Fresh Talent St. Louis Kids Make Music Pay

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Everyday Magazine
Fresh Talent St. Louis Kids Make Music Pay
Ellen Futterman Of the Post-Dispatch Staff
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
FIVE STAR
Page E01

What do U2, the Beatles (minus Ringo) and the Smithereens have in common with St. Louis bands like the Urge, Sinister Dane and MU-330?

They all got started in high school.

These days, high school students aren't just forming bands - they're playing at nightclubs, coffeehouses and private parties, and they're making a few bucks along the way. Others are rapping, singing and dancing professionally, even appearing on local television.

"There's a lot of young talent out there, and we're glad to showcase it," says Jim Roberts, owner of Bastille's, a no-booze club in West County that's open on weekends and caters to the under-21 crowd.

Bastille's features live bands, most of them with members still in high school. Three a night usually play, earning a percentage of the door receipts.

"We'll take any age," Roberts says. Things generally run smoothly, but sometimes there's a hitch.

"It's not uncommon for a band to cancel at the last minute because one of its members has been grounded," he says. "Or one member's girlfriend might get friendly with another member, and the next thing you know the band has broken up."

Stuart Dill is the drummer for Thumb, one of the high school bands that play at Bastille's. After practicing together for a year, Dill says, he and two classmates from Parkway West decided last summer to get serious about their music. Since then, they've played several local gigs.

"We do all original stuff," says Stuart, a senior, who describes Thumb's music as "part rock, part funk, part alternative."

"We'd like to go somewhere with it, get really big and well-known. But we don't really talk about that. We just are, like, going with it right now."

Andy Langansan, a senior at Crossroads in the West End, has played in four bands since he was 13. He's now on drums with the Outcast, which until a month ago was called Blender (the name changed when a member left). Blender played at the Wabash Triangle Cafe in the Delmar Loop and Kennedy's in Laclede's Landing, in addition to Bastille's.

Andy and other teen musicians say one of the biggest hurdles is being taken seriously.

"That's probably the most frustrating aspect," says Jeff Herschel, 24, drummer for the Urge. "We've been out there since '85, but I don't think anyone took us seriously until the last three years.

"In fact, I think the first time I honestly knew we were a serious thing was at our second tape release party at 1227" (now closed). "It sold out. Over 800 people showed up."

The Urge is on a three-week tour in the South and Midwest, has a fourth album due out next month and is scheduled to play at the mega-music SXSW festival in mid-March in Austin, Texas.

The band got started when most of its members attended Webster Groves High. Jeff says that in the early days the Urge did "routine high school stuff" like mixer parties. "Our first gig was at Webster High. We did a few house parties in people's basements. Nothing major, but we just kept going."

The band's first real gig was at the Great Grizzly Bear in Soulard. One of the bar's owners had graduated from Webster.

"Then we branched out to Cicero's basement and Blueberry Hill and Kennedy's," Jeff says. "Now, Karl (bass player Karl Grable) and I work only for the band. The rest work part time but get off for road trips as they come up."

Sometimes, age does make a difference. University City band director Jeff Mesha recently tried to get a weekend gig at a Clayton coffeehouse for students in a quartet called Jazz Abstract. The joint was looking for jazz musicians but got less interested after learning the group Mesha had in mind was still in high school.

Chalk one up to frustration, though Jazz Abstract has since been hired at private parties.

Fred Wilson Jr., a senior at East St. Louis Lincoln High, says young artists have to take themselves seriously before anyone else will.

"In our case, I think the jazz tradition at Lincoln really helped us," says Fred, a jazz pianist. Along with sister Anita, a junior who sings, and classmate Greg Lewis, who plays tenor sax, Fred is part of the group Jazz 'n' Us. The group played and got paid for weekend gigs at Two Black Cats on Washington Avenue until the downtown restaurant shut down last month.

Fred says he and Greg wanted to do something with their music in addition to playing in jazz bands at Lincoln. So they talked to a teacher who worked at Black Cats and asked if he would set up an audition. The next thing the three knew, they were being signed to play.

"We got a number of other gigs as a result," says Fred. "Right now we're so busy with the jazz band at Lincoln, we hardly have time for anything else."

Speaking of time, Carlos Dixon, 18, and Victoria Recano , 17, seem to spend all of theirs with Team 11, a group of multitalented teens who help promote kids programming for KPLR (Channel 11). They create vignettes that air during the station's "Disney Afternoons" from 3 to 5 p.m. They also sing and dance at live shows that pay each of the group's 13 members $50 a pop.

"Not only is (Team 11) an outlet for us to be creative, it also lets us relate to kids as kids," says Carlos, 18. He graduated from Edwardsville High School last June and writes and performs original raps for the group.

Victoria, a senior at Cor Jesu Academy, adds: "After years of dance and piano, to perform with a group as talented as this is an unbelievable self-esteem builder. All those years of lessons finally are paying off."

PHOTO; Caption: COLOR PHOTO - Thumb practices in bass player Brian Whitson's basement. Stuart Dill plays guitar at left, with Jon Beasley on drums.