Bite Me! interview with STAGE

An Interview with Ryan Stahr of STAGE -By Nikki Neil

At the age of fifteen the members of Stage—Ryan Stahr (vocals/guitar), Petr Anselmo (bass), Greg Meyer (guitar), and Justin Parker (drums)—knew what they wanted to do with their life - - make music. What started out as a cover band in high school soon progressed into a functional, creative unit and before the boys were old enough to drive and long before their deal with Maverick came into place, Stage opened for the likes of Bon Jovi and Kiss.

Years later, the same inner flame that fueled four teenagers to pursue their dreams still burns bright. The band’s adoration for their craft has propelled Stage to unforeseen musical and professional levels; all of which are reflected in their self-titled debut. The album is an impeccable piece of work, which conveys an unwavering passion that can’t be faked.

Have the East Coast snowstorms caused any problems on the tour?

We experienced the start of the storms. It was pretty intense – just storm after storm. We had to drive in the middle of the night, but we couldn’t pull over because the snow was too thick to see through.

That’s scary.

We were following taillights. We couldn’t pull over because if we did, a truck might have slammed into us, so we just kept going. We spun off the road. It was pretty crazy. Now it’s calming down a little bit, and we’re getting into the routine. Where’re you at?

Los Angeles. We had some rain last week, but nothing like what you just experienced. You guys are from New York, right?

Yeah, we’re from New York. We’ve talked to our family at home, and they are tunneling through two feet of snow right now.

Is there a reason why you guys picked Stage as your moniker?

There is a definite reason. We started playing as a band when we were freshman in high school. It’s been that long. When we first started out we wanted to come up with a name that would last us through the years because we wanted to stay together. We wanted something that was timeless for us. The verb tense of Stage is, to progress to a higher level; to move on. So we figured we’d be okay with that name. It wasn’t something that we felt we would be stuck with because we chose it when we were young and stupid. Plus, it stuck. It stuck really well and it became a whole philosophy. We are constantly moving forward – constantly progressing. Whether it’s good or bad, just moving forward in general is a good thing and that was something we always believed and it helped us get through a lot of the tougher times and make it to where we have a record coming out now.

When you guys were tossing around band names did you come up with a lot of ridiculous stuff?

Yeah. I think every band has that one day where they open the dictionary and they play around for a while and they just laugh. For us, the name came about pretty quickly. It was painless and quick. We stumbled upon [Stage] and said, “That’s it.” We used our guitar player’s last name for one show because we had no clue what the band name would be. His name was Myers, so it was that for a day.

Did you experience stage fright in the early days?

No. I never have. Looking back at the first show we ever played frightens me. I’m frightened for the 15-year-old kid on stage. We got together for a school concert, and we were playing a bunch of cover songs. It was a battle of the bands type of thing, and it was the reason why we got together in the first place. We were playing a Soundgarden song. I wrote down all the words on index cards because I was scared I wouldn’t remember them. It was a crutch – kind of like a security blanket. I even wrote down the “oh’s” and “na’s”. I had to read every single sentence. (laughs) I look back at that show and it is scary, but the performance wasn’t scary.

Did you guys win?

It wasn’t really a battle of the bands; it was more like a showcase. I think we won.

Do you remember how you felt the first time you performed on stage?

We were friends and because we hooked up so young it wasn’t like we got together because we heard that a guy is really good on drums or an amazing bass player. It was more like I found out he plays drums or he has a drum set and this guy has a bass. That’s how we got our band together. So because we were friends we just got on the stage. I still look over and it’s a comforting feeling. Just like it is with family. When you go through things with people that you are close with, everything seems a little less scary. We still get that every night. No matter where we are I can look over to the left and see Greg and still feel like we are in the basement, after school, playing again. So it always brings us back to reality.

I’m sure you get asked this question a lot, but is Petr related to Phil Anselmo (Pantera)?

No he’s not, but he’ll tell you he is because Phil is cool. (Laughs). No relation at all.

