Steve from Eerie Point on Toledo, Bob Dylan, and how to be like water

Steve Andrew is the lead singer of Eerie Point, whose song Artificial Things was featured on our #38 podcast. Born out of the Rust Belt (Toledo to be precise), Eerie Point embodies a sound that blends the alternative, indie, and blues roots of the band’s five members into something altogether new and exciting. Eerie Point prides itself on its diverse yet deeply refined sound that incorporates multiple styles of music to create a unique sound all its own.

My favorite thing to wear onstage:

One of my may University Toledo hats, or WWII Airborne War Paint. Because it’s badass, and I want people to know where the fuck I’m from.

It is hereby established that if you wear the right hat, women in the audience will reach up and grab your crotch.

The last musical instrument or musical-performance-related item that I bought and loved was:

My Mahogany 12-string Acoustic-electric Fender Hell Cat. 12’s just sound so big and bright, and it really puts power behind you. I’ve always been a huge fan of folk and blues-style sound and lyrics. Jimmy Page and Lead Belly are two of my all-time favorites, not just because they played 12-string, but because the way they played it. Page is a freak in his smoothness and his slide play and Lead Belly beats the ever-lovin’ shit out of it BAREHANDED. He just raw dogs that steel and it just perpetuates the power of his vocals; that’s what I want from my guitar. I want it to empower me, while complimenting the way I sing. It’s helped me get out of writing ruts, broadened my spectrum as a writer, and it kinds gives Eerie Point another way to stand out.

Lead Belly in 1948

 

The musical instrument or musical-performance-related item that I really really really want is:

a VoiceTone Pedal. Before 2012, I had always just played with myself, haha, instead of other people. Once I did, I’d become more curious in branching out, rather than just singing clean vocal. I’m excited to really try some different things. Everyone in Eerie Point plays one instrument or more, and while I do play some guitar, mostly in writing, and harmonica, my voice is my instrument. I love some distortion and reverb on a guitar, so why not on vocals? That’s something I really overlooked, and quite honestly was just simply ignorant on the fact of using different mic’s, let alone pedals. Everyone knows the talk box from Frampton, but I would never use something like that. One, because I’m not that great of a guitar player, and two I think it would sound so-loose butt hole; but maybe I’m wrong.

The artist who has influenced me most is:

With out question, Bob Dylan. I was a sophomore. At that time, I had been playing electric guitar for a few years, and my oldest brother got an acoustic. I was really into Jimi Hendrix at the time, and he had read his biography and saw that Dylan was Jimi’s favorite. He called me across the hall to his room and showed me the song “North Country Blues”. That was it. The story. An eerie, haunting voice playing an acoustic guitar. The tale of a begotten, and bereft mother in a closed-down, Minnesota mining town. I didn’t what folk was, I had never played an acoustic guitar, and I had no idea that song writing could be so artistic and thought provoking. At the time, Numetal, post-grunge, and eventually “Strip Club Rock” as I call it had been the huge, and Dylan completely took me out of that, and put me down a road that encouraged me to expand my mind, as well as my musical knowledge. I gave up my shitty electric guitar, bought a harmonica, and made a harp holster out of some hanger wires. I was a folk-freak living in the Midwest; I don’t think it’s all that crazy to imagine me finding something to associate within his art.
By the way, that guitar my brother bought, he ended up giving to me; it’s one the most important things I own. I actually wrote on it and he got pissed. “I’m not a communist, I’m an altruist”, an homage to “This Machine Kills Facists” on Woody Guthrie and Dylan’s guitar. He got over it.

Bob Dylan in 1963

Something I wish I’d known before joining/starting a band:

You’re going to suck. You have to go out there and just suck it up. Suck it allll up and take a big shit on the stage. Your sound equipment is gonna go out, your lights are gonna short out, your sound guy is going to get too hammered and fuck something up. Your gonna forget lyrics and your going to forget equipment and shit is gonna break, right in the middle of a song and your guitar player is gonna do his best and you have to go to a different song so he can restring his guitar. You’re going to get shit thrown at you by drunk people and people are going to yell shit.

You’re going to suck. You have to go out there and just suck it up. Suck it allll up and take a big shit on the stage. Your sound equipment is gonna go out, your lights are gonna short out, your sound guy is going to get too hammered and fuck something up.

But people are also going to keep coming and you’re going to get better and the best part of starting a band is being shitty, and getting better with your buddies. The songs get better, the notes and lyrics; it all gets better. And it’s all worth it, because the best joy in life is failing and not giving up, and coming right back and kickin’ ass.

I live in Toledo, Ohio.

