Latest / Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast / PODCAST: Episode 729 - Steve Tulipana of Season to Risk Talks "1800-Meldown" and Changes In The Music Industry
Transcript
- 0:00I think for this, I feel the first time that we're kind of
- 0:02like, I feel like the shattering, if it came out right
- 0:05now, would be very relative and irrelevant.
- 0:08And I think this kind of takes takes it to a different space,
- 0:12but it still has a continuation of that.
- 0:14You know, I can't believe that was already 20 years ago.
- 0:17So that's kind of breaks my brain.
- 0:18Or 25 years ago. I keep it real whenever
- 0:27possible. Back to my East Coast roots.
- 0:30What's up everybodyitskefi@coastcultmag.com
- 0:33I'm so stoked for the first time ever to be joined by Steve of
- 0:37Season to Risk. How are you?
- 0:39Very good, thanks for having me. Yeah, the a band that I saw like
- 0:4230 years ago in the clubs in New York City that I was always so
- 0:46high on and excited and was probably the perfect world
- 0:50record, right? In a perfect world, you know,
- 0:53always been a fan and brand new record is out now, which I love
- 0:57and we'll talk about in a second.
- 0:58Just catch us up on the last few years of the band.
- 1:01It's been a bit of a you know, a roller coaster in general,
- 1:04right? Yeah.
- 1:05I mean, in the 90s we did those two Columbia records and we
- 1:09toured constantly and then we put out a couple independent
- 1:14records on a couple different labels and toured as much as we
- 1:18could. But at that point, you know, we
- 1:19were all starting to work jobs more and try to figure out what,
- 1:23you know, with what our life looked like it in middle age, I
- 1:26guess. And but every year we, we, we
- 1:30kind of all drifted across the country, but every year we'd
- 1:33always get together and do either a local show here in
- 1:36Kansas City or to do a rundown to Texas or Minneapolis or like
- 1:41kind of pretty much in this in the Midwest, We hadn't gotten
- 1:44out to either the coast in a long, long time.
- 1:46And I just think we've been reissuing our records going
- 1:51backwards in reverse on vinyl. And it kind of was getting
- 1:54exciting and, and we started getting together and, and
- 1:58writing some stuff in the studio at Dwayne's Dwayne, our guitar
- 2:01players recording studio. And things are kind of coming
- 2:04together and we're like, you know what, time is ticking.
- 2:07Let's, let's, let's do something new, you know, so, So what we've
- 2:12just released is some new material, but it is a collection
- 2:15of some rarities and it's kind of a precursor to what what will
- 2:19be coming over the next year. So.
- 2:21Amazing. I'm so pumped.
- 2:22You have no, like, I can't contain it.
- 2:25I'm so pumped. We're proud of it.
- 2:26Thank you. I'm not, you know, we're not
- 2:28supposed to have favorites as journalists.
- 2:30But like, when a band you have liked for a long time or loved,
- 2:34like, starts getting active again, it just does something to
- 2:37me. Yeah.
- 2:37Out of curiosity, because you guys signed to Columbia early
- 2:40and I don't know the prehistory of the band.
- 2:43I know there were some other local bands you guys kind of
- 2:45melded into. Was it what was the scene, like,
- 2:4735 scenes? Yeah.
- 2:49Like 1990 is is we long ago. Yeah, we actually started in the
- 2:54fall of 89, OK. There was like, you know, there
- 2:58was like a punk, post punk, post hardcore scene here.
- 3:02We have a pretty, a couple of iconic, you know, all ages
- 3:06venues to work that we went to when we were kids.
- 3:09And, you know, we got to see Black Flag and we got to, some
- 3:12of us got to, I didn't see Dead Kennedys, but some of us did.
- 3:15And descendants came through, you know, toxic reasons were a
- 3:19big deal, SNFU was a big deal, you know, and then like some of
- 3:23the metal crossover stuff, like mind over 4, we started seeing
- 3:26some of these, you know, and everybody was constantly.
