The Buzz

"The Buzz...begins"
With the finish of the album Ken now had us on wax. The problem now was how to sell us. The challenge back then was distribution. Back then Christian music was primarily sold in Bible bookstores,mom and pop shops an on rare instances record store. It would be years before the industry would grow into the billion dollar business it is today. Really Ken was a one man show and like us broke. still what He did have and was good at was this. He had the underground wired. He had a listing of tons of fanzines,magazines,reviewers, radio stations or shows that would feature us. All with the names of contacts. He had begun to send out advance copies of the cassette to reviewers. Meantime we continued our shows. By this time we were needing a second guitar player. If for no other reason for the song "Saints Boogie" The song featured twin guitar harmonies. The second guitar spot would wind up being a bit of swinging door for a time. We were good friends with another band called "Dave Brighten and the Promise" Dave and I had become friends after I graduated and he and Ken had known each other for quite some time. Thru Dave I met a guy who would leave a lasting impression on me. Troy Moody was a guitar player who was a bit older than I with similar tastes in music and family back grounds. He was average height and build with a mustache and a reseeding hair line. We hit it off right away. Having a second in the band also freed me to blow the harp which I was now doing on some newer tunes I was writing. I had learned a lot about song writing from Ken and I was already thinking of the next album. Song writing in the Saints was like this..If Tinker could catch the grove on a new song I wrote it was a keeper if not it was back to the woodshed with it. I remember I had written lyrics to a song that would wind up on the second album. I liked the words but every-time I brought it to the band Tink just couldn't get it..He'd say"Not that one again" Finally I'm sitting at home one night listening to Bo Diddley when that grove hit me. Yea thats it. Next day I play the groove for Tink and he's all over it like a bad rash.
The shows we were doing were as varied as you could get. One night might be a youth group the next would be a club. I remember we did a gig at this cool club in Long Beach called Bogarts...I had a blast that night It was not long after that that Troy shows up to gig dressed in "Saints Gear" he had gone to this place in Van Nuys called "ReRuns" a vintage clothes store and showed up wearing a shark skin tiny lapel suit, shinny tie and of all things...spats!...too cool I was really beginning to like him. We had done a gig one night for this youth group at a fairly large church. They were cool and even passed the plate. By then we had cassettes,tee-shirts,and 8x12 glossy' for sale. I can still remember someone asking me for an autograph for the first time...it was weird and a bit surreal .He was a latino brother that had just watched us play and could hardly speak english. I made sure I got his name right and signed it. We had been asked by the youth group to come back and do another gig. I remember the first time how we had 400 teenagers rocking and rolling in front of the stage all night..we wore them out..typical to the Saints back then.Gigs were a combination of glorious and gruesome. The week we played the gig with the youth group we had done our first gig at the FM station in North Hollywood. We played the 1 am spot on a tuesday night. The audience consisted of 3 passed out drunks at the bar,the bartender and two very bored looking waitresses. Loads of fun. We were thrilled to go back to the youth group again for another night of boogie with boys. We had set up earlier in the day so when I got there I tweaked a few things then went back stage. We were playing downstairs in a large multipurpose room from the church proper. I peeked out the curtain and saw the place was packed even more than the first time.
I start to get into the magic blue suit and beret when I hear this from the main room....stevie, stevie, stevie it
starts to grow louder accompanied by stomping....Stevie, Stevie, Stevie, I'm standing there shocked..Louder it gets STEVIE,STEVIE,STEVIE,,,Tink is standing there with this" knowing "kind of look on his face."Hear that?"..I couldn't believe my ears..I felt humbled...humbled...then....FIRED UP READY TO RIP!!!!!. We hit the stage that night and broke things.....the church did not inform me that we (specifically ME) were set up over the baptistry. Yea the drink...so on one particular hot tune I jump up and come down to find the floor cracked in two...the only thing between me and getting dunked and electrocuted was a 3/4 piece of plywood and a carpet! We had to stop the show and rearrange the gear so we(i,e ME) wouldn't wind up getting baptized for a second time in my life.
One of my favorite things after the shows I liked was standing behind the merch booth and meeting the fans..it was always such an honor and a blessing to play for them. I always found it wonderful to interact with them,sign autographs, laugh, encourage them in God.
Back at the studio Ken was busy promoting the album..he could only afford cassettes at first. But I remember when he ordered LP's. He took me to a pressing plant in south bay. I t was a cool experience. They had been there for years and years. I watched as they pressed our 1st LP's. They had these machines that looked like big waffle irons. In the center of the wheel out would come this blob of vynal.sitting on the outer rim was a gold master disc(Ken had said he made sure they cut the grooves deep to give us a good sound)the blob goes down on the bottom disc and the top comes down..splat! an LP, a tech trims the excess vynal and attaches the label.And there you have it! a shinny new LP just like the Big boys have! Cool! Ken also decided to press a 45 all this was mostly because the radio stations at the time were asking for LP's and 45's....had we only known that mere months later all this would change with the advent of cd's. Ken took "Don't Knock the Rock" and pressed 40 45's and sent them to the radio stations. Along with the LP's. This is a miniscule amount of 45's and LP's to sent out. I knew bands that would send out thousands of LP's. Out of a mere 40 45's we got regular rotation(which means they played us a lot) on 30 stations. Unheard of.
I'm sitting at home one night when I get a call from Ken. He says "You sitting down?" Well check this Out"
He begins to read to me the reviews he had gotten from the advance cassettes he had sent. For the next hour it was one RAVE review after another, "Genuine Guitar Hero, One of the Best bands to come along in Years,A Christian Jimi Hendrix, The Best Instrumental of 1988," on and on he went! I was dumbfounded . Amazed and humbled. Ken was beside himself and couldn't wait to call Tink. I hung up and sat there for the longest time just pondering all this. I couldn't wait to play our next gig.
