Mudslide

Interview with Mudslide, filmed at the Showbox Green Room April 15, 2008.

Nathan: So first of all I’d like to say it’s a real honor. I have a band going and yeh, you guys are a real influence playing for us.
Kevin: Alright. Good to hear it.
Nathan: So first off let’s have you guys state your names and what instrument you play and where you’re from originally.
Kevin: I’m Kevin Schultz I play drums and I’m from Seattle. And… what is it you play?
Steven: Oh, yeh I play guitar, I sing and I’m originally from Michigan.
Nathan: I’m from Ohio myself.
Kevin: Do you have a name? Do you have a name?
Steven: Oh yeh, I’m Steve
George: I’m George, I’m from Indiana and I play guitar.
Craig: I’m Craig, I’m from Texas and I play bass.
Nathan: Right on guys. So you guys been playing together as a group for how long?
Kevin: Yes, well, its been what? 3 months? 8 months here and two months here. 3 years here (points to Steve). Him and me 3 years, us 3 probably almost 3 years (indicates George and Steve). Right when he (Steven) started doing it he (George) started doing it and now all of us have almost 3 years and we got this bass player (Craig) just 2 months ago.
Nathan: So you guys were playing for 3 years but not as Mudslide?
Kevin: Well no, it’s like, it’s like, it was like 2 and a half years… 3 years here, 2 and a half and then two months so all together yeh.
Nathan: So you guys have been playing live, what was it that brought you initially all together?
Steven: Well, I met Kevin at the Blue Moon open mic and my dad introduced me to him. I had been struggling for awhile since 2002 which was my first band, which was a Nirvana band incidentally by this jackass Ben Hobbs. He kicked me out ‘cause I through a tantrum or whatever, an ego maniac, so anyway I met Kevin and we started Mudslide.
Nathan: What was the name of that band you were in?
Steven: I don’t remember.
Nathan: OK, that’s alright.
Kevin: So yeh, I met Steve and just had him jump on stage and….
Nathan: So you were doing the open mic?
Kevin: Yeh, I was playing these Dylan songs and there was an extra drum set and this guy comes strolling in crate amp and his Dean or Warlock. I don’t’ know what it was so I said, just do this thing real quick and he turned on the amp and I just jumped behind the drums. So back and forth it’s either jumping on the drums or back to the guitar. If all these guys are here it really electrifies it. If I’m all alone and I have my acoustic guitar and harmonica I’ll do that trick. You know, some people were saying “sing Dylan, sing Dylan,” but this definitely wasn’t that kind of a night. We wanted to put this together and get rolling. That’s just something I do in my spare time. He’s just saying like you know you need a boost of energy, and I’m thinking yeh, I’ll go down on the drums. He’s got his 6 guitar collection and yeh, I’ll go all the way.
Nathan: So George you’re a buddy of these guys, do you know what they were doing?

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George: Well, I met Kevin 3 years ago at Shay’s. I was playing these open mics and then I got married for 3 years.
Nathan: You’re still married though right?
George: Well, I got remarried, I got married and then divorced this one chick that didn’t want me playing at any bars. So for 3 years I just played around the house and so after I got rid of this… woman I went back to the open mic and he was still there! So I was like, right on man! I was playing in the back of Kate’s in Wallington and he said….
Kevin: Check this out, check this CD out George!
George: First he said we need a bass player and I said, alright, alright
Nathan: You seem very open, very natural… a good guitar player. Did you just see them playing? (turns to Craig)
Craig: Kevin just said we need a bass and I said, ok.
Nathan: Wow
Kevin: Yeh, I saw him in the middle of pike street
Nathan: You just approached him?
Kevin: Yeh, his case was out, or actually his case wasn’t out, but I saw him earlier. People were throwing coins in his case so I was thinking you know, ‘do you want to do that and this?’ And he’s like, yeh I’ll play on the bass. So him and me found out he had this guitar, so we went down to Emerald City Guitar and he said “I want this bass” so he traded it for a bass. And this other guy, from Lark in the Morning jumped him and threw his bass down and busted the machine head, his brand new bass already, so George was having to loan him his bass tonight.
Craig: Yeh, the tuning peg is messing. I kept on the guy till he let me go.
Nathan: Alright.
Kevin: What the nerve!
George: Fits right in, all this fighting.
Nathan: I’m going to switch the topic real quick here, what would you cite as your biggest influences?
Kevin: Well, I’ve got to say you know, I listened to Steven Tyler a lot….
Nathan: So, Aerosmith.
