Interview with DB Rocker
March 9, 2016
Describe your band, telling a little about it.
DB Rocker is a five-piece rock cover band that hails from Bellaire, Ohio. We’ve been playing in the upper Ohio Valley on and off since the late 80’s, early 90’s. Back in early to mid-90’s we enjoyed a lot of success being called fairly regularly to open for many national acts like Reo Speedwagon, Foghat, Blue Oyster Cult, The Outlaws, and many others that made their way through the Upper Ohio Valley. Over the years we’ve been fortunate to have some very talented folks as co-members of DB Rocker, counting the current line-up there’s been over 40 different Ohio Valley musicians that have been part of the line and many of those folks have been involved in multiple variations of the band. Nowadays, our show is much more about givin people what they want. We try and play highly recognizable, popular, new and classic “radio rock”, most of which has a beat designed to get their butts out on the dancefloor interacting with us and having fun. That’s not say we don’t mix it up, we throw in heavier songs, newer songs, older songs, even 2 or 3 ballads. We like to think that we have something for everybody.
What are your names? / Who plays what?
Bill Kohne- Lead Vocal, from Pittsburgh, PA
Dante Battistelli- Guitar, from Bellaire, OH
Jeremy Deems- Keyboards, from Belmont, OH
Todd Williams- Drums, from Rayland, OH
Jimmy Cee- Bass, from Moundsville, WV
Have members played with any other bands?
Dante being the founding member and Bill right behind him almost 26 years ago have dedicated much of our focus to DB Rocker while performing and recording things with other musicians from around the tri-state, but we always seem to gravitate back to DB Rocker. Jimmy has played in bands all around the country. And Todd and Jeremy have had their runs with various bands in the valley.
Do you write your own music or perform covers? Currently our show is all covers, but we do have a handful of originals we’ve tried to hang on to over the years and we are working on writing some new material. When you’ve been together as long as we have you accumulate originals with different folks that are no longer in the band, and they may have had such a creative influence in the process that it doesn’t feel right to retain it as “your” original. And bearing in mind that music isn’t timeless, sounds, styles, themes and techniques all become dated and to try and resurrect some of these originals just wouldn’t mesh well with the covers that we play, nor would it be viewed as new to where someone would want to record it for radio play.
Has it always been this way? We’ve always been very cover heavy, back when we were really trying to make a name for ourselves and we were much younger about 1/3 of our set was originals.
What year did the band form? Since it was before my time with the band, I’m going to say ‘86-‘87. I started playing with Dante in ’89 in a different endeavor and we jumped from that to DB Rocker in ’90. The current lineup we have now, short of swapping out a guy here or there has been going since early in 2012 with no breaks where we didn’t have something booked on the calendar.
Where is bands home? Bellaire, Oh
What's your style or genre? I like to think of the cover music we select as “Danceable Radio Rock”. Our original music tends to be a little more complex, darker, and less poppy.
What inspires your music?
Life. The good, the bad, and the ugly
How often do you rehearse? We try to go once a week while we are freshening up the list, but short of that, we perform live almost every weekend, so if we are not adding, writing, or correcting something, who has the time?
What gear do you guys use? Marshall, Gibson, Fender, Shure, Roland, JBL, Lexicon to name a few and the list could go on forever.
Do you utilize a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that? Not at the moment. We have in the past. What you find is they always want their cut because they’ve done their job by getting the booking. If something happens and the band or the venue has to cancel, many times the booking agent, having done their job, still wants their money. Anybody can book their own jobs, why let someone else make money off of you? Plus many times once they book you in a club or area then they want continued monies when you play that venue in the future. It’s never been our thing.
Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? I think anyone who writes an original dreams of it being on the radio someday, and if somehow we got lucky enough to hit some bullseye and somebody wanted to record it, I’m sure we wouldn’t hesitate, but are we looking? No.
What are your songs about?
Just like the answer of what inspires our music…life. The good, the bad, and the ugly
Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? Dante does much of both. That can sometime be a stumbling point for a singer. The lyricist and vocalist of an original piece cannot always relate to theme of the song that someone else has come up with. Or the words maybe not be something they would typically say. That’s probably why originals never really were the focus for us. Everybody was always trying to write everybody else’s part and it ceased to be an original it was just another cover of somebody else’s song or thoughts or melody lines but it wasn’t well known and it wasn’t on the radio, so why bother. I think the only way originals work is 100% creative input and control of each person’s part or role by that individual. At the end of the day it is a collaborative effort but, ideally especially when it comes to lyrics and melody lines, if I’m going to call it an original it’s got to be 100% me.
