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The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center proudly pre-sents Grammy award winning singer Lila Downs for the 2014 Lila Downs Le Canta a San Antonio concert at the historic Majestic Theatre. The San Antonio concert will be held at the Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston, San Antonio, Texas, 78205 on Sunday, August 31, 2014 at 7 pm. Doors will open to the public at 5 pm. Tickets available for purchase at the Majestic Theater Box Office and online at ticketmaster.com

Lila returns to San Antonio for a fourth time in celebra-tion of her 2013 Grammy award achievement for Best Regional Mexican Album for “Pecados y Milagros” as well as the CD’s surpassed double Platinum status in Mexico. Fans will also be introduced to new favorites from Lila’s newest CD titled “Raíz” a collaboration be-tween Lila Downs, Argentinian singer Soledad Pas-torutti, and Spanish singer Niña Pastori. Fans may also be treated to an exclusive sneak peek of Lila’s working in progress CD, currently titled Balas y Chocolate (Bullets and Chocolate)

Lila Downs possesses one of the world’s most singular voices and innovative approaches to music. Growing up both in Minnesota and Oaxaca, Lila’s music and vocal artistry has many influences, including the folk and ranchera music of Mexico, the South America and American folk, jazz, blues and hip-hop. Lila Downs has performed at many of the world’s most prestigious festivals and venues including Carnegie Hall, the Sa-cred Music Festival, and the Latino Inaugural Ball for President Obama to name a few. Her lyrics focus on social issues relating such as immigration, femicides, the violence in Latin America, as well as many others through the vehicle of storytelling and song.

For her two newest projects, Lila continues to grapple with sensitive and crucial issues such cultural mesti-zaje, indigenous identity, and violence. In the 2014 Raíz CD, Lila, along with Nina Pastori and Soledad Pas-torutti, returned to their cultural roots, to the root of their existence as women, mothers, and mestizo chil-dren. In the work in progress CD Balas y Chocolate, Lila discusses the permeating violence gripping Mexico and its people.

Lila’s continued commitment to social change and her cultural roots through music persuaded the Esperanza to bring her back to San Antonio for a fourth time! “Lila represents so much. She is what Esper- anza is all about. She sings and talks about immigration, about poor people, women, women who are being killed, not just in Juarez but around the world,” stated director

Graciela Sanchez. “She makes you think.”

SHOW INFO:

Sunday, 8/31/14

@ Majestic Theatre,

San Antonio TX

WEB:

www.liladowns.com

GRAMMY AWARD WINNER

EXCLUSIVE SOUTH TEXAS SHOW

ART ENTERTAINMENT MUSIC

STEAM Magazine is published monthly by STEAM Maga-zine South Texas Entertainment Art Music in Corpus Christi, TX. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Views expressed within are solely the authors and not of STEAM Magazine. Typographical, photographic, and printing errors are unintentional and subject to correc-tion. Please direct all inquiries to: submissions@steamtx.com

CONTENTS AUG 2014 VOL. 3 ISS. 5

CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE FOR UPDATES & ANNOUNCEMENTS

WWW STEAMMAGAZINE

NET

SOUTH TEXAS 12

RONI VELA ATTENTION

GRABBING ART

14

2ND ANNUAL ART SHOWCASE

16 DALE MARTIN

TROUBADOR INSIGHTS

18 3RD COAST FOODIE: HARDKNOCKS SPORTS

LOUNGE & GRILL

20 IN THE MOVIES

7 TIFFANY TUESDAY

VARIETY SHOW

8

STEWART MANN & STATESBORO REVUE

11

CHRISE WYSE OWL THE BAND

17 REVERBNATION

SPOTLIGHT

ORIGINAL COVER ART BY

RONI VELA

PUBLISHER RUSTY HICKS EDITOR TAMMA HICKS STAFF WRITERS RICK BOWEN, DALE MARTIN, TAMMA HICKS CONTRIBUTING WRITERS J MICHAEL DOLAN, DEREK SIGNORE STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS ALLENE HICKS TO ADVERTISE WITH US 361-904-4339 SALES@STEAMTX.COM SEE US ONLINE AT WWW.STEAMMAGAZINE.NET WANT YOUR CD, BOOK, OR SHOW RE-VIEWED? HAVE QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS? SUBMISSIONS@STEAMTX.COM

ALWAYS

IN STEAM

QUICK READS 5 COMICS 6 CD REVIEWS 9

NEW RELEASES… CD 20 MOVIES 20

ALTERNATIVE WEEKLY NETWORK

E 5 AUG 2014

DO WHAT I

DO

J. Michael Dolan (:43) Doesn’t matter if your working musi-cian, a successful businessperson, a struggling screen-writer or an active actor. Doesn’t even matter if you’ve been in the business a long time and think you’ve got it all figured out. Either way, hopefully this will help provoke some forward movement in your world: 1) Once a week, send your “opt-in” fans, followers, or customers a very short video, sound bite, newsletter, blog or free sample of your work. Keep it short and keep doing this once or twice a week infini-tum. Doesn’t matter if you have 20 emails or 20k.

2) Build your tribe slowly and intelligently. Direct them to your web-site NOT your Facebook page! Sure, it’s fun to have a lot of people you don’t know wish you happy birthday. However it’s smarter to

have a 1000 true, “opt-in” devotees

visit your personal website every day—

where a mutual exchange of art & commerce could take

place. Of course you’re not going to abandon your FB

friends. You’re just going to continually (and creatively) pro-voke them to visit your

website, watch your videos, listen to your music, test your products, and read your blogs.

3) Respectfully ask us to subscribe, opt-in or join your world. Put a “join” option on your home page. Make it easy for us to connect with you. Also, make it easy for us to disconnect or “op-out” as well.

4) Don’t get all flustered about those who choose not to follow you. Rather, honor, respect, and reward those true devotees who love your work. If what you offer is genuine, honest, entertaining, in-formative, and beneficial they will share it with those who they think would be interested, and your tribe will grow.

5) Be patient and be grateful. It’s taken me a few years of continuous blogging to win the trust of thousands of crazy, genius “unique” read-ers.

I’M NOT SURE J. Michael Dolan (:23)

It’s a powerful honest statement. If you were sure, then you probably weren’t creating something unique, or making a risky choice that could take you further along. If you were sure, then your expectation for a specific result would be fixed, with no chance for any other outcome. If you were sure, it would mean you played it safe and followed the rules of predictable protocol. No true artist or entrepreneur is ever sure. Doesn’t matter if you’re composing music, writing a script, shooting a video, or making risky decisions for your business. “Surety” is yet another obstacle to greatness. And when we remain willfully and confidently unsure of the outcome, that leaves us wide open to unseen op-portunities and unlimited possibilities. Just for the record: I'm never, EVER sure when I hit the send button and launch a new blog!

