Interview: Featured Artist Q&A with loudENERGY
Q: Who are the members of the band and how did you all get together?
A: Jason Dziak (guitar & keys), Keith Jenkins (vocals & guitar), Mark Kovitya (drums) and Tim Minneci (bass). Jay and Keith have been friends since sixth grade, playing in various bands together and apart in grade school and high school, but it wasn't until college that things got serious. Nothing like the boredom of a small college town to bring a few guys together creatively. Writing and demo-recording began in Bowling Green, Ohio in 1997 where Keith, Jay and Tim went to college. Once Mark was recruited behind the kit in Columbus in the winter of 1998, the live element was ready to be explored.
Q: Where is the band from?
A: Keith & Jay - Amherst, OH., Tim - Buffalo, N.Y., Mark - Lancaster, OH. Currently, the band calls Columbus, Ohio home.
Q: Do you have any CD's available to purchase and where?
A: Our debut album MESH is available in several different places. First, it's available by cash or check through our website, stepfordfive.com. In addition, it is available on-line at such places as Amazon.com, CDNow, CDBaby, Earbuzz.com, and more. We can also be found in the good old fashioned record store in various places around Columbus and in the cities we have visited, including the Virgin Megastore in Columbus where we spent time in one of the listening booths, a very positive experience.
Q: Who produced your latest release?
A: Neal Schmitt, who was our studio guru on MESH, handled most of the engineering/recording/mixing/producing responsibilities along with the band. Neal is co-owner of Workbook Studio, where we recorded, and the drummer in the indie rock band Pretty Mighty Mighty.
Q: What are your plans for the rest of the year? Recording, touring, etc...
A: Typically we book shows three to four months in advance and we do that year round, so it's kind of a non-stop gigging mentality both in our home town and on the road. We are also currently working on our second record back at Workbook Studio with about five tracks halfway done. The plan is to have the record out by fall and tour heavily to support it. We are keeping an online journal of our recording sessions that includes audio, pictures and video. Every year, our goal is to play more shows, write better songs, and expose more people to our music than we did the previous year.
A: Collectively it varies between so many bands. Some we've mentioned before are Catherine Wheel, the Afghan Whigs, Dinosaur Jr., Jeff Buckley and the Manic Street Preachers. For the first record we definitely wore our influences on our sleeves, basic alternative guitar rock bands of the '90's. Now things aren't so clear as we've been exploring so many different styles of music, especially variations on guitar based rock, that the influences aren't showing as much, which is probably helping us develop more of an individual sound. Glam, punk, emo, metal, indie - whatever you call it, we've ingested it.
Q: What is the most memorable show you've ever played?
A: Well, there was a show in Athens, OH. where a girl tried to steal Keith's mic while he was singing. Being that he was playing guitar he couldn't stop her. The girl swung the mic directly into Keith's mouth and nearly invoked the Stepford dental plan.
Q: Who are your favorite local bands?
A: Howlin' Maggie, Pretty Mighty Mighty, Templeton, Silo The Huskie, Miranda Sound, Tenforward, Tiara, Orchestraville, and many many more.
Q: Who do you have playing in your car stereo now?
Keith - My "10 Seconds To Rock" homemade mix tape. Featuring artists such as The Hellacopters, Faster Pussycat, The Black Halos, and Motley Crue of course.
Jay - Deathcab For Cutie: We've Got The Facts And We're Voting Yes, Superdrag - In The Valley of Dying Stars
Tim - Manic Street Preachers: The Holy Bible, At The Drive-In: Relationship of Command
Mark - At the Drive-In: In/Casino/Out, Hum: Downward is Heavenward, Manic Street Preachers: The Holy Bible
Q: What is the hardest thing to do while being in a band?
A: Lots of things...keeping everyone happy at the same time...working a day job and putting all of your free time into the band when you realize you want and could do more...playing to no one at what feel like practice gigs...traveling with no budget...so so many.
Q: Do you have a favorite band story? Tour fight, fanatic fan, etc...
A: There's a couple. Rocking out on the biggest, loudest stage we'd ever played on, looked like something from Live Aid, to a herd of cows (and no one else) in Southern Ohio. Also, there's the girl who told us she pleasured herself to our music was definitely a unique, original and downright odd piece of information. For some reason, we tend to illicit very strong responses in people, both positive and negative, which is better than no response at all.
Q: Any additional comments?
Interesting miscellaneous facts:
We're probably the only band in America that does not have a single smoker.
Mark will graduate from Ohio State University shortly with a degree in Aerospace Engineering - a drummer who is a rocket scientist!
The song "Making Sound" from MESH was used in a ballet performance.
Jason does pretty much all of the art and design for the band (except for the "killer stepford wife ringer tees and stickers), including our website, flyers and cd design.
We released a 3-song Christmas Single in December 2000, which gave us the opportunity to play a local Holiday benefit with a number of local bands, including one of our influences and faves, Howlin' Maggie, for the first time.
Keith has set a goal for 2001 to learn to play every guitar part on Guns 'n Roses "Appetite For Destruction"…just for fun.
Nobody in the band has a tattoo or piercing.
Tim original joined the lineup on keys even though his only experience was a beginner's piano class in college.
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