REIGN OF Z

By: Lori Smerilson Carson | Photos: Josh Montedoro Photography

Western Pennsylvania has spawned several extremely talented musicians that have achieved worldwide recognition, and now there is another extraordinarily talented band on the rise to join their predecessors. REIGN OF Z has become regional fan favorites over the past eight years, and their base is growing rapidly, spreading well beyond state lines.

Catching up with Lead Vocalist Zosia West and Bassist Stephen Berg, they divulged how they and their bandmates Guitarist Grayson Prince and Drummer Amanda Blackwell came together, a bit about their music, what some of their past experiences have been, and what fans can look forward to.

SFL Music Magazine: How did the band come together and what would you say is your goal?

Stephen Berg: We started this band back in 2018. Basically, some people contacted me. Our current drummer now, she was one of the founding members and she said, “yeah, we’re going to just go out and we’re going to do this right.” So, we all got together, met each other. Obviously, there’s been some lineup changes.

Zosia West: It happens.

Berg: But we started this and our goal has always been, ok, let’s do this right one last time.

SFL Music Magazine: What would you say inspired you to become a musician?

Berg: Growing up listening to your parent’s record collection. Sitting down with your father after working outside and just throwing on whatever he had like an Eric Clapton, Aerosmith. Anything from our parents’ generation that was on record. Then one day I decided I was going to buy a guitar.  Then I bought a bass and started learning from things at the time like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soundgarden. Things that were access to pre high speed internet.

SFL Music Magazine: So, you basically taught yourself?

Berg: Basically, because my first teacher that I had, we walked into a lesson and he had overdosed in the lesson room and my mom said, “well, you’re going to teach yourself.”

SFL Music Magazine: Wow! How scary.

Berg: Yeah, but when you’re thirteen years old you don’t really, like oh, I wonder what’s wrong with him? Is he sleeping? So, it just kind of became one of those things that growing up in a neighborhood, people get together and like hey, let’s learn covers together. My first paying gig was whenever I was in the eighth grade of middle school.

SFL Music Magazine: Where was it?

Berg: It was at somebody’s party. Somebody paid us to set up on their deck and play covers.

SFL Music Magazine: Zosia, what would you say inspired you?

West: I grew up as a musical theater kid. I remember this moment. I think the most life changing moment for myself was, I was driving to The Waterfront with my mom and I think I was fifteen. The X used to have a countdown every weekend and for the first time I heard Evanescence “Bring Me to Life”. When I heard that song it transcended into my body I felt like, and to me, that was the pivotal moment where I thought to myself well, I feel like I sound like her, and she’s doing this, so why can’t I try and do this? And just to kind of touch on that, it’s so crazy how things come full circle because Amy Lee and Paul McCoy completely shaped that song and created such an iconic song, and we’re going on tour with Paul McCoy from 12 Stones. So, it’s pretty wild how that pivotal moment has transcended into what’s happening in our lives today.

SFL Music Magazine: Your vocals are incredible with your range of hard core and melodic, and the riffs are awesome with the rhythm and beat changes. What inspired the song you have out now with a video “The Wire”?

West: I was actually in a really bad car accident in 2024. I’m still in litigation with it and you know, art mimics life. Life mimics art, and I believe in writing songs of transparency and authenticity. I just looked at Berg and I was like, I have to find a way to navigate all of this hell that I’m going through. And that’s what birthed “The Wire”.

SFL Music Magazine: So, writing that song was an outlet for you?

West: Oh yeah!

SFL Music Magazine: I hope you are doing better.

West: I am, thank you.

SFL Music Magazine: You’re welcome. Your first EP released in 2019 was Mirrors and Memoirs. What would you say inspires your music in general? Is it like you just said, being authentic and transparent?

West: I tell people, it’s so funny where they say that they want to block male celebrities and oh, I want to know your darkest secrets. My darkest secrets is my music. Everything that I’ve written about has happened in my life. I also like to be vague to the audience because if I wrote something from a specific place, but maybe somebody who came to me and said, “oh this song meant this to me.” I don’t want to take that moment away from them. You know what I mean? Even if it’s meant for a specific thing coming from myself. That’s why I usually leave it vague to interpretation, but everything I write is audio biographical. Even if you watch the music videos, there are little cookies that we put in that people, diehards might be able to pick up on. So, it always comes from a place that I was going through at the time.

