Steve Van Etten: Guitars and beyond

Steve's Stream-of-Thought Bio

My dad was into Ham Radio. He built tone generators to tape Morse code with. They had a knob for volume and pitch. Many hours in pseudo-Theremin mode. Dad had a banjo. I taped a speaker to the drum head, reversed the wires to make it a microphone and plugged it into a reel-to-reel tape machine. Viola! Electric Banjo.

Bought a bass to form a band with my friend, Vic. It was red and looked like Angus Young's guitar. I sat for hours in the basement playing along with the radio. Dad said that bass wasn't a "real" instrument. We bought a guitar. I played with many garage bands. Jeff B. introduced me to King Crimson. Saw Adrian Belew play "Elephant Talk" on late night TV. Changed my perspective.

Most of the 80's I spent with Helge and Vic playing in many cover bands. Southern Rock, ZZ Top, Journey, Led Zep, Tom Petty. I recorded a lot. Had multitracks from the days of the electric banjo. Many kinds. Bob P. got me hooked on home recording.

I worked at a music store in Xenia. Much practice time. Bought keyboards.

Scott and I knew each other from HS. I worked with him making pizzas. I gave him some songs to listen to and he came back with ASTOUNDING bass stuff. So we started a band in the early 90's, "VOID WHERE PROHIBITED". There were no rules. We did what we wanted. A true "Band's band". Greg added drums and we were a mighty force.

We killed "Void" when it stopped being fun. Zoom and Gary said I should try out for Jayne's band. She was looking for a "darker", "edgier sound". I can do that. She was looking for bass, too. I called Scott.

I'm currently a student of Zen Master Dae Gak with the Buddhist name of Tae Sahn practicing with the Hamilton and Cincinnati Zen Centers. It hasn't helped my playing much.

Since the early days of watching the demon-like figure of Gene Simmons of Kiss engorge himself in a vomitus flow of bright red blood, completely covering himself, his bass guitar and anyone in the audience sitting within splattering distance, I have always been an admirer of the instrument (bass guitar that is). Although the technical appreciation for the instrument came at a later phase of my life, I developed the energetic urge to want to entertain people before anything else.

My first band didn't even have a name. We were just four starry-eyed dreamers wanting nothing more than fame and fortune (and maybe sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll too, if 11-year old boys are able to think about such BAD things). I naturally chose to play bass and I wanted to wear make up just like those Detroit city rockers (KISS). Over time, young boys develop other interests and before too long, my first band was nothing more than a memory.

My passion to be an entertainer never let up. My musical tastes began to expand and I became increasingly more interested in a wide variety of music. I started to appreciate the more technical playing abilities of great bass players such as John Entwistle, Chris Squire, Greg Lake, Geddy Lee, and Stanley Clarke just to name a very few. I instantly became attracted to their natural abilities to be so melodic on the bass. Bass players are suppose to play along with the beat, generally following the kick drum only, but these guys sounded different and it completely inspired me to look at bass playing in a totally different way. Many times I will write bass lines based upon what the vocals are doing or maybe the guitar line.

My younger years of playing in bands during high school and through my early twenties witnessed extremely outrageous musical compositions of underground hard-core punk movements and in-your-face metal riffs. I developed a good sense of rhythm and timing by rocking my head forward and backward also known as good old fashioned head banging. Much of this raw intense energy is still inside of me, which has a tendency to escape out of me every once in a while (like at a Jayne show).

My experiences playing with Jayne are completely different from my younger wilder days, but I still get the same energetic thrill that comes from playing good music and performing it in front of a warm receptive crowd. Jayne's fans are the best. When playing in front of them I feel completely at home. And that's always a nice place to be.

Kelly Morelock: Drums and Percussion (e-mail Kelly)

I have two older brothers that had, and still have different tastes in music. My oldest brother Mark was into everything from Van Halen, Queen, and Supertramp, to Steely Dan, The Doobie Bros, and ELO. Doug, my second oldest brother was big into WDAO and all the sweet soul and funk music of the early 80's. I feel that I got a well rounded musical education from my older brothers because of the diverse styles that I was exposed to. In May of 1981, at the end of my 6th grade school year, I was inspired by the 6th grade concert band's version of the songs from the Xanadu soundtrack, specifically ELO's "All Over the World". Unfortunately, I was hooked, all because of Xanadu and ELO?. I decided then that I wanted to be a drummer. "ELO ROCKS!"

The following summer, while shopping at garage sales with my mother, I bought an old Ludwig snare and a no-name floor tom for next to nothing. I spent many hours holed up in my room playing to top forty radio songs by Hall and Oates, Van Halen and John Cougar.

From the 7th grade to 12th grade, I played in combinations of concert, pep and marching bands. I was in love with the marching band. I couldn't play enough. I could just breathe drums all day back then. Oh, and also girls, let's not forget them.

I still can't play enough.

I was exposed to Latin percussion in 7th grade. One of the songs we played called for the percussion section to play Latin percussion. I remember the first time we played through the song, thinking, Wow, what's going on? This is cool. I was hearing this really great soundscape of percussion that I've never experienced. Finally, before even owning a drum set, in high school, I got a set of bongos, timbales and then congas.

My first band in high school was called Bongo Bay. I played Latin percussion and we had a rotating cast of musicians. We had these great ideas about playing tropical music, or at least music with a tropical feel. I remember hating the cold winters in high school, and the only solace I had was drums and tropical music. Tropical music is so infectious, it was an escape.

Bongo Bay started and stopped and had members come and go many times over the course of seven years. We finally broke up in 1995.

	Photo: Andy Welter

Throughout the years I have been in The Jake And Elwood Blues Revue, Bongo Bay, Glee and Beak, The Kerry Smith Band, Tommy and the Moondogs, The Danny Voris Project, Jayne Sachs Band, and recorded with and played in/with many other bands too numerous to list.

I'm currently playing in Dorie & The Daddy-O’s – a band that primarily entertains toddlers and preschoolers, The Kerry Smith Band, Travel, and obviously, with Jayne.

In my alternate life, I have a son, Spencer, who was born in June of 2002, and a wife, Lauri, who I married in October of 2000. We have been together since 1994, and we live in Dayton. I work at Design Forum as a Digital Media Coordinator – which basically means ‘Jack of all Trades’ and Lauri is a clinical therapist. Spencer spends his time working puzzles, playing board games, fighting sleep, enjoying music, playing with friends, killing us at memory games and attending pre-school.