Stemm Interview
March 20th, 2009 by Stephanie Stevens
It’ only been a few years since I started promoting and listening to the NY based band STEMM but in that time these guys have really prospered into a great band. With some lineup changes and some old members coming back into the fold, some big middle fingers going up because of some label issues and the band going out and doing it themselves STEMM is a band that has that strength and courage and that is exactly what you need to stay strong in this industry.
BLOOD SCENT is the sophomore album released by the band and it really shows a different side to the band. A lot of band changes and movement may be the reason for the diverse array of tracks on the CD but I think the main reason is for the experience and growth the guys have gone through. The album presents the heavy gut wrenching chaos the guys always tend to stir up but they have thrown in different elements of melody driven mid tempo “rock” songs and some electronic ambience with an amazing cover of NIN’s WISH!! Lyrically, songs are deeper more penetrating and leave a lot of open interpretation so you as a fan can really give it your own twist and turns.
The guys are officially touring for this album and hitting up all kinds of new territories. This is where STEMM really shines, so if you hear or see that they are in your area, I know the economy sucks, but this is a show you wouldn’t mind putting money into.
Try STEMM …the most chilled out down to earth dudes, heavy and rock solid songs. It’s a win, win situation when it comes to this band. I had a chance while the boys were on tour to get them to find a computer and sit down and type out some answers to the many questions I had for them. So thanks to Joe and Alex you can get to know the guys much better.
WHAT HAS BEEN THE BIGGEST CHANGE TO STEMM SINCE YOUR INCEPTION?
(JOE) I guess you could say that would be me taking over full vocal duties after TJ left the band to move to California and Alex Scouten coming back to guitar since he started STEMM with me way back.
LET’S TALK BAND MEMBERS! YOU’RE CURRENT LINE UP AND IF THEY COULD BE KNOWN FROM JUST ONE ATTRIBUTE THEY POSSESS AS ARTISTS WHAT WOULD IT BE ?
(JOE) Hmm…Lets see…Well….Danny is a fucking machine. He’s a walking metronome. Put him on a click and he never loses the beat. He records the fastest out of all of us in the studio because he is so prepared.
Steve is an absolute monster on stage. You couldn’t slap the smile off of his face while he’s storming a stage playing bass. Off stage, he is the guy to party with, smoke with, etc…He has that Dimebag friendliness to him if you know what I mean? ha ha!
Alex is hands down one of the best guitarists I have ever jammed with. We have been in past bands together, I hated it when we formed STEMM and then he left to take care of family issues but it’s great to have him back in the band. He’s the 1st guitarist to track full guitars on a STEMM CD aside from myself. His soloing technique and ability has added a new sound to the band and allowed us to branch out guitar wise on the new STEMM CD, ‘Blood Scent’…It’s great to have him back in the band!
Myself….hmmm….I dunno..Ill let Alex answer that one….ha ha!
(Alex) Joe is just a monster, an honest to God triple threat. He can play his ass off! He can sing his ass off and he’s one hell of a dancer! Okay, maybe that last one was kind of a stretch. But what he can do is write a fucking song. For as long as I’ve known him, and I’ve known him way longer than I like admitting, he’s had an amazing ear and sense of where a song should go. We all have input into the songs but Joe is the glue that makes it all come together into something that is so much more than just the sum of its parts.
UFC HAS TAKEN A HUGE LIKING TO YOU FOR A WHILE NOW. DOES THAT WHOLE ENVIROMENT INFLEUNCE YOUR CREATIVE PATTERN IN ANYWAY? IF SO HOW?
(JOE) Our relationship with the UFC was always great because they deal with fighters trying to work their way to the top respectfully and we are a band fighting just as hard through life to make it to the top respectfully. I think the UFC people saw that in us from the beginning.
(Alex) I’m not really sure that the UFC has influenced us creatively. It’s more of an exposure thing. They bring us fans that might not have heard of us otherwise. And we try and do the same for them. Plus it’s nice to see the success that they have built and try and live up to the faith that they put in us.
