Zone One is nearly a lifetime of a bass player and the music he has created. This is a musical story of me, Todd Schacherl. I have been playing bass since 1979 when a guitar player I met over the CB Radio introduced me to the bass guitar. I played the clarinet starting at age 11 and was always listening to music. I really wanted to play the sax but the band teacher said I should learn the clarinet first.

Holister Block Party - July 4, 2002 - Mark Thompson, Todd Schacherl

I met Mark over the CB Radio when I was 15 and he introduced me to playing Rock and Roll. I saw him play one night where the band had three guitar players and a drummer but no bass player. When I saw him play and actually smoke a Marshall 100w amp I knew that was what I wanted to do. Play in a Rock band!

Later that night I asked him if he could teach me how to play the bass. At first I think I just wanted to be a part of the band and since they needed a bass player I would learn that. Heck it had only four strings and I had tried learning to play guitar when I was 9 and didn't get far. Later as I learned to play I started to realize that the bass was the reason I dug all those songs that I enjoyed so much.

My First Bass

I was working at a famous ice cream store in San Francisco at the time so I had some money and I asked Mark how much a bass would cost. We went to where all the pawn shops were on 6th Street, downtown San Francisco, and bought a Fender Jazz copy for $150. That first night he taught me how to play Sweet Home Alabama and Hey Joe. Two weeks later I did my first gig playing about 15 songs including various blues and cover songs.

I played with Mark's band "Board Styph" for a few months and played with a few other guys I knew from school. About this time Mark was living on Height street and he met a guy from Michigan, Gary. Soon the three of us were playing together and learning new songs from bands like Molly Hatchet, the Allman Brothers, and the Scorpions. Mark met a drummer down the street from a friends house that could play anything from blues to funk to jazz to disco. The first time the four of us played, it was like butter. He was one of those players that because of their ability, they make you play better. From that night on, we called him "Captain Ted".

Ted was very busy playing for money making bands and because we were literally a garage band, we didn't make much money. As much as we all enjoyed playing together, he would spend less and less time with us. Ted would pop up now and again though. We once ran into each other after we found out that we had lived about three blocks away from each other for the last year. Anyway, each time he would pop up we would end up playing somewhere like a party or bar. We could go several years without playing with each other and still when we played it sounded like we had been rehearsing together for the last three years.

Florida-Bound

Gary and I started to play more frequently and then he decided to move to Florida. I was seventeen at the time and itching to get out on my own. I made the move with him and his girlfriend and we wound up in Pinellis Park, Florida. We played together in a couple of bands and I started to play with other bands as well. I played several parties and bars but never really got a band going that let to much of anything.

While I was in Florida I talked Mark into coming down and we ended up getting an apartment together and trying to put together a band. He moved off to a commune and I decided to come back to San Francisco.

Time to Write

Around the time that I turned 21 I met Scott. He had never really played guitar until he met Mark and was inspired to learn how to play. He was a quick learner and immediately started to write his own songs. Up until I met Scott, I played 99% cover songs and played only a few originals which were mostly instrumental songs.

Scott inspired me to start writing original songs. We also started to jam together more frequently and eventually we found ourselves calling ourselves a band. We had Paul on drums, Mark and Scott on guitars, and myself playing bass. We did a lot of recording, playing at parties, and jam nights at Route 66.

One of the projects we accomplished was to play Marks Meadows in Golden Gate Park. I went and got all the permits, the sound system, generators, and lined up a couple of other bands. We did a little advertising and got to play on an overcast day in Golden Gate Park. It was a lot of fun and the turnout was pretty good.

Birth of a Name

About this time Mark, Scott, and I tried skydiving. All three of us were hooked and we started to play out at the airport on Saturday evenings or when they had a major boogie going on. We started to call ourselves "Drop Zone" and it wasn't much later that I came up with "Zone One".

Even though we got to at least play at the jam nights, Mark and I were getting frustrated with not playing out and I especially was tired of doing all the recording, promoting, and basically the management side of the band while getting little help from the rest of the guys.

