Transcript

Sundown47 · The Scene Projects

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Welcome into a very exciting episode of the scene.
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I'm your host Bubba Sartz, and with me today is Steve Dromalski of the band Sundown forty
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seven.
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Welcome to the show.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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Well, Steve, I know your history is long and you've been on the road for, you know, decades,
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but can we get a short, the short version of kind of, your your musical back round and then
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we'll pick it up with everything that you guys are doing now.
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Sure.
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I started playing in bands in the mid-80s and played in a band that had, you know, some
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moderate success in late 80s and early 90s and out of Milwaukee.
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And that that band kind of disintegrated mid 90s and for all practical purposes, I kind of
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stepped out of making music and jumped into more backstage role working as stage manager,
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production manager, whatnot.
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And I've been doing that since.
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And recently, well, over the course of the pandemic, I got the hankering to make some
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music again and went in and recorded a record that took about a year to make, and, kind of
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for my own, my own purposes only.
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Was, it was destined to become a file on my computer that I could listen to when I wanted
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to.
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And that was about it.
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But some people heard it and convinced me to, convinced me to get it out there.
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And, And so I did.
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And then Zach Brian heard it and convinced me to take it a step further and put the band
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together in real because it was originally recorded with studio musicians.
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And we came together, got a real band together, and, have been out hitting the road now.
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So, it's kind of fun.
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It's it's fun to be doing it again for sure.
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I never expected it would be like this, though.
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Well, and like you said, I mean, since the 90s, you've kind of been behind the scenes and I'm
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sure it's very easy for a guy to just like accept that you're like I'm still doing music.
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It's not the worst day job, right?
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Like you're still kind of getting to live the dream, right?
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But it's not the same.
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Like, being out there isn't the same as getting to play your music for all those people.
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So I'm very happy for you just as an artist myself, to that you get to get out and just
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play.
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And granted you're getting to play on some pretty big stages that you probably weren't
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expecting You know, watching the videos from U.
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S.
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Bank Stadium is just bonkers.
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But no doubt your connections being in the music business kind of accelerated a lot of
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those things.
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You weren't starting from square one, you were able to make a record and then there was people
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out there that you could give it to that could accelerate that process more than a guy like me
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could.
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Is that fair to say?
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I would say yes.
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And I think it's it really falls into being in the right place at the right time category
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because none of this was intentional, like none of it.
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And you know, just kind of happened very organically.
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And you know, if it's going to happen, let it happen.
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I just jumped in on it, you know?
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Well, that's great.
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It takes a lot of courage to do that I think what we forget is it takes a lot of courage to
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write a song, to record it, and then to show that to someone else, to anyone, takes a lot of
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courage.
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I think that we forget that as people who do that for a living or around people that do that
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for a living.
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It's a very vulnerable position.
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So, like I said, very proud of you just to to get back in the studio to you know, were the
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songs new songs that you were crafting, or was it kind of I had this stuff, you know, a
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catalog of twenty years of being on the road and writing?
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And what was the kind of process for the album?
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Well, the whole thing kind of I was I was literally sitting one night watching some
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YouTube videos and and just kind of going through old, you know, archival stuff, music
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stuff.
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And I came across a Neil Young video.
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Don't let it bring you down that he did on a BBC show back in 1971.
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And I've worked for Neil Young for quite a while.
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So I've seen him play many, many times.
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But this particular performance kind of really floored me as it was just everything that the
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way that he sang the song, the way that he was playing, it was just him and an acoustic and
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all of it was like quintessential rock and roll.
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It was just him solo, but it really moved me and and and it made me gave gave me the urge to
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to to cover that song, which, you know, came out of the blue.
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It's not something I had done in thirty years.
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So I was like, you know, I called up a friend of mine who has a studio in Minneapolis and
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said, hey, man, I want to do a version of this song and can you help me put some musicians
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together?
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And he was like, Oh yeah, man, come on down.
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So we went over there, recorded that song.
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I had another couple songs in my pocket that I'd kind of written over the years and never
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done anything with.
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So I laid those down.
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And as we went, you know, I pulled out a couple of songs from back in my old band days that
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that were either not recorded or previously recorded and I wasn't happy with them and
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rerecorded them and that's just kind of how it all came together.
