Questions from The Panic Asylum
Q: Early years?
(oldschool)
Steve: I was born with webbed feet and gills, and while my parents inspired me to be true to my mutation and vowed to love me no matter what, I sold out and had the webbing surgically removed and the gills stitched shut. I have passed for a land-walker all this time, but every once in a while at high tide... usually during the full moon - I dream of what my life could have been like had I stayed true to my nature.
Q: If you could live ONE day in someone else's shoes, who would it be and why?
(RecklessPrincess)
Steve: Steve Jobs. right now, I would have to think that that guy is having the most amazing time. He is in a position to make any wild creative vision happen on a gigantic scale. He's the Willy Wonka of our age. Either him or someone with really nice shoes.
Q: How does it feel to play guitar with such a virtuoso like Navarro (not to diminish your guitar playing at all).
(zdilla)
Steve: Diminish away! It's pretty frigging intense. Dave has always, always been my favorite rock guitar player, so in the beginning it was hard not to kind of trip on that and lose what I was doing and blow it, sometimes. He is on a whole different level than anyone I've ever played with. I've never seen anyone who has such a natural ability to wrap himself around and inside a song, I really am in awe of his playing.
I've always played the guitar as a musical surface to sing upon.
Q: Since the last Skycycle album never got an official release, is it difficult to not go back and rework those songs for future projects?
(six7six7)
Steve: No, it's pretty easy to leave them alone. It will always be my great heartbreak that a band I spent 5 years playing in had to be chewed up and spit out by the Industry. That music is precious to me, and hearing it now kinda hurts.
Q: Is there a song that you are most proud of?
(helena)
Steve: Each one as you can imagine has certain things that make it special, but if I had to pick one that I personally enjoy the most, it would probably be "Bloody Mary". I think something special happened on that song.
Q: What would you like the fans including me to say after they hear the album?
Steve: "Let's not vote for any more assholes like George Bush the next time we have the opportunity."
Q: Is there a song that one of you wrote or want to sing that you had to convince the others because they weren't crazy about it and it turned out good anyway?
(jasmin5184)
Steve: I have a recollection that I brought in "Blue Bruises" and nobody liked it and I sat on it until we needed another song on the record, then I brought it back out and they dug it. They say they liked it from the start. I might have been all sensitive that day. I can get that way.
Q: Do you get into arguments over what songs to use. Who usually wins?
Steve: The push and pull of the band has been uber-democratic so far. If someone is really passionate about doing something, then everyone goes along and gives it a shot. Conversely, if someone is dead set against something, that can tip the scales, too. Then we decide by knife fight.
Q: What your 'imaginary' rider would look like, what items do you HAVE to have backstage?
(jezebel)
Steve: This is easy: 10 thousand Krispy Kreme donuts arranged meticulously in the shape of a giant lotus flower, with naked little people cavorting and dancing about holding silver trays with an assortment of fine cheeses while nearby Unicorns with diamond studded horns wait ready for a fine pre-show ride.
Q: Your dream session musicians?
(jezebel)
Steve: It doesn't get any better than this band.
Q: Your first thought upon waking up?
(jezebel)
Steve: I wish I was a cat.
Q: From the actor's studio interviews...your favorite curse word?
(jezebel)
Steve: Cuntfucker. Not really - I just wanted to say something other than "Fuck" cause people always say that on that show. How about "Assrape". No... I just said that to make myself smile. The word I use day to day is "doorknob". When I get pissed at stupid people, I call them doorknobs.
Q: Do you have any favorite concoctions/warmups that help you get through a gig if your voice is paining you, or just because?
(spencer)
Steve: Yeah, I warm up before I sing always as a rule. When I did "Tommy", I didn't have a choice, there was no way I could go out on stage and not be ready. I took some vocal lessons before that tour and the teacher - this really cool woman named Amy Coleman gave me a warm up routine which I still do. As for elixirs and stuff: hot tea with honey and lemon, hot showers for steam, and sometimes some Vicks Vap-O-Rub under my nostrils to open it up. If I am screwed, and it's an emergency - I pop some Advil before singing - helps to shrink the swelling in the chords.
Q: Do you feel any pressure to try and connect with the Jane's fans that don't seem that interested in TPC?
(zdilla)
Steve: Actually, no. I am in what would be one of the strangest situations you can imagine, playing with 2 of my favorite musicians from one of my all-time most loved bands. I understand perfectly clearly that fans don't like it when members of their favorite band play with someone else. I get it. That's why if some Jane's fans dig us, that's great, but I don't at all expect it. Stylistically, we're 180 degrees different. That said, I love the Jane's fans, because I am one too.
Songwriting process, what comes first, a feeling, words, music?
(oldschool)
Steve: Usually chords/feeling, then words.
Q: Is it sometimes hard to get the song exactly how you hear it in your head?
(helena)
Steve: I don't really hear finished songs in my head. It's never been like: I wake up at night with an orchestra playing in my head and I'll go insane if I can't put it down to paper. That's not how songs approach me. It usually starts with an idea and grows to the "aha" point where the whole picture becomes clear - then I get anxious about seeing that vision realized.
Favorite Junk Foods?
(Denise)
Steve: Krispy Kreme donuts, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles, Nerds, White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies, Girl Scout Samoa Cookies, Pizza with Tabasco sauce, Coldstone. Anything with caramel in it. I'd eat a dead baby with caramel in it.
Time of day you work/create best?
(crazycurves)
Steve: Really late at night, like 1-5am. I wish it wasn't like that, but it's always been that way. During the day, some kinds of work can flow, but creative endeavors, for me, are always 100% more intuitive and free when I am alone very late at night.
Q: Things that really piss you off?
(crazycurves)
Steve: Calling tech support, breaking guitar strings, arrogance, Parking enforcement in Hollywood, status bars, Sparkle Tags, trying to push big creative ideas through tiny corporate holes, those political shows where everybody yells at eachother.