Kevin: Yeh, that’s why, like, I get that beat going that’s steady and steady and also I’ve got Roger Waters and then probably…and… (inaudible), but he’s nice and steady.
Nathan: What more, collectively, like are there a few bands you all like?
Craig: Nirvana, Pink Floyd.
Kevin: I’m a Pink Floyd fan, he is too (George).
Steven: Well, I was raised on Black Sabbath in the eighties, I was raised on Beastie Boys and Bon Jovi, and… Joe Satriani, I had a cassette tape.
Nathan: Well it seems like Nirvana is a shared influence of you guys. What was your favorite Pink Floyd and Nirvana album?
Kevin: I’d say “Atom Heart Mother”, and… I would say the Nirvana Live bootleg that Steve turned me on to. It was Nirvana captured live, it’s one of my most collectibles. I got this cool bootleg from Steve.
Steven: I’d say “Dark Side of the Moon” and “Bleach.”
George: The one I listened to most was “Metal”
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Nathan: That’s probably one of my favorites.
Craig: “In Utero” and “Bleach”.
Nathan: And Pink Floyd?
Craig: I’d say the Wall.
Kevin: I thought he was gonna say “More.” The soundtrack to “More.” He doesn’t know what that is, that’s ok. Say “ummagumma!”
Nathan: I wanted to ask you where you guys draw inspiration for songs?
Kevin: Where I draw inspiration from… I got hustled by my landlord. To excite me, he gave me this thing saying I make too much noise in my apartment. If you want to call him up his number is…. (edited) It drove me absolutely nuts, its like, its impeccable, it’s like “you’re going to play a gig so I’m gonna turn you upside down.” Other than that I draw inspiration from David Gilmoure and fat holes from the sky keeps falling.. birds are calling… that’s what I like!
Nathan: I’ll accept that.
Kevin: I came in on Dave Gilmoure, but Ralph Moorman was like “Take me!” It’s like, dude, I’m doing a gig man, be cool. Now I’ve got nowhere to live. That’s what I meant, be cool, exactly.
Nathan: Alright, so who’s the principal songwriter in the band?
Steven: I’d say Kevin.
George: Yeh He’s written the most.
Kevin: I’ve written the most, but real quickly I just rub up against Steve a whole bunch. He started going, what?
Nathan: It rubbed off on him, yeh?
Kevin: Yeh, he started going “give me this and this and this.” He had this little track, what was it a tascam? It had a horrible sound and I said, “Steve, Steve!” I told him he needs to go for good sound quality, so he said “Hey Bruce, I need an 8 channel korg….”
Steve: 12 channel
Kevin: 12 channel, so he got that and wrote a whole bunch of songs. And then George and me wrote this album called “Enchantment” that we recorded at Avast down here on a CD and it’s actually the real recording equipment of John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin. It’s his mixing board and big like. 32 track machine , it’s gonna be a real album that could go on KISW and so can this, “Secret Right to Rock and Roll.” Yeh, George and me wrote a whole album and let Steve in on it. And we’re gonna have Craig in on this and he doesn’t know it yet.
Craig: That’s a side thing
Kevin: You’re going to the big stage now!
Craig: Yeh, yeh, right on
Kevin: That’s where we’re taking this and its going to be so awesome. Yeh it’s going ot be really awesome, look for it.
Nathan: So that’s how the songwriting process starts then?
Steven: Sometimes we right lyrics together, like “Turning Me On”, we did that together.
Kevin; Yeh “Turning Me On” is a collaboration.
Steven: Sometimes I’ll write the lyrics just myself, like for “Hot Touch,” and

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“Armegeddon from the East,” all the music and lyrics were written and composed by me, but more though he’ll usually write the lyrics. Like for songs like “Defeated Warrior” and we wrote that and then I’ll write the guitar, so we switch off.
Nathan: So this is like a Lennon, McCartney kind of thing? That’s what I’m seeing.
Kevin: Yeh, its Koenigsberg, Schultz, This is the Berg man, this is the Berg. He’s like you know, one of my dearest, bestest friends. Just write songs and he’s like “ok I will, I got the hot touch baby.” He’s got the hot touch.
Nathan: I think its proven that you’ve got the hot touch. So, “Don’t Hold Back,” that song of Mudslide seems to clearly be a crowd favorite that goes over pretty well. I’m curious, what was the inspiration from that song?