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So it's a whole mishmash of brand new stuff old stuff and and there's a couple covers on it
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too.
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Awesome.
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So you're kind of able to go back and to cover the thirty years that you were kind of out of
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the performing and recording aspect and catch us all up.
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Completely.
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Completely.
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So
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now we can move forward, right?
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Obviously, I saw the U.
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Bank, that must have been from last summer I'm guessing, out on tour.
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And I mean, it's incredible.
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I'll be there in a few weeks.
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My wife and I are going to the Monday night football game.
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And to imagine being on a stage in front of that many people to me is still kind of, I
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don't know if I can fathom it, right?
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Like, I've played in front of a few thousand at local amphitheaters and things, but the,
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they're just the sea of people and then the rising of the stands and it's an incredible
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thing.
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I'm glad you guys got some great video to share.
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Because I think Steve, what's, what's the coolest thing is that like, you're one of us,
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Right?
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Like, when we see you up there and granted, we just met five seconds ago, but, you know,
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you're friends with guys that I know up in the Minneapolis scene, Xander being one of them
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who's gonna be opening for you at your guys', Seventh Street entry show.
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It's it's really cool for us to see guys that we have that one to one with out there, you
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know, making it, right?
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Getting to play the big shows, getting to go on tour with the big guys, and to go do that
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thing.
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That's what kinda gives us the I don't know, it gives the visualization to us that, hey, we can
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do that.
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Like if Steve's out there doing it, then then why can't I?
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Right.
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Yeah.
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Well, you know, I think and I think that that's in in today's world, you know, having having
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played that role of being a musician out there, you know, getting in the van and driving all
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over the country and playing and struggling and trying to make some dough at it.
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So you can keep playing and you know, I've been there, I've done that and and it was a
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different day and and a different time.
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And I think now literally there's there is opportunity out there, you know, and I think
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it's it's it's obtainable.
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And as I said before, man, none of this, I never, you know, this is was not my trajectory.
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Like I, this is not where I planned on being right now.
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I'm surprised.
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I'm still here to be honest, like like being able to do a gig, dream gig like that was
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fantastic.
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But now having everybody in the band kind of locked in on it and going, hey man, let's keep
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this together and and see where this goes.
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Really is inspiring to me to keep it going.
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And then to have, you know, guys like Zach or guys like Neil, you know, kind of give me the
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the push and say keep doing it.
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That's you know, that means a lot.
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Well, yeah, carries weight.
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No doubt.
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I and Zack's a great example of a guy.
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That's one of us.
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I mean, three years ago, nobody knew who the hell he was.
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Right?
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Right,
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you know, just this meteoric rise to the top and to get what you know, watch him and all
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these close friends.
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Love that he's a veteran.
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Just the his whole story is beautiful.
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Right?
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And and that's what is the most exciting for me getting to talk to you and experience a little
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bit of your story is like, we're right there.
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We're you just gotta stay on the grind.
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And I'm sure for you, traveling around with all these bands and and, yeah, you're part of the
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you're you're part of the crew, but you're not you're not in the band.
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Right?
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You're you're not the guys that are out there.
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Can you kind of talk about the difference between, you know, being out on the road, as a
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as a part of the crew, but now being on the road, like you said, with your guys, your band
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that are all in it and and that the difference between the two, if there is a difference.
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You know, I think that there absolutely is, but I think the the lifestyle or the the day to day
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is is more or less the same.
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I mean, when I was 22 making music, trying to be a touring musician, I've already achieved
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that life style, right?
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Like I get on a bus every day.
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I drive to the gig.
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I do everything that the musicians do with the exception of at some point, you know, when I'm
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walking them to the stage, I stop at the bottom of the stairs and they go up, right?
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That I mean, not in that.
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That's that's it.
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But I think as a as a musician yourself, you're you're out there putting, you know, your ideas
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into a front of an entire crowd.
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You know, as a quote unquote roadie, I'm doing my job and and I have to do it to a certain
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standard and those challenges are there and I have the logistical challenges that I have to
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face on a day to day basis of keeping the tour going, making the shows happen and making it
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right for the artists that I work for.
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But as a musician, you're out there putting yourself forward.
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You're out there putting everything on the line because it's all you, right?
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And there's no filter when you're up on stage or in front of an audience.
