One Day as a Lion

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One Day as a Lion is a music project that was started in 2008 by Zack de la Rocha, the vocalist of Rage Against the Machine and Jon Theodore, former drummer of Mars Volta.^[1] The duo blends elements of rock, metal, rap, and punk.^[2] One Day as a Lion released an eponymous debut EP in July 2008 and was planning to release a follow up during 2009.^[3]

History

Zack de la Rocha had known Jon Theodore for several years before the band was formed and was very impressed with his skills as a drummer, comparing him to John Bonham and Elvin Jones.^[3] The duo first started playing together at a mutual friends rehearsal room with Theodore on drums and de la Rocha playing an old Rhodes keyboard through a delay pedal and an old metal amplifier.^[3] The band's name was taken from an infamous black and white graffiti photograph taken by Chicano photographer George Rodriguez in 1970 reading "It's better to live one day as a lion, than a thousand years as a lamb."^[4] The band had soon written a number of songs and signed with Bad Religion guitarist and co-founder Brett Gurewitz's record label ANTI-.^[3]

On July 16, 2008, the song "Wild International" was made available to stream on the band's MySpace profile and was given its Australian radio premiere by Triple J and American radio premiere by KROQ. The band's eponymous debut EP was released on July 18, 2008 in Australia and four days later in the US, and was also released on iTunes. The vinyl version was released on October 7, 2008.^[5] The EP placed as the 28 album of the week^[6], selling 17,000 copies in its first week.^[6] The album has sold extremely well for a five track EP.^[7]

As of mid-2008, One Day as a Lion is expected to tour sometime soon, though de la Rocha is preoccupied with the Rage Against the Machine Reunion Tour for the immediate future. On 11 August 2008, de la Rocha spoke to the Los Angeles Times about the new project, his first interview in over eight years. He revealed that a full-length album was scheduled for an Autumn 2008 release,^[8] and stated that they "want to play shows and be a band and go out and start some noise".^[3] He also mentions adding members to the group, revealing "We're still in the process of forming as a band - we need a keyboard player, I'm not good enough to do it all myself - so that will be rectified soon".^{[citation needed]}

Discography

EP

Singles

References

External links

• One Day as a Lion official website
• One Day as a Lion at MySpace