- 3:31We have like a pretty cool art scene here as well.
- 3:34And an art school that I think that there's kind of always a
- 3:36push to try to be creative and unique and your, you know, take
- 3:40your influences and and build something new and unique.
- 3:44And Kansas City's always had some weirdo bands like oh gosh,
- 3:47mud head and all kinds of weird stuff came out of here that
- 3:51inspired us and influenced us. So and close to like we, we
- 3:55weren't at that age, we weren't above getting in the van or
- 3:59getting in the car and going to Chicago for the then go and
- 4:03drive an 8 hour Chicago to see, you know, ministry or whatever
- 4:07or, or dickroitson or something and then driving straight back,
- 4:10you know. That was the golden age of wax
- 4:13tracks and ministry and kind of the, you know, a lot of bands
- 4:16coming up in that era. Obviously 9 Inch Nails not too
- 4:19far away before the relocation. Uh, what, what was the local
- 4:22scene like for you on the way up?
- 4:24Because I love the Midwest. I got to spend some time the
- 4:27last couple of years in the Midwest, Saint Louis, not KC
- 4:30yet, but eventually in Chicago and Midwestern.
- 4:33Niceness is definitely a thing. But you know, like I'm biased.
- 4:36I have like my New York City bias CBG BS and we had like a an
- 4:41embarrassment of riches of places to play and it seemed to
- 4:44be part of if you wanted to participate.
- 4:47What was it like for you guys? I mean, for us, the dream was
- 4:49always to get to Chicago and then to CBG BS, which we
- 4:53eventually did, you know, so that we got to play there.
- 4:56I don't know, four or five times maybe, maybe more.
- 4:59I can't remember, but but you know, not obviously not the
- 5:03heyday, but but it's all heyday there, right.
- 5:06But here, you know, there was a a little scene like there were
- 5:10some bands that we did a lot of stuff with Shiner, Molly
- 5:13McGuire, Giants chair Outhouse they were always like kind of
- 5:19there was a scene that like I'm just thinking of, I don't know
- 5:22off the top of my head. Sin City disciples.
- 5:25We would, we would do shows and like, we did this like thing on
- 5:28Mondays before we got before we got signed.
- 5:31And at this club that was like, you guys can have the club on
- 5:35Mondays. You got to bring your own PA and
- 5:37you can book whoever you want, you know, and this is a club
- 5:39that booked like, I mean, I saw, I saw ministries there.
- 5:43I saw Soundgarden and and prong and all kinds of all kinds of
- 5:49bands. They're like it hell of you
- 5:51know, it was a pretty big club, but it had the room where the
- 5:54room was nooked out. Whatever we did these Monday
- 5:55nights, we, we logged our PA in there and we, you know, kind of
- 5:58tried to help help nurture that scene.
- 6:01You know, So I was always, I mean, even before that there was
- 6:04like loft parties and underground DIY stuff.
- 6:07I mean, we've always, we were always part of all that.
- 6:09And, and a lot of those bands got in the van and toured, you
- 6:12know, like about the same time we were getting going and got
- 6:15out of, got out of the Midwest. But yeah, I don't know.
- 6:18I'm, I'm proud to be from here. We are, you know, a lot of those
- 6:21guys are still doing stuff too, which I think is pretty cool.
- 6:24Yeah, Shiner. Yeah, nice.
- 6:26By the way, what year did you get to CVG VS?
- 6:28I'm curious. I think I guess it would be 90.
- 6:31So you might have, you might have.
- 6:33Speaking of Prong, you might have run into Tommy there
- 6:35because, Oh yeah, Prong was working for most of the 90s till
- 6:38we moved to California. Yeah.
- 6:40Our first tour actually outside of the Midwest was with Prong.
- 6:45Yeah, we went up to Seattle with them, actually.
- 6:47That's awesome. And I saw you guys later, I
- 6:50believe, with quicksand on manic compression, I think.
- 6:54I don't. Maybe not.