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The reaction is absolutely immediate.
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You get up there, they either like you or they don't.
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And and then that energy that gets transferred between the audience and the band.
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That's what kind of perpetuates the whole show in and of itself and gets you through that two
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or three hours.
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It takes a lot out of you, you know, it takes a lot out of you and then to have to get up the
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next day and go and repeat the whole process all again, you know, it's it's it's soul
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sucking.
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Really is.
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But at the same time, very gratifying, very satisfying, you know,
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right?
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And I guess the the part of the roadie is kind of you get all of that with very little room
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for self expression and then you're not getting the dopamine rush every single night walking on
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stage.
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Right.
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Would you say it's easier coming from the artist side to wake up and to do their job
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because you're getting that rather than the roadies who kind of just the drudge.
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Just got to keep going and trying to get to the end of a long tour?
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No, man.
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I think each job or each element has its own challenges and it's, it's, you know, I mean, a
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lot of people say, man, I wish I could be a rock star and sleep in and they would, you know
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what, it hurts, you know, you go out there and you perform for three hours.
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It's, it's an athletic experience.
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Lot of people.
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Don't think realize that and you know, I'm in my 50s now.
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Going out there and doing it.
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Wow, coming off stage is like, whoo, it's it's a clear
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and a beer.
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But but I think that, you know, how having that kind of a physical experience every day or, you
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know, three or four times a week and the mental experience of knowing that you have to go out
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there and you're putting everything forward.
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That is a lot.
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Whereas I think there's a lot of tension and stress on the other part of what I do because a
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lot of people depend on me to make it right.
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Right.
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So, so I, you know, they're, they're very different, very much the same at the same time,
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but I don't think one is easier than the other, you know, absolutely.
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In fact, I think you get to a certain level of being a musician where you have to carry the
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burden of a whole tour on you, you know, you got all these roadies and all these vendors and
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all these these fans and then everybody's dependent upon you to show up that night and be
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100% on game, 100% on point all the time.
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That's huge pressure, you know, Right.
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And I think you touch on something there that a lot of casual music fans would never even think
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of.
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You know?
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That's not something that's equating in their head as they're buying the concert ticket and
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going to the show that night.
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None of us care as, you know, ticket buyers where you were last night, you know, what kind
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of shape you're in.
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We had Brooks and Dunn come through, recently, and I think they were headed to Minneapolis
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next, but we saw him in Sioux Falls.
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And, you know, he's out there hitting the long notes and everything and, you know, admitting,
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hey, I'm a little under the weather, but Minnesota can pay for that tomorrow, baby.
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I'm giving it to you tonight.
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Right.
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And just hearing that from him where I've been there, right?
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Playing these four hour bar shows where especially in my band, I'm the only singer.
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I'm grinding, man.
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I don't drink at my shows.
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I don't smoke cigar.
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Like, I'm I'm doing so much just to be physically prepared to do my job and and to
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deliver on that.
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It is a lot of pressure, and it's nice to hear somebody who's done it with, you know, the best
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of the best, that the job doesn't change.
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Correct.
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Exactly.
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So Steve, we got a
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big one coming up.
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I know you're on the road now, but you're coming home to Minneapolis, January 4, you're
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at Seventh Street entry.
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That's the First Avenue, the iconic First Avenue.
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Open it up is gonna be my buddy Xander.
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What's the other band's name?
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Melismatics.
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I couldn't say it.
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I read it several times.
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I was like, I have no idea how I'm gonna say this.
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So phonetically nailed it.
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And you got a new single.
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So something to a stranger just came out.
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You wanna talk about the song and then we'll we'll hammer on the show and.
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Yeah, well something to a stranger is one of the old songs that I actually wrote and
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performed with my old band Men Among Thieves years ago and always been one of my favorites.
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I really struggled with the recorded version of it for many years, you know, like you put
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something into it and I think that, you know, from from a recording standpoint, I had the
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opportunity this time around to really focus it because it was all mine.
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There was no dealing with other band members, it was my project and I got to really pour
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myself into it.
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And as I said earlier, I did it over the course of the year.
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So if I went in and recorded something and listened to it and didn't like it, I could
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always go back and redo it and change it and make it the way I wanted it.
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And, and I put so much work and effort.
