Backstage Pass with... Stephen Kellogg

Stephen Kellogg:

the best thing since 2002 Steve Maddens

By: Nicole Roberge

            If you haven’t heard of Stephen Kellogg, I don’t know what you’re waiting for.   This creative singer-songwriter writes prolific songs filled with soaring melodies with unique musicality and has an invigorating personality to match.   Together with drummer Brian Factor, and bassist/keyboardist Keith Karlson, they are Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers.  Their live show has been captivating fans throughout the country with their comedic stage play and their camaraderie that shines through during and between songs.  They are an act like no other and ensure to impress and entertain at every show.

            Recently signed to Foundations Music on Universal Records, Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers will be releasing a new album on February 15, 2005, roughly a year after their last independent release, Bulletproof Heart.  One of the most genuine people I know, Kellogg pushes that sincerity into his music, writing honest and poignant songs that pull you in and immerse you in his story for that four minute span.  And it’s not a bad place to be pulled in to.  Stephen Kellogg is a gem, there’s no doubt about it, and we are all lucky that he is out there creating such inspired music.

                  With a new CD to be released and plenty of touring ahead, there is a lot that Kellogg has to look forward to, and reflect on:

Tuned In:  So you have a new CD in the works—who have you been working with on this and what can we expect?

Stephen Kellogg:  The record’s a fun, energetic pop thing, but we’ve been working on some of the country, roots vibe too.  It’ll be about 70 percent new material and about 30 percent of stuff that we re-recorded.  We worked with Mike Daley, the guitarist from Whiskeytown, which was really cool because I’m a big fan of his work. We’ve been doing a lot together.  He’s been playing guitar on the record which is really exciting.

Andy Zulla is the  producer.  He just produced Rich Price’s album, and his song that was on Shrek 2.  He makes a lot of shameful ridiculous things, which just makes it all funnier.  He produced the Clay Aiken record, the Kelly Clarkson record.  He does a lot of pop and he just started to produce more things.  The whole thing with the producer was he really wanted to produce some rock and roll and get out of the pop world, and we were excited to work with someone like him and get some more energy onto our record.  It seemed like he needed us and we needed him, so it’s been really fun to work with him.

TI:  What was it like recording in New York?

SK: It’s been so fun.  We did it for a month.  We were in a hotel in midtown, which was such a cool experience.  Because I’ve never really wanted to move to New York, but I always thought that I’d have more fun if I lived there.  So it was really fun for us to live in New York for a month and be New Yorkers.  Even though we weren’t really New Yorkers.  Even on the nights when we dressed up our most to fit in with the whole New York fashion craze, we’d go out and we’d look like a bunch of bumpkins.  I’d be in all my fancy duds and trying to look cool, and you could just see everyone being like, “Oh my gosh, those Steve Maddens are like so 2002.”  But that was all kind of funny too.

            There was just a good vibe and I did a lot of writing while I was there.  I wanted a whole different experience with a lot of energy to it, and this was just perfect for that.  And the food was good.

TI:  Did you have a lot of free time there?

SK:  Sometimes.  It was like, in some ways you’re always working, and then sometimes you just had time off.  There were the occasional days when we just worked all day and were very busy, and there were the days when we just took off.  Most days you’d just work for a couple hours and then you’d kind of be off while Brian and Keith were working or Andy was doing stuff.  I had time to do some stuff though, go to the village.  Keith and I made a resolution to exercise while we were there.  We ran the first week in Central Park, and we thought it was so awesome and were like ‘yeah we’re gonna do this every week.’  And then we went on one more run on the last day there for like fifteen minutes.  We didn’t have a lot of free time but just being in New York, even the walk from the hotel to the studio, everything was just so cool.

TI:  And this new album will be your first on a label.  What was it like for you to sign?

SK: We signed this deal with Universal, but basically we’re just focusing on that we’re signing with our manager Steve’s label, Foundations Records.  It’s gonna open up some great opportunities and make the record available to some more people.  Our first inclination is to be like, wow, I signed a record deal.  It’s awesome, but the more I think about it, the only real thing with the label is that it can kind of make it more available.  More so than the Universal thing, I’m excited about being on Steve’s label.  I’ll be the first release on the label.

The way it works is the big labels give people imprints and then that’s their label.  We’re signed to Foundations Records.  People have this whole expectation of a major label debut and then bands get dropped.  I’d like, as much as possible, to avoid getting involved and have people think of us as a major label band, because I don’t think that’s the ideology of Steve’s record label or our band.  The number of records we sell is less important than doing it right, and touring and making sure that our fans feel happy with the music that we’re putting out, and that we feel happy with the music too.  I just want to keep it as indie as possible.  It’s easy to be excited about having a major label debut, but I don’t think you’re going to hear us all over the radio.  We’re hoping to get out more to college radio, triple A radio.  We’re trying to really do it right and keep it real.

TI:  Did you have any reservations then about signing?

