Live Interview with Steve of RivetHead

At The Ridglea Theater in Fort Worth, Texas

By Neon Blonde

On September 20, 2003

NB:  How did you guys meet?

  Steve:  That’s actually really a good question.  Mikkee and I have been playing together for somewhere around ten to twelve years. We were in a band called SKWEEG.  He is one of the best drummers nationally, internationally whatever.  We play a show and we get more compliments for him - they love Mikkee.  About a year a year and a half ago, our bass player decided he wanted to take some time off and we actually put an ad out and a guy had driven to Dallas with his girlfriend to look for a band. Ian from Madden Syndrome said to this guy, “There’s a band I know that’s looking for a bass player” so I get a phone call and it was Lodi. He was actually living in Amarillo at the time and had driven six hours down to Dallas just to find a band.  He came back the next week from Amarillo to Dallas and tried out. There were six or seven other guys and we picked him out. He was the man.  What happened is, Amarillo is a really small town, so when the word got back to Amarillo about Lodi - they think that anyone that makes it to Dallas is a rock star!  They were completely convinced that Lodi had made it! 

NB:  How long has RH as a group been around?

  Steve:  About a year and three months.  We’re still relatively new. 

  NB:  Well I love you guys!

  Steve:  Aw thank you very much!

NB:  What do you think about the music scene in the area?

  Steve:  There’s so much talent in this town; there’s millions of bands. There’s anything you could want; metal, punk you name it.  The talent here is just phenomenal!  There’s a lot of clubs here too.  I think there’s a lot of really good bands out there that are not signed and should be.  People go to see who’s on the radio.  I mean the Dallas scene is great. There is just a lot more to it than we all know and what we see in publications and hear on the radio.  There’s so much talent it’s amazing!  Screw L.A., screw New York there’s way more here.

  NB:  I totally agree with you there is lots of talent in Dallas!

NB:  Do you guys have a cd out correct?

  Steve:  Yes we do.  We actually recorded two one-day demos with a studio called Siren Studios, which I’m not even sure if they’re around anymore.  The guy who mixed, mastered it, and recorded it did it all in one day (Joe Sidoti).  Currently, we have a seven-song demo out and we are going to be recording more real soon. 

NB:  Are you on Mp3.com?

  Steve:  Yes.  Mp3.com/Rivethead

NB:  What national acts have you opened up for?

  Steve:  As RivetHead?

  NB:  Yes.

  Steve:  Honestly we haven’t yet.  And maybe it’s because we’re still young and haven’t had the opportunity yet but we’re working on it! 

NB:  How do you come up with your sound?

  Steve:  Well it’s really a mix of all our influences.  We love heavy rock. We’re big fans of the industrial scene, the rock scene. I’m a big fan of punk.  There’s lots of music that just pools together.  We’re all about groove.  When we write a song it starts off with a drum beat and builds up from there with some keyboard sounds, guitar sounds, and bass sounds.  Once you get that established, the words just kind of flow.  And a lot of things we write about are from personal experience.  We just keep it true to our hearts and we’re not singin’ about the Devil. That’s stupid!  We’re singing about something that makes sense.  We’re not gonna burn in Hell for what we do! 

  NB:  It’s great!  I love your sound.

  Steve:  Thank you.

NB:  I know you have written several theme songs for shows, etc. Who for?

  Steve:  That actually started about five years ago here in Dallas with the Lex and Terry Show on Q102.  They’d mentioned on the air that they wanted more intro music and I sent them my cd and said “Hey listen to this. Iif you like it great… If not it’s a Frisbee, but I love your show.”  Three days later we were on the radio!  The next week, we were at the studio recording a theme song, and since then that theme song gets played everyday on national radio.  From that, we’ve (Mikkee and I) played in Florida several times, as SKWEEG, and we’ve done music for the Dallas Burn for four years, and you just record a song and send it to them and if they like it they will use it.  There’s nothing to it.  You get free stuff all over the place; it’s kind of nice. 

NB:  I don’t like to label but how would you classify your music? 

  Steve:  It’s like a groove-rock-industrial if you will.  We’re not like Slayer and we’re not like Skinny Puppy, but it’s kind of a blend of heavy groove rock mixed with industrial.  Hopefully we can get people slam dancing and shaking their ass at the same time. 

  NB:  Well I did say that your music was something you could bang your head to or dance to! 

  Steve:  I love that!  I love that! 

NB:  Who’s the primary songwriter in the band or is that something that all you guys have a hand in?

  Steve:  Sometimes I get an idea for a keyboard groove and it starts off that way and then Mikkee comes in from there and says lets put this kind of beat to it and change it up to make it a little bit more groovy and then Lodi lays down his bass.  We don’t tell each other what to do.  Usually it starts off with me building on an idea for a riff and it goes from there.  Nobody’s in complete control of this band. It’s a democracy.  I’m a big fan of Mikkee and Lodi.  What they do is fantastic! 

  NB: Well Steve, thanks for doing this interview!  If there’s anything you want to say to the people out there the floor is yours!

  Steve:  Come out and buy more tickets, support the local band, and support the local scene.  There’s much more talent out there than you realize.  It could be a Tuesday night or a Wednesday night; some of the best nights were a Monday at The Basement back in the day.  It’s usually $5 to get in and there’s just a lot of talent out here.  So come out and check out the scene.  The band that you miss next Friday could be the band you will be paying $20 to see the week after that.  So go and support the local scene.  Make the best of it cuz it’s amazing what we have here in town. 

  NB:  Absolutely!  I totally agree!  Thanks Steve!

  Steve:  Thank you!

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