Ear Candy - Stroke 9

Stroke 9 is on their way to a gold album. Their first major release, Nasty Little Thoughts has climbed into Billboards Top 100, do in part to the top 5 smash hit "Little Black Backpack". Grabbing the attention of music junkies the country over with its catchy word play and to-die-for hooks, "Backpack" instantly puts the listener into a strangle hold (thanks Ted) and never lets go.

If you think Nasty Little Thoughts stops here...you're way wrong. This album is chalked full of great Ear Candy. "City Life", "Tail of the Sun" and "Washin' + Wonderin'" have BIG HITS written all over them. "Letters", the second release off the record has already started its climb up the charts and a video is not far behind.

Now for the good news...this is a four-piece that knows how to ROCK! I caught Stroke 9 on tour at the Firehouse in St. Louis. The fact that the band has been playing music for 10 years was evident in their live show...never missing a beat the performance was nothing less than outstanding.

Before the show Luke Esterkyn (vocals/guitar) and Greg Gueldner (bass) sat down with Off! and filled me in on the early years of the band, the current tour and their time spent with Ron Howard and Matthew McConaughey while they filmed a scene for the movie EDTV. Stroke 9 has started a gold rush...it's a fever worth catching.

OFF! - So Stroke 9 has actually been together for ten years, starting the band in high school as a school project?

Gueldner - We went to this liberal high school north of San Francisco in Marin County and the school had a rock band, I guess it still does. It's actually a rock class with a rock band doing covers like Zeppelin, Floyd, Bowie and stuff like that and that's how Luke, John (John McDermott, guitar + background vocals) and I met. From there, we continued through college until present day.

OFF! - Your first two records were independently produced by the band- Boy Meets Girl and Bumper To Bumper- are either of self-release albums available to the general public?

Esterkyn - We sell Bumper to Bumper at shows and at our web site.

OFF! - Any chance of a re-release of Boy Meets Girl?

Gueldner - The thing is we were pretty young and we only made 1,000 of them, I've got one and that's all I need. It's kind of cool that there is only a 1,000 of them now, maybe someday we'll change some of it and re-release.

OFF! - In 96' you bought an ambulance and the book "Book Your Own Tour" and hit the road, touring for Bumper To Bumper, I bet that was a learning experience?

Esterkyn - It was, we learned it's impossible to get people to shows outside your home city. (Laughter) It was fun.

Gueldner -We got to go out and practice to no one. Was it a productive chore? That's a good question. I think it was. It got us off our asses - motivated us. It doesn't necessarily work booking your own tour, so we had to work harder at getting a booking agent and writing songs, that always helps too.

OFF! - Have you played in St. Louis before?

Gueldner - We did actually play in St. Louis at a little coffee shop, the recovery coffee shop. We didn't have a gig and we just showed up at this coffee house and said we'd play and it turned out to be a "recovery" coffee house for alcoholics.

Esterkyn - We've been SOBER ever since. (Laughing)

OFF! - When you're on the road do the band members get much time to themselves? Here in St. Louis for instance- you have the Arch right over there (pointing over their shoulders) or will you have time to catch a ball game?

Gueldner - Well no, you could, but it's tiring. Like just now we went to get something to eat and we ended up walking like 3 miles. We spend all day foraging for food like cave men.

OFF! - By 1997 the bands line-up was complete with Eric Stock taking over at drums. Before Eric joined Stroke 9 he toured with Modern English, how long did that last?

Gueldner -I think he may have been a founding member. Wasn't he? (Laughter) Well, maybe not. The way that worked out, we wanted him in the band and to sweeten the deal we told him that we had major label interest and that we had sold like 30,000 albums - which was just a total lie. To counter that, he said well I've done some touring with Modern English, so that was probably a lie too - a total bluffing process to make it a big deal.

OFF! - Speaking of Modern English, I read that the band draws its inspiration from several musical styles- New Wave being one, which bands get the thumbs up as far as influences go?

Esterkyn - The Smiths, INXS, New Order, The Cult, Adam Ant...

OFF! - In those early years of touring did Stroke 9 perform with any artist that went on to have major success?

