ION: Tell our readers about your band, Home Grown Head, how your group came to be, and how long have you been together?
Home Grown Head: We’ ve been together for about two years now with our current members. Before then, we had a band, but went through a few drummers and at one point even had a sax player. Drew and Tyler have pretty much always been there since the beginning. Evan, our drummer, started playing with us a little over two years ago, which lead to Will joining the band on trumpet. Those two guys were roommates, and Will was always there for practice anyway, so it only made sense to add Will to the band after a while. At this point, we’ ve finally settled on members in the long term. I don’ t think any of us foresee any changes in the near future.
ION: Can you share a little bit about each band member and their background, and what they bring to the band?
HGH: On drums, we’ ve got Evan Strippelhoff. He’ s a killer drummer and his thoughts on music are always interesting because he loves to jam. Sometimes we’ ll get in a rut trying to figure something out, a form or something, and he’ ll always be the first to say,“ Let’ s just jam it out!” He has a strong background in a lot of different styles of music, so he brings some unique elements to the rhythms and grooves, which really ties everything together. He also sings backup vocals on some tunes when we need a really strong vocal line or want to add some harmonies.
On bass is Tyler Stamper. Tyler and Evan work together really well as a rhythm section and whenever Evan gets into a groove, Tyler’ s always right there with him. He’ s really good at knowing just how to fit in and stay on top of the rhythm without overextending his reach, which is exactly what we need to keep everything moving along. When you only have four members, each person has to play a pretty specific roll, and he plays his roll very well.
Will Phillips is our trumpeter. It’ s kind of unusual to have a“ rock band” with only four people, and one of them is a trumpet player( other than Cake), but it works out really well in our case. Will seemingly always finds the right spot to put countermelodies to Drew’ s lead lines or vocals that fit with the melody, or add some accent to the rhythm that Evan and Tyler are playing. He also is kind of our go-to soloist on a lot of things because he comes from a jazz background, so he brings that jazz element to some of our music.
And our guitarist and vocalist is Drew Cercone. Drew has been in the band since the beginning and we wouldn’ t really have many songs without Drew. He’ s our main writer. He’ ll come to rehearsals with an idea either on guitar, vocals, or both, and we just kind of develop it from there until we have everything filled in. Drew has a tough job, because he’ s really playing three rolls … vocalist, rhythm guitar, and lead guitar. As if singing wasn’ t hard enough, he’ s filling in a lot of the rhythms that overarch what Tyler and Evan are doing--then he might have to switch rolls immediately and go straight into a solo or a lead line.
ION: What would you say, thus far, has been the highlight of your career?
HGH: We’ ve had a few highlight moments, most of which involve sharing the stage with some of our idols. We played a show with Cedric Burnside not too long ago, who is a fantastic blues artist, and I think we all really loved that show. Especially Drew, because he actually got to get on stage and play a couple tunes with Cedric … which was awesome! Just a couple weeks ago we played with Holy Ghost Tent Revival, and that was another highlight … again, because we just really love those guys’ music. We’ re thankful we got those opportunities! Other than that, I think our biggest highlights are just those random shows where people are just really digging what we’ re playing. It could be a smaller gig, some dive bar, but when the audience is feeling it, it takes us to a whole other place. It’ s a great feeling!
ION: The music business is a tough one. What is the biggest mistake you’ ve made so far; what would you have done differently?
HGH: The music biz definitely is tough … I’ d say any mistakes we’ ve made have just come down to rushing into something, or setting our expectations too high. Everything in music takes time and you have to be extremely patient some times, but that’ s hard to do. It’ s hard to say anything specific, but generally we don’ t realize we’ ve made a mistake until we’ ve already made it. Then it becomes obvious:“ Oh we should’ ve planned more for this.” I’ m sure there are plenty more mistakes to come, but it’ s always a learning experience. So you learn and move on and try not to make the same mistake twice. I do believe we’ re getting better with experience though.