- 6:56Don't recall that one, but it's possible that's a lot of the
- 7:00blurry. Yeah, so it's at a venue that's
- 7:02like an apartment building now in Midtown Manhattan.
- 7:05And I've won tickets from a rock radio station.
- 7:08That was randomly, I'm pretty sure it was quicksand because I
- 7:11remember the contest. But I always, I saw you guys
- 7:14live a few times and live is, you know, records are, are
- 7:17great. I love you guys live, you know,
- 7:20really exhilarating, captivating performances and like really
- 7:24engage the crowd, which a lot of people are not good at or didn't
- 7:26want to to do in the you know, I don't want to bag on Nirvana,
- 7:29but the post Nirvana, I'm a sad rock star kind of look at my
- 7:33hands and not look at the crowd thing.
- 7:35And y'all were engaging and I love that personally.
- 7:37So good times live. Let's talk about 1800 meltdown,
- 7:41which I kind of see over your shoulder in the in the
- 7:43background and then love. I'm such a nerd and I, I, I, I
- 7:48kind of, I didn't get to do like the full record store day this
- 7:51year. So I missed out on the, the
- 7:53vinyl, but it's so cool. This, this release is great and
- 7:57the, and it's so cool to get like what you guys did with the
- 8:00packaging. You want to just talk about the
- 8:01packaging for a quick second? Yeah, I don't even mind that you
- 8:07did that. That's all.
- 8:08I love that you have it right there.
- 8:10Backwards. Well, I I just got it myself.
- 8:13You know, we finished the recording of Echo Chamber, the
- 8:17lead track, just in December. And we it was rushed.
- 8:21We've been planning it, but we finally got it going.
- 8:23But yeah, this is some artwork by a buddy of ours.
- 8:27We call him Lug Nut and it is glow in the dark, which I think
- 8:31is super cool. Yeah, I, I just love what he did
- 8:34with it. And it is like I said it there
- 8:36is material that was never. There's a brand new song we just
- 8:41finished recording called Echo Chamber that is kind of the
- 8:45precursor to all this stuff that we're still working on.
- 8:49And then there's a track that came out in 2007 that was on
- 8:54like a, a local fanzine CD comp that like it.
- 8:59No one has, you know, it's just no access to it.
- 9:02And so, and then there's a bunch of outtakes from the men are
- 9:05monkeys sessions and a song from the that was on the strange days
- 9:12soundtrack, the film Strange days that we were in, but we
- 9:16didn't, they cut our song from the, the soundtrack, the the
- 9:20released soundtrack. So we put it out on a 7 inch,
- 9:25the split 7 inch glazed baby way back in the day, a very small
- 9:27run of that. But those are impossible to
- 9:29find. So it's kind of collected some
- 9:31old things and and then have the the the newer stuff on here and
- 9:36just really weird. I'm a vinyl obsessive.
- 9:41So really getting to put this stuff on vinyl was kind of the
- 9:44next step in the reissues, The Columbia Records.
- 9:49We finally got some rights to those and in the next 6 months,
- 9:56I guess a little longer than the next nine months, they will be
- 9:59coming out on remastered vinyl as well.
- 10:02I can't talk too much about that yet because we're still kind of
- 10:06solidifying that that. But yeah, that's kind of maybe
- 10:10I've rambled too much about the 1800 meltdown.
- 10:12Having a meltdown on my own. No, I'm so into it.
- 10:15By the way, I'm all over those reissues.
- 10:17Whenever they happen, I will gladly take all my money because
- 10:21I need them so much in my collection.
- 10:23That's my that's really like one of my pinnacle times in the
- 10:26world and life and music inform me and inform me.
- 10:30And but yeah, man, the new song, I imagine echo chambers like
- 10:33maybe a portend of things to come.
- 10:35It's it's super cool. I really appreciate that in
- 10:382025, you guys or, you know, late 24, you're writing a new
- 10:43song that's kind of got like new new vibes, but also like it's
- 10:47still you. I like it.
- 10:48Yeah, yeah, we're really, we're stoked on it.