BUTERFLY ZIT

COMI C S E 6 AUG 2014

CRACK

WANT MORE! www.theawkwardyeti.com | www.lunarbaboon.com

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but I was a little shy and stand-offish, so he said we’d just set a dat. April 1. I thought that was fine and that I could be ready by then, I had a month. Well the day came and

I wasn’t ready and I met a touring band that early afternoon, so I in-vited them to perform with me and they were all for it. I showed up and they didn’t. (laughing) So that was the first of many Tuesdays at the Tarpon Ice House, in fact I was there for three years. At the end of the first summer they threw a Bash with Al Barlow and I intro-

duced myself to him as Tiffany who plays on Tuesdays and he called me Tiffany Tuesday and the name stuck. Then Tarpon Ice House closed and my Tuesday shows moved to Gig-gity’s.

STEAM Your shows are so much fun! I love how you invite guest musicians and play games. I just saw a picture of you hav-ing skateboard races and in another one you were turkey bowling!

TT The skateboard races are some of my favorites! I am out

to have a good time and if I can get audiences laughing that’s even

better. I really believe in supporting other musicians, so I get very excited when I get guests to join me and I encourage singer/songwriters to do their material or a couple covers or whatever. I really don’t want my show to become boring or stale and I think this is a great way to introduce musicians to new audiences. I love Jimmy Fallon and his show; he’s very inspiring to me!

STEAM Tiffany Tuesday’s Variety Show!

TT You never know what to expect!

Don’t miss Tiffany at Giggity’s every Tues-

day. You can find her on Reverb-

nation.com and Face-

book.com at

TiffanyTuesday for more information, hear her music, and see her schedule.

Tiffany Tuesday Var iety Show

Tiffany Duckworth has become a Port Aransas staple in the last few years. She plays everything from country to rock and if you let her, even some metal! Not too long ago I got to sit down and get to know her. Her shows are fun filled and out of the box, because she does want to fit in a box anyway!

STEAM I read that you started playing mandolin and guitar when you were 20, were you singing or writing songs before then?

TT Oh yes, since before elementary school. I actually remember being three years old, sitting in the backseat of the car singing along to “Kaleidoscope” playing on the radio. I have always really enjoyed singing and did in school – I even got the lead in a junior high musical. I started writing songs when I was about 13; my family thought it was “cute” and that they were “poems”, but I knew it was music. I could hear the mel-odies in my head, but I did-n’t know how to express them. So when I was 20 I got a guitar and started learning.

STEAM So how did you land in Port A?

TT The truth is that I had been managing a restaurant in Borne that I had worked at for three years and at that point I hadn’t had a day off in four months. I felt completely underappreciated, burnt out, and irritated and one day I told them I just didn’t think I was cut out for the job and that I was going to go to Port A to do henna. I thought I was going to bring henna to the coast, I didn’t realize it was al-ready here. (laughing) I came down here to get a job at a tattoo shop during spring break, met my husband, and ended up staying! Joe is my biggest fan and the best roadie and musician could ever want, but he’s mine!

STEAM That’s great!

TT Yeah, you know everything is about timing.

STEAM Speaking of timing, you recorded with Bobby Jarzombek (Riot, Halford, Pain-museum, etc). How did that come about?

TT Well, I had met Clay Meyers (Augie Meyers’s son) a couple of times. And I’m sure he thought I was just some pesky 20 something looking for a studio to record at. Clay told me I couldn’t record there but he had a friend that he could get me into see, Wade Jacoby. So in 2001 to pay for my

studio time and have Bobby Jarzombek record with me I painted Wade’s whole house; inside and out. Anyway, Bobby is just a really great guy and I have pictures of us in the studio sward-fighting with drum sticks. You know, I thought that when I was recording with Bobby he was really going to help me be the rocker I thought I could be. But when we were all done I still sounded just like me. We had a lot of fun and it was a really good experience!

STEAM So you have one album out, are you planning to go back to the studio again?

TT Not really. Actually, what hap-pened was, Wade’s computer crashed and he lost all but the four songs on RevebNation. But it’s OK,

because again it’s all about timing and things just work out the way they are supposed to.

And really it was just a great experience and you can’t capture that, you have to just enjoy and

remem-ber it. Yes, I would love to go back into a studio, I just don’t know when or where yet.

STEAM Tell me how you ended up in the Pink Floyd Laser Spectacu-lar.

TT Well, I had gotten a divorce, and I was working at Congas Night Club in San Anto-

nio and I would occasionally sing with the bands that were playing there. Steve Monistere, the band leader for the Peaux Boys from Louisiana, asked me to open some shows for the group, which of course I did. Later he asked me if I would learn Great Gig in the Sky for a video as part of the Pink Floyd Laser Spectacular. After I had learned it, I was asking him about how he was going to pay me, if I was going to get royalties, or how that worked because I was just so excited and naïve about the whole thing. He just

said they paid a flat

fee of $500 and asked me if I still

wanted to do it. I told him I would have probably done it for free anyway. The video is still part of the tour and it’s still pretty exciting for

me!

STEAM How did you get the nick name of Tiffany Tues-

day?

TT A few years ago, Paul, the Tarpon Ice House owner who was really supportive of me, really wanted me to perform at his bar,

“You never know

what to expect!”

STEAM How did you come up with your name, Statesboro revue?

SMSR My favorite band of all time are the Almond Brothers, they did a cover of a Blind Willie McTell song called Statesboro Blues and to pay homage to them I used the name Statesboro; which is a town in Georgia I didn’t know until I after I was going to pick a band name and then we just made up revue and we decided to spell it with a “u-e” instead of an “i-e-w”, because we didn’t want people to think we were a newspaper. They still give us hell because we’re not from Georgia. You can’t please everybody is what I’ve figured out over the years.

STEAM I know you and your brother are from Corpus Christi did you have a band here or did you hold off until you went to college?

SMSR I was pretty much into sports when I was growing up. I always sang and loved music and have been obsessed with music for as long as I can remember but I was really focused on sports until about my sophomore year in college; that’s when I really started getting into music and I moved to attend A& M for about 2 years before moving to Nashville. I came back to Corpus for a little bit and had a band. We really didn’t play that often and played traditional country; it was kind of main stream/ traditional country for that time frame, which is pretty different then what we do now. I mean I grew up listening to everything and never really knew what I wanted to get into musically.

M 8 STEAMMAGAZINE.NET

and Giggity’s in Port Aransas every once in a while. You know since Brewster’s and Con-crete came in to Corpus they have done a lot of good for the city and the people. When I first started playing music in Corpus the only place to really play was the Execu-tive surf Club because there just weren’t many venues to play. Now the market is opening up; especially with the local radio stations here playing independent music.

STEAM Very true! Tell me about your al-bum, Ramble on Privilege Creek.

