A Dirty Dozen with STEVE RAMONE – May 2023

According to a recent press release: “Dealing in sweet but edgy 3-minute melody driven anthems that are the hallmark of the South Side music scene, Chicago based Power Pop-Rock artist Steve Ramone has plied his trade in and around the Midwest for many years. Chasing Daylight is Ramone’s first release on Pavement Entertainment. He delivers high energy, easy to enjoy performances. He puts skill, creativity, and love for the arts into everything he does. It shows – you need to hear it and see it for yourself.” We get Steve to discuss new music, influences, and more.

1. Tell us a little about your latest release.  What might a fan or listener not grab the first or second time they listen through?  Are there any hidden nuggets you put in the material or that only diehard fans might find?

Chasing Daylight is my first release on Pavement Entertainment, and the title clues the listener in on what’s generally going on in an SRB song; there’s angst and melancholy wrapped up in super-sweet harmonies and guitar parts.  We’re all chasing something, all the time.

2. What got you into music, and can you tell us about the moment you realized you wanted to be a musician?

Elvis Presley’s Aloha from Hawaii live album cemented in my mind what all those songs and melodies running around my head were meant for: singing, playing and performing live music for an audience.  To this day, it’s the live performance part that gets me revved up – there really is nothing else like it.

3. Building on that, is there a specific song, album, performer, or live show that guided your musical taste?

Alpine Valley Theater during the Born in the USA tour, I saw Bruce Springsteen walk out on stage and open the night with “Thunder Road.”  To this day I get chills thinking about it, and it taught me quite a bit about what a live show is supposed to feel like as opposed to sound like.

4. If you could call in any one collaborator to do a song with, who would it be, and why?

Thirty years ago Paul McCartney, twenty years ago Prince, ten years ago I would have been on some going back to my roots kick, and today this very minute I would call Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift or that Charlie Puth guy because the reach would be tremendous and the ride could be interesting.  I’d make a damn good song with any of them!

5. What is your favorite activity when out of the studio and/or not on tour?  What do you like to do to unwind?

Jiu-Jitsu, MMA/Striking and baseball are my favorites.  I absolutely love gardening and growing, and recently I’ve become interested in cooking.  I’ve always been a voracious reader and I love getting up early to read, do yoga or garden whenever I can.

6. How would you describe your music to someone who’d never listened to you before? What is the one comparison a reviewer or fan has made that made you cringe or you disagreed with?

I sound like Tom Petty, John Cougar Mellencamp and both Elvis’ rolled up into a really good band with great musicians behind us.  I once was told I sound like Bob Geldof, not sure about that one but he’s been knighted so I’m not going to get bent out of shape on that one…

7. When your band is hanging out together, who cooks, who gets the drinks in, and who is first to crack out the acoustic guitars for a singalong?

I’m the resident chef – always looking to up my game in that respect, but the other guys can throw down as well.  Our keyboard player, Eric Robert, is always doodling, so the sounds are coming from him.  Our bass player, Sean Barnes, is a wine and food snob so the cocktails are always flowing and always interesting.  This band is crazy good at a campfire – we can’t be stumped!

8. When was the last time you were star struck and who was it?

To my surprise I got a little tongue twisted when I met Jeff Keith from Tesla on tour last year.  He had just gotten done whipping all of our asses and I came off like a little school girl.  He was so kind and gracious!

9. What is the best part of being a musician? If you could no longer be a musician for whatever reason, what would be your dream job?

When the band is on a roll and the music sounds and feels like a train going down the tracks – a little out of control but so powerful and inspiring!  The feeling is hard to quantify but when it clicks every person in the band feels it and it feeds the soul.  It’s the reason we do all we do, put up with life on the road and loneliness away from the ones we love.  We’re just chasing that musical high.

10. What is one question you have always wanted an interviewer to ask – and what is the answer? Conversely, what question are you tired of answering?

I’m rarely asked what the music means to me.  Every night onstage I joke that I write three minute songs about girls that wouldn’t go out with me in high school.  It’s true!  I didn’t/t have girlfriends in high school and I wasn’t cool but I knew I had something in me that people would want to know about and listen to if I could just get their attention and then deliver it to them in the way I had gone over in my mind’s eye so many times.  This stuff tells a story of pain and anguish and happiness and drunken stupors.  It’s all there – please take a listen! I’m not tired of any questions – fire away, I’m here for ya!

11. Looking back over your career, is there a single moment or situation you feel was a misstep or you would like to have a “do over,” even if it didn’t change your current situation?

There’s a million of them, it very rarely comes down to one thing in life.  I wish I had been more daring, more adventurous, but I’m happy right where I’m at, talking to you!

12. If you could magically go back in time and be a part of the recording sessions for any one record in history, which would you choose – and what does that record mean to you?

Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite by Elvis Presley – I’m such a huge fan it’s ridiculous.  I would have loved to have played or sang in that band for that recording.  Plus Hawaii is beautiful!

STEVE RAMONE LINKS:

OFFICIAL SITE

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

INSTAGRAM

Category: Interviews