- 10:50I mean, I think it, I always felt like we were always a few
- 10:54years ahead of ourself and anything that we released.
- 10:57And I think for this, I feel the first time that we're kind of
- 11:00like, I feel like the shattering, if it came out right
- 11:02now, would be very relative and irrelevant.
- 11:06And I think this kind of takes takes it to a different space,
- 11:10but it still has a continuation of that.
- 11:12You know, I can't believe that was already 20 years ago.
- 11:14So that's kind of breaks my brain.
- 11:16Or 25 years ago, right? Next.
- 11:17Year it's 25. Why?
- 11:20Where is it going? The time is evaporating.
- 11:23It's like living in the casino with no clocks, no daylight.
- 11:26I don't know what happened and I think the last few years the
- 11:28plague life in America, I think it's just escalating and and
- 11:33just the cool, the quickening fiery end.
- 11:36I don't know I'm I'm a positive person mostly, but geez, but but
- 11:41we need art. We need reactionary, positive,
- 11:44angry, strong, beautiful, noisy art right now.
- 11:49That's what we need in music. That's what we need in art.
- 11:51I love that you're an art person.
- 11:52Also. Me too.
- 11:54And all my friends are almost all my friends that are not
- 11:56musicians or artists, like universally do some kind of
- 11:59creative people. And yeah, that's, that's why I
- 12:02do what I do. That's why people ask me, why do
- 12:03you do this? This is insane.
- 12:05You don't have corporate backing.
- 12:06Because this is all my life. This is my whole life.
- 12:08This is it. That's what I do.
- 12:09Out of curiosity, Like, do you feel like so interestingly
- 12:13enough, you brought up the soundtracks, right?
- 12:14And yeah, Strange Days was a good film.
- 12:17Soundtracks were very political and politicized back in the day.
- 12:21Like, if you got one, it was awesome.
- 12:23If you got a few, it could change your career.
- 12:25Right. I remember talking to Stabbing
- 12:27Westward Christopher about this, where he's like, for some
- 12:30reason, our label pushed to get us on everyone of those
- 12:34soundtracks for a long time. And it, you know what?
- 12:36It started with Clerks with them.
- 12:38Did you see, like, a bump after the movie?
- 12:41Because it was, you know, is it not a huge hit?
- 12:43But it was, you know, Mana, I think it was a liked movie and
- 12:46and A and a probably a decently attended film back then.
- 12:50Did you see a bump in your career?
- 12:52Did help? There's no streaming back then,
- 12:53thankfully. But you know, did you see like
- 12:57people like oh, cool, I heard you in the movie.
- 12:59Did that happen? Can't remember, you know, like
- 13:02it was such a really active time for us.
- 13:04We'd spent, we'd spent a whole summer in at BC Studio and in
- 13:10Brooklyn working on that material and that's that song
- 13:14was recorded there too. That ended up that film.
- 13:16And then we left to go to LA to go do that film.
- 13:20And then we came back a month later and finished the finished
- 13:24the record. Then the record came out and
- 13:27then we went. I can't remember if that was
- 13:30when we went out with Coc and Monster Magnet or if that was I
- 13:34get my timeline all confused. So I don't know.
- 13:37It feels like the record finally came out.
- 13:39We were working really hard and touring, but then it wasn't that
- 13:45long after it came out that Columbia did the big or all of
- 13:48the majors did the big drop. Like they just dropped hundreds
- 13:52of bands. It just like, and so to me, it,
- 13:55it feel like that was at like a height, but it probably was a
- 13:59whole year before, you know, like it, it all the movie can't
- 14:03movie didn't come out for a year, you know, like, I think it
- 14:06kind of didn't really coalesce the, the the right way.
- 14:09I think it kind of crossed over right there.
- 14:11It's kind of like this is this is happening, you know, and then
- 14:16we're like, like, OK, we refigure this, you know, and,
- 14:21and we just kept, we just kept doing what we what we did for as
- 14:24long as we could afford it really.