SMSR This is the first record I’ve done with my brother, Garrett, who came on board about three and a half years ago. We thought that since this is our first record together and music is in our blood, both our great grandfather and grandfather played music, we would title the album after our heritage. Our great grandfather was in a band called The Bluebonnet Ramblers, so that’s where Ramble comes from and our grandma lives on Privilege Creek, which is up in the Hill Country. It’s kind of a hard name to grasp, the title and the band name, but once you get to know it and know the story behind it, you understand. The album was a long time coming and we just wanted it to be more earthy, full, warm, and rootsy. I guess you could say the last album was a great production but we were pressed for time, so this time I knew we didn’t want to rush and the stuff I was listening to and the stuff I was writing was different – a little more Americana, more folk, more country than what we’ve

CONTINUED PAGE 21

In Nashville I just happened to get a hold of a good manager. We made a 6 song EP with Flip Anderson, who did a bunch of Tracy Law-rence’s records in the 90’s, and it was great. Playing shows were fun, I tell you, I don’t know if we were charging a lot more money back then but I made more money when I first started playing then I have since. I was a young kid so I thought; “this is the life, I could easily do this forever,” then I quickly realized there isn’t any money to be made in music.

STEAM I agree, I think it’s more of an addic-tion.

SMSR I would much rather be bustin’ my butt at somethin’ I love and believe in, then bustin’ my butt at something that I hate doin’ or somethin’ that just gets me through life. It’s defiantly a very, very tuff business; it’s just kind of day to day and an emotional roll-er coaster that’s for sure. Some days you’ll have a album come out that debuts at #25 on the Itunes albums cart and you’re on the highest of highs and then 4 days later you lose a manager or booking agent or a show is canceled and your down in the dumps. Only to turn right back around and open up for somebody or go play a huge show in front of a 1000 people and you’re right back up again. It’s defiantly not for the faint of heart but at the same time like I said if it’s something you love, and I think like you were saying, musi-cians are something that, it’s not only like an addiction but it’s who you are; it identifies you as a human being and that’s something that you can’t really get away from. Once you’ve invested time and energy into this career, it’s hard to get away from.

STEAM How often do you guys get to play in the Corpus area?

SMSR Not very often, maybe once every 4 or 5 months. We do Brewster Street Ice House

WORDS BY TAMMA HICKS, STEAM MAG. | PHOTO PROVIDED BY STATESBORO REVUE WORDS BY TAMMA HICKS, STEAM MAG. | PHOTO PROVIDED BY STATESBORO REVUE ..

SSSTEWARTTEWARTTEWART

MMMANNANNANN

& & & TTTHEHEHE SSSTATESBOROTATESBOROTATESBORO RRREVUEEVUEEVUE

SHOW INFO: 8/28 @ BREWSTER STREET ICE HOUSE, CC TX WEB: statesbororevue.com

SOCIAL: Facebook/Twitter/YouTube ~ statesbororevue

DUDLEY TAFT

SCREAMING INTO THE WIND

(AMERICAN BLUES ARTIST GROUP)

Blues Rocker Dudley Taft recently relo-cated back to the Midwest but he cer-tainly bought back some of that Seattle sound with him. His third solo release Screaming Into the Wind was recorded in Nashville by the man with the Midas touch, producer Tom Hambridge but make no mistake this is no country album and as Taft says himself “this aint your granddaddy’s blues” either. The twelve songs cover an expansive muscular landscape of heavy grooves supplied by bass man John Kessler, drummers Jason Paterson and Ham-bridge and some great guests including former SRV sideman Reese Wynans on organ and the legendary Muscle Shoals horn section. The clever rhythmic rein-vention of blues standard ‘Hard Time Killing Floor,’ kicks off the album and

en pickin’ over a classic train beat for the country tale ‘Sky’s Full of Crows.’ Guitarist Jason Elmore joins in on ‘Between Midnight and Day,” and the pair tear the roof off with some heavy Texas rock. Poking fun at “Texas Tea” aka... big oil Suhler challenges us all to stop getting drunk on ‘Dinosaur Wine.’ We are then taken out to the revival tent to sing with the congregation and wit-ness the gospel during ‘All God’s Children get the Blues Sometimes,’ with the marvelous voice of Carolyn Wonderland leading the choir. Tim Alexander adds accordion to ‘Jump Up Sister,’ giving it a Cajun flair and the album closes with some straight ahead blues rock for ‘Worldwide Hoodoo,’ tossing a nod to the Texas guitar slingers who have come be-fore. www.jimsuhler.com/

JIM SUHLER PANTHER BURN

(UNDERWORLD RECORDS) Texas guitar man and long time member of George Thorogood’s Destroyers, Jim Suhler explores at the musical regions the lone Star state has to offer on him new solo release Panther Burn. The fourteen track collection kicks off with the slow burning swamp rocker title track featuring mean resonator slide guitar on a classic tale of returning to the mythical delta town. Kim Wilson joins Suhler and his Monkey Beat crew on an easy going barrel-house shuffle ‘I Declare,’ he then slips in some Tex-Mex on the Los Lobos styled ‘Across the Brazos.’ Some hot horn spice up the swinging ‘Leave My Blues Behind,’ while the albums lone cover song is the miniature vignette ‘Remember Mama’ from the soundtrack of

M 9 STEAMMAGAZINE.NET

‘To Kill a Mockingbird, artfully played by Suhler on slide with sparse accompaniment from Tim

Alexander. The playful country blues ‘Texassippi,’ paints a vivid

picture of the gulf coast, and Suhler gives us some hot chick-

Rick J Bowen

CD CD REVIEWSREVIEWS twitter.com/RickJBowen

DAVINA & THE VAGABONDS SUNSHINE

(ROUSTABOUT RECORDS) Like ice cold lemon aid and watermelon on a summer afternoon, Sunshine, the album from Twin Cites revivalists Davina and the Vagabonds is good old fashioned fun. Re-leased in May of 2014 the album is set up like an old LP with A and B sides featuring nine new songs and three reinvented covers which highlight the unique instrumentation of a rollicking quintet held together by Davina Sowers’ on piano, acoustic bass, drum kit, and a clever trumpet and trom-bone horn section. The tunes are fresh mix of tin pan alley pop, vaudeville jazz and back porch blues, which showcase the de-lightful vocal styling’s and compositional fortitude of Sowers. The opening title track is a swinging girl group sing along of self empower-ment. The piano remains the center for the encouragement anthem “Flow,” and an ode to the night time “Fizzle Out.” Sowers then down

then the horns join in for a slinky cover of Freddie King’s ‘Pack It Up.’ The time shifting boogie ‘Red Line,’ reminds us it’s all about the guitar as Taft demonstrates what he has learned as a disciple of Billy Gibbons and the Texas sound. The title track began as sound bite

