the stairs online

Poll Positions & Strange Superstitions - The Annotated History Of The Stairs

PART ONE

1998, Year Of The Tiger: Ryan Walsh, Evan Sicuranza, & Eric Meyer begin recording under the band name Mr.Pistol. "Backwood Crimes and Ghost Lovers" is assembled from bits and pieces captured by boom boxes and four tracks in college dorm rooms and the Meyer Attic. "I remember illegally staying in my dorm room over Christmas break just so we could spend all our time recording there and not bothering anyone," Ryan explains, "I feel like a lot of bands get stranger as they progress but it might have the opposite for us. The first few things we recorded are the strangest thing we've ever done. I'm not sure it's meant to be heard by people."

Ryan and Eric had known each other since nursery school but had never played music together until high school when they were both kicked out of the National Honor Society on the same day. Eric: "Low grades." Ryan: "Stole a street sign for a scavenger hunt. They found out somehow."

Before entering the bizarre world of "Backwood Crimes" their initial musical outings were mostly cover songs at coffee houses. Eric could play well, Ryan could not, nor could he sing. Around the same time Ryan met Evan Sicuranza through his sister Jenna Sicuranza. "I remember Evan played one night at the local coffee shop under the name TeenAngster. He was really upsetting people. I knew I had to be friends with him." They all lived in the town of Dedham, Massachusetts- home of the oldest wooden frame house, the first public school in the country, and the first man made water way in the U.S. (Mother Brook).

With a few drinks or a slight concussion the boys found "Backwood Crimes and Ghost Lovers" to be "a real good ride" and decided to give recording their original songs another shot. Their friend Naomi was their biggest supporter (she had them appear on her college radio show, "The Naomi Johnston Experience", 5 or 6 times) and with her encouragement they quickly recorded "Bring Out The Frowns" between March 4th and March 10th in the year 2000. They made poorly photocopied sleeve inserts, used stolen jewel cases, and quietly passed copies out to friends. Soon other Mr.Pistol albums like "Creator Or Liar?" and "The Miserable Life Of William Gold EP" showed up in strangers backpacks, in the middle of randomly selected issues of The Boston Phoenix, and under friends' pillows. By this time, however, all three members had full schedules (Ryan at Boston University for film school, Eric at Berklee for music, and Evan at Umass for writing) and practices and recording sessions became sparse for several months.

Did this sparseness last for long? No it did not. Instead of going out on Friday and Saturday nights Ryan and Evan would sit around their apartment making up chord progressions and melodies by the dozens. "We became real hermits," explains Ryan, "and my friends were wondering where the hell I was because not all of them knew I was recording these crazy albums." The boys took a hint when people requested that they play "Community Directory Of Serial Killers" (one of their few songs at the time that had a recognizable chorus) at parties and actually sang along with them. "I fell asleep singing that song really late at a party once," Ryan remembers, "and when I woke up I finished the song. There was a guy who looked like he was passed out in the corner. But when I finished he clapped, with his eyes still closed, and he mumbled, 'that's a long song man.'"

They decided that the name Mr.Pistol no longer suited the type of music they were writing and that it was time to retire the gun-totting moniker that had served them so well. They decided to give him a final send off with an album called "Let's Kill Mr.Pistol." Using some better equipment and more strategic recording methods Mr.Pistol's funeral (comprised of 21 songs that covered a fistful of genres with titles like "Gigantic Deja Vu", "Feedback Masters Of The World" and "Johnny Is A Robot") was also a revitalizing experience that garnered more responses from friends than anything they had attempted yet. "I felt like I could pass that one out without the chance of losing life long friendships or being committed," remarks Ryan, "it was still pretty strange but it was a combination of improvment and not caring what anyone thought anymore that justified the Ôrelease' of that CD." They chose another band name, Ghost Boy, and began recruiting a bass player to even out the treble heavy sound.

At the same time Ryan had just completed a film called Horse Tricks which was funded by the Dedham Visionary Access Corporation. DVAC was an organization from the boys' hometown that funded artistic projects as long as they "stimulated the local arts community."