HOW DOES THE LIFESTYLE OF A UFC FIGHTER COMPARE TO A LIFESTYLE OF A MUSICIAN?
(JOE) I think with anything you do, you have to work hard to achieve success…If you let up, if you get lazy, there is always someone else right behind you waiting to take your place.
(Alex) Plus we really enjoy violence, just like they do!
NEW ALBUM BLOOD SCENT HAS A STATEMENT LINKED TO IT SAYING THIS IS YOUR VULGAR DISPLAY OF POWER. IN W HAT WAY DID YOU MEAN THAT?
(JOE) We are definitely NOT saying that we are the next Pantera that is for sure! But…If you listen to Vulgar, there is a lot of diversity in that CD. There are some heavy fucking tunes on that CD like Mouth for War, Fucking Hostile, By Demons be Driven, etc…But you also have ‘This Love’, ‘Walk’ and ‘Hollow’…All radio friendly even mellow tunes…
They didn’t paint themselves into some kind of ‘genre’ and that really separated them from the cliché shit that usually follows an extremely successful band. We wanted to write the same type of CD. No boundaries.
(Alex) I couldn’t have said it better. So… what he said!
FOR STEMM HOW MUCH IS A GUITAR RIFF A CENTER PIECE FOR HOW A SONG COMES TO BE?
(JOE) It’s important. As a guitarist, a solid riff is the root of the song. But more importantly, I think how the song is built is the most important thing.
(Alex) It’s funny, because I play a lot. The song is always the most important thing but if there is a riff that’s busier in the song I want to be playing it. It just makes sense because Joe spends so much time singing that I try and carry the music end as much as possible. When I rejoined we actually went through and changed up some of the parts and who played them so I didn’t get bored 
WAS THIS ALBUM A WAY TO SHOW OFF ALL SIDES OF WHAT THE BAND HAS TO OFFER AND IF SO WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU EXPEREMENTED MOST IN NEW TERRITORY?
(Joe) Not so much showing off or bragging, the music really just came out. It was scarier for us because we never wrote this way before so it was new to us. At the same time, it was exciting. It felt like we were pushing an envelope so in true rock n roll fashion, we went after it instead of trying to play things safe… I’d say songs like ‘Beneath my Skin’ & ‘Awake’ plus our NIN cover of ‘Wish’ are the big curve balls.
(Alex) From a guitar perspective there is a lot on this album that wasn’t there before too. There are a lot of harmonies and even double leads. This, I’m pretty sure, is a first for Stemm!
YOUR KNOWN AS A METAL BAND WITH THIS NEW ALBUM ARE YOU GOING TO HAVE ANY ISSUES IF THE BAND IS PUT INTO OTHER GENRES OF MUSIC?
(Joe) We don’t want to be labeled. Bands with a label fade out like the flavor of the week. We want to be known as a hard rock band… Listen to our CD to judge for yourself just how ‘heavy’ we really are!
(Alex) I’m just a fan of music. Most of my favorite bands are hard to categorize. Bands like Tool, Primus and Incubus are really good at playing any damn thing they want to and making it work. That’s what I want for us. There are songs on Blood Scent that are heavier than anything Stemm has ever played before. So I don’t think the metal label is in any danger of going anywhere for a while. Now if we release an album full of gospel or old country standards that question might need to be revisited.
IS THE RECORD AVAILABLE IN ALL STORES? HOW CAN KIDS GET IT?
(JOE) You can get ‘Blood Scent’ at Target, Best Buy, FYE…If they don’t have it, order it! You can also grab it from iTunes if you’re an impatient person like me! We also have some cool stuff on our online store like t-shirts, hoodies, etc which can be found at
www.STEMM.net , Or www.myspace.com/stemm
THE VIDEO FOR AWAKE, IS THIS A NEW AVENUE YOU GUYS ARE VENTURING INTO AND HOW IS THE WHOLE PROCESS OF VIDEO MAKING FOR YOU?
(JOE) It’s our 2nd video. We did a vid for ‘Monster’ for our ‘Songs for the Incurable Heart’ CD don’t forget! ha ha!
MY BAD!!!!!!!