theme for American Blues Scene and under the tutelage of Hambridge devel-oped into a grungy blues anthem, sort of a fusion of Alice In Chains and SRV. Taft then tries a couple pop rock experi-ments, the topical 3DHD and the island tinged ‘Rise Above It,’ before returning to the blues on ‘The Reason Why,’ which features some classic B3 counter-point from Wynans. Taft shows his 90’s rock roots on the Middle Eastern tinged ‘Rise Above It.’ The McCrary sisters add authentic gospel sound to the sing along drinking song ‘Barrio,’ along with some smooth Spanish guitar from Taft. The Seattle sound returns on the rolling groove rocker ‘Sleeping In The Sunlight,’ with the apt lyric “I’d be sleeping in the sunlight, I’d be dancing in the rain.” The album concludes with the atmospheric ‘Say You Will,’ featuring a Pink Floyd like synthed-out guitar coda. Yes more Guitar. www.dudleytaft.com

shifts to the melancholy for the haunting blues “Away From Me.” The macabre twisting tango “I Try To Be Good,” is study in devilish behav-ior. Side A ends with Davina preaching advice to a man with girl trouble for ‘You Better Starting Praying.” The rag time house party “Red Shoes,” opens side B, and you feel trans-ported to a roaring twenties speakeasy for the sonically delightful “Throw it To The Wolves.” The band then digs into the deep shuffle of Eddie Miller classic “I’d rather Drink Muddy Waters,” and everyone get to show off their chops during the hot Fats Waller swing “You Must Be Losing Your Mind,” even drummer Connor McRae gets a solo during the six mi-nute show stopper. The lovely solo ballad

“Heavenly Day,” is listed as the final track, But Davina can’t resist bringing the band back for the encore”Under Lock and Key,” sending us home with another sweet swinging tune.

davinaandthevagabonds.com/

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You may not k n o w t h e name, but I’m sure you have heard him. In fact you probably have some of his work in your CD collection. Yep, I’m talking about Chris Wyse. Chris has been fortunate enough to find his niche and make it his own. He started out as a kid learning bass guitar and then picked up the classical side of the instrument. He is fully rounded pro, but is still experimenting and learning. He is the extraordinary bassist that has recorded with the likes of Ozzy Osbourne, Mick Jagger, Tal Bachman, and Ace Frehley, just to name a few. In 2003 he auditioned for Metallica and you can see the process he went through in their film, “Some Kind of Monster”. If you have any Cult albums since 2001 – he’s on them. He came in as a studio player in 2001 and has been The Cult’s bassist since they reformed in 2006. In 2007 he formed, OWL, and they are about to release a new album. I think Chris could teach us all a few lessons on time management. I don’t think I’ve ever met a person who is so down to earth and yet has so much big stuff going on. Just for the rest of

2014 he’s looking at stu-dio time with The

Cult, releasing OWL’s third

a l b u m

along with a video, and doing live shows – that’s a full year

for a lot of musicians!

OK, I’m little on the

star struck side, especially after reading a list of musicians and bands that you have performed with. So, just going back to your

musical beginnings, you were inspired to play the bass by Iron

Maiden’s Steve Harris.

Yes, that was when the light bulb went on. I had been thinking about playing drums and at the time a lot of guys were playing guitar and I have always liked the underdog approach. At the same time my friends were pushing me to play bass and they are the ones that introduced me to Iron Maiden’s music. Steve Harris is such a driving force of the band and being the bass player it was a little unorthodox to be such an innovator and pioneer. So there was something really cool about it and that’s what created the spark for me. After that I became really obsessed with everything Iron Maiden and Steve Harris. And to some degree today, I still am; I still follow the band and they continue to inspire me.

Have you

had the chance to meet him?

Actually, no. I h a v e

b e c o m e f r i e n d s

with Adri-an Smith

and his wife. They

were at a Cult show this past year and

I got a chance to jam with him and Ian (Astbury, The Cult) doing a blues/rock format. That was just awesome be-cause he’s in one of my favorite bands. The thing is when I finally get to meet Steve I’ll be all nervous a n d s t u t t e r . (laughing) Actu-

ally, I doubt I’d be that way just because I admire Iron Maiden so much, and KISS too.

You know I’m really blessed to be called upon by some of my heroes. At this point in life, it still means a lot even though it’s not my first barbeque so to speak. I’ve been working in and out with a couple of the members of KISS over the last couple years. In fact I played bass on Ace Frehley’s new album, Space Invader; which is being re-leased this month. My time spent around Ace was really cool. He’s got his own brand of guitar magic; he’s like Hendrix and some-one else mashed together. It’s a really inter-esting style he’s got.

Not too long after recording with Ace I got to do a set with Paul Stanley at a private show that was benefitting a school. It was really cool, because we did a Motown set and Paul has this great falsetto so he just nailed it on Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, and stuff like that. We had three background singers, two keyboard players, guitar, drums, and bass. The bass in Mo-town is really dominant, very active, and directs the band. It was just so fun. But here I am hanging out with Paul Stanley and he says, “hey, didn’t you just play on Ace’s new album?” Which gave me the awkward hesi-tation wondering how they’d react to it, but they know I’m a huge fan, so it was good.

Well, let’s switch gears a little here to your band OWL. On your second album, The Right Thing, you did a Kinks cover, Destroyer. I really think you nailed that song and owned it. The first time I heard your version I thought I recognized it, but it’s different – which in my mind is a good thing.

We were at the end of the day and we just decided to do a cover. And it was really fun. But you know they stole their own song, that’s the thing about the Kinks. The ripped off “All Day and All Night” and came out with “Destroyer”. (laughing)

My experience in talking with songwriters is that many say they do this – find one song that hits it and make a few changes, but basically it’s a repeat.

Yeah, I’ve seen that too and to a cer-

tain degree I can understand it. Take AC/DC, that’s their signature sound. But the Kinks were ripping off their own song. (laughing) Well, the good news is that we had a good run with the second album, The Right Thing, and we’re gearing up for a release of the third album.

I know you’re in the “top secret-pre marketing blitz”, so what can you tell us about the new album?

You’re right, top secret is exactly how

the publicity people tell me to treat every-thing. We did the recording at OVERIT Media in Albany NY. It’s an old Roman Catholic Church that Dan (Dinsmore, drummer) converted into a studio. I can tell you it’s an EP, we’ve got the first video just about dialed in, and we’ve been messing around with artwork. So we’re really starting to see some light with this and will have a single released soon. The EP will be out this fall and I’m hoping for October-November time frame. But the video will be out first, then the EP, and then we’ll follow up with some shows around the States. The new music has got some really heavy stuff on it and there are moments where I really feel that we’ve come into our own. It’s progres-sive and moody and catchy all at the same time. We take you to some unusual places and I think the main thing now is that we have our stamp on each song. Some of this is the most heavy and intense stuff I’ve ever done and much different than the first two records. It’s really exciting because usually a song is catchy or creative, but these are both - at once! It’s a trio, but we’re going for that big sound.

What I noticed on the previous

albums is that you don’t sound like a trio, you have a much fuller sound.

