.

.

 by Debbie Seagle
.

On my never ending quest in the Rocknworld to find the right vibe, the perfect groove and the ultimate music high, I have slogged through a lot of back stage encounters to be your eyes and ears back here.  In these balmy days of summer I usually gravitate toward uncomplicated, clean rock to match my uncomplicated summer mood.  Besides, I find myself more in my mangy metal mood when I’m in black leather and necessary accoutrements, and who can stand to wear that in 90 degree temperatures?  So, on this summer’s quest to bring you behind the curtain, I have come to some interesting conclusions.  First of all, at concerts and all day music festivals you should drink more water than you can sweat out, and secondly there is more interesting stuff going on in Utah than this past winter Olympics.  That’s right, while wondering around this summer’s Jeep World Outside Music Festival, which included Sheryl Crow, Train, O.A.R., Ziggy Marley and many others, I happened to come across a band from Utah that quite simply rocks.  There name is Silvercrush.

If you only take your music with a touch of arsenic and Tylenol, get over it and check this out.  Five very talented young musicians who are not married to tuned down guitars and unintelligible lyrics.  Silvercrush took their home town of Salt Lake by storm, being named best rock band in Utah, Best CD and Best Top 50 Utah CDs.  They did all of this with passionate, relatable lyrics, set to clean, powerful, anthemic rock and roll music.  Having opened for such bands as Foo Fighters, Third Eye Blind and Cheap Trick, they now find themselves opening the main stage at the Jeep World Outside Music Festival and the crowds are going nuts for their set.  So the buzz is on.

Fronted by charismatic lead singer and song writer Steele Croswhite (yes, that is his real name), Silvercrush take the stage with such energy, confidence and ease that you can tell they are exactly where they belong.  There music is laced with strong guitar melodies and rhythms that make you want to move your body to the music and sing along, even if you don’t know the words.  I am reminded of the musical integrity of a young Bob Seger or the musings of a mournful Rob Thomas, but with a slightly different spin.  Its fresh and its an upper that keeps you humming the tunes after they have left the stage.

Silvercrush signed with Redline Entertainment after talking with several interested labels and has since put out their debut CD entitled “Stand” this past June.  The CD was produced by Mike Wanchic, guitarist for the John Mellencamp band and it is a collection of 12 well written and orchestrated songs that make perfect “driving music.”  To me that means you want to play it in your car to get you through your commute without running over the neighbor’s cat or nodding off at the wheel.  The music just leaves this reporter with a good feeling about music in general and there isn’t a track I don’t like.  My favorites are “Who is Me (the first single),” “Stand (I vote for this one to be included in a motion picture)” and “Free” just because it feels good.

So how did this band realize their dream of a national tour, playing in front of huge crowds and hearing their song on the radio?  That’s a very interesting story, so come with me to meet Steele Croswhite backstage and we’ll find out the whole scoop. . .

antiMUSIC:  Hi Steele, lets start out with a few of the basics of the band for our readers.  Lets talk about the band members, who are they?

Steele Croswhite:  Okay, the band members.  I’m Steele Croswhite, I’m the lead singer and song writer.  The guitar player is Carl Broemel.  The keyboard player is Mike Flynn.  The drummer is Jim Stauffer and the bassist is Dave Christensen.

antiMUSIC:  So how did you all get together?

SC:  Dave and Jim and I, we were kind of long time coffee shop friends, is what I like to call it.  We used to all hang out at the same coffee shop.  They all knew that I played music and I kind of knew that they played music and so we just kind of got together and started a little basement band.  And I met Carl and Mike a long time after that in Indiana.  Mike Flynn was the co-producer of our record and after I’d laid down all these different instruments on the record, he was the person who played keyboards on it.  I just kind of said hey, have you ever thought about joining this band?  What are your thoughts on that?  And he said of course, I’d love to play with you guys.  So he actually knew Carl and once Mike started, Carl came in because we had additional guitars on the record as well.  And they’ve been a part of it for over a year now.

antiMUSIC:  How would you classify your music?  If people wanted to check you out, would you say rock, alt . . .