SFL Music Magazine: So people can relate?

West: I hope so.

SFL Music Magazine: Reign of Z has played Whisky a Go Go in L.A., and I read in your bio that you did a big fundraiser and other stuff.  All in all, encompassing what you have experienced, what would you recommend to an up-and-coming band?

Berg: It’s one of those things, you know, this is a grind. Unless you won the sperm lottery, this is a grind and you have to let people know about yourself and you’ve got to keep going regardless of playing flashier venues. I’ve had better nights in dive bars because every night is an opportunity to make a new fan. You can’t get discouraged. You have to keep pushing forward. If you want something, you have to keep pushing forward. I know we live in an instantaneous society now with spoiled entitled people, but sometimes you’ve got to learn things and work for them. It has to be fun, but also it is a business. It is the music business.

West: Well, I think it depends on your goals too.

Berg: Yes, everybody’s goals are different. What I tell people, what my success is may not be your success.

West: Like for us, we don’t feel like we’ve hit our level of success where other people deem us very successful. I would say, just to touch on what Berg said as far as advice to people is, you just have to put on your blinders and just be who you are in such a saturated pool of social media and stuff. I think where I lost myself in the beginning of making art is I always would tell myself well, if I sing like her or if I look like her or if I mold myself to this I’ll be popular or I’ll be famous. But as soon as I started to strip those layers back and be like ok, who am I? I feel like once I started to lock into that, we started growing.

SFL Music Magazine: That is excellent advice! You all were also recently a part of the Women In Metal event at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with Lzzy Hale. What would you say you took away from that experience?

West: I’m laughing because I’m so embarrassed because I could not get it together. I kept crying, and I just have to go on record and say Lzzy’s probably one of the kindest souls in the industry because they always have cliche’ don’t meet your heroes, but you couldn’t have met a better hero. I mean that because after I trauma dumped on her for fifteen minutes (she laughed) she said something in her speech that really resonated with me. She said, “we have to continue to allow women to stand on our shoulders and help the next women coming up.” That really stayed with me because I feel like in this business a lot of time, we’re pitted against each other. Like a narrative. Not necessarily like two women meeting, but it’s like oh, her hair is thicker than mine or she’s skinnier than me or her outfits are cooler. So, then it starts to build this thing, and I think one of the things Lzzy is, when you meet her, there’s just warmth and light and you understand the superstardom. I don’t know how people could be jealous of her, and I mean that in the best way possible because she just exudes such kindness and warmth and it makes you want to be a better human and performer, and that’s kind of what I took away from that day after I quit crying (she laughed).

SFL Music Magazine: You all are getting ready to go out on a tour in the Northeast and Canada.  What can fans look forward to with the new show?

Berg: We have our set completely re-done to the point where there are no, they call it dead space. Everything has been reworked with tracks and everything. Just come out and see REIGN OF Z live because we’ve been told we’re a live band.

West: We’re definitely a live, like everything now on the set has a flow. We’ve worked really hard with a producer name Ben. He’s out of Florida. He completely built our set to create all these imagery that I had in my brain to come to life, and all the talking and really create, to circle back to the beginning of the interview, the story that I’m trying to convey to basically keep this story moving the whole entire time.

SFL Music Magazine: Is there anything else coming out for fans to know about?

West: We’re going to be announcing the 12 Stones tour pretty soon. So that’s something definitely.

Berg: The dates are up.

West: The dates are up, but from our side of the coin, we’re going to be posting on our site, and we couldn’t be more excited and honored to go out with them. When I met Paul at Rock on the Hill (Music Festival), the kindest guy, very down to earth. I had to tell him my story. I had to just be like hey, that piece of the puzzle that you contributed to that song completely changed my life. But I do want to say, Paul is so much more than that song though. Like “Anthem for the Underdog” that he wrote is one of my favorite 12 Stones songs. So, he’s such an entity on his own and I’m so grateful that we’re getting the opportunity to travel with them for two weeks.