Lost Possum frontman says the on-hiatus band has always been about the music

Lost Possum has been dropping gems of original rock on Southeast Missouri for more than five years. Their sound and stage show make them stand out, but the band has recently run into challenges.

The Southeast Missourian sat down with Brock Garrison, lead singer of Lost Possum, for a chat about the state of the Possum.

Southeast Missourian: What stands out about Lost Possum in the sea of local bands?

Brock Garrison: Lost Possum has always been about writing and playing music for ourselves first and foremost. We don't have a "sound." We've written some pretty heavy rock songs, and also songs like "Better Day," which is more in a pop realm. To us, "heavy" is more a state of mind than a style of music. It's about the passion we have, the inspiration behind the songs, and the blood and guts we spill on stage when we bring the songs to life. It's about the music. Always has been, always will be.

SM: With that in mind, do you find that original music is thriving in our area?

BG: There's not much of an audience locally for original rock bands. I read the comments on the local music forums about there being too many cover bands, but the sad truth is, as an original band, you never know if you'll have an audience of 200 or 20 at your shows.

SM: Does it matter to you how big the audience is?

BG: We've always been pretty lucky, and had some great shows, but we have always strived for more. We write our music because we want to see it played on big stages with great sound for large, receptive audiences. We love playing, but to just continue playing for the bar crowds seems like a step backwards. When we do play locally, it's because we truly enjoy sharing a bill with someone, or we really love the club.

SM: With that said, do you think you will be playing more shows out of town?

BG: It's difficult to find time to play when you have members in other bands. Between that, work and family lives, we've been lucky to play when we can, locally or otherwise. Our founding guitarist decided to step away from playing music at the end of last year to focus on other things. We played the River City Music Festival in September and a few other shows. Basically, unless something really magical comes along, you probably won't see us for a while.

SM: As far as things you have accomplished, your last album, "Juggernaut," was well received.

BG: I'm very proud of "Juggernaut." There are some truly great songs on that album. We submitted a few of the tracks to the Internet radio site www.iacmusic.com, and one of our songs "Preacher's Daughter" reached No. 18 on the top 50 countdown of all indie music tracks in the world. That's quite an honor, in my opinion. Brandon Drury at Echo Echo Studios recorded both our records, and we couldn't have asked for a better experience both times.

SM: Any plans for a new record?

BG: There's no new record on the horizon at the moment. But then, we never had plans for a first or second album either. On our first album "Nowhere To Go," we tried to make it sound as perfect as we could. That was a huge guitar album. Some of those songs have 10 or more guitar tracks on them. Plus, it was mixed by three guitar players. On "Juggernaut" we decided to strip away all the excess. We tracked that album live in the studio, with very minimal overdubs. We then sent the tracks to Matt Reno in Nashville, and he added his amazing bass sounds to it. He took our songs to the next level.

SM: And people can pick those up?

BG: Both our albums are available on iTunes, CDBaby.com and several other Internet retailers, as well as our MySpace site, www.myspace.com/lostpossum.