RIFFS: Fastball returns with new album, stronger partnerships

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By Andrew Leahey

"I wish people would stop calling us a one hit wonder," jokes Miles Zuniga.

"We're a two hit wonder!" he says.

As a founding member of Fastball, Mr. Zuniga is partially responsible for two of the most iconic songs of the late 1990s.

"The Way," with its spaghetti Western guitar tones and summery melodies, became a chart-topping smash in 1998, allowing the song's accompanying album to sell more than 1 million copies in six months alone. Released one year later, "Out of My Head" cemented the band's success with an elegant, piano-fueled chord progression reminiscent of the Beatles.

Fastball's popularity was meteoric. The band garnered two Grammy nominations, received warm critical reviews and toured the country with other A-list bands.

Like a meteor, however, Fastball's bright future quickly flamed out, with the band's subsequent albums failing to rival the popularity of their predecessor. Faced with such waning success, the musicians began to lose their taste for the rock 'n' roll lifestyle.

"I became really sick of touring," recalls Mr. Zuniga, explaining that he'd grown thoroughly tired of the road by 2001. "It felt like Groundhog Day to me — different city, same exact routine. So I went to Nashville to try my hand at writing country music. I thought it would be great to write songs for other people, to let them be the ones who had to go retrieve their lost luggage or drive 500 miles between gigs."

While in Nashville, Tenn., he collaborated with a host of musicians — from remarkable songwriters to "people who couldn't write a song to save their lives, but were very attractive."

Such partnerships were often fruitful, but failed to answer one persistent question: Why wasn't he collaborating with Tony Scalzo, his longtime Fastball cohort?

Both Mr. Zuniga and Mr. Scalzo had contributed material to previous Fastball albums. Yet they rarely worked together during the band's heyday. "It was always a 'my song, your song' kind of thing," Mr. Zuniga says.