Gueldner -Keanu Reeves, we opened up for his band once. (Laughter) Black Lab did all right, they had their problems, but they did all right. We're friends with Train, we knew them before they got signed. We've played with Oleander and The Flys, Third Eye Blind after they finished their first album and we still weren't signed.

OFF! - Is there anyone you'd like to tour with?

Esterkyn - Back Street Boys, Michael Jackson, Prince (laughing) -large audiences to hear our music.

OFF! - Festivals are very popular now days- with several bands sharing the same bill- what do you think about these BIG shows and has the band participated in any or plan to?

Esterkyn - We played one a couple days ago in Houston with Lit, Everclear, Mighty Mighty Boss Tones, Third Eye Blind and Tonic. We're doing one next week in Dallas with the same artists.

OFF! - How have the crowds been receiving the band- is it different crowds in different areas?

Gueldner - Yeah, well definitely, outside of California nobody knew us before the song went to the radio (Little Black Backpack). It's crazy, Jacksonville Florida is one of our biggest cities. We always sell out there and have huge crowds. Philly and Chicago both do real good.

OFF! - It has a lot to do with the radio stations playing your music?

Gueldner - Radio is a big key, it's hard to play this game without it unless you're Phish.

OFF! - "Little Black Backpack" pushed into the top 5 of the modern rock charts and the album has broke into the Top Hundred- Pay dirt- does the band feel that the last ten years are starting to pay off?

Esterkyn - It's the same story as a lot of bands, you've been around forever and one silly song and everyone suddenly loves it. We've seen this happen a lot, you get your break with one song and it's all about perseverance after that, being able to come back with another album or two that are better or at least as good. If you can do that, you can have a career at this.

OFF! - The second release off "Nasty" was "Letters", it's been out about a month now, how is it doing?

Gueldner - Good, it's moving up the charts and we're planning on filming a video next month in LA. This will be our second video.

OFF! - One of my favorite cuts off the album is "Washin + Wonderin". Any plans on releasing it as a single?

Esterkyn - There's been a lot of really good feedback. Everyone we've talked to said that should be our next single. On the web site, people are talking about it too.

Gueldner - We'll try to get it out for Indian Summer, right when school's about to start and you're still kickin' by the pool. When you hear that song, you know summer's not over.

OFF! - How does the band choose which songs for release? Or is that a management decision?

Esterkyn - Basically the record label, the band can have input but the label says (in Esterkyn's best executive voice), "we've been testing this with radio and we think this song is your next big smash hit." AND then we say, "well we've been playing this song for 6 YEARS and we know that it's the one that everyone likes." Then they say, "you guys don't know what you're talking about, listen to me. I have a job working for a record company." (Esterkyn leans over and picks up the recorder off the table saying, "let me rewind this so I can erase that little part."' Laughter)

OFF! - Jerry Harrison (Live and The Verve Pipe) and Rupert Hine (Duncan Shiek, The Fixx) produced Nasty Little Thoughts- some pretty big names- how did you pull that off?

Esterkyn - Greg got drunk at Jerry Harrison's party and passed out in his neighbor's front lawn in his car. Jerry thought it was really cool, said "you guys are great." TRUE story.

OFF! - You performed in Ron Howard's movie EDTV, how did that fall into place?

Gueldner - (Laughing) We've been looking for a project to do with Ron Howard for a long time and the timing was right so we called up Matthew McConaughey to see if he wanted to be in it too. We hadn't worked with Ron since Happy Days.

OFF! - Did you actually get to meet Ron Howard?

Gueldner - Yeah, we auditioned and he dug it. We played a club in San Francisco and he came out with Matthew and we had some beers and a couple shots, a fifth of whiskey (laughing)...anything to get the gig. We got the part and filmed it - you can barely see us, but you can hear the music. It was a fun day.

OFF! - Have you thought about doing any TV - SNL, Letterman or Leno?

Gueldner - We're not really into that stuff. That whole TV thing is a passing fad. Oh big deal TV, nobody's going to get into it. So we are probably not going to use it as a marketing tool.

Esterkyn - I like Conan O'Brien, I'd love to do his show. Conan, if you're listening. Ron, if you're listening - Pass it on.

OFF! - People are listening.

Learn more about Stroke 9 at www.stroke9.com.