Q: "How in the world, James, did you get that effect on the solo for zero?"
Billy: "That was a digital effect program that we specifically tailored to fit James' nubile needs."
Billy: "I read this book by Philip K. Dick which had this amazing theory that the Christian God that we worship is the real God's insane brother, and by worshipping the wrong God, everything about us is all fucked up. This is the normal human struggle - if God is this omnipotent being, how do people die tragic deaths? How do 400 people go down in a plane? That's kind of hard to reconcile, and I think a lot of people feel that way." (cmj 12/95)
Billy: "This friend of mine asked me 'Do you really mean it when you sing "God is empty just like me"?, and 363 days out of the year, the answer is no. But those two days I feel it, I feel it pretty intensely."
Billy: A lot of people question the line in the song "Zero" from Mellon Collie, about, "God is empty, just like me." People were like, 'Are you that deep in despair?' And all the religious 16-year-olds, their bibles came at me for like a year. I had lots of good religious discussions. [laughter] If you're exploring emotion, you have to explore all permutations of it. That kind of feeling is not something I hold 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but it does pass through me. And I feel it. It's easy to sit here and cerebrally deconstruct, but that stuff just comes out of my cracked head.
I don't believe in randomness. I don't know if you've read any of the studies that have been coming out lately, but you cannot mathematically prove randomness. I believe in divine order. ATN, Gil Kaufman, 2000
my reflection, dirty mirror
there's no connection to myself
i'm your lover, i'm your zero
i'm the face in your dreams of glass
so save your prayers
for when you're really gonna need 'em
throw out your cares and fly
wanna go for a ride?
she's the one for me
she's all i really need
cause she's the one for me
emptiness is loneliness, and loneliness is cleanliness
and cleanliness is godliness, and god is empty just like me
intoxicated with the madness, i'm in love with my sadness
bullshit fakers, enchanted kingdoms
the fashion victims chew their charcoal teeth
i never let on, that i was on a sinking ship
i never let on that i was down
you blame yourself, for what you can't ignore
you blame yourself for wanting more
she's the one for me
she's all i really need
she's the one for me
she's my one and only
Zero EP
The Aeroplane Flies High