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Taproot, the four-piece heavy alternative rock/metal band from Ann Arbor, Michigan took the stage at the Murat Theatre, Indianapolis, Indiana making their first stop on a six week tour to promote their upcoming release “Blue Sky Research.” Dusting off the cobwebs after not performing for two years, the set was a bit challenged at times with technical difficulties and was a bit loose on occassion. But make no mistake. Taproot gave an inspired performance, and left it all on the stage. After playing hits from their first two albums, Taproot wound down the set with “Calling”- a tune that will grab you and not let you go. We’re going out on a limb here and suggesting prior to its release, that “Calling” will soon be headed for heavy rotation and possibly even a Grammy nomination.

I had the pleasure of sitting with Steve Richards, lead vocalist of Taproot, inside his tour bus prior to the show. I discovered not only a man living his destiny. I found an average guy, with an above average perspective on life, topped off with a healthy sense of humor. MusicPix: I want to begin by saying how much we’ve come to admire your work. You’ve received a thumbs up from critics which included The Rolling Stone, hailing you as ‘the next contenders for the new-metal crown.” We think you’ll wear it well!
MusicPix: Having not performed in almost 2 years, have you missed the road? Are you jazzed, relieved, nervous?



Steve: Every single possible emotion that you can have all at the same time. It’s very stressful knowing that we’re going to get out there in front of thousands of people for the first time in two years. …We had been touring constantly for about five years non-stop on the first two albums. We took about nine months off to work on our second record, “Welcome.” Other than Christmas breaks, we were on the road-tour after tour after tour. We were on tour all across the world. This was the first time that we had time to take off and find out who we are as people again after work, work, work. So after two years of working even harder on this new album, “Blue Sky Research,” we’ve definitely had enough time to relax and settle down and get our lives together. We’ve been home in Michigan for the past couple of months. So, we’re itchin’ to get on stage tonight and get this tour going. It’s going to be a crazy night. It’s the beginning of the whole tour. I just found that out tonight. [Laughing] I thought we’d missed a couple of shows already! And God, we’re going to be further behind everyone else!! Oh, God, no….

MusicPix: A few years ago, there was a big buzz about Taproot and then you went on creative hiatus. Now you’re back. Do you feel added pressure to live up to the hype?

Steve: There’s obviously pressure. But still at the same time, we’re just four normal guys who make music for ourselves first and foremost. It’s obviously great news that people like what you worked so hard on. To receive it, and take to it, and get anything positive from it, then that’s just the icing on the cake. For us, to have the chance to just not to have to worry about a nine to five- all these fears and worries about crap that a lot of people go through in their life. At the end of the day, our stress is boo-hoo, we didn’t come up with a good song today. So, we’re just really happy to live that lifestyle. The pressure and the stress is usually put upon us from other people who are feeling the stress and pressure. For us, we find out we’re going on tour. We show up. We play as best as we possibly can and that’s what we do. I don’t think we feel the pressure too much. Long term though, it’s important to be received by the public and be successful enough to keep going. We’re hopeful and optimistic but not too stressed. Plus, I think we made the best record that we possibly could have.


MusicPix: Can you talk about what it was like to work with former Smashing Pumpkin, Billy Corgan?

Steve: It came about because six or seven months into this project, we got rid of our first producer. And at that point in time, we needed some type of new inspiration. We went through a laundry list of producers and musicians that we as the band Taproot collectively respected and we came up with Dave Grohl, Billy Corgan and a couple of other guys. Billy Corgan was the name that caught us. We called management and said, ooh, we wonder what that would be like. So they called him to see if he would be interested in producing our record. He wasn’t interested in producing our record, but he had just worked with Breaking Benjamin and he really enjoyed the experience. He said that he was familiar with our first two records and that he’d love to work with us to see what happens. So we flew to Chicago for six days. We walked in the room- shook hands- got that out of the way. It turned into, Billy saying, ‘Play this…OK, that’s really cool. Play this, but try this.” I said, “Holy crap, why didn’t we think of that.” He’d like to break our balls really early on and point out, ‘you guys don’t even realize when you are falling into your own patterns. So if it feels right or comfortable, you should probably do the opposite from here on.’ We were like OK, that’s a good thought… I’d say on the record, he was involved in three of the songs that actually made the record.

MusicPix: Was he involved with FacePeeler?

Steve: No. The song that that he wrote for us is a song called “Lost in the Woods.” He wasn’t involved with “Calling” or “FacePeeler.” But the song “Lost in the Woods”… He said that we woke up at six in the morning on the last day of working together. He said that he woke up, grabbed his guitar and that he was inspired to write something for us. It was this beautiful arpeggiated melody. It didn’t have words. It was kinda of free style. He said, “I don’t want you to just do what I did… I want you guys to take it and make it yours.” And that’s what we did. Besides just the fact that Billy was involved in that song, it’s probably one of the most powerful songs lyrically, as well as musically, on this record. It’s just a great song.


MusicPix: How did you come up with the name Blue Sky Research. What’s behind the name?

Steve: It’s kind of random. Mike (guitarist) looks in books of idioms, thesauruses, to try to get wacky, off-the-cuff ideas and found Blue Sky Research as a term used at IMB and other huge companies- that pay people to get together as brainstormers. But they don’t get paid to focus on a deadline or any certain product in particular, or end game. They are basically people who have meetings and brainstorm about nothing in particular. And for me, that kind of made sense. While the thirteen songs on this album all have things in common, the are still very separate entities. So, the record itself isn’t just about one person or one thing in general. There’s thirteen different stories or different takes on life. I guess the vagueness of the name is what really was the draw for us. When people started asking about what that meant back home, a couple of friends of ours came to us and said that they had blue sky meetings once a week and they never knew why. At least someone heard about it….