Before you guys were signed you opened up for Bon Jovi in New York and Kiss in Prague. How did you pull that off?

When we were in high school there was a big station in New York that held a lot of contests and all these bands would send their demos in. We had an independent release out at the time called Historical Underdosing. That was the first CD where we got together and really recorded a full-length album. So someone at the station heard it and before we knew it we won this contest to open for Bon Jovi at (Jones State Beach) in Long Island, NY. It was pretty intense. We were juniors in high school going into our senior year. We never experienced anything like that. We were used to playing in front of two people and our families on a Monday night at CBGB’s and the Manhattan clubs. So we played that show with Bon Jovi and the radio station was behind us too at the time. At the end of the day, it really taught us and showed us that this is what we all wanted to do with our lives at a really crucial time when we thought we would go off to school and do other things. But I think we all knew inside that was what we wanted to do. I was definitely was going to play music. I think [that show] made sure that we all fit together and did it. It showed us that there was something there and gave us a taste of what that life could be like, so we just stuck together. Two years later the same thing happened. A promoter In Prague heard the same record, and he brought us over for the Kiss show. This event was even bigger. That was another scary show because we played in front of 20,000 Kiss fans all dressed in make up. That alone will give you nightmares. (laughs)

Uh, yeah. Those were pretty exciting opportunities, especially considering how young you guys were.

Definitely. It’s not like it brought us into this huge limelight…”Oh this is going to be a huge band.” It just did something personal for us. It gave us an idea of this is what we’re going to do. This is great. Now we have to do it on our own, and now we have to make our own name. We spent the time after that, from then until now, which is a few years, just focusing on our music - focusing on our songs, our following, and our live shows. That’s pretty much it. And now, we got to make the record we wanted to make and we did it the right way and we took our time and here we are. It was definitely all worth it. Everything was definitely in place for a good reason and at a good time.

Aside from the excitement of those two shows, what do you remember most from both of them?

From the first show I remember my little sister jumping around imitating Bon Jovi in front of all his record company people. They were probably getting a kick out of it because she was doing the whole jumping jack routine that he does. What I remember most from the second show was the Kiss faces staring us down. I also remember meeting Gene Simmons and watching him as he looked over the groupies and okaying them to come into his room. I thought that only happened in the movies. It was just so real. He was in full make-up just nodding his head yes or no to his manager. That’s about all I remember.

So, do you have the ‘privileges’?

As of now, we are all still faithful to our others at home. But the tour just started so get back to me in a few weeks. (Laughs) Right now we’re very focused on the performances, and we don’t really have time for anything else except driving. We’re in a van so when we finish a show we load up, get a few hours of sleep and wake up early the next day and drive to the next city. We don’t have the luxury yet of doing the whole rockstar party thing.

I heard that this record got off to a rough start. What happened?

We found, and it is unfortunate, that with most bands, when they first get signed, the protocol is go to L.A., meet a producer, and make your record. At the time we had a producer that we were very in touch with, and he help make the demo that ultimately got us signed. So we were comfortable with him. However, they took us to L.A. and introduced us to some big time producers. We were going with the flow at the time and said, “All right. Let’s check this out,” because these were names we grew up listening to, so we decided to give it a shot. And we did that, but we went in knowing that it possibly wouldn’t work so we said, “Let’s just try one song with the guy.” After a few days we literally said, “This isn’t working. Can we please go to New York? We don’t even feel comfortable out here. This isn’t our home. This isn’t where we make music, so can we go back to New York and make a record with Greg Wattenberg?” He is the guy who produced the demo for us. They allowed it, so we waited a little longer because he was unavailable at the time and then we just did it. I’m so grateful we made the record with him because it is exactly the way we wanted it to be. We got some songs on there that I didn’t think we would have been able to do like, “Live Happy, Live with Anorexia” and “Jesus Was a Test Tube Baby”. We got to do these epic album tracks, as people would say. We got to put in the time and the effort that I really wanted to have. We got to do that for this record and that really meant a lot to us, so I’m glad we did it. So, basically, the rough start was that and also food poisoning from a horrible taco place in L.A. that I will never go to again. Before that incident I hadn’t thrown up in about thirteen years.

