Drivin' Rain discusses the band without Tommy DeWolf and bringing in new influences

Local rockers Drivin' Rain have played with the likes of L.A. Guns, Skid Row and others. But the band's success was recently overshadowed by the death of guitarist Tommy DeWolf. Timexx Nasty, the singer, and Skully, the remaining guitarist, talk about what's next for one of Cape Girardeau's biggest bands.

Drivin' Rain

James Samons: I guess I'll get straight to it -- what are you going to do to move on as a band?

Timexx: We've been talking about that. We took some time to just get over some things first, but we know for ourselves and for Tommy, too, that the band has to keep going. We want to keep doing his music, we want to keep doing our music, we want to write new music, we want the band to keep going on and that's what he would have wanted. It would be next to impossible for us to find one person to fill in and do what Tommy did because he did so much -- he sang, he played guitar, he just did so much. So for us, the way to do it is to find two guys to do it. We're now searching for two new guitar players. We're down to three that we really like and they are people from outside the state that are going to move here, and then we will pick it back up, work on some new songs and try to go from there.

JS: Skully, from your perspective do you have any problems with moving on without Tommy?

Skully: It's not the easiest thing in the world to consider, especially when it's only been a month. And right now it is very painful, particularly to me because Tommy and I were the notes of every song. I knew where he was coming from, he knew where I was coming from, and if either one of us brought in a song and it was incomplete, it didn't matter because both of us knew what we wanted and where we were going as far as style. It's taken a lot of consideration from a lot of different people who've contacted us and it is definitely a hard thing for me to consider. I was not going to budge until I felt 100 percent in agreement with Timexx that we had the right guys for the job at this point, and I'm talking musically. And we've had to listen to recordings and make sure musical styles fit to make sure they jive with me on the rhythmic end of it.

JS: What are the main qualities you have been looking for in the two new guitarists?

Timexx: They have to be someone we can get along with, someone who is kind of in the same area we are and understands the same music we do. But yet someone who's talented enough to go different directions, so we can branch out and go different directions and do other things besides what we've been doing. But mostly it's finding someone who's like a family member, because that's what we are. It has to be someone we can get along with.

Skully: That being said, on the other end of the spectrum, these have to be some fireball players. We need somebody with the talent of Tommy coupled with the stage presence of myself tripled by the ability to harmonize with Timexx's vocalizations. That's difficult for one person, so we need to make sure we find two people who fit this bill because we are asking for a lot out of both. I think we have some good candidates.

Timexx: It's important for a band to reinvent itself every once in awhile, and this is our chance to kind of try to reinvent Drivin' Rain into the worldwide monster that we've always thought it could be, and just keep moving forward with what we're doing.

JS: So would you like the band to move forward with a new style, especially with the new blood coming in?

Timexx Nasty and Skully Shemwell are facing the future of their band, Drivin' Rain, in the wake of the death of guitarist Tommy DeWolf. (Aaron Eisenhauer ~ aeisenhauer@semissourian.com)

Timexx: Well, rock is rock. We're not going to suddenly become a jazz band or anything. We do want to branch into some other areas, and I think we started to do that on our last album. We just want to make good music with harmonies and fun.

Skully: The truth of the matter is that on both albums, the second one in particular, each song has its own unique style. Although each song also has that signature style that you can tell is Drivin' Rain. We've always tried different things, and I think each album is an enhancement of the one before, and bringing two new talents in will bring more influences, more styles to the table, and it's going to be a lot of fun for everybody. We've already had a taste of it, and I think when people see it they'll know that Drivin' Rain isn't going to change musically, they are just changing who they are.

JS: There is another show for Tommy coming up in Cape, right?

Timexx: This one is actually more of a tribute, not so much of a benefit like the other show. Tommy had enough money on his own to pay for his funeral and stuff, and the last show paid for his tombstone. This is a bunch of local musicians getting together to just pay tribute to a friend in a local place because a lot of people couldn't go all the way to Poplar Bluff for the other show.

Skully: This is a tribute because the last show was in Elsinore, and so many people were asking if something was going to happen here. A lot of our friends -- Danny Wills, Donna Shimwell, Stella Blue, Ninth Life -- they all got together and put this show on. It's going to be some kind of closure for those who couldn't make it to the other show.

Timexx Nasty and Skully Shemwell are facing the future of their band, Drivin' Rain, in the wake of the death of guitarist Tommy DeWolf. (Aaron Eisenhauer ~ aeisenhauer@semissourian.com)

JS: It has been about a month since Tommy's death now. How are you dealing with the loss?

Timexx: It's always tough to lose anybody. With me, I still, everyday, get a funny idea for a song and I'll go grab the phone to tell Tommy about it because I've done that since 1985. I may always do that because it's kind of a reflex action, and I'm halfway through dialing the number before I realize I can't call. In some way when you lose anyone it's a long process. I try to just remember the fun we had in the time we were together and, in a lot of ways, it's like he's still here. It hasn't totally set in that he isn't coming back. It's a slow process.

Skully: I haven't had time to get my head together. It was one week to the day after we lost Tommy, and I got a phone call telling me my very close cousin had taken his own life. I had to go through another funeral, I got back home and was there three hours and got a phone call telling me my grandfather had passed away. It's just been a non-stop thing for me. Every chance I get I go out to Tommy's grave site and we have conversations. Honestly it's been the only way for me to keep in touch with my sanity right now..