HEAD TO HEAD w/ John McDermott of
STROKE 9

Music Head caught up with John McDermott (Lead Guitar) of Stroke 9 before their show on August 2nd, 2000 at the Theatre of Living Arts in Philadelphia.

First off, how's your tour going?

McDermott: Really well, we played almost all sold out shows. It's been a three band tour. We were touring with Nine Days for a while and SR-71 is opening up. And then we picked up Splender today actually and we're excited about that. They're really fun guys. We played a bunch of shows with them in the past and they rock really hard. So, it should be fun. They're all here.

Who has influenced your music and who are your favorite musicians?

McDermott: Well, all four of us come from pretty different backgrounds in terms of music. I came from more of a rock-metal kind of background. My first favorite band was Metallica and then I got into Zeplin and that kind of stuff. So, I was into a lot of puberty jock rock, I guess they call it. Then after that I got more into songwriting bands like Police and U2, those were sort of my bands. But, then I know Luke, who writes the lyrics, he was big on the Smiths and New Order and you can hear a lot of the Morrissey lyrics.

Do you have any songs that are not recorded that you save for concerts?

McDermott: Not right now. Pretty much now we're playing just stuff that's off our record, Nasty Little Thoughts. We're going to start putting some songs from Bumper to Bumper, which is our first album and then songs that we wrote for this album that didn't make the cut. We wrote a good thirty songs or so for the album and then we had to riddle them down to the best ones. So, we're starting to incorporate some of those because this is our first headlining tour. We were co-headlining before so we didn't really get the chance very often. Now, we're starting to have more and more freedom to do what we want, which is cool.

Will you guys be doing any cover songs?         

McDermott: Yeah, actually we do a Weezer song now. We do "Jonas." We just started doing it the other day because we needed a cover. Covers are really hard to pick because you got to think it out. You don't want to do something that's too new or too old; it needs to be just right. That one seemed to work. It's a song that was never a hit, but everyone knows it so it seemed to do real well. Actually people start yelling for it now. It's pretty cool.

I read somewhere that in '96 you bought an old ambulance. Did you use that as your tour bus and do you have any stories about that?

McDermott: Yeah, that was our tour bus we had for the first few years. Our first tour we booked by ourselves; we got a book called Book Your Own Tour and just did everything on our own. We went out and bought this ambulance and it was a total piece of crap. I mean we dumped so much cash into it and it still never ran and the gas was the worst problem, but it had sirens and stuff so if we were late we would turn on the sirens and get there on time. We were really scared that we would be driving by and somebody would be having a heart attack and we would jump out and be like...

From selling CD's in the mall and booking your own shows to getting a record deal you must know the industry well. Any advice for bands looking to get signed?

McDermott: Yeah, I mean it's a weird thing because it's hard to get advice from bands who are successful just because every band that has been successful really has a different story. So we really could never get any advice from people. I mean the only advice I ever got was from when I met Peter Gabriel. I showed him some demos of the band, and he said, "Well all it takes is perseverance." I was like 'Thanks, thanks man.' That's great advice. But it's true, all it is is doing your thing for as long as you can because once you get close to getting signed a lot of people are going to try to tell you what to do and it's knowing how to take their advice and stay true to what you do. There's definitely a balance between the two. So, the best advice is to try as many things as you can and stick to what your doing. 

What is your opinion on Napster and also the Internet as a means of music distribution?

McDermott: I'm pretty much against Napster. It's tough to say. I don't think anyone really knows what it means right now because you can't pinpoint how much money you lose if you're a musician. People are downloading albums so you can't really say how much [money you will lose]. I've heard people say if you have a gold record then it means that two million people have downloaded your album or some weird figure like that. It's tough to say. But at the same time, there's a whole other side. Musicians, in reality, make more money touring, and Napster and Internet music distributions will just get your name out there more and get more people at your shows. So, I don't really have an opinion either way. It's tough to say because it helps you and it hurts you. I mean it takes money away from one place, but then gives you money in another place. So, I'll have to wait and see. Metallica, I understand what they're saying. I mean they are probably losing a lot of money. That's why they care so much.

Do you think pop/music stars should be political? Do you have a presidential candidate you feel strongly about? One that you would publicly endorse?

McDermott: I think Ralph Nader's the coolest guy out there. We're not a real political band, but I mean none of us are either Republican or Democratic, it's all the same. I definitely support third parties. I think that if he can get a chance to participate in the presidential debate it would be great because I don't think we've had one since maybe Ross Perot, I don't know. But just a guy like that, he's such a great speaker. If he can get up against these other guys he'll really do something... I just think it's cool that he makes, I don't know how much it is, but a lot of money as a public speaker and then he donates it all so he ends up with twenty-five thousand dollars a year to live on. He just leads a really humble life and he's out to help people. He doesn't go out to promote big business. That's who I promote. That's who I'd elect. 

In what ways do you feel Stroke 9 is different from other groups?

McDermott: I think we write music that can be placed in any sort of era. It's not the kind of music that's really going to be dated. You can place it as late 90's, I guess, 2K rock. We just write songs that come from our hearts pretty much and we don't really try and do anything with our music other then what just comes freely within our subconscious. I think too many bands today are trying to place their sound and add certain elements so they can create what they think will do well and what people will like. We've never done that; we've always just written the songs that we thought would work and that's why I think they've touched so many people. I don't think we take ourselves too seriously and we like to have fun and we get along really well and just have a good time. 

Do you have a favorite song on the CD?

McDermott: Yeah, my favorite song is "City Life." That's a song that we wrote; it was actually the last song we wrote for the album. It was after we had written all these songs and we sent them into the record company they told us that we needed to write more songs. That these weren't good enough and we needed to keep pushing ourselves to write better and better songs. We just sat down one day and started screwing around. That was where the "don't push me, don't push me" came from. It was a whole thing because whenever we write music we go out of San Francisco, our hometown. We go to a secluded area and that's the only place that we can really be creative; it's when we're "wood shedding" it so to speak. So, when we came back into the city and then heard that, that was when all the pressures of living in the city and then having them tell us that, it just became too much. So, that's where that came from.

What CDs are you currently listening to?

McDermott: I'm listening to the new Travis CD, I like that a lot. I've been listening to the old Eminem CD a lot. I like the first one a lot. And a band called Dragline, it's an unsigned band from LA who are really really good and are going to be big some day. 

Who was your favorite band to tour with?

McDermott: Vertical Horizon. Yeah, we toured with them for a few months this year. We had a great time. It was a really really good show. People were really happy that came. We complimented each other really well. I think our shows were similar, yet quite a bit different and we just had a really fun time. We had such a great bunch of guys. They're a bunch of wusses though. They can't handle themselves at the drinking table.

You've been together for 10 years. What do you see in the near future for Stroke 9 and in the next 10 years?

McDermott: We're pretty much going to be a touring band for a long time. We love to tour and this past year has been so great for us because we've played shows in San Francisco where maybe twenty people would show up and it was just never a big thing. In the past eight months everywhere we play we can get at least a thousand to two thousand people and that's just going to keep going up. So, we'll probably be touring off this album into next year and then put out another album at some point hopefully soon. We're going to just develop our live show and get a huge tour. And then we're going to be doing a lot of stuff internationally in the next year or two.

John and Stroke 9 went on to play an electrifying show to the sold-out crowd at the TLA. -Todd Wojtowicz