I’m sorry to hear that.

Yeah, I try not to talk about that part, but it was the other rough start.

You mentioned the two songs I wanted to ask you about, “Live Happy, Live with Anorexia” and “Jesus Was A Test Tube Baby”. What inspired those two songs?

Those two songs and “The Scientist’s Canvas” are the songs that I feel closest to. “Live Happy, Live with Anorexia” it’s just a metaphor of starving yourself of love and not letting yourself fall in love. When you fall for someone and the two of you are together a piece of you is in that person. So, ultimately, when you leave that person or they leave you, you lose that piece of you that was in them and, therefore, if you starve yourself from that you’ll truly be yourself. It was a song of that nature, and it’s a love song described in lyrics like that. At the end of the day, it’s just a sappy love song.

There’s definitely more to the song than meets the eye.

People find their own thoughts and meaning in there, which is even better for me. I get to see what is in people’s minds when they come up to me because they are not necessarily thinking on that level. They may be thinking of something else. They get to really open up to me to what that song does do for them. It’s really interesting because I can learn from them more than they can learn from me at that point. The most rewarding part about talking to the people after the shows is being able to hear what the songs do mean to them because it takes them to a whole new level from where I wrote them. “Jesus Was a Test Tube Baby” was a song written…I studied at a very science driven university. I was a philosophy major, so that song is basically about science versus God, art versus perfect, creation versus perfection…. It was just an idea. I thought maybe everything has been done before. For example, if Jesus was born today we would assume he was a test tube baby. I was just trying to show that we’ve seen all these things before, so instead of dwelling on those theories let’s just create new ones and make new ideas. Whether it’s religion or science or whatever, constantly creating is where genius can be found. I don’t think it is in pushing numbers around and making it work for you. I think it’s where someone has a good idea and they go with it. Whether it is good or bad just move with it. That is kind of where that song is from. Those were the hardest songs to make because we had such high expectations for them, and I’m proud they made the record.

They are exceptionally good songs. Overall, it is a good album, but those two really stood out.

Oh cool. Those are my favorites. For me, the album starts out in a straight-up sort of rock radio vein and then halfway through the record it just takes a turn. When “Country Bleeding” comes on it goes left a little bit, and then it ends with “Jesus Was a Test Tube Baby,” so it’s exactly what we wanted.

When I got the album I put it in my CD player just to preview it, but as I got further into it I found that I couldn’t pull myself away from it. It was very intriguing. I really wanted to see where it was going to go.

Thank you. That really means a lot. It’s what I hope for when I talk to people. It’s great that you could give it that chance. Because we have been together for so long there are definitely a lot of layers that we have that we can’t expose because right now it’s all about the live rock show. But we made sure to put every element that we thought we would want to do on the record, whether it was the strings in “I Know Where You Are” or the piano sketch tracks that you hear towards the end of the record. We base a lot of our songs around things like that – just little ideas. A twenty second little sketch can mean more than the ten-minute song on the record. We just try to remember that. We wanted to just go over the elements on this record, and that is why it is the self-titled debut, as they say. It shows everything we got. We put it all on the table, so I’m glad you liked it.

What is your biggest non-musical influence?

My older sister, who introduced me to all the cool things while I was growing up. It was like ‘Almost Famous’. She gave me her Jim Morrison and Anne Rice novels and all that stuff. My other influence was Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World”. That book had a big affect on me with the whole perfection vs. creation and science vs. God. [Editor’s note: An awesome book – a must-read for everyone. Especially now. –ed.] It was all very intriguing to me.

What is your older sister doing now?

She was an actress for some time. Now she is a trend setting jewelry buyer. So she went from acting to dressing the stars.