Yeah, that’s kind of the fun part of being a trio. It’s that each member has to max out their ability to make sure it’s all there. An example is the song Rover on the last album; in the recording we had bag-pipes. And do we have bagpipe guests all the time? No, but Jason Mezilis (guitar and background vocals) covers some of the ground doing a simulated thing. I believe that if you’ve got a good song, then you’ve got a good song, and it’s not going to fall apart because the tambourine guy isn’t there. At the end of the day we are a rock band that ventures out like some of the 60’s-70’s bands did, but we do it in a modern way. We

ABOVE: Chris performing with Ace Frehley

LEFT: Chris on upright bass MIDDLE: OWL the Band

through the eyes. The picture draws your attention, but the eyes keep you there!

RV I just enjoy exploring and ex-pressing all the ways a face can move. It came from when I was in high school and I would draw these crazy faces with big eyes and open mouth, because that was pretty much what art class consisted of: here’s a pile of paper and a bunch of pencils, now draw. Not too long ago I came across a few of those drawings and thought “those should be paintings!”

STEAM So tell me about “re-VELA-tions”.

RV My sister, Geri Vela, and I opened the store in July, because we were looking for another outlet for our art. We want it to be an evolving shop with vintage clothes, Dia de los Muertos costumes, and cool pieces we’ve found and repurposed or restored and full of our art. We are getting more involved in ATC (artist trading cards) and have a full display of both mine and Geri’s work.

Continued from Page 13

A 15 FACEBOOK/STEAMTX

I’ve been working outside with the chalks since we opened the store; it’s been a great way to get people’s attention and then invite them in to shop.

STEAM Well, I can see why you’d want to be outside! You have a nice view and lots of greenery. Of course, I’m that curi-ous kind of person that would be behind you asking questions.

STEAM So, what is an artist trading card? Are they copies of your work shrunk down to the size of a card?

RV No, each card is an origi-nal piece of work. The only rules are that it be trading card

size, 2½ by 3½ inches. They can be three dimensional, made of cloth, metal, paper, or whatever you use to create your art. The whole idea is to make original pieces affordable for everyone. I think it would be awesome if more artists in the area started doing this. Just think you could go to Artwalk and come home with 6 pieces of original art for the price of one larger one. And they fit nicely into frames.

STEAM I think re-VELA-tions has a very South Congress (Ausitn TX) feel.

“I didn’t get to go to Australia, but

my art work did!”

TOP: BLAH— LEFT: ARTIST TRADING CARDS, BUDAH—BELOW, LEFT TO RIGHT: RO-

NI WITH BLAH, OUSIDE WORKSPACE @ RE-VELA-TIONS, & CELESTIAL ORBS

There is big news in the music world this month. Whether you are a fan of country music or not, the long awaited Garth Brooks world tour info has now been announced. Being the huge fan that I am, I’m devoting the entire column this month to Garth. On July 14, he announced that Chicago will be the first city on his upcoming two year world tour that will feature his wife, Trisha Yearwood, as the opening act for every show. So, on September 4, at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, a sub-urb of Chicago, the world will witness Garth’s return to live music with his full band. During his hiatus, he played some acoustic shows at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas, but to truly witness a Garth show, you must see him with a full band. Unfortunately, the five shows scheduled for late July in Dublin, Ireland had to be cancelled due to the pro-moter being unable to get the necessary permits from the city. Since the Chicago show is on a Thursday, chances are good that more shows will be added once the first one sells out.

Here’s my story of meeting Garth at an album signing event at the Wal-Mart in Victoria, Texas in 1989. I’m not sure how many CD’s or cassettes he sold before I arrived, but I do know that he only sold one cassette during the 45 minutes that I

was there, and it was the one I bought. No one recognized him and no one had heard any of his music, except for the semi hit single ‘Much Too Young.’ When he signed the insert booklet on my cas-sette, he signed it next to the lyrics to the albums last tune, ‘The Dance.’ He said to

me, “Hopefully when this song gets released as a single it will bump my career to the next level.” He and I talked for at least 30 minutes or so, to the point that it got a bit awkward. He was obviously hoping more fans would stop by to buy something and I hated leaving him there alone. At one point he asked an elder-ly lady that worked for Wal-Mart if he could get a bottle of water. She gave him a puzzled look, like who are you and why are you asking me for some water. She disappeared but soon returned with a gallon of distilled water, which is safe to drink, but not the first choice when it comes to drinking wa-ter. Brooks didn’t com-

plain, he simply said ‘Thank you very much,’ unscrewed the lid and took a big drink.

After about 30 minutes, he began won-dering out loud when his road manager would be back to pick him up. This was their first tour after his solo album was released and they were traveling in a white passenger van. The guys had dropped Garth off at the Wal-Mart and they contin-ued on to the venue, which happed to be less than a mile away. The Bluebonnet Convention Center was once a McCoy’s Building Supply warehouse before starting a new life as a music venue. I think the

Republican party of Texas once hosted a primary there with George H.W. Bush as their keynote speaker. It was mostly used as a music venue, featuring up and coming country acts like Tracy Lawrence, Suzy Bogguss and Doug Stone. Brooks was still touring under the name of Garth Brooks & Stillwater and at the time, was playing small clubs and dancehalls all over the south.

I explained to Brooks that the venue was

nearby and offered to give him a ride. At first he declined but as the minutes ticked by, I could tell he was seriously consider-ing it. Finally he said, ‘Well, if you don’t mind, I’ll take you up on the offer.” He packed all his things into an OSU gym bag and we headed for the door. He was wear-ing an OSU hoodie and ball-cap, faded jeans and a pair of white hi-top tennis shoes. At the time I had an old Chevy S-10 that had seen better days. He never said a word about my car and on the way he noticed a Whataburger. “Mind if we stop there for a burger,” he asked. “I think the guys were supposed to eat right after sound-check so I might have missed it.” He paid for the food with what looked like the same $10 that I had given him for the cassette. When I dropped him off at the venue he offered to add me to the guest list. Like a dummy I declined, saying that unfortunately I already had other plans. Huge mistake on my part! Little did I know how big a star Garth would some-day become? I can honestly say that the brief time I was around him; he was ex-tremely nice and very humble.

Fast forward to 1998, when Garth was on his world tour to promote his latest album, simply titled ‘Sevens.’ I was invited to a pre-show press conference at the Alamodome in San Antonio. Once we were all seated, Garth came out with Tri-sha Yearwood. He was still married to Sandy and Trisha was married to Robert Reynolds (of The Mavericks). Each of us was allowed one question but by the time it was my turn, most of the good ones had been asked already. So, I reminded him of

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With Dale Martin

Troubadour Insights

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* WHITE WATER AMPHITHEATER, FM 306, NEW BRAUN-FELS 8/9 DWIGHT YOAKAM, 8/29 GARY ALLEN * FLOORE’S COUNTRY STORE, 14492 OLD BANDERA RD, HELOTES 8/22 JON WOLFE, 8/31 WHISKEY MEYERS and STEWART MANN & THE STATESBORO REVUE. * SAXON PUB, 1320 S LAMAR, AUSTIN SUNDAYS @ 5:30pm JOHN GAAR, MONDAYS LONELYLAND * GRUENE HALL, 1281 GRUENE RD, NEW BRAUNFELS 8/14 CHRIS ISAAK, 8/16 MARSHALL TUCKER BAND * TAVERN IN THE GRUENE, 830 GRUENE RD, NEW BRAUNFELS 8/31 STEWART MANN & THE STATESBORO REVUE. TUESDAYS ZACK WALTHER & THE BLOOMS FOL-LOW ROOTS & BRANCHES.

