As the five members of SoCal punk band Slick Shoes record their fifth full length album with legendary rock producer Ed Stasium (the Dickies, Misfits, Motorhead, Pennywise, Plasmatics, Ramones, Reverend Horton Heat, 7 Seconds, Talking Heads) at Calabasas, California's Castle Oak Studios, it's hard to believe that not too long ago, they were unexpectedly landing their first record contract with Tooth & Nail after impulsively sending out a haphazardly recorded demo tape. At the time, lead singer Ryan Kepke was a mere 14 years old and had only been a member of Slick Shoes, his first and only band, for two weeks: "You could hear the rustling of papers on the tape, because he didn't even know the words yet and had to use lyric sheets," drummer Joe Nixon recalls. "I have no idea how that tape got us any sort of deal!" However, T&N execs heard the immense promise on the raw recording, quickly swooping up the young group and issuing four Slick Shoes albums (1997's Rusty, 1998's Burn Out, 2000's Wake Up Screaming, and 2002's self-titled release) over the ensuing seven prolific years.
Fast-forward to the year 2003: Slick Shoes are still only in their early twenties, yet they're already releasing their Stasium-produced fifth effort, Far From Nowhere, and they've accrued the experience of a veteran punk outfit 10-plus years their senior. Their influences alone (the Descendents, Circle Jerks, Germs, Angelic Upstarts) signify the musical maturity of a much older and wiser group, and Kepke even jokes that their slowly but surely honed technical prowess has driven Stasium to dub them "new-school prog rock." Nixon, however, prefers to describe his band's manic music as simply "fast, fun, and melodic...I guess its punk, but that word is used so loosely nowadays. With some of the groups being called 'punk' now, it's crazy that they're even using that word, because they're more like boy bands. See, I grew up listening to punk, it was a movement that happened even before I was old enough to be a part of it."."
Regardless of how one chooses to describe Far From Nowhere, the album's taut, tight melodies clearly prove that Slick Shoes' time has arrived after nearly a decade of hard labor. "I think this album is kind of a cross of all our previous albums," muses Nixon. "Years of being in this band and seeing what we liked and didn't like about records, and having new members, has somehow resulted in somewhat of an older feel, but it's also given us a brand-new style in a way." Slick Shoes, who get their name from the beloved cult kiddy flick The Goonies, have weathered more than their fair share of personnel changes over the years (Nixon and Kepke have been the lineup's only constants), but their latest incarnation is their most stable and successful to date, boasting a certain special chemistry that neither Kepke nor Nixon have enjoyed with previous bandmates. "We all get along so well," Kepke marvels. "Even with David, the newest member, who's only been in the band since November 2002, it feels like he's been with us for years." Adds Nixon: "We gel really well together, like we know what each other's thinking. It's super-relaxed, nobody's got a big head, and everyone's really open to suggestion, so it's really easy to write with these guys. We write songs in a matter of, like, five minutes."
Along with some new group members, Slick Shoes also have a new record company this time around, Los Angeles based SIDEONEDUMMY Records home of Mighty Mighty BossTones, Flogging Molly, The Casualties and Suicide Machines to name a few; and although Kepke and Nixon are both practicing Christians, they felt now was time to make the move from the religious label Tooth & Nail to a secular one. "We never really believed in segregation between the Christian and secular markets," Kepke explains. "I mean, if I were a construction worker, I wouldn't call myself a 'Christian construction worker,' so why should we label ourselves a 'Christian band'? We just want to be a band - we never wanted to thump anybody over the head with a bible."
However, while Slick Shoes' songs are never preachy or alienating, Kepke's faith does come through in his uniquely positive lyrics on punchy, pogo-friendly numbers like "Now Is The Time," "When We Were Young," and "Hope Against Hope" - all of which deal with (as Kepke words it) "the journey of growing up," yet are refreshingly free of the chest-thumping, blood-letting, overwrought angst of so many mopey alt-rock bands. "There is some angst there, and a few of our songs do have a darker tone to them, but even with the songs that sound kind of bummed out, I always try towards the end to make them positive," Kepke points out. That's just the outlook on life that I try to have - that no matter what happens, you still have your life, and there are always people who have it worse than you. So I never really want to complain about anything. We want kids to have fun - we don't want to do anything that bums kids out!"
Far from bumming kids out, Slick Shoes' music seems to genuinely lift young fans' spirits. "There have been kids who've come up to us and said they'd been thinking about committing suicide, but then they got one of our CDs and it totally made them change their mind," Kepke reveals. "When I heard that, I was blown away, I couldn't believe it. It made me feel so good about what we're doing, to know that one of our crappy little CDs could change someone's life!"
Slick Shoes' sense of positively and fun also translates to their live show, which they'll be bringing to countless kids as they join the 2003 Warped Tour (their first full-length Warped trek) and then continue gigging around the world for at least eight months out of the coming year. "Playing shows is just about the best thing about being in a band," Nixon gushes. "Just seeing kids' reactions to the music and having the support of our fans, the look on their faces when they're having a really good time - that's a really great feeling."
"We basically just try to have fun," says Kepke of the band's concert ethos. "Fun is what it's all about, even if our monitors or amps go out or if there's only five kids in the audience. Those five kids are still there to have fun, and they paid to get it, so we do our best to give them just as good of a show as we'd give 5000 kids."
"We don't care how huge or popular we get," adds Nixon with similar modesty. "Really, if a few people listen to us and it cheers them up, or if a couple kids come to our show and like us, then we've done our job. We're just going to do our best." And judging from the full-circle sound of Far From Nowhere, their best is more than good enough.
Slick Shoes Ryan Kepke - vocals David Stoltenberg - guitar Jonah Peterson - guitar Kevin Clark - bass Joe Nixon - drums
Source: http://www.slickshoes.net