That’s great. Good for her.

Yeah.

What age were you when you first began to write songs?

I started when I was about 10 or 11 years old. I played music from an early age. I had a saxophone that I played and then I picked up the guitar when I was eleven or twelve. And sometime in between I fiddled around with the piano. Soon after then I started with my Elton John covers and then I just took it from there. It’s funny, I still have the tapes from when I first started. It’s this pre-pubescent voice. I can look back and it’s kind of adorable now, but you hear hints of the voice now and it’s just so funny. It’s really wild to listen back to because now it’s thirteen years later and we’re doing this now. We’re still trying to get out there. I look at that and it’s like, “Stick with it kid.” It’s been a long journey. And it’s a very interesting one that teaches me something every day.

Now that we know so much about you, can you tell me a little bit about your bandmates?

Sure. We all pretty much have the same history since we are each other’s history. Petr, Greg, and I were in the band together from ninth grade on. Greg is a very simple type of guitar player. We look at all these bands and it seems to be all about their effect peddles and everything. Because we never were friends with other bands because we really didn’t have a reason. We grew up on Long Island and there was no scene going on so we had to drive to the city to play our shows and for that reason we never really met other bands, so we never got into that whole backward scene of you have to have all these guitar effects. You have to have the right amplifiers. We were just writing songs and they were usually on acoustic guitars and that was it. So Greg’s very simple and he knows what he likes and he knows what he doesn’t like. That is one of the best things about him. You just put him on a stage and he does what he feels and that is it. Petr is the same way. He is the motivator of the band. He is the guy that makes sure we are doing everything that we have to do to get where we need to be. He keeps us in line a lot of the time. He is the responsible one. I’ve known Justin since nursery school. We go way back. I grew up with him from day one, so I can’t even tell you about him because I don’t know anything about him. He is the type of person that you think you know everything about and he’ll still surprise you. He is pure emotion. His day runs on emotion – whether he’s eating breakfast or playing a set. His emotions dictate how his actions will follow and when you see him play the drums you will know what I mean because he just breathes it. He is one of those guys where it is in him. That is why it is so great when I’m on stage and I look over to the side or behind me I can see people that truly believe what in what they are doing and that is what I love. I never want to see anybody going through the motions because we see that all the time now that we are on the road. It’s like a repeat of a sitcom - over and over again. They’re just doing the same thing. I never want to look at us and see that we are doing that. As of now, I think we are doing a good job of keeping it on the fly – not going through the motions, changing the set, breaking mics…

There’s lots of emotion exhibited on the album, so I’m sure it comes across in your live show.

I firmly believe…as I said, we did the best we could on the album, but it still was our first album. At the end of the day I think our live show is better because we play that first album every night, so naturally I think it’s going to get a little more seasoned. I think with our performance we’re doing a really good job of making something new every night. It’s an interesting show. It definitely has the emotion of the set. We go through all the songs that pull that out of you on the record and I think live I’m assuming it does the job.

Has anything strange or unusual happened within the band since you’ve been signed?

I’ve bitten into everything funny and unusual in the last five days since we have been on the road. I don’t even know where to start. I could start with the fender bender we had when I threw a piece of gum at Justin’s head and he rammed into a car in front of us. Then there is the time I didn’t lock the trailer properly and now all of my life’s belongings are gone on the side of the road in Wisconsin somewhere along with Greg’s stuff, which I feel horrible about. Or the time we drove off the road and saw our lives flash in front of our eyes. That was all in the span of two days, so I’ll stop there.

It’s been an adventure already.

If we make it out to the West Coast we’re doing okay because we are still alive.

Are you on tour for the next couple of months?

We’re on tour until someone tells us to go home because we pride ourselves on the fact that we want to be a touring live band. There is nothing else that we wanted. That is pretty much it. We spent more than enough time making our record and making sure it was right and now we are going to do the same here. We’re going to make sure that our live show is right. I feel like there are never enough shows because we meet so many people every night and we’re playing for so many people every night that I just want to everybody to see us. We can’t play enough. I plan on being on the road until this record is completely heard by everyone. That is my plan.