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E 16 AUG2014 our Wal-Mart meeting nine years earlier and asked if he

thought ‘The Dance’ helped bump his career to the level he had hoped it would. He answered with a long heartfelt story of how special the song was and how he knew it was a huge hit the moment he heard it.

When the press conference was over, Garth and Trisha

said goodbye and headed toward the door. Just before he walked out the door, Garth stopped, turned back to me and said “You took me to a Whataburger didn’t you?” Needless to say, I was shocked that he remembered such a trivial incident that happened almost a decade ago. He walked over to where I was sitting and shook my hand and again thanked me for being so nice to a then unknown singer trying to get his career jumpstarted. I plan on being first in line whenever he announces tour dates in Texas

www.martinsmusic.com

SPOTLIGHT M 17 STEAMMAGAZINE.NET

WEB: peacemakertx.com SOCIAL: Facebook, Bandcamp,& Reverbnation @

eriklarsonandpeacemaker MUSIC: iTunes, CDbaby - eriklarsonandpeacemaker

By Tamma Hicks, STEAM Magazine; Photos Provided By Erik Larson & Peacemaker

Wow! There were over 3,000 submissions for this month’s Spotlight, which really makes choosing one or two groups diffi-cult. We were looking for a specific sound, a group that drives home t h e A m e r i c a n a /southern-rock/blues feeling that Texas is so well known for. August’s STEAM & Revebnation Spotlight falls on the Austin TX band, Erik Larson and Peacemaker. This group that really drives that feeling home!

STEAM How did you get

together? Was it friendship, repu-tation, or “so-and-so said to talk to this guy”?

ELP After my band Johnny

Law got signed by Metal Blade, mishandled due to a label reshuffle and then dropped in the early 90s, nothing else I tried to organize really worked out. So I took a break from music from about 2000 to 2005. Then I joined a local rock band for fun, the Gen-tlemen’s Social Club, and the lead

singer brought in Billy Dansfiell (formerly of Drop Kick and Agony Column) to play bass. So that’s how I met my soul brother, Billy, my right-hand man. I’d been introduced to Dave Drapen through a mutual friend around 2003, and he and I started writing together in 2008 and we invited Billy to join us.

When we had enough songs to start playing gigs, Billy called Joe Eddie Hines (best known for his work as lead guitarist for Alejandro Escovedo both in Al’s solo work as well as his rock side project, Buick McKane). We added Brian Watkins on drums, and that completed the line-up for the first album. After a couple of member changes, we lost both Dave and Brian, Hec-tor Munoz (also formerly with Alejandro Escovedo as drummer for both True Believ-ers and Alejandro’s solo work) came aboard as drummer. Currently, the band is rounded out by Danny Hawk (who’s worked with Cory Morrow and Gary P Nunn, and is cur-rently popping several vest buttons over his son Chase Hawk’s gold win in the Austin X Games) on pedal steel and David Perales (who has also worked with a long list of noted musicians such as Alejandro Es-covedo, Little Joe y la Familia, Peter Case and Patricia Vonne) on fiddle. If you’re no-ticing a bit of a theme, yes, I’ve been incredi-bly fortunate and ended up with a number of Alejandro Escovedo’s former band mem-bers!

STEAM How did you come up with the

name?

ELP I think the idea of using Peacemaker

was in the back of my head for a long time. I really like the imagery from Steve Earle’s “Devil’s Right Hand”, but was never able to use it in a band until 2008.

STEAM What inspires the music you

write?

ELP In the early days I was trying to write

very intricate, involved stories, but that style didn’t suit my writing at all. I guess it was the period right after my father died, I just figured that this new band, this music I was writing, needed to be very simple and about what I knew and people I knew and my own life. I’ll take liberties with the stories to get a point across, of course, but basically it’s just,

to me, very simplistic and heartfelt. I write what I know, and once I started

doing that my songwriting became a lot stronger. And I’ll continue with that because I’ve finally found my own voice.

STEAM Please tell me about

your CD and current studio work. It sounds like you’ve got a new album coming out soon.

ELP We only released the first

album Erik Larson and Peacemaker locally in Austin on May 15, 2010. As

part of getting ready to release the second album, Soothin’ Syrup, we decided that we

should probably get the first album online, which is why it looks like it has two release dates.

The first album was a sort of a “getting-to-know-you” process for the band. Not so much each other, but who we were as a band. And while we’re proud of the 1st al-bum after it was finished and released, we realized that we had a much better idea of where we wanted to go. Because of that we were able to go in and do the 2nd album exactly the way we wanted to. That included asking Tim Gerron, who engineered the Gentlemen’s Social Club album, to produce Soothin’ Syrup. Also, in 2012 we opened about two weeks’ worth of dates for Reckless Kelly, and Cody Braun came in and played fiddle on four songs. Soothin’ Syrup is actually the first of two albums. Each one is comprised of eight songs, so less than a full album, but together they make up slightly more than a full album: they’re ‘bookend companion pieces’.

STEAM Where can we catch you in Au-

gust and do you plan to tour after the Soothin’ Syrup release?

ELP We’ve only got one show planned for

August 28th at Strange Brew Lounge Side at 10 pm. That show along will both be streamed live (as well as archived): www.strangebrewloungeside.com. In the meantime our July 30th show at Strange Brew was also streamed and archived, so you can check it out too.

Other than that August is a brief hiatus for us while we wrap up all the non-musical details of the second album and finalize plans for the rest of the year. We’re working on setting up dates for the fall, but don’t have anything confirmed yet.

We’ve all done plenty of touring with other bands, including shows in South Texas, and would love to take Erik Larson and Peace-maker on the road. We did get to open for Reckless Kelly for two weeks in 2012, which was great! But right now we’re working on expanding our fan base in central Texas. And of course we’d like to play in South Texas, who wouldn’t want an excuse to head for the coast?

HARDKOCKS SPORTS LOUNGE AND GRILL 5862 EVERHART RD, CC TX 78412

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By Tamma Hicks

3rd Coast Food ie

I am one of those hard

core, yell in your face, get kicked out games kind of fans. Well, I haven’t really gotten kicked out of a game, but I have had to talk to security more than once. Not only do we wear jerseys, chalk our hair, and wear our ever-so-stylin’ team chucks, but at the start of football season my husband has a chat with all the neighbors so they don’t think I’m totally crazy! I am also like many of my fel-low fans not always able to see “my” team play and since we have a kiddo under 21, going to most sports bars isn’t an option, because of how late games get over – you know west coast games don’t even start until 7:30pm or so and usually kids need to leave before half-time. I would say this sounds like a Facebook rant if it weren’t for the fact that this has a happy ending. Ah, yes, thank goodness for happy endings!