MusicPix: You’ve been promoting via the internet from the beginning and you communicate directly with your fans. Early on, you believed in global word of mouth. Can you talk about fan interaction on the web?

Steve: We’re just four normal guys. Not one of us has an ego in any one shape or form and that’s probably the biggest thing. We know a lot of bands and even if they are nice people-bands break up because they don’t even get along with each other. We opt to do things on our free time if possible. We just love being around each other. We make each other laugh and we think that people understand that when they get to know us. They understand that they know once you’re in, you’re in-you’re kinda like family. We’re like happy go lucky guys. At the end of the day, technically some people think this is a job but it’s what we love doing. Communicating with people and receiving feedback as well as sharing stories – they are all basic elements of just living life that we wouldn’t want to shut out just because it’s time off. Especially with the internet nowadays, it’s just so easy and convenient to shoot the shit with people and to learn things. It’s just a great gateway to people who are the only reason that we get to do what we’re getting to do right now. The people that care and buy records.

MusicPix: Off the upcoming release, what song speaks to you most?

Steve: Probably the one that speaks to me the most is the one that Billy wrote with us in mind, “Lost in the Woods.” The lyrics are really personal yet open for people to interpret. It deals with a lot of the most traumatizing parts of my life. So I guess, it was a good point in my life to get it out. A good experience. A great song top to bottom. A great song and Billie was involved.

MusicPix: OK, to wrap things up- we ask a series of questions to every artist called The MusicPix Six:

MusicPix: What is the first musical instrument you played and at what age?

Steve: Drums -when I was four.

MusicPix: What artist/performer influenced you the most?

Steve: Boy oh boy oh boy….probably a combination of some kind of stand up comic and a musician. [laughing] When I was a little kid, I’d watch MTV ‘Dancing with Myself’ by Billy Idol and ‘Stripped’, the Adam Ant video… and I’d put on some of my Mom’s clothes cause all the dudes back then looked like chicks [laughing] and I used to lip sync in the mirror and pretend that I was those guys. At that development age when I probably shouldn’t have been experimenting with that kind of stuff, I made it through it OK [giggle]. So I’d say those two guys caught me at a ripe age and singing those songs. But at the same time, I was a drummer.

Musically? Our favorite band, who was a huge influence, was The Deaftones because we got to tour with them so much and became friends with them. We respect their music and can’t wait to hear another one of their records. That’s probably the most eagerly anticipated record from our camp would be The Deaftones because that’s our fix. Of all time, I’d probably have to say, Alice in Chains. That’s one of the first bands I started playing guitar to and really getting the harmony stuff down that probably subconsciously got inside my brain and rewired it. I said, you know what? I want to be a singer. I want to have fun making weird noises with my mouth and make it sound cool.

MusicPix: If you weren’t in your current band, what band would you like to play in?

Steve: Hmmm. I’m trying to be serious. It’s so hard to be serious. If I wasn’t in this band, I guess I’d like to play drums for SlipKnot. It would be a good workout. I’ve played drums since I was four. It would be a treat. It would be a great challenge for me to play a set with SlipKnot. I’d love it!

MusicPix: What are your 3 ‘dessert island’ albums?

Steve: I’d probably have to go with Life of Agony, the second record, Ugly. Probably Alice in Chains, Dirt. And probably… Pantera, no, I’m not ready to kill myself. OK, probably Abba’s, greatest hits. It’s on my IPod. I’m dead serious. The Greatest Hits cause I don’t know all of their other songs… In my mom’s clothes again- [laughs!*&!@^]

MusicPix: Who do you think is the most over-rated in the music industry?

Steve: Oh, there’s so many different ways you can go. Oh God. There’s so many shitty people. [argh-he’s moaning] With the auto tuning these days, you can’t tell how bad some guys are…I’ll get back to ya on that one….

MusicPix: What’s your ‘perfect world?’

Steve: My perfect world would consist of not getting hang-overs, having hockey on 24 hours a day, a loft apartment at the United Center in Chicago…hmmm, what chick do I want to get in trouble today? I’ll go with…. Nah, she’s got two kids…. (Playing it safe) I’ll go with my current girlfriend by my side.



Discography
Something More than Nothing - released in 1998; independent release
Gift - released in June 2000; Atlantic Records
Welcome - released in October 2002; Atlantic Records
Blue-Sky Research - due for release on August 16, 2005; Atlantic Records


The Band

Steve Richards - vocals
Mike DeWolf - guitar
Phil Lipscomb - bass
Jarrod Montague - drums

The Tour

7/12 Detroit, MI
7/12 Grand Rapids, MI
7/14 Ft. Wayne, IN
7/15 Cleveland, OH
7/16 Cincinnati, OH
7/18 Toledo, OH
7/19 Pittston Township, PA
7/21 Hampton Beach, NH
7/22 Northampton, MA
7/23 Atlantic City, NJ
7/25 Sayreville, NJ
7/26 Dewey Beach, DE
7/28 Virginia Beach, VA
7/29 Philadelphia, PA
7/30 Poughkeepsie, NY
8/1 Portland, ME
8/2 Boston, MA
8/3 New York, NY
8/5 Myrtle Beach
8/6 Atlanta, GA
8/8 Orlando, FL
8/9 Tampa, FL
8/11 Birmingham, AL
8/12 Columbus, OH
8/14 Madison, WI
8/16 Des Moines, IA
8/17 Columbia, MO
8/18 Kansas City, MO
8/20 Las Vegas, NV
8/21 Tucson, AZ



By

Gwyn Tyme