ERIK ROGERS
STEREOMUD & SOUNDEVICE
Jaime: First thing, I was noticing that you use an in-ear monitor. How do you keep it from falling out, as active as you are on stage?
Erik: They’re molds. You have to go to an audiologist. They inject your ear with this putty stuff, then it hardens, and they send it off where they actually cut a mold. It fills up your entire inner ear canal. The way they are designed, they aren’t squishy at all, they are like a hard rubber, and it snaps in your ear. I’ll pull one out all the time so I can hear the crowd, because the only thing that you lose, is having your ears cut off from the outside noise completely. When I first started using them, I had a bad habit of talking too quiet in-between songs, because I’ve got myself so loud in my head. The band was saying, “Dude, we can’t hear what you are saying, you’re mumbling.”
Jaime: So do you sing softly too?
Erik: No, I sing full voice. I’ve been using in-ears for years now, so I’ve got a good mix. We carry our own monitor rack, because the whole band uses in-ears with the exception of one of the guitar players, Billy. That’s just because he hasn’t gotten his molds made yet.
Jaime: I don’t mean to jump ahead, but what kind of effects do you use?
Erik: Live, nothing, just dry. Whatever the house guy has on.
Jaime: I could hear the house sound guy adding some effects
Erik: Because we don’t have our own touring sound guy, we aren’t carrying any effects. So we just go raw and let the sound guy have a good time.
Jaime: What about a compressor on your voice?
Erik: I was endorsed by SHURE, so the microphone I use is a Beta-87. It’s different from what a lot of singers use. Usually, they use either an SM-58 or a Beta-58. The Beta-87 is a condenser microphone and has a compressor in the wireless system. So I do use one, but it’s in the microphone. The problem with that microphone is that if you don’t have in-ears, you can’t have monitors right in front of you, because they will feed back. I’ve always used that microphone because I sing very loud, and it was good at squishing my voice in the right way, and not cutting out any of my tone.
Jaime: OK, here we go. How long have you been singing?
Erik: I started singing when I was 5 years old in church choir.
Jaime: How old are you now?
Erik: I’m 33.
Jaime: I’m 34.
Erik: 33 last week. Yeah, I started singing in church choir, and I did that all the way up into my 20’s. I went to a performing arts high school for voice and drama.
Jaime: So you’ve had vocal training?
Erik: Yeah, I’ve taken voice lessons from a lot of different people. The biggest one for me though was being in church choir. When I was about 14 or 15, I was the guy, who like, my buddy got a drum set the Christmas prior, and my other buddy got a guitar, and I said, “Let’s put a band together.” This first gig I ever did was actually at my church. We were doing cover songs. We were trying to write our on material, but it was the starting of writing. I remember the first show we did. We were doing “Wasted Years” by IRON MAIDEN, “Stairway to Heaven” by LED ZEPPELIN, we did a very horrible version of “Tom Sawyer” by RUSH, and we did CHEAP TRICK’s “She’s Tight". They cut us off on “She’s Tight“. I’m 15, and I had no idea why. We were playing a happy song, she’s nice, she’s tight, what’s wrong with that. (Ha-ha) The youth minister’s going, “Oh no, you can’t play that.” But I was thinking, “Have you ever seen MAIDEN’s album covers?” (Ha-ha) They said, “That one wasn’t bad, but this song is bad.”
Jaime So, do you have any favorite singers?
Erik: Chris Cornell, definitely. Maynard from TOOL. Prince, who I probably think is one of the best entertainers, Billy Joel, Sting, who I had the pleasure of meeting about a month ago.
Jaime: How did that come about?
Erik: It was very brief. I just happened to be in the same club and he came in to hang out. That’s the first person I’ve ever been star struck by. The guy is a very talented musician.
Jaime: Was he like, “Oh yeah, STEREOMUD?" (Ha-ha)
Erik: No, not at all. (Ha-ha) That would have been nice, I would have been floored if that were the case. But you know, those were probably some of the major influences for me. Steven Tyler was another when I was young, when I was first getting into a band. I’ve always had the utmost respect for him as an entertainer. Everyone’s heard the story about what AEROSMITH has been through. They’ve been through hell and back. At his age to still be doing it…
Jaime: Well, you’ve had vocal training, so, if you know what you are doing, you can work through it, and you are going to be all right.