It’s where I was born and raised. Go Rockets!

the general vibe of Toledo is

Rejuvenation. The entire city and downtown areas have been undergoing a complete renovation and gentrification over the last 15 years. There are local breweries, restaurants, bars all over the 419, and we have great sporting events. We also have the one of the top 5 zoos and museums in the country, not to mention the most historic minor league baseball team in American history, the Mud Hens. Toledo has spent a lot of time making it a great place to live, which is far from the Toledo I knew as a young boy. Also, it’s 40 minutes from Detroit, 2 hours from Cleveland and Columbus, and 4 from Cincinnati and Chicago. You couldn’t ask to live in a better city to live in and travel to see or play live music.

the best place to play music here is:

Civic Music Hall or the Ottawa Tavern. The Ottawa Tavern is a very intimate setting with one purpose: to be a place for local and small-time touring acts to come and play, while serving 35 ounce cans of PBR. Rock N’ Roll.  Civic is the best place to play because it’s the biggest stage and venue in Toledo, aside from playing the Huntington Center. We packed that place for the Best Of Toledo competition and blew it out of the water. That was the best show we’ve ever had, and solidified us as the best original band in the Glass City. It’s freeing to be able to move around and really put your energy in to your songs, and it’s small enough to where you feed off the personal connection with the audience.

Eerie Point playing at the Civic Music Hall at the Best of Toledo competition

the best place to SEE music here WAS:

Headliners, on Detroit Avenue. Back in the mid-2000’s, we go to Headliners; it was basically a warehouse that they attached a bar too. It was sick. It was wide open and had two huge metal poles in the middle that people would climb up and do back flips off and mosh around. Chevelle released “This Type of Thinking Could Do Us In” in 04 and we went and saw them. Taproot opened for them and some small band at the time went first. I forget their name. Oh, yea 30 Seconds to Mars.

My favorite local band (aside from my own):

In Rhythm, Amelia Airhearts, and Human Juicebox. We love going to these bands’ shows and we’ve played a few with them, too. They all bring their own sound and are all different, but still have some good indie/pop/blues sound. Mostly, they are all pretty cool people.

I collect:

Tickets and wrist bands from all the shows and new venues we play and shows I’ve been to as a fan. I’m a pretty sentimental and I’m a nostalgia junkie. I like keeping pieces of memories, because I honestly don’t have that great a memory; probably from being hit in the head so much.
I’ve also always enjoyed stories my parents and grand-parents told me and pictures they would show me. My grandmother died of Alzheimer’s and the saddest thing was how she was robbed of her memories and her spirit; she was truly full of life. I guess I’m scared to lose my memories. I want to be able to look back on my life with fondness and laugh, and cry, and smile about it and hopefully my children’s children will want to know about our history, as well.

In my fridge you’ll always find:

A shit ton of hot sauce. I grill quite often and there is nothing better than chicken wings. I like to travel different places and always look for some good new sauces. I am not very kind to my stomach. I don’t like “want-to-kill-yourself-” hot stuff, though. That’s Dan. Once, I actually thought I was going into cardiac arrest because I ate one of Dan’s wings. He can take his Da Bomb sauce and go to Hell.

May cause cardiac arrest in rock stars

A winter indulgence that I would never forgo is:

Great Lakes Christmas Ale. It’s brewed right here on good ol’ Lake Erie and when you put that cinnamon sugar rim on there! Byyyeeeee….

if you’re going to buy me a gift, say in the under-$50 range, I would like:

A copy of Ghost Dad on DVD

The last music I downloaded was:

Black Holes (Solid Ground) by The Blue Stones. I caught wind of them trying to book a show in Detroit. They’re kicking off tour at a venue we’re pursuing and playing at Shaky Knees. They’re one of my new favorite bands. Also, Rival Sons and Cage the Elephant are continuously playing at my house. They are the two best bands in the world right now, in my opinion.

in my heart I wish I was:

like water.

because

Bruce Lee once said, “Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

A beauty staple that I’m never without is:

My beard conditioner and a mohawk. I’ve had a mohawk since 2011 and it’s always been my style. Also, if a man wants to be seen, he should always look his best and nothing looks bester than a good beard.

My personal analysis of the current state of the music industry is:

I honestly don’t know what to make of it. The obvious point is that it has changed rapidly, but the argument is, “Is it better, or worse?”. One could argue that industry has minimized music to mp3 downloads, where artists get fractions of a cent for allowing their music to be downloaded various platforms. Another argument could be that it’s amazing for fans because now any monkey can type in a band on their phone and hear artists all around world, while sitting in their basement. Another is that any new band, or person can be heard at any moment. There is so much out there being shared, though you could also argue it makes it more difficult because there is so much to sift through. I really try not to pay attention to anything that is gonna make me too cynical, or too naive. There is still very much an innocence in me and in this band, and I hope we always try to keep that.

the best place to eat breakfast in my city is:

My cousin’s house.

why

We cook for an army.

favorite seasonal beverage:

Great Lakes Christmas Ale or a White Russian

why

the Dude abides.