Electronic Press Kit 

His school had a class in it and it seemed like a cool thing to do.  While this may not seem like a typically momentous rock and roll occasion, it was all young Zak Perry needed to start playing the guitar.  Within days, Zak had already written his first song called, "Jesus is Calling."  It was apparently good enough that his parents didn't believe he wrote it and sent him to his room for lying.  They came around pretty quickly, however, and soon became his biggest fans.

One thing that made Zak different from other young guitar players was his disinterest in flashy pyrotechnics.  Although he had no trouble mastering the tricky leads of popular Led Zeppelin solos, blistering country finger picking rags, or even highly technical classical passages of Yes, Zak stuck to honing the skill he discovered he had... songwriting.  "I just gravitated to doing what nobody else around me at the time was doing... writing songs."

Zak soon formed the requisite garage band and began to take writing and playing more seriously.  It was right around this time, the he fell, as subtly as he had with playing, into becoming a lead singer.  "We couldn't find a singer," he remembers, "so I figured I might as well just do it myself."  Despite, or maybe because of this unceremonious vocal beginning, Zak has managed to craft his voice into what is certainly one of the most powerful, emotive, genuinely bluesy voices in rock and roll today.

After two bad record deals and his seven year trip from St. Louis to New York to Austin, TX, Zak has just released a new CD called, Seven Years.  A collection of songs he wrote during his travels, performing with some great musicians he met along the way.  Once again, Zak has decided to "do it himself" and is already working on another CD.

This is Zak Perry and he deserves a listen!

One of the most interesting things about rock & roll is that not everyone that now seems “born to do it”, always started out that way. The youngest of four, born to a modest household in Joplin, MO, Jason Charron had a fairly normal childhood and upbringing “ As young kids,” Jason recalls, “We really didn’t have much to worry about, we had an incredibly loving supportive household. I was very lucky.”

So how did a young, well-adjusted boy come to be a rock & roll pounder? What made a bright, athletic child decide he wanted to beat things with a stick for a living? “ It’s all John Bonham’s fault!” Says Jason with a laugh, “ I just heard Bonham playing and I knew...I gotta do that!”

This didn’t come as much of a surprise to his parents who, in addition to having music in the house all the time, had supplied Jason with toy guitars and toy drums as a young boy. “I would break the guitars and pound on the drums,” he remembers, “ and when tiny plastic wasn’t enough, I’d go get anything I could. Oatmeal boxes, pots, pans; you name it, I’d hit it.”

It was after hearing Bonham, however that he realized what it was really supposed to sound. Soon after that Jason got his first drum set, and began to constantly play. Forgoing lessons, Jason proceeded to teach himself how to play by pouring over recordings and videos of all the major influences, John Bonham, Keith Moon, Neil Peart, and CharlieWatts, Jason stopped everywhere in between picking up every ounce of drumming knowledge he could. This cool mixture of sounds is what helped him in developing a style that has the bombast and aggression of Bonham and Moon, and the concentration and groove of worked out parts that compliment the song like Peart and Watts.

This rare ability is what makes Jason, not only a crucial part of the Zak Perry Band, but also a top-notch drummer all around. He is  one who can restrain, and groove and compliment a song, but then can explode live when the emotion and power needs to be there. Not only can Jason do that, but he is that. It’s the basis for his whole style, you know trying to mesh both of those talents.

So obviously, Jason had everything he needed to be a top rock and roll drummer, except one thing....a band. “ I had played in countless bands, really since I was good enough to play out, but none of them ever worked on, or would make to that serious level. There were some great players, but it just never carried over.” He says.  And then he met Zak Perry and Vern Vennard.

Jason has worked with Zak for several years in the Ma Driver Band and now the Zak Perry Band.  He and Zak seem to "read each other's mind," when they perform on stage and they have formed one of those great friendships.

Vern Vennard has been playing music ever since he was a little boy……..real little. “I was about two-and-a-half and one morning at around 3am I decided to crawl out of my crib, open the back door, go around to the side of the house and start to do my best John Bonham imitation on the trash cans…..and they were the old metal ones too!”

At eight years old he started to actually learn on real drums.  Although it was a passion that he continued to pursue until he was about eighteen, it was actually a day in seventh grade that changed everything.  “We had a talent show in our school and a kid in my class that I didn’t really know that well got up there and played Eruption,” he explains, “I was floored.  They didn’t offer it in school so I didn’t even know you were allowed to play the damn thing until I saw him!”

Needless to say it didn’t take long before Vern had tracked the boy down and gotten his guitar teacher’s name, address and phone number.  “That was about the end of people seeing me for the next 5 years.  All I did was play guitar.  No dates, no proms, just playing, playing, playing.”

Soon after that he moved to New York City, where he would play in local bands, guitar tech for Bo Diddley’s guitar player and move on to his next challenge;  audio engineering and production.  “I realized that there was a distinct possibility that people weren’t going to pay me to play later on, because…well they weren’t paying me to play!  I figured if I didn’t want to sell shoes for a living, I should find a trade that at least kept me close to music.”

But it was just after finishing his courses at IAR in New York that the biggest challenge of is life would happen; he met Zak Perry.  “Oh man!” he says smiling, “I had met Zak through a mutual friend and would go home and listen to his demos and stuff.  I totally remember thinking ‘This is how I want my band to sound’!  So one night at one of his gigs he asks me about coming out on the road with him and, I swear, I though he wanted me to roadie for him.  Next thing I know we’re moving to Memphis, St. Louis, Austin…..wild!”

Looking back now, Vern credits Zak with making him the musician he is today.  “I’ve learned most of my licks and technique from the famous cats that everybody else has, but I learned what I know about being a musician from the guys that I’ve actually known.  And I haven’t known anybody better than I know Zak.

“He sure has a strange way of doing it, and I’m sure I didn’t necessarily think this way while it was happening, but looking back, I can honestly say that when playing with Zak you can play anything!  By that I mean that the songs are so good that you’ll do anything to be a part of it.  I didn’t even know how to play slide before I started playing with Zak, but after asking me if I wanted to play with him, he looked over and asked ‘You do play slide, right?’  What the hell was I going to do say?  No?  Of course not, I ran home and started to learn how to play slide!”

With Zak egging him on, Vern spent the next 5 years playing and recording, first with Zak as a duo before helping form the Ma Driver band.  He also spent time recording and playing sessions with the likes of Jefferson Airplane’s Marty Balin, piano great Johnnie Johnson, Billy Barnett, The Bear Creek Girls and Dave McNair.

Personal and professional reasons caused Vern to leave for the better part of five years; a painful split that brought him back to NYC.  As if being guided by the hands of fate (and those of his wife) they ended up back in Texas and back on stage with the Zak Perry Band. It appeared that when you've been as close as Zak & Vern are things never really change.

“It really was like no time had gone by,” Vern recalls, “I mean, I had only been sitting in with them for a couple of weeks and one night at a gig Zak came up to me and looked over at me and asked ‘You do play keys right?’………………..”   

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