You've got to stand on your own
Fight for what's right
Keep your focus in sight --
"Stand"
The idea that triumph is often born out of tragedy is hardly news at this point in history. But each time it happens, it always feels like something of a miracle. That's a
lesson learned by the members of Silvercrush, who came by their knowledge the hard way.
Born of a friendship forged in the unlikely (for rock and roll, anyway) location of Salt Lake City, Silvercrush - whose core membership includes
guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Steele Croswhite, bassist Dave Christensen, and drummer Jim Stauffer - spent four years under the tutelage (and management) of
Steele's father, Bill Croswhite, himself a seasoned musician who had, in his days as a professional singer and guitarist, crossed paths with Elvis Presley and the
Rolling Stones, among others.
After a full year of closely critiqued rehearsals in the Croswhite family basement, Silvercrush took their impassioned, anthemic rock to the people, conquering the
local clubs, garnering a large and loyal following, and being declared the region's preeminent rock band.
But on the eve of the showcase performance that would take them to the next level - a high-profile gig at The Joint in Las Vegas, during the Emerging Artists &
Talents in Music (EAT'M) Conference, the elder Croswhite died suddenly of an aortic aneurysm.
Somehow, Steele and the rest of the band found the strength to go on with the show as a tribute to their late manager, or as Steele thinks of his father, "my best
friend."
"I won't lie," Steele says. I'd give music up in a minute to have my dad back. But he wouldn't be happy with that. He worked too hard for 22 years to raise me as a
son, and the last four years of that to raise me as a musician, for me to give it up now."
Indeed, such a choice is likely out of his hands, anyway. From his earliest years, Steele was always on stage, "singing in front of audiences at school talent shows
and fairgrounds. Anywhere they'd let a five-year-old sing, I'd be there," he remembers.
He took up the guitar at age 14, hampered somewhat by being left-handed, which among guitarists isn't very common. Potential teachers abandoned him because
of the difference, he says, "So my dad ended up teaching me how to play. What he did was to take onion-skin paper and write out the chords, then flip it over so I
could read it." Steele even went so far as to learn how to play right-handed guitars "upside down" in case he found himself in jam session or a music store where a
left-handed model wasn't available.
Steele (yes, that's his real name - he was christened after an uncle and his grandmother) formed the band in 1997. "We were kind of coffee-shop friends," he says.
"We hung out together even before we knew how to play music. That's what makes being in a band with them so special. The main thing about music is
brotherhood. We're all super passionate about playing music, but we're friends first and foremost."
As for the notion that Salt Lake City isn't exactly a rock and roll Mecca, you can save the jokes - the band has heard them all.
"There are some misconceptions about Salt Lake City - not too many, but a few" Steele says with a smile. "When I tell people I'm from Salt Lake City, first they do
that laugh and then they ask me if I'm Mormon, and I tell them I'm not. Obviously, there's a very heavy LDS presence out here, but for the people who aren't Mormon,
they're just like everybody else, looking for someplace to hang out and drink beer and to listen to some music. The bands that are out here have to work really hard,
because they don't have the opportunities that they might if they were from New York or L.A. or Chicago or Phoenix.
On the other hand, I think it's a good thing we're from a place like Salt Lake City. In other places, there are a thousand bands playing in a thousand clubs every
weekend. Everybody's trying to scratch their way up the totem poll, to get to the top. In Salt Lake City, there are a thousand bands, but only a few really great clubs to
play. It gives you something to work for. And the fans we have out there, we're in touch with all of them. They're our friends. They support us and want to put Salt
Lake City on the map, and take away some of the misconceptions of what people perceive it to be."
With the triumph of the EAT'M conference behind them, the group signed with Redline Entertainment and headed off to Bloomington, Indiana, to record their debut
album with producer Mike Wanchic (Cowboy Mouth, The Why Store, James McMurtry), who also plays guitar in the John Mellencamp Band.
"Mike is amazing," Steele says. "He's taken the music in my head and the band to the next level. He recognized our raw talent and gave us the guidance we
needed -- like a beacon of light saying, 'This is the direction you need to go in.'"
Steele wrote most of the songs on the album in a burst of creativity that struck him once he hit the studio. Asked about his songwriting philosophy, Steele says that
his goal is to deal with "anything emotional - if it sparks an emotion in the people who hear it, that's what I like to write about. I don't like fluff songs - songs that don't
make people think. I'm not the kind of guy who wants to have a hit song at any cost. I want to have a career. And to do that, you have to write songs that strike a
chord within people emotionally. When I'm writing, I think, will this mean anything to anyone other than me? It's an important thing to have a beautiful vagueness in
there - an idea that's universal - to make it pertain to other people's lives."
Much of that universal feeling on "Stand" comes from emotions Steele was dealing with in the wake of his father's death - the sorrow, anger and the loss, certainly,
but also the resolve that eventually replaced it.
"'Tired' is the first song I wrote after he left," Steele says of the muscular rock tune. "That song is about me feeling alone in the industry. 'Who's in the black with the
deal in the sack/With your tongue tied talkin' and your thoughts tied back/Everybody likes the drama but me.' That's about me feeling like I'm just tired of having to
deal with this. Because he dealt with everything."
The album's opening track, "Alone," meanwhile, "is about my internal feelings after he left," Steele says. You know: 'I stand alone/Wasting all my time/On thoughts I
would disown." Wicked thoughts, thoughts that everybody has when they lose their best friend.
But other emotional colors are present on the album as well, such as his forthright determination on the raging "Dance," which is one of the oldest songs in the
group's repertoire. The moving ballad "Who Is Me," meanwhile, is a radio-ready change of pace that offers balance and yet rivals the intensity of the band's sound.
In Silvercrush, Steele's creativity and sense of spontaneity is matched perfectly with the instrumental fervor of Christensen and Stauffer, and by guitarist Carl
Broemel (ex-Lifehouse) and keyboardist Mike Flynn (late of Old Pike), who co-produced the album. The latter two joined the group on the CD, and will continue with
them on the road as well.
But wherever they go, Silvercrush will also carry with them the spirit of Croswhite's father, who surely must be looking down on them with pride.
"My father is the reason we're here," Steele says. "He was the guy who made it real to begin with, and keeps it real for me now."
Spring 2002