I’m not much of a soccer fan, but when there was

no football, basketball, or hockey going on we needed a way to get some “yell” out! We found

Hardknocks Sports Lounge & Grill during the

World Cup and we’ll be heading back for a lot of our games! First, they have 83 TVs! That’s all I should have to say, but they show sports the whole time and not just the big events, but all

events. Second, Hardknocks is a grill first and then a lounge, so they open at 11am for the lunch crowd and kids can stay until 11pm! Oh and just as importantly, they have a kids menu that will appease even the picky eaters. There is also a game room and a patio. Don’t worry mom and dad; there are TVs in there too! Third, the kitchen serves entrees until 11pm and appetizers until 1am! Did I mention that they have 29 appetizers?

And four, everything is reasonably priced! I be-lieve the most expensive meal is less than $20, so you don’t have to earn a professional sports play-

er’s salary to eat at Hardknocks!

Let’s talk about Hardknocks the Sports Lounge first. The bar is the center piece! Lots of sports memorabilia and inspirational quotes by sports heroes adorn the walls. At night the waiting area transforms into intimate seating for the big games and music. Happy hour is from 4 to 7pm Monday through Friday featuring specials from the bar and appetizer menu. Did I mention they have 29 appe-

tizers? Wednesdays are Hardknocks’s service in-dustry nights and besides great prices on drinks and appetizers they also serve free sushi from 10pm to 12am. Can you say Sunday Fun-day? Build your own bloody Mary bar, mimosas, and 83 TVs?! I think I’ll be in heaven!

MMM on to the food! Hardknocks the Sports Grill !! To start with I need to take my hat off to the Kitch-en Manager and Executive Chef, Doug Claus, who is doing a spectacular job in preparing and over-seeing the staff! Everything was so artfully ar-ranged I thanked goodness I had the excuse of the magazine to take pictures, because I was sending shots to my friends telling them they were missing out – and they really were!

So, I think I men-t i o n e d

that Hard-k n o c k s has 29 a p p e t i z -ers? Their menu is fun! Eve-

rything on the menu is named after a sports reference; ok, there are a few things that aren’t, but all 29 appetizers are! That of course is where we started and I have to tell you it’s hard to choose from a list that long, but we managed to do it in pit-stop time. Pretty clev-er, huh? So for appetizers we narrowed it down to three: Touchdown Tuna is seared tuna slices arranged in as a rose in the center of the dish with wasabi-sriracha mayo and HK sumo sauce drizzled around it; The Field Goals are mushroom caps stuffed with slam dunk dip drizzled with an olive and herb pes-to and I do mean stuffed, not merely filled; and the Bases Loaded are aptly named for twice baked potatoes with a parmesan-bleu cheese blend and topped with sour cream, bacon (not pits), and chives. Chef Claus is tru-ly an artist and each dish served is picture per-fect!

For our Main Event we ordered the Tuna Steak with wild rice and green beans, the Hardknock Ribeye with Mack n’ Cheese and carrots, the Rocky Bal-boa’s Bowtie

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Pasta with Alfredo and grilled chicken, and the Chick-n-brie Knockout Burger. We always order our steaks (fish and beef) cooked to medium, because honestly, you never know how it’s going to come out, so we were pleasantly surprised as both the Tuna and Ribeye were perfect in both the quality of product and in how they were cooked. Chef Claus’ Alfredo sauce is amazing! No other way to describe it and that also goes for the Mack n’ Cheese! The chicken breast smothered in sautéed mush-rooms, caramelized onions, and melted Brie on a brioche bun is not a burger… it’s an event!

Well at this point we were stuffed and thinking that the locker room was calling for us, but no; our wonderful waitress, Desarey, said, “You can’t be done yet, there’s overtime! You need dessert!” Well, we didn’t “need” dessert, but then she told us about the Oreo Cheese Cake and the Fried Twinkies a ’la Mode, so we were back in the game! Although the Cheese Cake was calling our names, we had to try the Twinkie! Delicious goodness from the cream filled sponge cake to the creamy vanilla ice cream to the sweet strawberry cou-lis drizzled over the Twinkies. I had heard of deep fried Twinkies but hadn’t had the chance to try one until that fateful night at

Hardknocks . Now, I have to go back for more!

E 19 AUG 2014

For more information: Email blancocasting@gmail.com or visit www.LydiaBlancoGarza.com

GETTI NG PAI D

WITH LYDIA BLANCO GARZAWITH LYDIA BLANCO GARZAWITH LYDIA BLANCO GARZA

E 20 AUG 2014

Yes, you are correct. Paid acting jobs in our city

were pretty much non­existent. It never made sense how talent agencies popped up in cities near us, like San Antonio, Austin, and Houston. Production started booming in these cities with feature films and TV shows being shot. And somehow Corpus Christi always seemed left in the dust wondering how to be a part of this game. As a young actor, I wanted nothing more in life than to be a “professional actor”. I just wanted someone to find value in my talent and get paid to do what I loved. But growing up in a city that had few to no opportuni-ties in my desired field, I knew I needed to get out of town. Fast. So I headed to San Antonio right after

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graduation. During my freshman year of college, I was lucky enough to get involved with the profes-sional theater company that happened to be housed at the university. By the end of my first year, I was a full­fledged “professional actor” being paid to per­form in a children’s show.

After moving to Los Angeles, it took me about a

year and a half to book my first official TV gig. Not background stuff, an actual real role ­ with lines! I just knew that after that first job, I would book my own series and get my dream house in the Holly-wood Hills. It didn’t unfold like that. I booked a few jobs afterwards, becoming pretty steady in my work, but still needed another form of income to keep my head above water. It took me around 7 or 8 years of

being a “professional actor” before I was ONLY a professional actor. No day job. No safety net. Just me and the callsheet.

Moving back to Texas, and making the move

into Casting, I wanted nothing more than to bring these opportunities to the actors with a love in their heart to do only this. After some time in Austin and deciding to move to Corpus Christi, I was torn with HOW I was going to cast in a city with virtually no industry.

So here I am. The FIRST Casting Director ever

to be based out of Corpus Christi ­ trying desper-ately to cast ready and professional actors for these PAID gigs that I have here in town. Oppor-tunities that we have NEVER had in this city before. You would have to get an agent in anoth-er city to even audition for roles like this in anoth-er market. So my advice to you, the actor who would like to be a professional actor, getting paid to do what they love...make sure you are in my files. Send me your headshot, even if you think you have emailed it to me before. Send it again whenever you see a casting notice that I have put out. Because I’m getting pretty busy here. At the moment, I am casting 3 PAID jobs that are shooting here in the Corpus Christi area and I’m finding it difficult to find talent ­ especially since there aren’t any talent agencies I can call for talent. They say Success is when Preparation meets Opportunity. Well, I have the opportuni-ties, are you prepared?

done in the past. On Ramble on Privilege Creek I believe we used 16 or 17 differ-ent instruments; which is crazy. Don’t ask me to list them because I can’t re-member them all.