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And back, back in the old days when we recorded it was all on tape.
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You went in, you were, you were paying studio time, you were paying the engineers and you
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were buying tape at like, even back in the 80s, was $320 a roll of tape.
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That only covered like maybe three songs.
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So if you think about it as you were recording everything had to be spot on.
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And if it wasn't, there were a lot of times where you'd go.
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You know what?
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That's good enough.
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Let's move on from there.
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And then that's that kind of keeps poking at you for, you know, years and years and years
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after you're like, God, I hate that.
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I wish I could have changed it.
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I wish it was, you know, we would have taken the time to make it different.
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But, you know, this this was my project.
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It was passion.
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And I and I I was able to go through and really nail the songs down the way I wanted them to
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and you know, the song Something to a Stranger, it came, you know, I don't I don't think it's
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about anything specific other than, you know, things that we've all been through, how maybe
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your relationships or moments in time appear to be one thing.
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And then as you move through it turns into something else.
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So in a lot of ways, it's it's a mirror image of this of this whole record and recording deal
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and the way that I tackled the songs themselves, you know, not not just about the
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the story itself.
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It's it's more more representative of a bigger thing, you know.
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Well, do you feel like that's even more so now than when you wrote it 35 ago?
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Oh, yeah, totally.
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Because, you know, when you're sitting there in the moment writing the song, that's where
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you're at, right?
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And then you come back and you address that song thirty years later, and that's thirty
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years of experience that you have and how your perspective that you're looking at the words
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and you're seeing those words with a totally different perspective.
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It's like, I've always thought about it as a songwriter.
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If I sit and write a song or pin a song with somebody and write these lyrics as whatever,
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whatever it is that is inspiring me to write those lyrics, who cares?
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Cause like, if I throw it out there, you might have this entirely different perception of
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those words and, and everybody kind of has their own perception.
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So like once it goes on a, on a record and once it goes hits the airwaves and once somebody
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else's ear hears it, it's theirs to do whatever they want with.
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It's not what I wrote the song about.
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It's totally irrelevant because it's going to change from person to person.
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Right?
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And so like, I always hate the, the question.
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So what's this song about?
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It's like, who cares?
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Doesn't matter.
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You know, it's it's totally irrelevant.
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It's just completely subjective.
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Yeah, exactly.
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Well, what is it to you?
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And exactly like you said, fantastic.
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So you got, so is this part of the album then or is this So
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we have a whole record out, you know, it's 12 songs.
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We put a single out last August right before we did the the show with Zach and that's doing,
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you know, it's doing pretty good out there.
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I I'm I'm happy with it and something to a stranger as you said just came out and it's you
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know, people are listening to it and the response has been really good on it.
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Got another single coming out in January and the record comes out in February.
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And, you know, we've started adding shows.
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And as you said, the seventh street entry show, what a perfect place to kind of start, you
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know, like where whereas Us Bank Stadium was was it was a dream.
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It was a thing.
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It was like it just happened.
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Nobody.
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I couldn't, I couldn't have like plan that to save my life, you know, I just it landed on my
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lap and there we go.
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Let's do this.
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But now that we have a band to be able to start at Seventh Street of all venues.
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I mean, it's so iconic.
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It's up there with the CBGBs and, and, and the whiskeys and the greatest clubs in this
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country.
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And it's got so much history and it's got history for me because I used to play there
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back in the day many years ago.
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So, so it's, it's cool.
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It's cool to be able to come back and, and start doing that thing.
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To return the conquering hero now and to lay it on down.
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I don't know about that.
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I would say to return the guy who has to prove himself all over again, you know, hopefully
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some people show up and we play and it's great, you know.
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Well, we're gonna do everything we can to make sure the people show up for you.
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We'll be doing a feature.
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I've been digging into the catalog and checking out the videos and checking out your music.
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I'm a big fan.
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Definitely a throwback to, I would say, like, post grunge, rock, reminiscent blues traveler,
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gin blossoms, bands like that.
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It wasn't real heavy.
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It wasn't real angry.
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You could write love songs again.
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That's the kind of music that I grew up with.
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You know, I was born in '86, so I was really coming of age, you know, less of Pearl Jam '10
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and more of those '94, '95, '96.