That is a solid goal.

We’ve always kept our goals. We talk about that every day because we are friends. We’ve been together for so long so we can help each other achieve things and no one ever gets off base because we constantly remind each other of what we are doing and why we are here. Justin and I have conversations all the time about bigger things in this world and things that affect other people and at the end of the day we just we realize that this is what we do. That is what makes society, society. Everyone has their thing. Everyone has something and this is why we are here and this is what we are going to do. It’s a hell of a good job to have.

It looks like the bond you guys have formed is going to be the factor that helps the band make it through the tough times.

On occasion we get into little fights, like brothers would. And then, like family, an hour later everything is cool again. The last fight we had was because I ate Justin’s turkey burger at the House of Blues last night, but it was mine because it had an ‘R’ on it. The good thing is that nothing ever goes on the stage with us. We can be fuming at each other over little things that are harmless, but when we get out on stage all is good again because we remember what it’s all about. It’s the old touring band story.

What has been your most extravagant purchase since you signed with Maverick?

Extravagant purchase? You’re implying that we actually made money.

(We both laugh).

Okay, how did you celebrate after you signed the deal?

There really wasn’t a celebration. Someone gave us some really good advice once and I’ll tell anybody that is pursuing music or any job the same advice, which is don’t change the things that have made you successful once you’ve become successful. I listen to that and I think it is true. We have that goal in mind and that goal is kind of a never ending goal, so to actually celebrate something doesn’t make sense to me. It’s like, “Alright, this is just another day. Now we have to keep moving.” But, to answer your question, I did buy a computer that I record music with, so I’m able to do things now that I wasn’t able to do before. I think I also went out to a Japanese restaurant for dinner.

Do you guys have a website?

We do. It’s www.stage.net. Petr has been doing it since day one for us. He is the website master. It’s cool because we actually go on our message board all the time, and we’re constantly talking to people. The very first day we posted a message on the board that said, “Please don’t use this as a stage to say, ‘Justin is hot’ or anything like that. Let’s be real about this.” I’ve looked at other message boards and they are filled with stuff like that, but on our message board people really talk - whether it’s about the title of a song or about something that happened to one of the kids. There is a real community going on. I’m almost jealous. I feel like I’m not a part of it. I’m not invited, but I say my two cents every once in a while. They really have something special going on with each other and I invite all the new fans to go there and be a part of it because it has helped us. It is something that we didn’t have when we were growing up and, granted, we are only twenty-four/twenty-five years old. Back when we were in high school we had to send a self-addressed stamped envelope to be a part of a band’s life. I never did it with my favorite bands. But now you can go on-line and it is all there for you and you can be right in their faces. We do check it. We’re on there every night writing back. As we get bigger that is one of the coolest things that has happened because there is more of a community and you feel it and it makes it all worth while.

You’re right. Back in the stone ages if you were a fan of a band there really wasn’t any way to contact them. You could send a letter to a fan club, but there was no guarantee they would read it let alone respond to it. But now, thanks to the internet, you can actually converse electronically with your favorite bands.

It was impossible. It was too detached. Did you ever send anything to a band’s fan club?

I think I may have joined the Van Halen fan club when I was twelve, but I didn’t write any letters to Eddie or Dave. But, over the past couple of years I’ve met and kept in touch with a lot of my favorite bands on-line.

Yeah, it’s awesome.

Is there anything else that you would like to add?

The record, Stage, comes out March 25^th. The single, “I’ll Be Something” is out now. We’re on the road until further notice so come check us out.

For more on Stage visit www.stage.net (It’s a very nice site-NIN) [Editor’s note: unfortunately it’s an all-Flash site, so my wittle dial up couldn’t handle it. Therefore, we have no pictures. Sorry folks! -ed.]