5 minutes with Fastball
Tony Scalzo and Miles Zuniga of Fastball visited The Bunker to record a special studio session of hit song The Way, and sat down to chat with Bruce Robison.
By Kaili Rose
“You’re always really proud when somebody you know busts out of Austin. A lot of times it seems like the point of Austin is to not make it anywhere. So when a friend is ambitious enough to take their music around the world and do something that is undeniably accessible enough that people love it - it happens every now and then, but it’s pretty rare.”
It was the sweltering summer of 1998, the end of an era …but a minute before Y2K-hysteria. Was the world going to end? Would we see the crash of worldwide technology and the downfall of modern man? Maybe… but at least we had a damn good soundtrack for it.
“It’s a monster international hit - it’s crafted incredibly well, it is incredibly catchy. It’s the thing that’s impossible to make. That song that’s so magic it defies all the odds and goes out to define an audience.”
In the golden days of Tamagotchis, Friends and teeny-tiny backpacks, Justin and Britney had just shared their denim-on-denim moment. The Clueless era was over and Harry Potter was just beginning. The Spice Girls and Boy Bands were everywhere …and Fastball swooped in to drop The Way just in time, lifting the world from the grips of candy-colored plastic pop. Only to land themselves squarely on the inaugural Now That’s What I Call Music. A then-fledgling concept anthology that would become a defining institution in the late 90’s and early 00’s popular soundscape.
If you’re anything like me, those iconic opening bars of The Way immediately transport me to a decisive late-90’s throwback. Where I simultaneously marvel at the stunningly grandiose, pleasing simplicity of this hit song, while I also grumble like a cranky old grandfather; “how has popular music gone SO wrong in the years since?” and/or; “the youth these days…”
Already a force in the Austin music scene, Fastball’s Tony Scalzo penned the tune in 1997. It dropped as the lead single on their second studio album, All the Pain Money Can Buy, which went platinum, scored two Grammy nominations and received five The Austin Chronicle awards: Album of the Year, Best Video, Best Single/EP, Band of the Year, and Best Pop Band. The song was inspired by Lela and Raymond Howard, an elderly couple who disappeared while driving to a local Texas music festival. One had Alzheimer’s, the other still recovering from brain surgery. They were found weeks later, hundreds of miles away, dead in a ravine in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Imagining them as ethereal beings on an endless romantic odyssey, Scalzo asks; "Where were they going without ever knowing the way?"
And don’t try to tell me you didn’t sing that line in your head in perfect pitch as you read along. The nostalgia is real, folks. Wherever you were in the late 90’s, The Way played out as the end of the world rang in - or at least the Millennium, since the hysteria proved baseless and we’re all still around to lament the long-lost days of great 90’s tracks. Instead, we settled into the naughty aughts with follow-up tracks Out of My Head and the eponymous opening lines to Fire Escape. So do yourself a favor and dive into a decisive late-90’s throwback for a few moments with our studio sessions from Tony Scalzo, Miles Zuniga, Bruce Robison and The Next Waltz Team.
Kaili Rose
With a background in music photography, journalism & film, Kaili handles Social media, Marketing & A&R at The Next Waltz. She specializes in lamenting the by-gone days of great music, helping artists build their digital presence, and making documentaries far too ambitious for her budget.