Where were you when boredom died?
Steven Squire was staring out a window from the back of his mom’s car in Los Angeles, six years old, nothing happening at all, when from the rock ‘n roll radio station came some fine, fine music in the form of the Beach Boys’, “Good Vibrations”. Life as he knew it was saved by rock ‘n roll and it was alright! Later he heard the Velvet Underground’s “Rock ‘n Roll”, “I love Lou Reed’s narrative of the song with such matter of fact conviction. It really did happen that way for me too and I had felt isolated with these revelations before hearing his song.” Steven then dove into his sister’s record collection and he wore the grooves out of John Lennon’s “Instant Karma” all because of the sound. “About this time I was also watching Johnny Cash’s show on TV, and any show with music performances on it. Soon after, the first album I owned was The Rolling Stone’s, ‘It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll’ and the revival was on!”
Steven began writing his own songs as a teenager, playing his own mutated versions of some old blues his musical mentors played. “I would never be hired into a cover band because I can’t play other artists’ songs well enough. I admire those who can pick off licks and chords with ease, but that’s not me. I always had to create something on my own to play so I could stay close to the feeling rock ‘n roll music gave me.”
The first gig came about when Steven and his high school friend, Nick, were strumming basic three chord Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Grateful Dead songs when Nick’s sister came home from her waitress job and said, “You guys sound better than the guy at our bar”. Nick joked back with “Get us a gig then”. So, she did. On the busy Labor Day weekend.
Steven’s guitar style was shaped early from hearing the full scale rock ‘n roll band sound in his head while learning to play guitar on his acoustic. Wanting to fill in all the spaces with the rhythm section of the songs, he subconsciously developed a percussive approach. “The back beat had to be there to rock. Even if that meant I was probably over-playing.” The electric guitar inevitably came. Then the amps.
His passion grew and Steven built himself a recording studio at home. With limited amounts of time he created music tracks that originated from his acoustic with electric guitars, mandolin, bass, resonator and drums. He rarely uses any studio effects, only the occasional wah pedal would make an appearance on the guitar. Steven likes to record his guitars through all-tube amps with mic’d speaker cabinets and acoustics for a warm and real in-the-room feel. He has also recently embraced the Kemper profiler for recording some guitar tracks, but still plays through the cabinet for the amp-in-room-feel. “I like to have my amps turned up when I practice or record. It’s that whole rock experience I was hit with the first time I felt it. I’m not bothered by incidental amp hums and pick noises because, I’m inspired by a live room and performing the physical act of making music, which translates to fun! The guitar is always up front, this is guitar-driven music.”
Steven Squire continues to create music because the ideas are there and he has to keep alive that first immediate blow to boredom he felt so long ago. “I’m able to relive that rush of clarity every time I play or hear what I like. Only, I know now that I’m not the first and I’m not the last.”
Rock and Road
The door looked closed, but it wasn’t shut tight, the latch hadn’t clicked. I turned the handle to clear the latch before easing the door open. The stereo was on in a back room, muffled, something Southern, turned up. No one seemed home. I walked down the hallway of doors. I pushed the back room door open and the three guitar attack hit me square in the face. A relentless backbeat was driving the air around the room blowing the billowed curtains out the open window. It’s a long drop in the salty air, a scarf and a sock on the rocks below. Scattered glass from a whiskey bottle. Someone left in a hurry, the hard way.
I reached over to turn the sounds up if I could, but it was already there. I slumped down on a pile of clothes, grabbed a half empty bottle, rolled my eyes back and sunk into my thoughts. Familiar nameless faces paraded by with little more than glances. The free ringing slide guitars lifted me up, the pulsing bass pushed me out. I fell with the cascading percussion and landed with the crash of cymbals. I hit the rocks and rolled into a groove. And it was alright. Explaining away the past, a mindless voice repeated itself from the window. I picked myself up and walked in a new direction. I was not the first and I am not the last.
-Steven Squire, written in transit
Slowrain defined
slow•rain
verb \ˈslō-rān\
1: moving, flowing, or proceeding with less than usual speed; windless water descending one drop at a time.
2: a welcome, replete cleansing.
3: tears.