Senior Zachary Herz released his new single titled “Corruption” just before March break on platforms such as, iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, and Shazam.
The song can be found under the artist name, Zero Play and has a length of 3:46. Zack has many songs on Soundcloud, but this was his first time releasing a song on so many other platforms.
“Corruption” features Zack as the lead, as well as his brother senior Alex Herz on the guitar. Zack described “Corruption” as a politically-charged protest song. “It’s certainly energetic, but it is more towards anger and corruption in the world to things that aren’t right, like police [corruption],” he said.
Zack was inspired to write a song about corruption by the wrongdoing he saw and read about in the world everyday. In fact, he even wrote his senior thesis on how Bob Dylan’s songs are acts of protest through music. “When you find out about secrets and corruptions and [I] felt it was stupid, so I wrote a song about it to express my feelings,” he said.
Zack has been playing guitar, bass, and drums for three years and the piano for five. Since the age of 10, Zack has been part of honor choirs, and he has also been playing harmonica for a few years. Zack admires rock, especially punk rock, which he says is one of his favorite styles. Moreover, Zack also writes music such as piano songs and rock. “I usually write whatever comes to me, but I usually go to rock because that is what I know best,” he said.
The process to write and finalize “Corruption” was a three month process, but it took Zack a few years to complete. Zack had originally written the song in 2013, but then he scrapped everything expect the lyrics. Then in 2015 and 2016, he started to write about what was happening in society and current events; last August, he felt that the lyrics were right. “It took this song a long time to finalize because there are new things happening everyday, so I have to keep updating,” he said.
Zack had always wanted to officially release a song, so he found a couple of stations, paid a $30 fee, and his song has played on many stations with unlimited releases. “The internet created wonders for the music world,” he said. “It was worth the cost for me, makes me happy.”
Junior Olivia Coxon said she felt that “Corruption” addresses current political issues ,and she said she thinks that these are important topics to discuss.
“I think it was so impressive that he was able to write a song, perform it and send it out to everyone; it’s very impressive,” she said.
Zack emphasized the power of music.“I personally feel that songs are more powerful and easier to connect to than speeches, and I find songs to have more emotions, from the lyrics and the music.”
