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• • • 18 EXPOSED October, 2007 4 IMMEDIATE Gold Standard to Play Gold Standard’s particular brand of funkedup Jazz groove rock may be new to festivals and clubs of the Midwest, but any devotee of 1970s horn bands like Average White Band and Chicago will recognize the influences immediately. At least they’ll think they do, until the song takes a hard left turn and plunges haphazardly through the depths of vintage prog-rock while guitar or sax take a blazing solo flight, pushing the band to ever greater heights of volume and intensity before arriving breathlessly, but safely, at the hooky sing-along chorus. After a scant two years together as a band, Gold Standard has crafted a slick, unique style that is as instantly recognizable as it is infectious, and their debut album “Swap Meet” deftly captures the essence of their myriad talent and compresses it into a highly listenable, always changing musical experience. Gold Standard is quickly becoming one of the premier Midwest bands. Packing clubs all around the Midwest, Gold Standard is melting faces everywhere they go and not a single audience member has left a show disappointed. Gold Standard has performed at 10,000 Lakes Festival, Harvest Fest (Wookiefoot), at The Cabooze (mpls), The MN Zoo Amphitheatre and countless other venues in Minneapolis. GS has opened for such acts as Michael Franti and Spearhead, Melvin Seals and the Jerry Garcia Band, Karl Denson, Wookiefoot, Trampled by Turtles, the White Iron Band and many more. GS has also toured through Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota and all over Minnesota with sold out shows on many occasions. Gold Standard is set to release their second all-original album, “Haircut”, October 19th at Kathy’s Pub with a party of epic proportions, including: door prizes, drink specials, Bad Haircut Contest (come with awful hair and win stuff) and unforeseen tonsorial wackiness will abound at the Gold Standard CD Release Party. EVENT INFORMATION: Date: Friday, October 19th, 9:45pm Place: Kathy’s Pub (307 South Broadway) Phone: 507-252-8355 Website: www.goldstandardband.com. • • • • 1003509356P •
October, 2007 EXPOSED 19 MY DEAL By Jeffrey Johnson Persistence Payin’ Off A One-on-one Interview with Kendra Olevson, New Co-lead Singer of the Rochester Band Next 2 Nothing About a month ago my friend told me that there was a new female singer singing for Next 2 Nothing. I was guessing some woman would just get up and sing some ‘girly song’ with Dennis (Thompson), the lead singer. I’ve always liked Next 2 Nothing, but I wasn’t actually planning on going out that night. Then my friend called me up to go out. After some coaxing, I agreed and ended up standing in front of Next 2 Nothing and Kendra Olevson. As I felt the excitement of the performance, Kendra was standing right in from of me. I couldn’t do anything except get out of that ‘rock goddess’s’ way. After collecting myself, I thought I should tell her how incredible she was. Through a few short conversations, I finally asked her if I could interview her for Exposed. Her answer was, “Sure!” Jeffrey: So you were saying that you’ll actually be singing more. Do you consider yourself a co-lead singer Kendra: Yeah, pretty much. I don’t know exactly how many songs we’re doing (a night), but I’d like to do five or six songs, and I’d be fine with it. We have a ton of stuff, and to try to fit it into one night (is hard)... I would really like to do more duets with Dennis – like Evanescence-type tunes, something like that. J: What do you listen to that’s popular now K: I still honestly love country, and I try to get a little bit of it in there. I think Chris (Janvrin) is okay with that, but I don’t know about the other guys (in the band)! My current favorite artist is Miranda Lambert. I would love to do some harder country - it doesn’t really sound like country, but, you know, she’s country... J: What are some of the other bands or songs from female singers that you look at and go ‘I want to do that song’ K: I like a lot of Sheryl Crow, and especially Evanescence, like “Freak on a Leash” (with Korn frontman Jonathan Davis)- I think that would be amazing to do that, like in the acoustic style. J: You mean like when they did that on MTV UnPlugged K: Yeah. And I like Seether... J: That’s cool that you mention Seether and bands like that. I want to show that there’s a lot of Rochester bands doing modern rock stuff like Linkin Park and Green Day. Bands doing new stuff along with the old. K: Exactly. We do a lot of the new stuff, too. J: You did a great job on Pictures. You looked very comfortable doing such a new song. K: Thanks. J: So, I’m thinking - Lita Ford and Ozzy Osbourne K: Yeah - I think that would be cool, but... I don’t know. I would like to do more unpredictable stuff. J: Good point. K: Stuff that people wouldn’t think, ‘Oh, wow - I don’t like that song’ or ‘I’ve heard that song...’ I don’t want to do a lot of ’80s stuff, you know I think more new stuff would be cool. J: You sing Pictures – what else K: Well, now I do Bring Me To Life by Evanescence, with Dennis, and then the Pink song U + Ur Hand. I also do a lot of back up. Chris asked me to do back up on Purple Rain and stuff like that... I try to get up there and do the higher stuff. I do Some Kind of Wonderful and I Hate Myself for Lovin’ You... J: Cool! I love Joan Jett! Okay, so Dennis is the other lead. Who else is in the band K: There’s Pat Whalen on drums, the new guitar player Jeff Lien, then there’s the other guitar player Teddy Filoteo... and Chris Janvrin on bass. J: How did you meet up with these guys K: It’s kind of a long story – I actually went to high school with Chris, and hadn’t seen him forever, but I was in the Karaoke contest once, and he was one of the judges. I remember a couple of my friends always wanting to go see his band. I was like ‘I think they’re just too hard.’ I like a lot of different songs, a lot of variety, and I just thought they were too hardcore. Then I went to see them, and I was like ‘Wow, they’re really talented!’ So then I e-mailed him a lot. I swear it was like a year or so... finally, he e-mailed me and said, ‘Okay, we’re ready... I have a very good feeling. You’re pretty persistent... let’s try this.’ Finally I tried it. I remember being extremely intimidated because they were so focused. All the guys were having a great time, but they all were every focused and not distracted. I think that shows their dedication. When I sang, they were like, ‘Yeah, pretty good, pretty good...’ And then they went on to the next song. It was kinda weird. J: So you had to go sit down and wait for them to call you back up for your next song K: Yeah - Dennis has his own studio in his garage, so I just sat and watched, and waited. I just listened and learned, and tried to figure out how they work.
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