Kevin: Well, “Don’t Hold Back” is on “Secret Right to Rock and Roll” and I had these tapes that my other best friend heard and he said “you made this Secret Right to Rock and Roll” you overdubbed everything yourself.” ‘Cause I pretty much played drums, bass, and guitar and sang and I didn’t hold back on anything so my friend came in and took it somewhere to his house and said “if you want it back, pay me x amount of money,” and it’s like he had it and I had a copy of it and printed it up and it wasn’t you know, mixed down very good so I handed him the money and said “hey, come close and I’ll take the (inaudible) off the stick and he didn’t trade me back for the tapes. And I was like, “I need those tapes.” The inspiration is I didn’t hold back. I had Mudslide going with other people and they went off to Germany in the army, and stuff, and so I remembered all the songs and put them on tape. I didn’t hold back otherwise it would all be lost.
Nathan: So that’s where the song is coming from?
Kevin: Yeh, I pretty much just took a bunch of paper and wrote everything down and I had this Les Paul and played it and played it and played it and one time I just went into a trance.
Nathan: So you played all the guitar and the drums?
Kevin: Yeh I did. I played the guitar, drums and bass, and wrote all the lyrics and it kind of just happened beacuase everyone just went off in their own direction and I had to do what I had to do. So I wrote “Secret Right to Rock and Roll” and remastered it and its going to come out soon and it’ll be hotter than ever. George and me did the same thing with enchantment
Nathan: Why were those tapes held for ransom?
Kevin: Well, he just did that, I showed him these tapes and he got excited he was like “I have to have those I have to have those,” and I was gonna print it up and share it with him, so he had to have them. It was kind of unfair but he came to his senses and it was probably just… back then we drank a lot and I probably just drank with him and he probably just drank with me and he probably just went out the door in the morning with them while I was not up. I don’t know how he got them, he was just my friend.
Nathan: Well, you probably played them for him.
Kevin: And then a few years later I got them back. I took them to Colm Meek who said..See originally that rock magazine, originally it was in “The Rocket” and it was voted 7th best northwest LP, they voted it the 7th best one so, it got a good review.
Nathan: What album was this?
Kevin: “Secret Right to Rock and Roll.” It was way up there on the charts at one time. I
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wish Jolene at KISW would play it, I’ll give her a copy. I gave her “Apollo,” “City of Golden Lead,” and “Four Anvils”.
Nathan: I remember one of the lyrics is about vintage wine. I was curious, do you have a favorite vintage wine?
Kevin: You know I like a lot of vintage wines and that’s how I lost the secret. It’s no secret! That’s how my love is for you baby. So I’m not vintage about wine, I’m vintage about Secret Right to Rock and Roll so that’s kind of my wine these days. I’m whining! I have to whine a lot so… its worth a thousand meanings so give it up man.
Nathan: I have a question about City of Lead and Gold….
Kevin: Golden Lead? “The City of Golden Lead?”
Nathan: I apologize, “City of Golden Lead”. Is there a deep conceptual meaning behind it? I was curious, what is the concept behind it?
Kevin: Again, it was the same time zone as “Secret Right to Rock and Roll” and “Apollo”. I realized that what I’m doing is drumming pretty hard rock and I realized that a few magnets would stick to the drums and I wouldn’t have a chance to ever make a Pink Floyd type of an album. So I made that album so that if I need to somehow get into the Pink Floyd… it’s a different thing to me, going straight rock or Pink Floyd is a conceptual….
Nathan: What is “City of Golden Lead”, is it like a thing or Mexico City or?
Kevin: Has any band….
Craig: I have an idea about that theory….
Kevin: What is it?
Craig: What if “City of Golden Lead” is…. (trails off)
Kevin: What it is, is there’s this guy John Christopher and he wrote a trilogy of books that I read in the library at high school and it was about a tripod that controlled people inside a city, kind of like my landlord is like a tripod guy getting at my apartment for no good reason and its like dude, you know we haven’t quite hit the City of Golden Lead its all make believe but he’s like a giant tripod like, you know…. So that’s what it’s about, giant tripods telling people what to do in the city.
Nathan: If there is no particular city on your records….
Kevin: No, its all just make believe.
George: You know what I think City of Golden Lead is?
Steven: What about Cybertron?
George: Its what you make of it what you want it to be
Steven: What I was gonna say, was Cybertron the transformer planet, you know there was that one episode where they tried to kill the autobots by sending the autobots back in time so far they’d fade out of existence but instead the autobots got sent 2 million years in the past to the golden age of Cybertron and in Cybertron there was all this energy and eventually the decepticons sucked out all the energy so it became lead. So it’s the City of gold and lead. (applause, cheering)
Kevin: OH!
Nathan: That’s really the answer what I was looking for.
Kevin: That’s what I meant to say yeh.