Do you start with the music or the lyrics?
I think it’s gone both ways. I don’t know which way is easier if there is one.
Do you compose in a certain environment? Wherever the inspiration hits you and you have an idea that you jot down, you’re composing, but as a general rule it works the best in a private environment free of distractions and outside influence. When writing as a band we’ve always started at our homes and then brought them to practice to continue the writing process.
Have you done any covers live? All the time, that’s always been our primary focus.
What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs? Oh, I’d say we’ve all had those 10 people gigs when some weather issue or big event was going on. Those are tough for anybody. On the other end I’m going to say in the lower thousands range for some of the bigger outdoor festivals and national acts. As for yearly recurring shows our best turn outs are for our St. Patrick’s Day week-end shows at Flanagan’s in Bellaire, Ohio. That yearly event sees in excess of 400 people through the door throughout the course of the night, and for that place, it’s pretty much jammed from front to back.
What ages are most of your concert attendants? The average would be early 20’s to late 40’s with our average demographic falling in the early to mid-30, we’ve seen them much younger and much older too depending on the event.
Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? We have roughly 50 to 60 covers on our list right now. We play about 40 per night during 3 sets. So there is about 20 songs that we work in and out but I would say 20-25 of those 40 songs are crowd favorites that you are likely to hear a most of our shows. We do drop songs a couple times a year and replace them when they no longer work for the crowd.
Do you have a regular place you play live often? We like to call the Buzz Inn in Shadyside, Ohio our home base bar. It’s only five minutes from our practice facility, many of our friends and supporters go there to see us. It’s a smaller venue that you can get up close and personal with the crowd. It’s owned by some great people and it’s just a lot of fun.
What was your first gig like?
Exciting, terrifying and awkward all at once.
What was your latest gig?
The Captain’s Quarters in New Martinsville WV
Have you had to cancel a gig? Yes, sure. It happens to the best of us. If you haven’t had to cancel at one time or another, you haven’t been playing very long or don’t play very often.
Where have you played live this year?
Shadyside, OH New Martinsville, WV. Bellaire, OH Martins Ferry, OH. Yorkville, OH. Dillonvale, OH
Where do you plan to gig the coming year? All up and down the Ohio Valley as we’ve done, but we plan to stretch the north and south boundaries we currently stop at as well as really make an effort to play more towards the region’s bigger cities of Pittsburgh, PA and Columbus, OH.
When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? Back in the early 90’s, t-shirts and hats. There are still a few shirts that surface from time to time at a show.
Where can people buy your merchandise? Nowhere right now but we are working on some ideas for a number of items that hopefully we’ll be getting out there for people to get their hands on sometime by mid-summer.
What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days? I think if you’re an artist that just wants his or her music available and heard by the masses, I think it’s great. If you’re making a living off of that intellectual property and its being stolen from you, that’s an entirely different story.
How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? I think it has really been a game changer. I think it has taken a huge chunk of the profit factor out of the industry in general that record companies aren’t putting the effort into steering and marketing the industry as much as they used to. That has its “goods” and “bads”. On one hand, I think it’s good because it has probably opened the door for many new artists and genres that didn’t have access to the masses before because they “didn’t fit the cookie cutter”. On the other hand, I think music in general, but especially rock, has lost its focus and direction at a national level. There is no clear cut top band out there any more, there is no clear cut sound or style. Everything is so over saturated and there are so many choices no one can control it and there really is something out there that appeals to everybody. But gone are the days of mass popularity, which makes it difficult for us as a cover band to find new songs to add that will resonate with a broad variety of people. To me that explains why the arena concert era is behind us. When there is a show in a venue like that it’s old bands from back when the choices we’re fewer and the marketing was more focused. It’s the same reason why such a large majority of the “new rock” shows are either a much smaller venues and when they are at larger venues they are these huge multi-band events sometime encompassing many days because there is no one clear power house act out there anymore.