Michael Ross Band

Mark and I decided we would try to find a gigging band that needed a guitar player and a bass player. We auditioned for the Michael Ross Band and we clicked right away. They liked they way we grooved and we liked the songs, not to mention having a singer. Up to this point we never had a real singer, even though we auditioned many, and we usually played instrumental versions of cover songs or tried to sing ourselves.

The band had two guitars, keys, sax, bass, and drums. The drummer was alright but nothing special. Within a short time, we were playing the Chi-Chi Club and the Keystone on Broadway as well as other clubs in the San Francisco Bay Area. Once again, Captain Ted pops up and Mark and I felt we finally had a band with money making potential that could attract Ted to staying around for a while. With the three of us, Mark, Ted, and I, in the band, we started to really take over the sound of the band.

The three of us had such great chemistry together that we overpowered the rest of the band. The final straw came one night when we were playing a four set gig and it was getting late and we were running out of songs to play when the three of us decided to play a couple of songs with just us three. We finished those two songs and the whole place was on their feet screaming and hollering for more. The first time that night. Well, that was too much of a threat to Michael and he worked on getting Ted out of the band.

It was about this time that we met Mike McKee. He is a great drummer and had a solid groove. Almost as good as Ted, in fact real close. He and I got along great and we grooved well together. The Michael Ross band got to a point where it wasn't going anywhere and it broke up. A few months later Mike McKee called me to join a band called Sleep of Reason. It was a three piece band, Jon on guitars and vocals, Mike on drums, and myself on bass.

MIDI is Good

This is when I was first introduced to MIDI. We used a MIDI sequence for the keyboard parts in the songs and when we played live, Mike would listen to a click track and we would play along with the sequence. This really helped me to really dial into a beat and my timing improved a lot. After about a year, I had my first Son and moved to San Jose to work which put me quite a ways from San Francisco and Sleep of Reason folded.

My exposure to MIDI was really positive and I started to put together a home studio with a MIDI setup using my computer and a keyboard. Within the first month, I had written about twenty songs. MIDI really facilitated my ability to write and then I started to want to add guitars. Most of the guitar players I knew at the time were not really reliable and so I decided to buy a guitar.

The Zone One Plan

Zone One - 1992 - (l-r)Peter St. John, Vocals; Lorenz Cornlisen, Drums; Ken Cook, Guitars & Vocals; Todd Schacherl, Bass & Vocals

After about a year of writing songs, I had about twenty or so songs that I felt were ready for a real band. That's when I decided to start a band from the ground up. I put together a plan, called the band Zone One and started to audition guitar players. I wanted to find a guitarist that I could work with for a few months and really get work on the songs. That's when I met Ken. I enjoyed his playing, a lot because he was much different than what I was used to but we still had a lot in common in the music we liked. For a few months we played along with the MIDI drums and working on vocals. We then started to audition drummers and that's when we found Lorenz.

Within a month or so we had a couple of sets of material ready to be heard. We started playing several of the clubs in the San Jose area. We played about twice a month or so and things were going really well. We met the band next door to our rehearsal studio and played a few gigs together. When that band folded we inherited their singer, Peter St John.

Finally we were ready and we went into the recording studio to record four songs. Four of which are on the Zone One CD. We played out quite a bit but it was taking our toll. It was a lot of work to line up gigs and even more work to get people to show up. After about a year together we started to get burned out because we were not getting to the next step. Lorenz and Ken had a different idea about what kind of music to pursue and Peter and I had another idea. We all decided it was time to move on and my plan of building a band from the ground up and two years of work ended with a four song EP.

On to Las Vegas

In 2003 I became a Silicon Valley refuge and moved to Las Vegas. Mark had moved there to join a cover band and to play the casinos. Since things were pretty tight in San Jose, CA and I realized there was no way I was going to afford a house there I thought that Las Vegas would be a good move.

So far it has been. I have my own home and I am playing with a cover band called the Imaginary Band. We play about once or twice a month and play lots of classic rock.

Still Writing

I still work on my own songs in my home studio. I still jam and record with Mark, when I can get him up here since he moved to Kingman, AZ, and still play every day. Music is very much a part of my life after more than twenty years. You can check out some of my songs here or you can send an email to music@zone0ne.com if you would like more information or to purchase a copy of my latest CD.