(JOE) The ‘Awake’ video was much more involved because there was a story / concept to it and the video was written by Alex and Steve actually. Not sure if we’re going to go that route for the next video but…stay tuned!
(Alex) When we were writing Blood Scent, Awake was the last song done. It was literally written days before we started recording it. There were no lyrics for it until Joe recorded them. When he came in with that chorus Steve and I just started riffing on ideas for a video for it. Actually making it was a lot harder than I expected. It was a two day shoot and the damn thing took about every one of those 48 hours to get taped. Then there were hours and days and weeks of editing after that. It was a very large learning experience. I can’t speak for anyone else but I would love to try it again.
DO YOU FEEL THE CONCEPT OF THE VIDEO CAPTURED THE STORYLINE OF THE SONG?
(JOE) I think so…I wrote the lyrics…I remember Alex looking at the words in the studio and his jaw on the ground trying to figure out where the words came from…The lyrics scared the shit out of me. The video scared the shit out of me as well…I think the video pushed the lyrics into another realm actually…It also showed me that Alex and Steve are just as fucked up as me! ha ha!
(Alex) The video isn’t really about what Joe was writing about. It’s more of Steve and my interpretation of what the words meant to us.
ANOTHER NEW DEVELOPMENT IS CATCH 22 RECORDS. WAS THIS SOMETHING YOU STARTED SO THAT STEMM HAD JUST THE BAND TO GO TO WITH BUSINESS DECISIONS?
(JOE) Well, that and… Our last label did fuck all for us… Its not cool being in that situation and being promised things which are bound in a contract and then the label decides that they wont do that and there is a ‘clause’ where they don’t have to either yet, you cant get out of it…Your trapped. We see a lot of our friend’s bands in these situations with there labels and it sucks. You can only jump through hoops for so long before you either break up in frustration or figure out what we did… ‘No one will ever work harder for our band besides us!’
It’s not easy, we don’t have a boat load of money like a label does to get a band off the ground but, we have the tools in place to get the things we desire and that is more important to us. If it works out, we can say we did it on our own terms. So far so good! We are also looking to expand the label and possibly sign some more bands to Catch 22 Records so, be on the look out for that!
IF YOU DID LOOK FOR OTHER ARTISTS FOR CATCH 22 WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? DO YOU WANT TO KEEP IT CLOSE TO THE STEMM SOUND?
(Joe) We’d like to see a band that has the same type of grass roots work ethics as we do. But, we’re not into looking for clones.
(Alex) A group of super hot, extremely talented single women; who love guys in metal bands. That’s who I’m looking to sign… period.
TOURING HAS BEGUN FOR YOU GUYS, ARE YOU HITTING ANY NEW PLACES AND IF SO WHAT IS THE MENTALITY TO BUILD A FAN BASE FROM SCATCH AND ARE YOU A BAND THAT IS ADAPTABLE IN EVERY SITUTATION?
(Joe) So far so good on the road! Many new markets and new friends to make along the way! We like to make the best out of every situation! We’d much rather play music every night than go home to our jobs Ya know? ha ha!
(Alex) We’ve always been pretty good at making new friends. And, ideally, that’s exactly what a new fan is. They’re a friend who gives you money 
No, seriously, we treat our fans like friends and we’ve always been so much better off for it. So this tour is just an opportunity to make a bunch more!
ANY OTHER TOURS GOING ON WITH YOU GUYS YOU CAN LET US KNOW ABOUT THROUGHOUT THE REST OF 2009?
(JOE) There are some things going on but, I’d have to kill you after I told you…ha! Nothing set in stone as of yet! But, you know you will be one of the 1st to know once we can announce!
LAST COMMENTS?
(Joe) We can’t thank you enough for the support East Coast Romper has given us over the years! You were there from the beginning and we love you for it!
For those of you new to STEMM, we hope to see everyone out at the shows! Check out our site: myspace.com/stemm or www.STEMM.net to see where we are playing next and come out to say hello and have a beer or 8 with us!
(Alex) Yep, come and drink with me. Us… I meant to say us.
