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Spark Magazine - November, 2002 |
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Review Spark - Knoxville, TN
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STATESIDE
COVER STORY
Musically speaking, John Paul Keith is an old soul. His
standard for good rock is rooted in the basics, the fundamentals that
bands through the ages always return to when popular music starts to get
too electronic, over-produced or soulless. Chuck Berry, the Beatles, the
Stooges, Nirvana, the Strokes: all bands that had a way of cutting
through the crap in their particular eras of music history to create the
sounds we revere today. Perhaps these were the bands that kept Keith
sane during the five years he was living in Nashville, playing with The
Nevers and then Stateside, experiencing first-hand the Music City
machine that welcomes musicians into its outspread arms only to crush
them into tiny, disheartened bits."Everybody liked [Stateside], ostensibly, but after five years of playing there, I'd still be lucky to draw 25 people," Keith says. "And every band I knew there, with a couple of exceptions, had the same story." Perhaps because there are so many professional musicians in Nashville, they forget how to just be fans instead of standing in the crowd criticizing the musicians on stage or thinking they could do it better. Whatever the reason it exists, the "mercenary culture" of Nashville put Keith in a kind of creative spiral. He says his songwriting was in a rut, partly from not being involved with a team of musicians who really believed in Stateside. The original lineup -- Keith, Brad Pemberton, Billy Mercer and Adam Landry -- disbanded when the three other members went on tour as Ryan Adams' backing band, the Pinkhearts. The offer from Adams coincided with pressure from Stateside's French record label, Fargo Records, to start touring in Europe to support their disc Twice As Gone. The band went with Adams, and Keith moved to New York with the intention of recreating Stateside. He spent a couple of months searching for musicians, but never hit on the right chemistry. Until the South came calling in the form of Philip Shouse. Shouse had been in Girlfriend Voice, which had opened for Stateside a few times in Nashville. "They were one of the most fun bands I'd ever seen," Keith says. "Phil was just this unbelievable guitar player. Real flashy, Ace Freely, Rick Nielsen kind of guy. He called me in New York and said, 'Do you want a guitar player?' I said, 'Yeah, I need a whole band.'" Shouse knew some guys in Auburn, and they set up a meeting to test the waters. It took less than one song for Keith to know he had hit upon something good. "This was especially revealing to me after spending four months trying people out in New York and getting nowhere. It was also telling that I went back down South and, boom, there it is." The band now lives in Birmingham, which Keith says is a lot like Knoxville. "The biggest thing I get out of being in a band in Birmingham is that, like Knoxville, the people are very receptive when you play live," says Keith. "They tend to get rowdy and have a good time, which is our ideal situation with a live show. We're a bar band, that's what we do. And we want people to get rowdy." Rowdiness was not a problem for the crowds Stateside played for on their recent visit to England. A tube strike kept the numbers low at their show in London, but they had better luck in Brighton, where the pub reminded Keith of the Pilot Light. "It was sweaty and rowdy. There was a British country band that opened for us. I'd never heard a British country band, and they were great. Like the Burrito Brothers." Although the band had to book their flights, make hotel reservations, transport their equipment and find all the clubs on their own, Keith says the experience has enlightened the band in more ways than one. "I found that the British people involved in the music industry are much more receptive to, and excited about, American music with a kind of roots influence," he says. "Way more excited than American people are. It was cool. They take it more seriously." Now that they've conquered one corner of England, they plan to make a return trip in the spring to play France and the Netherlands. In addition to touring the Southeast, the band plans to record its second record in the next few months. "I just love playing with these guys. And that makes a tremendous difference," Keith says. The band is the most collaborative project he's worked in since he was in the Viceroys. Bandmate Nikolaus Mimikakis has written songs that they're starting to play live, letting Keith do what he original focused on: playing guitar. "He's got a great voice and great songs." With the right combination of the conducive and supportive music atmosphere of Birmingham, and the investment of serious and talented musicians, Keith feels like he's found the right direction and is gaining speed with Stateside. Twice as Gone has been praised by dozens of music critics across the country, and their live set in London earned a glowing review in Seismic Sounds. Now that Keith is back in the South, he seems more relaxed and ready to start having fun playing rock and roll again. "It's not worth doing if it's not fun," he says. "That's really the big revelation I've had in the past year. Nobody starts playing an instrument or writing songs because they want to make a living. They start doing it from some drive to do it and because they enjoy the process. There are many things in the world that you can do to make money that are easier than trying to get a rock band off the ground. It's so much work, and it's so chancy, and the odds against you are so high, it's not worth doing if you're not having fun like you did when you first started playing. I find that I've gotten back to that point after my Nashville experiment led me astray from that ethic. But I feel like I'm back on track now." |
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