When asked how this band of wannabe beach bums describes their music, they are quick to say, “beach funk.” It's a genre of music I had never heard of before, but it doesn’t mean it can’t exist. Without giving the generic “they sound like…” just think of it as a frozen margarita blend of Jimmy Buffett, Incubus and 311 with strong influences of Steely Dan and The Police. These rebels without a cause like to drink, party and wear flip-flops as long into the winter as humanly possible. These guys have been on the music scene for several years as individuals but Science Hill has only existed for a little more than a year and they have no intention of stopping now. With the September 30th world-wide release of their debut album, Moonlight Swim, under the label EliteROCK Records, management group Lucky 7 Management (L7M) and distribution through BCD Music Group, Science Hill knows the uphill climb for success has just begun. Moonlight Swim can be found anywhere music is sold (Best Buy, Target, Circuit City, Slackers, Vintage Vinyl, etc). With a lot of the material for Moonlight Swim written by Jeff Nations and Dave Seithel on a trip to Florida, you can tell the sand between their toes really had an effect on the sound of the album. You can catch Science Hill at The Pageant on Friday November 21 for the Ticketmaster New Music Spotlight. I sat down with lead singer and guitarist Jeff Nations to discuss Science Hill’s recent success.
How long has the band been together?
Jeff: Science Hill has been together a little over a year. Dave Seithel and I conceived the idea for the band and started writing material in April '07 and then the full lineup came together in June '07 and we started working on that material as a whole.
How did you come up with name Science Hill?
Jeff: Science Hill is actually a small town in Pulaski County, Kentucky which is in central southern Kentucky. Dave and I worked for my dad's business doing maintenance on cell phone towers around the Midwest and one of the towers we worked on was in Science Hill and that was also the name of the tower site. We both worked on that tower on separate occasions and both came back saying, "That'd be a really cool band name". So when we decided we were going to put the band together we knew that Science Hill would be the name, there was never any debate.
It seems like every person in a St. Louis band came from another band. Is that case with your band? Where did you come from?
Jeff: Yes, we all came from other bands. Dave and I spent six years in Essence Of Logic, our drummer Chris Seithel (Dave's brother) played with Resolution and our new bassist Chris Barnes came from a cover band called Motherhead.
Are you for or against the Guitar Hero and Rock Band craze?
Jeff: I think we are all on the same page with that game: They're great in the sense that they get young kids listening to 60s and 70s classic rock that they otherwise may have never heard before and the games get these kids interested in musical instruments. That whole aspect of the game is really cool but at some point the parents need to step in and say, "Ok let's go get you the real thing if you're that into this game." The kids spend all this time mastering this game when they could be learning the real thing. Guitar Hero and Rock Band do not even come close to simulating what it's like to actually play the instruments, which is why I personally don't like the games. If you know how to actually play guitar and play the songs it's a very frustrating game.
What television show do you consecutively agree on, is the best show on the tube today?
Jeff: I think we'd all agree on South Park. It's so ridiculous and hilarious and every week you think there's no way they could cross any more lines and then they go and do it. I think a lot of people, older folks I guess, dismiss it as toilet humor and foul language but if you watch the show at all you realize it's so much more than that. It deals with all kinds of social flaws and stupidity and tears them apart. It's a very smart, very well written television. One of the best episodes is the one where Paris Hilton comes to South Park and at the end of the episode Mr. Slave and Paris have a "whore-off" to find out which of them is a bigger whore. They just completely rip Paris Hilton to shreds in that one. I stood up and applauded at the end of that episode. No other show has the guts to make fun of people and issues the way that South Park does. This is the type of TV that people need to be watching, stuff that takes thought to write, but instead everyone's brainwashed by "reality" TV and mediocre, recycled sitcoms like Two And A Half Men. It's REALLY sad that people are so feeble-minded that they watch that bullshit. It's the same way with the music industry; people don't put any thought into what they listen to. They go, "Hey it's on the radio, I'll listen to it" and that's why talentless trash like Lil' Wayne, Fall Out Boy and Kid Rock are popular right now. People don't want to analyze the music and realize, "There's no talent here whatsoever, there's no substance to this, why would anyone sign these guys in the first place?" People just need to wake up and exercise their minds.
If you had the opportunity to open for a national act that happens to be rolling through St. Louis, who would it be?
Jeff: We'd love to open for 311 or Incubus. We're actually in talks with 311's management to go on tour with them in 2009. I think our sound would be appreciated by either one of those bands’ fans since they're both huge influences on us. We'd also love to share the stage with Jimmy Buffett seeing as though we're a beach band or it’d be great to be able to be opening for legends like The Police, Genesis or Talking Heads or any member from any of those bands since none of them are together anymore. Recently I’ve been thinking we’d get along really well with Kings Of Leon. I recently have gotten really into them and they seem like really cool dudes who love to party and they play great music, and since we love to party and we think we write great music, I don’t see why there shouldn’t be a meeting of the minds.
One thing that I think is great about the St. Louis’ music scene is the friendships that are made between bands. Who are your band buddies on the scene?
Jeff: People like The Upright Animals, LOGOS, Arythma, Groupthink, FRO (who made a guest appearance on our album), The New Embrace, Fer De Lance and of course our label mates Standpointe and Sooner Than Later. These guys are really cool (both as people and as musicians) and they take themselves seriously and they get out and promote hard and they play well, these are the type of groups we want to associate with.
What music venue do you like playing the most/do you want to play?
Jeff: Lately we've really dug Sky Music Lounge and Cruisin' RTE 66. Both these places are smaller joints but they have phenomenal sound and lighting systems and they treat bands like royalty. We have our first show at The Pageant coming up on November 21, which we couldn’t be more excited about. Dave and I have played there several times but we’re really excited to get in there with Science Hill and I know that it will become one of our favorite venues as well. If we could play anywhere I'd say it would have to be Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado. We're all dying to play there.