STEAM So where did you record Ram-ble on Privilege Creek?

SMSR The album came out in April 2013. We produced it ourselves and Steve Ledet was the engineer. He had heard about a guy with an old house full of old-school analog equipment in great condition and Steve told us that if we were serious about the earthy tones we’d been discussing that this would be a great place for us to record. It really wasn’t a studio it was a house, so we recorded in the same bedrooms we slept in.

STEAM So when we listen to the songs can we tell if you made your bed or not? (laughing)

SMSR No, but if you listen closely you can hear the AC unit cutting in and out

during some of the vocals. (laughing) Which really was what we were look-ing for, because people have become so concerned with getting everything absolutely perfect; and for this album we took a very organic approach and got exactly what we wanted.

STEAM What are your future plans?

SMSR Well, we started the year with a tour in Europe and that has been one of our focuses, to broaden our Europe-an presence. With that in mind, we went back in July for a show and will be headed there again this month for a couple of shows. But we aren’t letting up on our schedule here in the States and are planning to head out to the

Southeast and East coast for shows. We are also working to get back into the studio.

C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 8

STEWART MANN & THE STATESBORO REVUE

have some heavy stuff and we have moments, but we don’t live there.

OWL is your project when The Cult isn’t busy; that’s how I understood it at first, but I think it’s much more than that.

I really don’t have much

down time with The Cult; I try very hard to keep my schedule full all year. OWL is much more of a band than a lot out there today. We are in this for the music, not the notoriety of it. Dan Dinsmore (drummer extraordi-naire, Clay People) is a childhood friend and Jason is one of my longtime friends from here, in LA; I’ve been out here for about 17, 18 years. So OWL is about as real as it gets in being a band;

we butt h e a d s a n d sweat it out in t h e b a n d r o o m , where-as a project w o u l d consist

of rotating players and more studio work than shows.

I like how you say that OWL is a real band and that you’re do-ing it because you love it. I think it really shows through in your work.

That’s just the way I need to do it, because otherwise I could be a career bassist and just shoot for the biggest gigs

and that kind of stuff. But I have to do stuff I really dig. We’re pretty pleased with the re-sponse we’ve gotten and I feel it’s really tak-en on its own energy now. It’s exciting to go

out there and play this kind of music too. One of the new songs has a great bass with bow in it.

Not many bands can boast that they

have a kick-ass bass player on lead vocals! You play both the upright bass and bass guitar, do you have a preference or is it about technique?

Well, they are both so different really. Bass

guitar I’ll do two hand tapping and take it into some places that you can’t or don’t do with the upright because it doesn’t tap properly – you can do it a little bit, but it’s not going to be the same. Then you go back to the upright bass for example and you’re playing with a bow, so it’s all about the intonation and the pitch and drawing the bow, because you can’t muscle it. One is like playing a piano (bass guitar) and the other is like playing a bow fretless. Playing with a bow versus playing with a pick is very different as well. So to do it right, you have to com-mit to each piece. I just got into it all when I was a kid and the last thing I did was play with a pick. In fact I didn’t play with a pick until I joined The Cult. I get to be more experimental with OWL, because as a trio we’re filling the space and using effects. I know that when we’re playing sometimes and Dan has such a huge sound, such a distinct stomp. And Dan’s a big guy so he stomps like no one else I’ve seen. It’s almost like a sophisticated wild gorilla. Just Dan on the drums alone is a lot to keep up with, but you don’t really get it until you see it live.

Speaking of shows, you kicked off the Taste of Minnesota Festival in St Paul in July. How did that show go?

It was super cool and what was great about it is that we’re having to earn our stripes so we kicked the whole festival off and we were probably the heaviest band that played. But you know we won a lot of people over and are invited back to next year’s festival. It’s just been a nice thing. It’s happening because people are fans of the band – we’re doing this because we love what we do, it’s not like we’re trying to win the lottery and if a song blows up then great, but we will still con-tinue with what we’re doing. It’s growing and I can’t wait to share the new music! M 21

STEAMMAGAZINE.NET

STEAM: Now you guys are from Mississippi, you can definitely hear the southern influence in your music. Do you think that gives you guys an identity as a band? CHRIS: I think so, we all grew up listening to a lot of country and a lot of blues, our taste really kind of stemmed from what our parents listened to when we were growing up. Where I’m from we didn’t have rock radio, we didn’t have cable so I wasn’t among the MTV Genera-tion. In a weird sort of way we were locked away from the rest of the world. We started as Country and eventually molded into Rock and Roll. If you listen closely you can hear some of the greats in our music as we were developing into a rock band. STEAM: Tell me how that transition from Country to Rock happened? Did you wake up one day and all say… “hey, I think we should

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SHOW INFO: 8.27.14 @ PHARR EVENTS CENTER PHARR TX

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play Rock music now”…? CHRIS: Rock was always our passion but it was really hard to find. We literally had to go to the local record store and scan through the album covers to find the scariest one we could find. We had to go out and find it on our own. At the same time I was learning to play coun-try guitar. Having to go out and find it con-stantly fed our curiosity and fueled our passion to play rock. We still have a flavor of country music in our sound, but not so much thought not to be defined as it. STEAM: What kind of music genre do you feel the group falls into? CHRIS: We’re no frills rock band. We just write music and play. STEAM: Do you get frustrated when people try to put another label on you? CHRIS: No, to me its bullshit, I ignore it

when I hear it. STEAM: You guys have had a tremendous amount of success with multiple albums to debuting at #1 on the Billboard Charts. Do you feel that the success you guys have had has left people looking at you negatively and made others jealous of you guys? CHRIS: It’s a hard business to be in, espe-cially to be in it successfully for many, many years, which is pretty much impossible, but when it does happen, the bands that get left behind feel a sense of hatred. It’s not their fault and it’s not our fault, it’s just the way it is. All we do is write music and go play, if we had the magical answers for success… everyone would have them. STEAM: What’s the day leading up to a show like for you guys? CHRIS: We’re actually up pretty early in the

morning, move around, work out, and eat lunch, that kind of thing. During the day there’s always something to do… case in point, interviews. I kind of let the day develop on its own and see what people have for me. STEAM: On a final note, obviously Kryptonite is one of your most well re-ceived songs; did you guys get a call when they remade Superman? CHRIS: No we didn’t get a call, we certainly would’ve like to but it didn’t happen. To be honest we didn’t expect it. STEAM: Who are some dream artist that you’d like to share the stage with? CHRIS: To be honest, almost everyone’s favorite band growing up we’ve had a chance to play with or open for. I would say it would be great to pair up with Iron Maiden… or Rush STEAM: Chris, thank you for your time.

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