Citizen Zero reunites, resumes with concert, new music – The Oakland Press

Citizen Zero’s reunion is turning into a rebirth for the Oakland County-based band.

The quartet formed during 2010 in Rochester Hills and released its self-titled debut EP during 2011. Another, “Life Explodes,” came the following year and won a Detroit Music Award. Then the group signed a national recording contract for its only album (so far),” “State of Mind.”

The bottom dropped out quickly, however — into what guitarist Sammy Boller called “music industry cliches.” Citizen Zero’s label, Wind-Up Records, was purchased and dissolved shortly after “State of Mind’s” release. Offers from other labels didn’t make sense, and the group members, “burned out from so much touring,” decided to part ways during 2018.

Boller launched a solo career — and became a touring musician for Creed’s Scott Stapp and, as of this past summer, Goo Goo Dolls — and continued working with drummer John Dudley. And a chance meeting with frontman Josh LeMay at the Lager House in Detroit proved fruitful.

“(Dudley) and I had always kind of talked about maybe doing something with (the band), but I hadn’t seen (LeMay) since the band broke up,” says Boller, 33, who recently released a new EP, “Midnight Garden.” “It was like getting together with an old friend, like no time had passed. That was the catalyst that started the reunion talk.”