Ryan: "Horse Tricks was my idea of Dedham as if everyone suddenly became hypnotized and started doing all these bizarre things like fastening a television onto their head or setting up 1000 mouse traps with ping pong balls for bait in some forgotten basement. It was sort of like a Sesame Street for adults." Since the members of DVAC were pleased with the results of Horse Tricks, Ryan hoped that they might help the band record a proper full length album. He applied for a grant that would enable them to record an album with the following stipulations:

A) It would be comprised of the boys own compositions but would be fleshed out by Dedham guest musicians who were interested in contributing.

B) That they would hold a "Draw The Album Cover" contest in the Dedham elementary schools. And...

C) That the entire process would be captured by a documentary that would be shown on the Dedham Local Cable station before the album's release.

Much to everyone's surprise the committee awarded them the grant. "I thought they'd never let us try it in a million years. Especially since all they had heard of us, songs that is, were from the early Ôinsane' albums," Ryan recalls with a laugh, "I think my jaw literally dropped when I got the news. It was a lot of money to give some kids with no experience and songs with titles like ÔDrunk & Stoned At The Same Time.'"

In order to prepare for the ambitious project Ryan recorded two "practice" albums worth of songs under the name Ghost Boy. "Grand Exorcism Festival" was recorded in one weekend in the house he had grown up on Town Landing Lane where his friends Chris and Shanti, at the time, resided. "Map For Ale", the second warm up collection, was a longer album that, at least attempted, to tell a story in four parts (Editor's note: I have no idea what this story might be).

All the while Evan and Eric were making preparations for the DVAC funded project by mapping out each song and arranging specific parts for guest musicians to play. They began recording the first skeletal tracks of "Miraculous Happens" at Ed Morneau's House/Studio in the spring of 2000. Morneau, a former high school teacher of Ryan and Eric's and self admitted "Beatles-holic", engineered those first sessions. Their friends Kendall Smith and Mike Harker swapped filming duties trying to carve a story out of the barely organized mayhem.

Realizing the true scope of the project (time wise, space wise, and equipment wise) Morneau decided the project would best be served by letting the band rent his portable digital equipment and run amok with their ideas while he supervised by listening to rough mixes and giving advice along the way.

Speaking about Morneau's role as advisor Ryan says, "Ed would call me up and just basically harangue me for twenty minutes about what we needed to re-do or concentrate on. And then at the end of the conversation he would let his guard down and let it slip that he really loved this music. It was so encouraging. But he was always setting out this bait, trying to get us to reach the next plateau. He knew we might get lazy without someone constantly yelling at us."

With no more time constraints Eric, Ryan, and Evan realized that they could feasibly record every single idea that they had for this album and sort it all out in the end into the very best. Thus began what Meyer describes as a, "recording frenzy- sometimes an entire album's worth of material in a weekend." It was around this time that John Ling, a friend of Ryan and Evan's, became the band's bass player. "I was at a party" recalls Ling, "and Ryan and Evan came up to me and asked me to play bass for their band. I told them I wasn't a bass player, that I only knew guitar. They said, ÔPerfect. Our next recording session is tomorrow.' They were drunk and I thought they'd forget about it in the morning. But then two o'clock the next day rolls around and I hear ring, ring, it's them on the phone telling me I'm late, and I said, Ôlooks like I'm in a band.' "

Ghost Boy, as a name for a band, is awful. It didn't take long for the band to figure this out for themselves. Evan suggested that they change their name "one final time." Since this was the name that would be on their proper full length debut many arguments ensued about the name. Ryan lobbied for the name The Motel Candlewasters but the others found it too long and confusing.

"A candlewaster was slang for someone who read a lot at night before the invention of the light bulb" Ryan explains, "Reading by candlelight all night, that sort of thing. I thought it was an interesting idea that there could still be people out there who only read by candle light. Like a cult of candle light readers. And then I thought that maybe this cult would be made up of people who refused to take up a permanent residence. What if they traveled across the country endlessly staying at cheap motels, staying up all night reading? You know, Motel Candlewasters! In the end, though, Evan and Eric were right. That's a confusing concept for a band name."

During a long car ride hunting down an upright piano rumored to have been abandoned in the woods, Evan suggested The Stairs. "You know. The Stairs of perception" Evan jokingly explains.

"Yeah, we were really intent on finding that piano," remembers Ryan, "A friend of ours swore up and down it was definitely out there, still in working condition, and had drawn us a map on a Dunkin' Donuts napkin. We never found the piano but we came home with a band name. A good trade I think."

