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As a teacher in the eighties,
it became my conviction of the times that things were
increasingly becoming more destructive spiritually to the
youth. Youth typically look to the icons of their
subculture to find meaning by which to define themselves, and
simply lecturing or pointing out potential dangers as a
thinking adult would prove to do little. It seemed
inevitable to enter the subculture, to claim a
significant corner and compete for mind positioning. In
so doing, attention is gained long enough make clear the fog
and point to eternal truths, thereby reaching some.
My first band of such was
the band, "Battlezone" after which a year's time we
changed our name to "Pursuit!" I was the lead
singer and main song writer. My main instrument aside
from my vocals, was the blues harmonica and occasional
guitar. Randy Scherz, of Dallas, Wisconsin was our
guitarist. Brian Johnson, of Spooner, Wisconsin was our
bass player; and Carl Setser, originally from Ohio and now of
Birchwood, Wisconsin...our drummer.
Our band evolved, with a
number of musicians taking over such as GIT's (Minneapolis, MN
Guitar Tech Institute) illustrious guitar wiz kid- Todd Carone,
or "TC" as we would call him. Brian Johnson
and I, however remained the core and all still good friends to
this day.
Originally we were church
sponsored, 'till we got the left foot of fellowship...which
was due to the controversial nature and pioneering times of
Christians playing hardrock music. Ours was more a blues
hard rock sound, some comparing us to ZZ-Top. All of our
songs, with the exception of a few, were original. Our
main outreach in the form of concerts was western Wisconsin
and the Minneapolis area. We were frequently invited to
play at the New Union on Central Avenue of Minneapolis, and
made it into the semifinals of the battle of the bands in that
competition's early year inception.
Blues music had been an
influence on my playing since I can remember, that and folk
music's way of gettin' a mind to think. I don't know
why, 'cept that I would credit being tapped into God at the
right moment, but I rarely ever struggle writing lyrics.
Often after getting a good sound going by our typical jammin',
the words would just flow and I couldn't write fast
enough. Sometimes a song written in its entirety in 15
minutes.
We did a lot of concerts
for church groups of many denominations, summer festivals, had
shirts and all that stuff. The neatest thing that comes
out of that experience for anyone that has played in a band,
is that need to sacrifice one's ego to get along. To
strive for single-mindedness in one's direction or the right
direction for all concerned. Add onto that that nearly
everyone is married or responsible for dependents, and a lot
of dynamics enter in.
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