Interview with Steez: Masters of the Creepfunk

Thanks for taking a break here to do this with me, guys. First set was a blast here! What’s it like coming back and playing the Popcorn Tavern again for so many years now? Steve: It’s been about 10 years now that we’ve been playing here. We love La Crosse. It’s got a sweet little vibe (laughs). It’s got the cool little downtown. It’s the place where people come to listen to live music. The people here are into it no matter what. Even if they’ve never heard of us before, they’re gonna give you a fair shake. I think it’s benefited us – people will pop in for a beer and stay the whole show, then they end up coming back the next time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjwEU4AO5ew&feature=youtu.be We love it when you come back here! So we’re chilling here on this big white school bus, which really caught my eye coming to the bar here Steve:The White Horse? (laughs) Haha yeah, the White Horse. How’d you guys come across this bad boy? Steve: This is our second bus, believe it or not. The first one didn’t make it around. R-I-P. (laughs). Died a couple years ago and we got this. Underneath it’s skin… I’m a little ashamed to say, it’s purple and gold – used to be a Vikings bus. It was a party bus for Vikings games. It’s kinda cool, cool idea… except we aren’t going to Viking games And instead you’re playing shows in Madison (laughter). Steve: Hahah yeah yeah and actually when we first bought it we had a show in Green Bay about 3 weeks later, and still haven’t painted it yet (laughs) so we rolled out and went to check out Lambeau during pre-season camp and we roll up in a purple and gold bus (laughs). That must have gotten a good reaction then (laughs). (laughs) Yeah it wasn’t as a bad as we thought but it still was pretty weird. Not sure if you guys know this, but there’s been 13 years of Summer Camp, over a thousand bands have played… you’re one of just 38 to have played over 3 times. Collective: Wow! What’s it like to have been welcomed back multiple years? Any favorite memories? Andrzej : It is truly a privilege every time we’ve played there. Years back, when I was younger I’d go there, like ’02, ’03. Steve and I went there, back when the Barn was free and there was only 3 stages. It’s grown an incredible way since then. So many memories. I’d say my favorite memory was Umphrey’s McGee in the barn, late night… Steve: Must have been ’03 or ’04. Andrzej: Playing there, probably my favorite memory was our first year playing there. The camping stage in the woods. We opened our set with Robot Rock, Daft Punk cover, and all of the sudden everyone came running from all different parts of the woods, it was a special moment. Steve: There’s YouTube documentation of that if you don’t believe it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm5h4LoPaSs Chris: There wasn’t anybody out there listening to us but about halfway through the song… wooks came creeping out of their tents (laughter) coming up like, “I know this song! Yeah!” Steve: It was unbelievable I’ll never forget that, for sure. Andrzej: Every time we played it’s awesome. It’s great coming back. Definitely my favorite festival / most sentimental. Chris: One year we won a contest to have Vinnie from moe. sit in on our set. Turned out our set got rained out so they pushed our set back to the Campfire Stage at a later time. Vinnie ended up not making it out cause he had prior obligations. Andrzej: I think he was playing with Widespread or something… Chris: Yeah… Steve: or moe. (laughter) Chris: (laughs) Yeah or the band he actually plays for (more laughter). We got his number though, he said he owes us a raincheck, so we’re hoping to hit him up soon Steve: We’ve been prank calling him for 4 years now. “Where are you, why aren’t you here?” (laughs) Andrzej: “Vinnie where are you, you’re up next!” (laughs) So it’s the 2^nd last show tonight with your drummer, how’s that feel, the final shows with long time tour mate? What should we expect going forward? Steve: To be honest with you, we feel really good tonight, how we’re playing. I’m having a lot fun. Probably not really thinking about it too much yet. Definitely gonna be tough, you know, we’ve been playing together with this configuration of Steez for almost 8 years now. Chris: We started out living together, so it goes beyond the band – roommate, friend. We’ve been buddies with Robby forever. So that makes it more difficult obviously than just replacing someone who you don’t like. But at the same time we’re all on the wrong side, or I guess the right side of 30 (laughs) and it gets tougher to pay the bills while still doing what we’re doing on the weekends. So I give him props for being able to tell us what’s up and that he’s gotta do other things. Andrzej: We’re all staying with it though, gonna continue on. We’re auditioning drummers, gonna figure it out. Definitely not the end of Steez. 3.0. We’ve done this before – when I joined the band in 2006 and Robby was actually the 2^nd drummer we had. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZboYU0O8pU&feature=youtu.be Just gonna keep on keeping on. Chris: I’m surprised we haven’t had more turnover, really, I mean 10 years. (laughs). You’d think people would get sick of us or sick of this bus or us playing and not making money. But yeah, we’ve all had a great time. You guys must be doing something right! Chris: Yeah! I don’t know what it is, I haven’t been able to put my finger on it but it works. People keep coming to shows so we got a reason to keep playing.        Stay tuned for more info on Steez 3.0! Visit their website here  Like Steez on the Facebook Follow Steez on Twitter ]]>