Erik: You can see the difference, once you’ve had vocal training. You can see the difference in the guys who’ve had it and the guys who haven’t, when you see their show. Things I’ve learned on the road a long time ago, is breathing techniques and warming up and down, and being smart about what you do. On top of that, your lifestyle, in general. You’ve got to live it and breathe it if you are going to do it, and it’s an everyday thing. It’s an instrument, it’s like a guitar. Like a guitar player would baby their guitar, you have to baby your vocal cords. And the guys who go out and give 100% one night and then go out and give 40% the next… I learned a long time ago that it’s better to go out and give 80% all the time, then 100% some time.
Jaime: It doesn’t sound like you baby your vocal cords. (Ha-ha)
Erik: It’s an exercise, and I have had the fortunate pleasure of being able to do this on a regular basis. When I first started out touring, there were periods when I’d lose my voice because I was over doing it, and I was partying too hard… Then you start learning, “ I can’t do this if I wanna do that…”
Jaime: What about the song “Pain“? You have a really pretty voice, then you go real rough. What’s going on vocally for you with those sudden changes?
Erik: When I’m screaming stuff like “Pain” or “Lost Your Faith” , which are very throaty, very heavy tracks, it’s all from my stomach. There was a period when STEREOMUD was headlining, that we had 15-16 song sets and my abs would hurt from flexing and pushing.
Jaime: Are you pushing down or what?
Erik: It’s all from breathing into the stomach as opposed to breathing into the chest. You are talking about an hour and 15 minute workout, and you are jumping around and talking to the crowd, and you’re tensing here and relaxing there.
Jaime: Another STEREOMUD song that comes to mind is “Anything But Jesus.” I thought it was sacrilegious until I listened to the words.
Erik: It’s the exact opposite. On the first STEREOMUD tour, a kid came up to me and said, “I love you. Your music has done so much for me. You are my GOD.” And, I was like, “Man, I’m just like you. I don’t have any answers. I’m anything but Jesus.” That inspired me to write the song to let people know I’m just a regular guy. We could have called it “Anything“, but I said no, let’s call it what it is, “Anything But Jesus.“ That’s a lot more powerful statement. I wanted people to take notice.
Jaime: You mentioned to me earlier today that you toured with David Draiman of DISTURBED. He warms up, right?
Erik: Absolutely he does
Jaime: Are you warming up?
Erik: Oh yeah, I always have. I do a lot of scale warm-ups from when I was in church choir. I also crescendo on scales, or get louder as you go up. One thing I learned from David is, he’d do some wacky things with his mouth, like moving and relaxing his jaw. He’d stretch his mouth open as wide as he could and make an over dramatic chewing motion. When you are doing stuff that is very staccato, you have to be able to move your jaw. One thing I learned early is enunciation. I pride myself on my diction and articulation, and I’ve always taken it as a very big compliment when people say, “We can understand you when you sing.”
Jaime: : I’ve notice that in your songs. Usually, you can’t understand singers who sing real throaty. When you do that gruff tone, there’s a resonance.
Erik: There is a way to articulate it, and I pride myself on being able to understand what I’m singing. If I’m going to write a song, I want people to hear the words! And that exercise I learned from David helped for articulation. They say you learn something new every day and that was something I never did before. I said, “Wow, I need to apply that.”
Jaime: Have you ever lost your voice or had throat trouble?
Erik: Yeah, I mean, of course, I’ve been singing for more than 20 years, and there have been periods… I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to make it through shows. There was a period on tour where I had to get some vitamin B-12 shots because I had strep throat, and I was taking steroids. We had to continue to play because we were at a period where canceling would have been so financially devastating. A lot of people don’t realize that when you get on that regimen, you’ve got to keep working. Luckily, I’ve always had a good group of guys behind me to back me up, pick up the slack if I needed to back off a little bit, which really helps. They call it a band for a reason. It’s a group of guys looking out for each other.
Jaime: Have you had any other major projects?
Erik: Before STEREOMUD I was in a band called BELTFED. We toured with STUCK MOJO and NOTHINGFACE.
Jaime: Did you release anything?
Erik: We released an EP on our own and I don’t even have a copy anymore. There’s actually a kid here today who drove from North Carolina who has a copy. His screen name has always been BELTFED. I met him back then and we were his favorite band.
Jaime: Tell him to burn you a copy.
