Bio

Clayne Stirland Zollinger, III

Aliases: CZ3, Stirlander, C. S. Zollinger, III

Age: 20

Some have called him brilliant, others a fool. Some believe their is greatness in his very blood, and yet others see only a dreamer destined to fail. Clayne prefers, himself, to subscribe to the beliefs of the former. While watching TV, a commercial will sometimes appear on screen advertising a certain brand of liquor, claiming to have the preference of the palette of the "most interesting man in the world." Clayne always reacts in the same manner: a wry smile crosses to face, and the most subtle glint of laughter glimmers in his eye for a brief second. A single question echoes through his mind. What is so interesting about this particular man? Well, yes, his beard is rather nice. But, I can't imagine him being any more interesting than I....


When one peruses the facts, it is rather hard to argue with that....

Clayne Stirland Zollinger, III was born on a national holiday, exactly one half way through the month of February--on any given non-leap year--in the only year of the 20th century that reads correctly, or rather, exactly the same, both backwards and forwards. His childhood passed in a rather average and un-exciting manner. However, as he entered Jr. High School, a change was wrought in him, or possibly discovered within him, and he began to notice how different he was from the other young children his own age. The eighth grade found Clayne beginning to realize his artistic potential. Up to that point, piano had been his only real endeavor into the music world, and drawing Dragon Ball Z characters had been his only artistic experiment, but soon he picked up guitar as well as began writing after being inspired to do so by one of his teacher's comments on a book report. "Clayne," said she, "you continue to paint pictures with your words."

The next two weeks were spent almost entirely on finding a genre to write in and the development of a plot for a novel. First, he tried his hand at mystery. Three pages in, he decided it wasn't interesting enough to write. Espionage came next. A page and a half in, plot holes began to develop, and that experiment was halted. One after another, he tried all genres he knew. Finally, after many attempts, he discovered that fantasy was very natural for him to write. Soon, a map of a new world was drawn, governments, religions, as well as races were fleshed out with details and back stories. A hundred pages of notes had been written, and a story began  to shape itself. The Dragons' Wrath was soon born into prose. Over the summer, Clayne continued to write until he had over one hundred pages written. His writing style had improved tenfold, but still something was missing.... Experience. He soon realized that his book was not as original as he had previously thought and gave up. However, writing did not stop.

High school found Clayne working harder on music and writing. He taught himself to play drums during lunch periods in the band room, and eventually formed a band with his brother. They went through many names over the next few years. The band's first demos, created for his senior project, garnered the interest of a small indie label in Minnesota. However, the logistics didn't work for both parties and Clayne passed up their offer.

After high school, Clayne's guitar was stolen, and over the course of the next few years, he began customizing guitars and putting them together from parts to be perfect for himself. After awhile he found that nothing he could buy was up to his standards and so customizing every bit of equipment became one of his top priorities. He learned to solder and wire guitar electronics, how to shield the guitar from RF (radio) interference, and many other things.

And, that brings us to today. Now Clayne has many new hobbies and interests. An intense interest in Batman developed. One of his new goals: write and pencil a Batman graphic novel. He began to learn about recording audio, and began putting together demos for multiple musical projects in many genres (alt-metal/rock, pop rock, folk, indie, and lo-fi). He learned to longboard, took up harmonica, bass, and soon banjo. He is studying English-Creative Writing, with a minor in music and Spanish.

As we draw to a close, ask yourself, who IS more interesting than Clayne? He writes everything from poetry to lyrics to music to prose, can play a host of instruments, can fix electronics in musical instruments, longboards, acts, is continually learning of photography and filmography techniques, hikes, camps, bikes, plays sports, is a political activist, runs a blog, has run websites in the past, is a competent sound man for running live sound, has had all sorts of adventures, has experienced un-explainable things, teaches music lessons, has worked in every industry from mechanics to metal work to social services to restaurants to management, has a vast knowledge of trivia, and many other notable things that cannot be listed here due to constraints on time and space.