There was one review in particular that really hit me. As I said before there were two rags I never missed. Guitar Player and Contemporary Christian Music. CCM said this about us.."This cassette may be hard to find but go to your local bookstore ASK FOR IT BY NAME AND DON'T TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER!" To get a review like that in a mag I had been reading for nearly 10 years was to say the least thrilling.
Early on in the band we had ran an ad in this south bay publication called "The Christian Activities Calendar"
sort of a who's who's of up and coming bands and events. One day I get this call from a former roommate from Alaska. Freddy Z (Z for Zaritzney) Freddy had moved to southern California gotten married ,had some kids and was a Calvary chapel evangelist. He was and still is a serious biker and a member of the Christian Motor Cycle Association. CMA. We talked about what I was doing and I told him about the Saints. Freddy would over time toss quite a few gigs our way including a "Biker Wedding". We were a good match. Plus Freddy was the kind of guy that seemed to know everyone from Darrel Mansfield to the guys in the Rez band(He had actually lived at JPUSA for a short time) to Chuck Smith the founding pastor of Calvary Chapel..the guy got around He even showed me pictures of him sharing his faith with none other than Sonny Barger the head of the notorious Hells Angels.
The good reviews continued to come as we struggled to figure out how to get the cassette and LP's out to the public. Ken was trying as best he could but it was a big world and to crawl out the underground was difficult to say the least. Looking back compared to your average musician walking the street ,here is what we did have...An explosive live show, a "critically acclaimed band" a producer and a killer LP. Honestly how many guys from GIT were doing what I was? or my friends back home? But at the time we were hoping for more. Ken was doing everything he could but he lacked two things...money and marketing. But really all of us were in some form of that soup or another. I can recall having a conversation with Dave from Neon Cross back stage at a show at the Waters Club. They had recorded a 24 track studio album on their own nickel. A no brainer for any label. Dave told me they had signed with some guys who turned out to be pirates. I remember him saying..."Stevie we got a good deal on our royalty spread..12%...but dude 12% of nothin is still nothin" hence the Christian Music business back then. It took money to promote and money was something we never had. What was great was the buzz that continued to grow. I just felt deep in my sould something would eventually come of it all. I remember early on before tell the guys this."Every gig we play good or bad,every person who sees us,reads anything about us is seed in the ground and it will reap a harvest someday. The key to this is to keep at it, "WEARY NOT IN WELL DOING BECAUSE IN DUE SEASON YOU WILL REAP"
By now Tory had left the band because he didn't see eye to eye with Ken. It was too bad too,I had grown really fond of him. all of us had. Once again the second guitar seat was empty. Finally one day Ken took off his producer hat, took off his manager hat,removed his record label suit and strapped on a guitar. It was a perfect fit. No one knew or understood the our music as well as he did. No one believed in us as much as he did. On top of all that Ken was an excellent rhythm guitar player. He had a knack for tying Tink and the Kid together in a tight groove and he could drive the band as hard as I could. It was a
Goldie Locks and the Three Bears Moment" where Long John had been "to cold" Troy "To hot" Ken wound up being "Just right"
There reviews and reports coming into studio on a regular basis now. We were hearing all kind of rumblings. We were getting airplay in pockets on both coasts the midwest and even Europe. They were playing us in England, Germany and France. We had even received notice from a station in Strasbourg France the we had become the second favorite artist on their station second only to Stryper...not bad for a bunch of broke fat boys.
In England a lady had contacted Ken and expressed a desire to be our exclusive representative over there and had said there was some interest from the Label that Motorhead was on(could you have imagined a tour with them Stevie and the Saints and Motorhead talk about "Heaven and Hell") They were a little put off by our straight forward Christian message. We had heard that Scott Gorham of Thinn Lizzy had heard the album and had expressed some interest. I got a call from my buddy Dave saying he had heard us on the major radio station there in Seattle during drive time(a choice time to played)
The point to all this is this, Most of what was swirling around us would never lead to anything solid but we were on the wire,on people minds and lips and the buzz was continuing to grow and grow..the would eventually lead to something.
One of the funniest things to come out of this was a call I got one night from my former musical partner Paul.
Paul was now living in Juneau Alaska. He was in a mall one day having coffee with a friend when up comes a buddy of his and says this"Dude I just got this totally killer cassette from a band out of LA called "Stevie and the Saints"..Paul goes "Hey I grew up with him, Stevie and I started out playin music together" The guy goes"Get outta Town! Who you fooling".."No really"..You're pulling my chain"...No It's the truth...Tell you what come with me right now and I'll prove it"...down to Pauls place they go. I get this call and it's Paul on the other line.He relates the story to me as I crack up he hands the phone to his buddy going "I told you so.." I hear this stuttering voice on the line...."Uh Uh Uh is the really Stevie?..."Yep the one and the same" there is some silence...then..."DDDDDooode...I really really like your band (smoke a lot pot did we?..I'm thinkin) I thanked him we talked about the music,guitars what we had coming if we would ever play in Juneau..I had a chance to encourage him in the Lord. It was a treat for the brother. It's not everyday a fan gets to chat on the phone with one of his favorite artists....the reality was, the Maverick was still parked outside my door,I was still standing in a cramped roach infested apartment with hardly two nickels to rub together while the woman I was married to complained constantly and basically treated me pretty much like a loser.....could have been worse could have had all that and nothing else.....the next week we played the FM station and as we drove up on the marquis was "STEVIE AND SAINTS LIVE TONIGHT" that made my Maverick look like a Cadilac!