- 14:26And, and, and then we just all started working, you know,
- 14:29started working at clubs and stuff and, and then we, you
- 14:33know, put a couple more records out and toured when we could.
- 14:35And then, and then Dwayne opened his recording studio and I
- 14:39opened a club. And that's kind of what we did
- 14:43for the last 20 years, you know, just working here and, and in
- 14:48music, but locally, you know, so.
- 14:50Right, I definitely saw that Monster Magnet Coc tour also.
- 14:54But again, I I made it a point to go and I was out every day at
- 14:58one point when I wasn't with my own band, I was out watching
- 15:01bands and that was a good time. It was a good time.
- 15:05Did did you meet any of the cast on the that was a pretty, if I
- 15:08recall, like William Hurt, Jennifer Connelly, Kiefer
- 15:12Sutherland, Richard O'Brien. That was a pretty good cast.
- 15:15I'm going to correct you. I think you're thinking, what
- 15:17movie are you thinking of? Oh, not yet.
- 15:21I want to know what movie you're thinking of 'cause I.
- 15:22Don't know, maybe I'm thinking of it.
- 15:24I'm confused my movies. This was Angela Bassett, Ray Fi.
- 15:27Oh, that's right. That's yeah.
- 15:28That's a good one though. Yeah.
- 15:29Strange things. I've got it.
- 15:30She's like in a band and. Yep, Yep, Yep.
- 15:33Oh yeah, that's an insane that's like and pre pre pre pre matrix.
- 15:38Yeah, dystopian ish future really great story.
- 15:43Might have even been like a William Gibson's short story,
- 15:46I'm not sure. Yeah, I don't know, like what I
- 15:48what the? I need more coffee, more coffee,
- 15:55more coffee, more coffee. But yeah, I'm so stoked.
- 15:59Again, I hope this meltdown record, you know, has done what
- 16:02you wanted it to do. It's certainly cool.
- 16:04I love the unboxing video. Like I said, the packaging's
- 16:07dope. If you want to shoot me your art
- 16:09guy, your artist's info will link it in the description as
- 16:13well as how to buy the record because we love to promote.
- 16:16Everybody's everybody, everybody's little family.
- 16:20Yeah. Follow up with me and yeah, you
- 16:22know, I, I'm, I'm excited for, for the reissues.
- 16:26I'd love to hear new music. You know, and I know you've done
- 16:28some sporadic touring. What's, what's the prognosis?
- 16:32Do you have anything you can announce for this year?
- 16:34Local shows or perhaps tour plans?
- 16:37We actually take off next Wednesday for 10 days.
- 16:40We'll be at TVI in New York on Oh my the Sunday the 23456
- 16:51seventh 27th that sound right Sunday the 27th April, my our
- 16:55first time playing in the New York City area in 25 years.
- 17:01Like with Season to risk, I I came through there with a
- 17:04different band a little bit in the mid the mid 10s.
- 17:09It sounds so weird to say it's. So weird.
- 17:12But but yeah, we're pretty excited there.
- 17:15We're going to do this run and then once we announced the
- 17:19reissues on that whole deal, we're kind of working on some
- 17:21stuff for the fall. And we're not.
- 17:23I mean, we all still are are pretty, a couple of us have
- 17:28families and we're all still pretty active with our
- 17:30businesses. And so touring has to come when
- 17:34when we when it can come, you know, when it coalesces
- 17:37properly. But.
- 17:38Right on. That's cool.
- 17:39I'm so stoked. I got to take a second look at
- 17:41those dates and see if I have anybody who can come out because
- 17:43we love to cover the tour if possible.
- 17:46But if not, we'll catch you on the next one.
- 17:47I'd love to see you in person either elsewhere in the country
- 17:50or if you get out here to Cali or somewhere within striking
- 17:54distance where I can. Get yeah, I didn't.
- 17:56I didn't know exactly. I'm in San Francisco.
- 17:57I'm originally an East Coast guy.