Erik: He keeps telling me he’s going to burn me one. BELTFED was more of an ALICE IN CHAINS type band with a lot of harmonies. Our drummer was actually Dustin Lowery, who’s Clint Lowery from SEVENDUST’s little brother, and Cory Lowery, who was my bass player in STEREOMUD, it was his baby brother. Now he’s a singer. There were some amazing vocals in the band, because everybody sang. We had a lot of 3 and 4 part harmonies. KINGS X, powerful vocal stuff going on in that band. We got close to a record deal, then I got the offer from STEREOMUD. At the time, Dustin wanted to start fronting a band instead of playing drums. So I freed the way for him and said “I’m gonna go do this” and he went on to do his own thing.
Jaime: Speaking of great singers, have you ever heard of RA?
Erik: Have I ever heard of RA… Let me tell you a story… When I was with STEREOMUD, we were touring with DISTURBED ,and RA was opening for us. Draiman and I were watching RA perform for the first time, and we were like, “Oh my God, this guy is amazing!” Our jaws were on the floor, I mean, the guy sounds like Sting. When Sahaj Ticotin came off stage, he walked up to me and said, “I love your band. STEREOMUD is great.” I was like, “There’s no way I’m going on stage now.”
Jaime: What is the big difference between STEREOMUD and SOUNDEVICE?
Erik: I think SOUNDEVICE is more melodic. STEREOMUD was melodic, but heavy, with a lot of aggressive singing. There isn’t a lot of throaty type vocals going on, I’m singing a lot more in this band. It’s a different group of guys. It’s hard when you are a singer and your voice is signature to that band. You know Chris Cornell with the RAGE guys. You know Scott Weiland with VELVET REVOLVER. You’ve got that voice so it kind of brings those textures and anything that you’ve ever done into the new project. As well as any signature guitar player, or drummer. You are going to have bits and pieces of anything you’ve ever done in everything you ever do. STEREOMUD always prided themselves on being heavy as hell and still having something you can sing along with. SOUNDEVICE is heavy too, but more focused on singing songs you can sing along with the song.
Jaime: How did you come up with the names STEREOMUD and SOUNDEVICE?
Erik: We were in Los Angeles and Billy Malano from S.O.D. heard our demo and he said to our guitar player at the time, “You sound like stereo mud”, and we were like, “That’s the name”, and it stuck. With SOUNDEVICE, I told all of the guys to pick their favorite words and let’s see if we can combine 2 of them together some way. I always liked the word “vice” and the meaning of the word “vice.” To have an addiction to something, something that possesses you. I also like the word “sound“, obviously because of SOUNDGARDEN, so “sound” was always on my list of words. Jason liked the word “device“, when I mentioned “vice“. So we put “sound” and “device” together. I dropped the D and went online to see if it was taken. It wasn’t, so we were like,” We’ve done it, that’s the name.”
Jaime: You are playing again tonight right?
Erik: Yeah, it’s not the first time I’ve done it either. In STEREOMUD, one time we did a show in Boston, left for the airport, flew to Buffalo and did a day show, and then flew to New Jersey and did a show that night. We did 3 shows in 36 hours.
Jaime: Wow, that’s awesome!
Erik: And it was fun!
Jaime: It all about working the muscles.
Erik: Exactly. It is. It’s an exercise. Doing a show, for any singer, as I’m sure you know, is equivalent to 10 practices, because there is so much energy going into it. Even if you try to practice like a show, you know it’s not the same. It’s always the interaction between the crowd, there’s so much going on.
Jaime: I noticed that you did a lot of talking in the crowd after the show. Does this affect your voice?
Erik: I have lost my voice in the past, but you learn from it. In losing it, you figure out and pay attention to what caused it. You figure out solutions to those problems, and you work through it by saying, “I can’t do this or that. I can’t get up at 6:00 AM and do a radio show and an acoustic song., then perform that night.”
Jaime: Do you have any tips or tricks?
Erik: Rehearse all the time. Sing all the time. It’s a muscle and you’ve got to work it out. Don’t be afraid to take voice lessons, and talk to other singers that you admire, even on a local level. It doesn’t have to be a guy in a signed band or on tour. If somebody you hear does something that impresses you, ask them about it. You might meet singers that are assholes, but you might also meet a guy that would be happy to help. I’ve gotta say that it’s the greatest job I’ve ever done and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
If you'd like to learn more about Erik Rogers, you can check out his new project, SOUNDEVICE at www.soundevice.net/
PERFECT SELF - 2001
EVERY GIVEN MOMENT - 2002
WORLD GOES ROUND - 2003
01-04 Vendera Publishing ~ All Rights Reserved