Do you have any role models or idols? I think since I’m speaking for the band, I’d say we all have pretty diverse back grounds and influences but I think we all have a shared respect for anybody who chooses this field as a career. For us, this is supplemental income from something we like to do. Those folks that not only have survived, but thrived in such a difficult, fickle, cutthroat industry are the folks we would choose to emulate or look up to.
Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? I guess I’d say older. I think we all try to remain current by seeking inspiration from more active bands. But active bands, especially in rock, can be a relative term. As a cover band you’re sort of forced to play what the local radio stations are playing if you want to reach the broadest spectrum of people. Even active bands popularity can vary from region to region just by what the local radio stations choose to play.
What have been your biggest obstacles? Finding people that can all get along in the first place, who are willing to pull their own weight and work as a unit is the biggest hurdle. Then finding a way to hold it all together and work around each other schedules, personalities, and personal agendas is a close second. A band is very much like a family. You spend a lot of time together and having personalities that don’t mesh, or conflicting tastes, or agendas can take something that brings you great joy and turn it into a living nightmare.
What advice would you give other bands or artists? Know your limitations, and know who you are. Don’t try to be who aren’t or what you’re not. Find out what you’re the best at, and do your best at it. Decide whether you want to be an “artist” or and “entertainer”. They are two distinctly different paths. As an artist your music, your vision, your passion, is what drives you, and mainstream popularity doesn’t matter nearly as much as being true to your artistic vision. As an entertainer your focus is on entertaining folks and that’s usually entails a much broader focus and you need to be much more flexible and willing to adapt. As an artist it’s about “you” as an entertainer it’s about “them”.
How do you get psyched for a gig? Doesn’t take much, the thrill of playing is as present now as it was when we were kids. Me personally, I’ll listen something that gets me fired up. Not necessarily something we are going to be playing. Similar to what you would listen to when you’re at the gym.
Do you have any new material? We pick up new stuff all the time. We try it out, if it works we keep it, if not we scrap it.
What are your web sites? www.facebook.com/dbrkr13
www.reverbnation.com/dbrocker
How can people reach you?
Facebook is the quickest and easiest way
What are your plans for the future? Just keep doing what we’re doing with the cover band, trying to make new fans, and play new venues and towns along the way, all the while trying to focus on churning out some original music to put out a CD. I think before we hang it up we want that CD to hold in our hands to be able to say “this is me; this is something I made”.
What do you think of my work? I think it was an excellent, in depth, intuitive set of questions that shows you have a true understanding of this business and how it has changed over the years.
How do you think that this interview could help you in the local music scene and beyond? Success in this business is all about being known. No matter how long you’ve been around or where you’ve played any chance you can get to introduce yourself to potential new fans is an opportunity you can’t afford to pass up. I think we have the type of a set list and put on the type of show that will appeal to most folks out there. Our continued growth and success is just a matter of getting folks to want to bring us to their towns. This can certainly help to bridge that gap.
What is one thing even your biggest fans don't know about the band? I’d say it’s how much time is spent on studying them and watching their interactions all in an effort to make sure we are giving them the best show possible. We notice a lot more up there on stage than most folk realize. We are constantly adjusting songs, or song placement, or even when, or how much we talk or don’t talk in between songs. I think many people think bands just show up and do their thing with little regard for the crowd and their opinions, and that may or may not be true in general, but in our case, it’s all about everybody having a good time.
Do you have anything to add? No, I think your questions more than covered what anybody ever wanted to know about us…lol. For general information sake below is a listing of the dates we are comfortable releasing. We don’t like to release more than a month or so at a time so people don’t opt to skip seeing us in one month because they know well be at their favorite bar again next month.
March 4th The Captains Quarters~ New Martinsville WV ~ 10:00 pm
March 12th Flanagan’s Pre-St. Patrick’s Day Blowout~ Bellaire, Ohio 9:00pm
March 19th The Thirsty Beaver Grand Opening Celebration~ Martins Ferry, Ohio 9:30pm (No Cover Charge)
March 26th Bill’s Bar~ Yorkville, Ohio 9:30pm (No Cover Charge)
April 8th Local 150 Bar and Grill ~ Dillonvale, Ohio 9:30pm
April 16th The Buzz Inn ~ Shadyside Ohio 9:30pm
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