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And then the whole, you know, music scene just got dumped on its head with boy bands and stuff
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in the late nineties.
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But it's nice to see the music that I like, good rock music, good songwriters, good rock
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songwriters making a comeback.
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And Steve, you're right there at the forefront, man.
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And we appreciate you so much for just just being yourself.
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And I'm glad you came back to songwriting and performing yourself because obviously that's
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that's where you belong.
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So thank you.
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Yeah, man.
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It's it's cool.
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And and playing with the guys we're playing with all of them, you know, like Jeff and Joe,
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I've been playing.
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I played with years ago and to be able to kind of do this again with with your brothers.
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That's that's good.
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You know, that's really good.
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And that's really the dream.
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It's not so much about the venues and everything.
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It's getting to do something really awesome with your brothers and to go experience that
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and sisters as well.
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Plenty of ladies out there in the music business now.
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That's the dream, and that's what, that's kind of what I'm building with the scene project,
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Steve, is that, you know, the middle of South Dakota is a tough place to put a band together.
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But I can connect with all of these beautiful people and these songwriters and and just all
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of these people that are out there expressing themselves every single day, and and we get to
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be part of this much larger team.
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That's kinda why why I built what I built here.
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And the same thing.
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This wasn't in the plan.
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I wasn't a podcaster six months ago, and and and now look at us go.
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So, hey.
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I'm proud of you, Steve.
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Thanks for, thanks for being out there and and doing the thing and and being a part of the
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scene.
24:17
Thank you so much, man.
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I really appreciate this.
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And, you know, the support is huge and just, you know, the fact that you dig the music means
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a lot.
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It really does.
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I love it.
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Well, I really do dig the music.
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Not just saying it.
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It's, it's, like I said, a throwback to the music that I grew up with.
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And I think we're gonna see a resurgence of that.
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I think with the way that country music came back in a big way over the last several years,
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Those songwriters, that storytelling is coming back, and it's about to express itself in all
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genres.
24:51
And I think you're right there at the tip of the spear, man, and you're out there doing it
24:54
in a big way.
24:55
And, yeah, I I thank you because you're paving the way for a guy like me to come in with rock
25:00
songs that are tell trying to tell a story, and and I needed someone to to to pave that way.
25:09
You know?
25:09
Somebody coming in with, you know, I don't wanna like, street cred or whatever you wanna
25:14
say.
25:14
The guys that you've worked with, the experiences that you've had in the music
25:17
business, to put you in that position, we need that.
25:21
You know?
25:21
You had to go through that whole life so that you can pave the way for a whole another
25:25
generation that's coming behind us even that are gonna do even more with it.
25:29
So I appreciate you, Steve.
25:31
It's a it's a big thing that you've been doing, and I'm so happy that you get to express
25:35
yourself and to get this album out there.
25:38
It's just gotta be a joy.
25:40
Right on.
25:40
Well, thank you.
25:41
I think, I think, you know, we're coming to a new time where everyone's cut music up into all
25:48
these little tiny genres.
25:50
And now I think we're getting back to a time where you don't have to be a Johnny.
25:54
You just have to make music and, and it's all music, you know, it's and who cares whatever
26:00
you want to call it, call it that country, know, all country outlaw rock and roll heavy
26:06
metal.
26:06
It's not, who cares, you know,
26:08
Steve, I call my style modern gypsy rock.
26:12
Right on.
26:13
I used to call it rockabilly regga funk, but it was too much of a mouthful.
26:19
I'm I'm with you all the way, man.
26:22
Alright.
26:22
So sundown47.com for more about you guys.
26:27
We got the show January 4 at Seventh Street Entry.
26:31
That's with Xander and you'll have to the Melissa Maddox.
26:35
Melissa Maddox?
26:36
No.
26:36
Melz Maddox.
26:37
Melz Maddox.
26:38
I'll get it by by the time I get up there.
26:41
Be visiting Minneapolis real soon.
26:43
You'll probably be on the road, so we won't get to connect then, but I'm sure we're gonna run
26:48
into each other soon, Steve.
26:49
Thanks for being part of the scene.
26:51
Appreciate you.
26:52
Take care.
27:01
Thanks for listening.
27:03
Remember to follow the scene projects on all your social media channels and get even more
27:08
content at thesceneprojects.com.