SK:  None.   To me, I’ve never had enough time, money, organization…we need people to help on our team.  The thing is, if everything on our team fell apart, the band would keep doing what it’s doing.  But in order to do it right, we need more and more help.  I’d like for us to get around, and have proper equipment and have records in stores.  I’ve gotten emails from people saying they went to this record store and they were out of the CD.  So then we have to wait around for the store to tell us that and then we’ll ship more CD’s to them.  It just takes a lot of effort.  To me, as much as people talk about the pitfalls of labels, and I understand what they are, I just want to make our music more available.  So far, the label and our team have been great.  The label is help.  It’s people saying, ‘hey, we like what you’re doing and we want to work on this with you.’

TI:  You used to be just “Stephen Kellogg” and now you’re “Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers.”  How is that for you?

SK:  It’s great.  I love it.  I love it because I love playing with those guys and having a band ideology.  I feel like it’s easier to believe in a band than to believe in a person.  And that goes down to me, in that I’m Stephen Kellogg and I believe more in the Sixers than I believe in myself.  People have doubts and self-doubts but a band is more of a collective conscience.  From that point I absolutely love it. 

But with any relationship you’re always scared because it’s a precious thing.  Other than marriages or family, which tend to last forever, you’re all tied together in this investment.  I think that’s where the highs are gonna be a lot higher and the lows may be a little bit lower because you’ve got more people involved and that makes the relationship more complex.  So I love it and I’m really excited.  It’s what I’ve always wanted for myself, to be a part of something.  It’s weird because my name still sticks out, but regardless of what anybody did I’m still gonna keep doing what I’m doing.  I love the idea of the Sixers and I hope goes on forever.  Even if it didn’t, I’d still keep doing my thing.  But it would be a totally different thing than the Sixers because the Sixers are now this real thing that I’m a part of and I love it.  I feel lucky to be a part of something with those guys.

TI: So you did a video for your song Thirteen—how was that?

SK:  It was so fun.  It was out of whack because it was just the three of us, no one’s playing guitar, nothing’s plugged in, the microphones not really on.  It was a super budgeted video.  We worked on a new version of Thirteen for the new album, sort of rearranged, so I’m not really sure what’s going to become of the video.  We got my brother to star in it and these really cool thirteen-year-old girls.  It will be on the website and then maybe on a DVD or an enhanced portion of the album.  It was fun though.  A lot of things we do, we just do for the experience.  It was funny.  We shot it at my old Junior High and my old Dean of Students was actually in the video.  All fun until it was like 9:30 at night and he wanted to go home and we’re shooting scenes by lockers.  He was growing tired of having the rock band invade his school, I think.

TI: You have a really nice following of fans.  What is the most unique thing a fan has done for you?

SK:  I’ve had a couple of pictures painted of me.  My favorite thing that people do is make us clothes, like t-shirts.  Homemade clothes rock.  That’s an awesome thing.  Someone made SK6RS their license plate, which I thought was cool.  I got a maxi pad once, so that’s probably up there.  Maxi Pad rock.  That’s sensitive rock.

TI: What has been your funniest or most memorable experience?

SK:  There are so many funny things that happen and we spend a lot of time laughing on the road.  The craziest thing, when you get back and try to tell someone about what was funny, is that you can’t even really remember what was funny.  And in a way, that’s the magic of it.  I laughed really, really hard one night, when we played Regis College I think, and it was going really well but then the energy slipped down a little.  It was the first time we ever pulled our pants down in an encore.  Keith was the only one that did it.  I broke it down and started telling this story about Keith, saying ‘and then he did this and then he did that and then he dropped his pants!’   And he dropped his pants, he just went with it, and he had tighty whities on.  Since that happened, I don’t think anybody’s worn a pair of tighty whities at a show.  I remember being totally psyched that he went with it and not saying ‘I’m not going to do that!’  That was one of those moments where I loved being in a band with Keith so much.  Those are the moments when you love your band mates—that’s where the magic is.  Keith just started doing it and running around the venue in his underwear, so fearlessly.  I remember falling down laughing so hard on stage, and I felt so psyched that I felt that comfortable to just crack up.  And cracking up I think feels better than anything.  I can’t think of anything that feels better than laughing really hard.  That is by far the best feeling in the world.

TI:  If you could go back, would you change anything?

SK:  No, I wouldn’t change anything.  Even the bad stuff.  I think I needed to go through everything I went through to get the framework I’m in now.  There’s definitely part of me that wishes when I was a little bit younger—high school, early college—someone had been able to educate me on things I could be doing to really better myself to get where I wanted to go.  And I did get that direction, and maybe people did try to give me that direction but I just wasn’t receptive to it at that time.  It’s funny because you can always say, ‘if I knew then what I know now.’  All the things you would’ve done differently.   But everyone has to get where they’re going in their own way and that’s definitely been the case for me.  So I wouldn’t change it.  If you respect someone or love someone who knows more than you do then it makes a lot of sense to listen to what they have to say and you can learn from them.  And I’m not sure I always did that in my life, but I try to do it more now.

www.stephenkellogg.com

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