Rocking public access
Published 12:00 am Monday, September 25, 2000
The crew of "Soundcheck" has had beers with the hard-rock band Warrant, they’ve sat aboard a tour bus with Alice Cooper and his guitarist, and they’ve chatted with Motley Cre backstage at a concert.
Monday, September 25, 2000
The crew of "Soundcheck" has had beers with the hard-rock band Warrant, they’ve sat aboard a tour bus with Alice Cooper and his guitarist, and they’ve chatted with Motley Crüe backstage at a concert.
It all goes with the job: Creators of a public-access music show.
"We all had an interest in video and music," said Paul Robertson, one of the four crew members of the recently revived show, which airs monthly on Albert Lea public access and weekly in Austin.
The four had been listening to head-banger bands like Metallica and Poison since they were young. Combining their video production skills and their musical interests, they came up with the perfect hobby.
Their half-hour show includes video from concerts – both local and national acts – as well as music videos, interviews and concert calendars.
The show began three years ago as "Just Testing," but the crew took some time off a year ago and just recently started up again, this time under the "Soundcheck" name.
It started when Robertson and crew member Jim Schneider were working together at KSMQ in Austin. One of their duties at the public TV station was working the controls for a blues slide guitar show that was beamed in from the south.
"It stunk," Schneider said. The audio would cut out without warning, the show would end suddenly, and there were dozens of mistakes.
"We just said, we can put something together that’s better than this," Robertson said. They set out to create their own music show.
They picked up a few more people along the way, until they arrived at today’s crew: Robertson, Schneider, Suzi Frohwein and Brad Klukow. Most of them have connections to local TV stations. Robertson is an engineer for the KTTC in Rochester; Klukow is a producer and director for KAAL in Austin; and Frohwein is a programmer for KSMQ.
Using old equipment nobody else wanted, they set up shop and began producing shows.
It was far from polished to begin with. "Our first couple of shows looked just like that guitar show," Robertson said.
Their first interview was Glen Buxton, the legendary guitarist for Alice Cooper. The rock star had been living in Iowa, and was anxious to break the monotony.
"He said, ‘I’m bored. You got anything I could do?’" Klukow said. They invited him to join the crew, and Buxton conducted several of the show’s first interviews with musical acts, including "Weird Al" Yankovic and Steve Vai.
Not much later, however, Buxton died, and the crew began dedicating its efforts to raising money for a Buxton memorial. Fans of the guitarist still seek out the quartet and ask for copies of his interviews.
Klukow took over as host of the show, under his nickname, "Moolie." He, Robertson and Schneider do most of the on-camera work while Frohwein stays behind the scenes.
The interviews with well-known bands produce their favorite stories – and a fat scrapbook full of signed memorabilia and backstage passes to big shows.
"You want to see our pay? This is our pay, right here," he said, pointing at a plastic sleeve full of concert mementos.
It usually goes the same whenever a big-name band comes to a nearby city: The group spends a day playing phone tag with managers and record companies trying to arrange interviews, then ends up showing up at the concert and talking their way backstage to meet the bands.
"If you get past the managers, the road managers, the guys in the band are all cool," Klukow said. "I have yet to have anyone that was snobby."
As much as they enjoy the national acts, they pay as much attention to local bands. The crew follows the bar scene closely and tapes shows from area bands with names like Uncle Fester, Sleeping Dogs, High Adventure and Kätblü.
It gives the young groups sought-after exposure.
"A lot of the local bands really appreciate the stuff we do for them," Klukow said.
The show can be seen at 4:30 p.m. Saturdays on Austin’s public access cable channel. The "Soundcheck" creators are online at http://www.lonesomeroadie.com.