 SC:  I think its definitely rock music.  We’re a definite rock band.  I think that we’re emotionally driven, and I think that we’re melodically driven, and I think that we’re very a very melodic, emotional based band with great guitar lines, great drum fills.  You know, we’re definitely one of those bands that are competing with or on the same level as Puddle of Mud or Matchbox Twenty, if you will.  Whatever you might classify those bands as, we probably fall right into the same category.

antiMUSIC:  That’s funny that you should mention that because one of the similarities just in the music composition that I would have drawn between you would have been with Matchbox Twenty.

SC:  Absolutely.  Well I think that his (Rob Thomas’) lyrics are very creative, you know what I mean?  I mean he doesn’t just sing songs about nothing and that’s what I try to do as well, you know?  All of our songs have something to talk about and every song has a message.  You know, a beautiful vagueness, a universal feeling to everything.  Its definitely rock music where you can have teen age kids go to a concert and they can raise their hands and they can feel like they’re at a rock concert, but at the same time they can buy the record and they could walk away from it and go boy, this really applies to me and my life, in any particular instance.

antiMUSIC:  And how did you get your name – Silvercrush?

SC:  Um, that’s kind of a funny story.  The name of our band used to be called “Choice of Reign.”  And once we signed with the record label, we kind of decided that, or they kind of thought that Choice of Reign sounded too much like a gothic rock band.  So after agreeing to changing the name, because we didn’t want to be misconstrued as a different kind of band, I liked the name “Silver” quite a bit.  That was taken.  And I liked the band name The Crush,” and of course that was taken.  Our keyboard player had said, well what about Silvercrush?  And instantly we all said, yeah, that’s the name.  So I called our record company and said what do you think about the band name Silvercrush.  They loved it.  They said that’s a great rock and roll name, lets go with that.  So, for the last, over a year, that’s what its been.

 antiMUSIC:  You’ve accomplished quite a bit in your home town of Salt Lake with Best Rock Band in Utah, Best CD, Best Top 50 CDs.  You’ve also opened for bands like Foo Fighters, Third Eye Blind and the classic Cheap Trick, which must have been really cool.  Now that you are going from being a big fish in a relatively little pond from a market perspective, to being a smaller fish in a bigger pond, how have the band’s goals changed?

 SC:  Um, the goals really haven’t changed as much.  I think from the very beginning, you know, at least for me, the vision has been to touch people musically.  To reach on a level that’s emotional and to reach them on a level that, like I said before, they can walk away and understand something about our music.  As far as the long term goals, that’s been the long term goal.  The short term goal really has been, you know, to be classified as a legitimate rock band.  To come across as a band that is a working band, as a band that wants to obviously go to the next level.  When we began in Utah, it was, one day we always had the goal of moving people.  We always had the goal of one day being on a tour bus and doing this for a living.  But we used to be excited just to be in a bar.  Just to have 300 kids show up, 500 kids, and then up to 1000 and so on, and so forth.  I think at this point, really what it is is that right now we are kind of taking the same approach, you know?  Its not necessarily filling up a bar as it is building up new fans.  Our goal is definitely to say hay, we’re not just out of Utah anymore, we’re on a national level.  We want to compete on a national level and to build fans through grass roots, by playing concerts, by them hearing our CD through friends or hopping on the web site.  So our goal is definitely to meet new people, meet new fans and to help accomplish the long term goal of moving them.

antiMUSIC:  To what one thing can you attribute the success you’ve had thus far in the music business?

SC:  For me, I attribute it to the Lord.  I really can’t speak for the whole band.  I mean, I think there’s a lot of elements that come into the success of the band.  I think there are so many things combined with perfect timing and perfect placement, but at the same time, for me, I’m one of those people who happens to believe that it comes from the Lord and from him guiding each and every one of our steps.

Continue