Local Band Network Member Since: May 24, 2005
Last Update: January 3, 2006
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Music types:
Rock, Pop
Description:
I’m driving down an unassuming tree-lined street in Suburban Maryland looking for the turnoff. At last here it is--a modest, three-bedroom affair that has become the base of operations for a band unabashedly referring to themselves as the “Next Big Thing.” I walk in half-thinking that someone’s mother will magically appear 1950’s style to offer lemonade and cookies, all the while ushering me through the den and into the garage to hear her son and his friends bang sloppily on second-hand instruments and practice their patented rock star moves in a mirror.
Turns out I’m early for our meeting.
Instead I walk headfirst into what could easily be a Boiler Room on Wall Street. This humble abode has been gutted and transformed into the Think Tank headquarters of the Indie-pop band HOTSPUR, complete with recording studio, practice space and of course, living quarters for the band members.
Four young men are scattered throughout what might have once been a charming living room heatedly discussing the future trends of the music industry and the most strategically viable options for demographically-targeted marketing--topics and projections I expect to hear from aging music executives with ponytails and world weary expressions, not from energetic twenty-somethings fresh out of college.
I might have expected as much if I had sooner realized that these are no ordinary graduates—green behind the ears and lacking in direction. These are young men who for the last four years of their lives have immersed themselves in the music industry--dissecting what makes it tick, familiarizing themselves with the formulas, strategies, and demands of the business, paying their dues with internships, research, and networking, until receiving their diplomas. Three Music Business degrees. One Philosophy degree.
They request ten minutes to finish up their daily Marketing Meeting - held at 10 sharp every morning Monday through Friday. I spend the time examining the demeanors of all four of these similarly driven and yet starkly diverse young men. The composite is almost too perfect.
Mach is pacing the floor of the makeshift board room, dry-erase marker flaring dangerously as he marks the week’s goals and duties on a massive white board. With blonde hair, a square jaw and wide steely blue-gray eyes, he’s obviously the charasmatic ringleader of the group. He gestures in a wide graceful arc, conducting the symphony of tasks on this weeks To Do list; follow-up calls, song arrangements, fan-base building, etc., assigned voluntarily and based on each individual’s respective strengths.
Scott Robinson, the drummer, rugged and solidly earthbound compared to Mach’s unceasing kinetics, is perhaps the second loudest voice in the band. His experience as a sound engineer has fostered in Robinson a keen ear for perfection. He sees sound rather than hearing it, which is why his percussion performances are precise and explosive providing a solid base for Mach’s poignant and clever lyrics.
Keyboardist Dave Trichter sits quietly, dreamily eyeing his keyboard which rests on its stand nearby, untouched and begging to be played. Listening to his bandmates bounce ideas off of each other has only inspired the keys in his musical brain to begin clicking. His right hand twitches just slightly; the boys finish analyzing the bridge to one of many single-worthy pop songs constantly in progress, tweaking every unnoticeable detail until it’s that much more professional, flawless, finished. He’s already got the finished piece in his head and is aching to begin tapping it out.
Suddenly a calm voice brings the meeting to a close. Phil Stablein, the bassist, is stepping in to do what he does best--moderate between the major creative forces that clash and refine each other with each practice, each venue, each new song. He has a quiet presence that is reassuringly approachable, down-to-earth. He turns his gaze intently on me, as if to give me the floor.
Before forming HOTSPUR, Mach, Robinson, Trichter and Stablein were a piano-driven rock quartet known as Day Station. Their catchy pop debut “The Beat Says Yes” was referred to by a Music Monthly staff writer as “one of the best albums I’ve heard in a long time.” Despite their success, the boys began to get restless. The product was simply not up to their standards and they could all feel it. After re-evaluating the album and the band as a whole, they decided to scrap Day Station and start over.
The ensuing frustration and determination forged an electric new sound that would become the essence of HOTSPUR: blaring guitars and kinetic synth riffs intermixing with punchy bass lines and "get-up-and-dance" drums; tight harmonies on top of elaborate soundscapes and soaring melodies; and at the core of it all, excellent songs that are pure entertainment. “Making the change to HOTSPUR was all about setting the bar higher,” says singer Joe Mach, “songwriting, recording, performing—it’s taking things to the next level.”
So far the effort has paid off. Since their live debut at the infamous 9:30 Club (a stage typically reserved for national touring acts), HOTSPUR has reconnected as a group and sparked a new passion for their calling. Run with the discipline of a constantly expanding business while retaining an intense creative individualism, the band has made its mission to succeed at the business they know like the back of their hands.
“We know there are a lot of good bands out there and that if we don’t work harder than the rest of them, then it’s not going to happen for us--so we do,” explains Robinson. Even if it means throwing away two years of hard work and critical acclaim because the results didn’t meet the band’s standards.
They’ve learned to trust their ears and their instincts; and have developed a meticulous system of criticism and feedback that can be, at times, intimidating: “The scariest part of my job,” confesses Mach, “is bringing new material to the rest of the band—I know they’re going to pick it apart more than any record label will.”
The result of such rigorous self-examination? Pop songs crafted to perfection; not by a corporate formula, but by careful attention to detail and popular appeal. They are driven by the passion and earnest of a rock band with something to prove. And where most pop groups come off as fake and manufactured, HOTSPUR comes off as a band with a mission: to be the next big thing in music.
By Erin Hamada
Band Members:
Joe Mach - Vocals, Guitar Dave Trichter - Keyboards, Piano Phil Stablein - Bass Scott Robinson - Drums
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