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Nathan: I do have to say you’re a pretty good drummer, one of the most energetic I’ve seen in a while, so you must’ve practiced a lot?
Kevin: To put it bluntly I was in school and I wanted a ticket to Led Zeppelin so of course when I went to go buy a ticket for Seattle you know the guy overdosed and went onto the next world. So you know I went to school the next day and I made myself a vow that… ‘cause there was this big wave of energy going, and I thought if I just die because he died the whole world is gonna die or something, so I just keep the energy going. It’s the same doggone energy that I put into the album so what it means is if I just turn it off I’d only live to be 14 years old and Led Zeppelin smashed all my music in because of getting drunk…. I don’t’ know what happened but I was not going to be a drummer period, I was just going to go to a lot of concerts and just enjoy my life without any fear of anybody. I didn’t know what it meant for people to go onto the next dimension I was just gonna have a good party have a good life and let you do the rocking for me, you John Bonham can rock me out and that’s good enough. Then I sat on my desk at school and I didn’t want to draw on the desk and I didn’t want to draw on the textbooks and I had this Led Zeppelin book and I opened it up and there was John Bonham and he was looking at me like “are you just gonna be like me and be a quitter?” So I was just like, I don’t know how I’m gonna learn to do this but I’ve got to teach myself how to drum. So I went to join the orchestra and Mr. Johnson put me up with one snare drum and said “here, now you’re a drummer.” So I was heartbroken, it’s a heartbreaker, its, you know, like that song on Led Zeppelin II. I was like, right on life is all about good times, but now the good times are gone.
Nathan: But you were not going to be that way?
Kevin: No, you know and I’m like… sitting back on my seat and I’ve got to bring this back to other people so they can have a good time. I don’t know what I had to do but I had to do it quick
Nathan: Thank you.
Kevin: Thank you.
Nathan: One more question guys and then I’ll let you go here. So let’s say you guys get signed to a major label within the next year or so and so you’re touring and as I’m sure that you guys know that when you tour you get the right… that the venue has certain things on hand for you in agreement for you to play. So what would Mudslide require? Like Van Halen had only green M & M’s, it’s a legendary story like what rock stars would have to ask for. What would you guys require to play?
Kevin: What’s the thing that we’d all do altogether, like eat green M & M’s?
Nathan: No what I’m asking is what would you require for a certain venue to have on hand in order for you to play? Wheat bread, milk, whatever?
Kevin: Well I’m real fond of toasted crab sandwiches like with real crab, I can’t stand imitation sea food, or imitation crab, you know that rubbery stuff?
Nathan: Steven, what would you have?
Steven: Ginger snaps. A lot of ginger snaps, lots of chocolate chip cookies, and diet 7up.
George: Like catering in the hotels?
Nathan: No in the venue, what the venue would have for you to play, would there be any requests that you would have George?
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George: 100 watt marhsall amps….
Kevin: Bear!
Nathan: Well I don’t think they’d be able to do that one. Something, it can even go beyond that.
Kevin: Strawberry waffles!
Nathan: You know, it can go beyond that like some bands have their guys go get ‘em drugs….
George: Real lobster tails
Craig: I’d say lobster tails and a shower for me
Kevin: A shower! No showering around here. I haven’t taken a shower for 6 years why should you? (jokes)
Nathan: That’s quite a boast.
Steven: OK….
Craig: Fine, no more showers no more deodorant/
Kevin: Alright give the guy a shower. I mean cmon…. Do you like them little hotel shampoos? Yeh! The hotel we’re staying in we want lots of people to show up….
Nathan: I’m just asking about the little things. Anyway, I’ve got one last question for you guys this is a silly one so just bear with me. If you could be any flavor of ice cream, what would you be, that you would see yourself as? Let’s start with Kevin.
Kevin: I’ve never really thought about that but oh, the best kind would probably be butter pecan, you know. I don’t know.
Nathan: OK. Steven?
Steven: Probably rocky road.
Nathan: That’s probably what I would be. What would you be? (Turns to George)
George: French Vanilla.
Craig: I was thinking of something with marshmallows in it.
Nathan: Alright awesome, I really appreciate you guys giving me the time to talk to me you are no doubt the real deal…. (crowd cheers)
Kevin: Thank you. Thank you. For the record we want to know what your name is?
Nathan: Nathan
Kevin: Nathan and filming by Ian. Thanks to Ian a lot. The other thing is if anyone of a real booking agent or manager send them our way, email is at apollomudslide@yahoo.com , what’s your url?
Steven: merkavametal@Hotmail.com







- Mudslide