah, yeah. Music was very, uh, you know, it, it, we’re just living through a different time and it’s a different way of consuming music. And there’s a lot of amazing, god, amazing artists out there, Jesse Wells and Billy Strings and Charlie Crockett. There’s all these. People that may not dominate the airways, but are certainly filling huge places, [00:08:00] uh, that are playing very American.
I just saw Gillian Welsh and Dave Rawlings play in a massive place, a huge theater, beautiful theater. And uh, God, where was I in Portland. So like I, it kind of makes me excited that there’s so much American music, you know, real. American music being made without a whole lot of glitz and stuff. Yeah. That’s exciting too.

Matt Brooks: We’re getting right back to where music was music again, and especially with everything that’s opened up since COVID, I mean, I think live music is just kind of resurged, so there’s just plenty of opportunity to catch great music live. 
Miles Zuniga: It’s all over the place and there’s so many amazing, amazing musicians.
It’s never, it’s never been a better time to be learning how to play an instrument. When I was trying to learn how to play, it was like a mystery. 
Matt Brooks: Yeah. 
Miles Zuniga: What is that chord? How’s that guy doing that? What is he playing? How, wait, I can’t slow it down. Wait, I got a, he’s playing so fast. I can’t really hear the notes. Now there’s a million ways to learn any song. 
Matt Brooks: Oh yeah. No, you just pop on [00:09:00] YouTube and you can get 20 guys, uh, just showing you how to do it. And granted it’s 20 different ways, but. Absolutely. Now, taking a step away from the tour and the playing while you’re, uh, in Central New York, I know that you were talking about how, uh, Guster is really good at finding stuff and they’re not gonna be on this leg of the tour, but. 
Miles Zuniga: No. 
Matt Brooks: In Central New York, is there anything else you wanna do while, uh, the tour bus has stopped here?
Miles Zuniga: I would have to look and see, uh, our slot is such that soundchecks normally around four, and then we normally go on around six or seven, so that doesn’t leave. You know what I mean? 
Matt Brooks: Yeah. It doesn’t leave too much room. Yeah. 
Miles Zuniga: It doesn’t, you can’t, it’s tricky. You, it’d have to be a morning thing and you’d have to, you’d have to be a coffee achiever.
You’d have to have, you’d be up spry and early, which isn’t my strong suit. At like 9 and go, what’s happening? Can I get a runner to take me to whatever? You know, it, it depends how far it is. Do I need a car? All those things. 
Matt Brooks: I, I will say [00:10:00] that there’s, uh, plenty of like breakfast brunch spots that are in the area.
So even if you just need to get a cup of Joe or something, that there’s, there’s plenty to choose from. 
Miles Zuniga: That’s cool. Uh, looking forward to that. And I love that. Now where is Syracuse? So help me out. Where, is that Upstate New York? 
Matt Brooks: It’s technically Central New York, but it’s, it’s much more upstate than say, like Long Island. Um. 
Miles Zuniga: Are there, are there lakes around there? 
Matt Brooks: Yeah, I mean, the, you’d have to go, uh, west, but, um, 
Miles Zuniga: Uhhuh. 
Matt Brooks: Uh, yeah, I mean, you’re not gonna be going on a, I mean, you’ll have, you have the lakefront that’s at the amphitheater, but, um. 
Miles Zuniga: See that’s how you get into trouble. Climb into some stranger’s car and they go, we got this cabin at the lake and it’s great, come out for a few hours. I’ll have you back by showtime. Those are the famous last stories. 
Matt Brooks: Well, I mean, you always get the, you get the stories where it’s like, Hey, yeah, no, no. The band was just hitchhiking. They had to get back to the show. 
Miles Zuniga: Yeah. 
Matt Brooks: But. 
Miles Zuniga: Yeah. 
Matt Brooks: Um, we are, uh, unfortunately running a little bit outta time Miles.
Miles Zuniga: Okay. 
Matt Brooks: Before we go.
Miles Zuniga: No worries. 
Matt Brooks:[00:11:00] But before we go. 
Miles Zuniga: Yeah. 
Matt Brooks: Uh, I mean, I know you got the hits you got and you have 30 years of music under your belt. Specifically for you, what is the song you like to perform most live? It could even be a, a song that isn’t by, uh, by you. 
Miles Zuniga: Oh, I love, you know, we do a little bit of Steve Miller’s the Joker and I love, I always look forward to that.
Matt Brooks: Well, that’s a good one. 
Miles Zuniga: And you know, I love the hits. I really do. They’re great songs and the audience loves them. It’s always exciting what we do out of our head of the way. So. I would say those three probably. 
Matt Brooks: Well, it, it’s gonna be a, it’s gonna be a great show again, thank you for, uh, taking the time to talk with me.
Miles Zuniga: You got it. 
Matt Brooks: Uh, Miles, Fastball performing with Sugar Ray and Barenaked Ladies, part of the Last Summer on Earth Tour, July 23rd at the Empower Federal Credit Union Amphitheater at Lakeview in Syracuse. You can get your tickets online and, uh, good luck with the, the rest of the tour, not just Syracuse, but you got a long road and, 
Miles Zuniga: Yeah. 
Matt Brooks: A lot of shows.
Miles Zuniga: Thank you so much. 
Matt Brooks: This is Matt Brooks on X101 Always [00:12:00] classic.