- 17:59I was in New York City, in Boston for 30, fortyish years,
- 18:02and then I'm here now. So I think that the plan is to
- 18:05try to do. We don't have anything in stone
- 18:08yet and we're getting too kind of getting close to being able
- 18:12to pull it off like we need to start working on it.
- 18:13But West Coast dates in towards the end of the year.
- 18:17Yeah, fantastic. We'll be around.
- 18:19And just I always like to end these with a wild card question
- 18:22and I had a different one in mind.
- 18:23But then I saw the pile of vinyl.
- 18:25So now I have to ask the question.
- 18:26As this fellow vinyl nerd, what is your single most favorite
- 18:30vinyl in your collection? Oh God.
- 18:33Or your most prized, like, what was the thing you most like?
- 18:36You know, what did you beat some kid on eBay for that was like,
- 18:39yeah. Oh, man, I, I, I don't know that
- 18:43I could say without having to go down to the, to the stacks and
- 18:46look, you know, but, but I, I would say I have a funny eBay
- 18:51story, though. When I first got on eBay, I
- 18:54didn't understand how it worked at all, or I wasn't paying
- 18:57attention. And because you said Joy
- 18:59Division, it made me think of it.
- 19:01Or did you say Joy Division? Did my brain say Joy Division?
- 19:05Maybe subconsciously I I was. Getting obsessed with Joy
- 19:10Division and I was, I wanted it all on vinyl.
- 19:12And so I, I bid on a ton of shit and I ended up with so many
- 19:17duplicates and all kinds of pressings of all of like their
- 19:21whole catalog and I, I way overspent.
- 19:24I didn't, I, I didn't expect to win them all.
- 19:27And I pretty much you want everything.
- 19:28And then I was like, wait, how? Then I learned how to use eBay
- 19:32properly. I'm the guy that accidentally
- 19:35pre-orders multiple versions of the same album.
- 19:37I don't I do that definitely don't want more than one copy.
- 19:40It's abusive and I don't need to do it to my bank account.
- 19:43But I definitely have bought like oh why is 2 of these
- 19:46showing up? Why did I get a second pressing
- 19:49of this? I didn't oh the different color.
- 19:51I didn't care about that like and I do care about that, but
- 19:53like, why? Like any end?
- 19:56Slithered off. Oh yeah, yeah.
- 19:58So I'm like, they come. Then I'm like, oh, I have
- 20:00birthday presents for everybody. Yes, that's exactly right.
- 20:03New Jesus Lizard EP was also a record store day thing for only
- 20:07America. And I had some people grousing
- 20:09at me over overseas like how dare you get one?
- 20:12I love them. I love that they're also back.
- 20:14Like that's an era of bans for me that that they're you're part
- 20:17of and they're part of and I know there's a lot they'll never
- 20:20come back, but I know there's a live Butthole surfers coming
- 20:22out. So, you know, nostalgia is a
- 20:24very powerful drug, but also, you know, cream rises to the
- 20:28top. Great bands are eternal.
- 20:30And this has been great to chat with you.
- 20:32I I'm such a fan and I'm so excited for the future for you,
- 20:35at least, you know, at least the next nine months or more.
- 20:38And because who knows? We can't see that far ahead
- 20:41after that with this world. But Steve, thank you so much for
- 20:44joining us today and sharing your story and and and
- 20:47tolerating my my slight fanboying out a little bit.
- 20:51I try not to, but sometimes I. Can't.
- 20:53I'm stoked to know that there's people out there that give a
- 20:56shit so. That's my favorite word or one
- 20:58of my three favorite words. Stoked my producer will be
- 21:00dismayed that I now got you to use it.
- 21:02But thanks again. Shout out to the guys, thank
- 21:05them and thank you for 181800 meltdown and thanks for joining
- 21:09Ghost Cult. I appreciate you.
- 21:10We'll do it again sometime. We appreciate you too.
- 21:12Maybe we'll see you in the fall or or winter so.
- 21:15Yes, yes, Sir. Take care.
- 21:17Have a great day.