Eric on the band name: "Every time I read a book or a poem that mentions Ôthe stairs', for weeks after, that's where I tell people we got it from. I try to make up something new every time I get asked that question."

Their first show under the name The Stairs took place at a bar in Dorchester as part of a Battle Of The Bands competition sponsored by Umass. Evan remembers, "Some kids were yelling out Doors songs for us to play. We thought, ÔOh no. We can't let this happen at every show.' So we stopped our planned set and began twenty minutes of feedback and noise, obnoxiously repeating in monotone ÔBreak On Through. Break On Through,' and that seemed to shut them up. No one's mentioned it since. It was like exorcising a curse." When asked if they won that particular battle of the bands Evan laughs and says, "No, no, of course not."

Meanwhile, when some of the songs on the album seemed to call for a female vocal counterpoint the band recruited their friend Emma Westling. "I had recorded some vocals for Grand Exorcism Festival" Emma explains, "but I told Ryan and Evan that I didn't want to be used as an instrument. Like, bring in the Girl-Voice-Instrument. If they wanted me to sing with them I wanted to be a full time member of the band. So then I joined The Stairs."

PART TWO

2000, Year Of The Dragon: the band was about nearly half way finished recording the album when they suddenly found themselves with another new member. A co-worker of Ryan's at The American Repertory Theater named Rob Johanson was a keyboard player who had just bought a vintage Rhodes Piano that he was itching to record with. "He just fit in immediately," Eric remembers, "and the songs sounded great when he played along with these parts he came up with. It was almost as if we had purposely left room for these keyboard parts from the beginning of the song writing process. Which of course is impossible. We didn't even know him then."

"The music was what brought me in initially. But there's a good family-esque ethic too with this band" Johanson explains as a reason for joining. "They like to rock out. But they also like to hang out. Most bands practice and then go home. The Stairs would practice and then go out for an early supper afterwards. It was ridiculous. I felt like I was in with some small town skiffle band from the fifties. I mean, what the hell is the deal with Dedham anyways? I wouldn't be surprised if they found some time travel portals around that town someday."

Recording sessions with Rob, the St.Mary's Choir, and the Dedham High School Marching Band soon followed.

Moving at a snail's pace, but never letting a day go by without some kind of work on the record happening, the band suddenly found themselves two years older. When they were finished, Ryan explains, "we had about four albums worth of material recorded. The process of whittling that down into one cohesive album was a difficult task. Most of the songs we sent to Neumu's ÔBest Unsigned Band Contest' were songs that didn't make it on the final album. It's funny that those songs are what lead to the first legitimate press about the band. I doubt [the cut songs] will ever see the light of day in the same way Miraculous Happens will but at least I didn't have to do something horrible like toss them off a bridge or anything like that. We had a joke about releasing it all as a box set titled ÔThe Easily Disposable Stairs Anthology.'"

Evan explains that the title of the album was one of the last things to fall into place. "We were recording one of the last songs. And we had all the music recorded but no vocals yet. Not even a melody or a lyrical idea. And Ryan stood by the microphone and said, ÔEvan, why don't you just play it back and I'll try something out. But press record just in case something miraculous happens.' And when I heard him say Ôpress record' I thought he meant right then so the very beginning of the track you can hear him say the end of his sentence: Ômiraculous happens'. That improvised vocal take ended up being the one that's on the album and when we realized that the phrase had been captured on tape it didn't take us long to actually incorporate it into the song, and ultimately name the album after it. Miraculous Happens."

By mid-summer 2002 The Stairs had a finished product that they were calling Miraculous Happens. They chose over ten children's drawings and decided to put them all in a large booklet that would accompany the CD. "There were too many great drawings these kids sent in to choose just one or two," John Ling says, "and besides, we needed that many pages to list all of the people who play on the record. The liner notes look like a phone book!"

The following Autumn brought the unfortunate, temporary, departure of Rob Johanson who was accepted into Columbia Graduate School for acting. The band opted not to replace Rob but rather chose to try to organize recording sessions around his visits to Boston and to come up with a way to play the songs live without a keyboard player until the summer "or whenever they kick him out of school" Ryan adds jokingly. They are about one month away from releasing "Miraculous Happens" and are practicing frequently to get ready for live shows. On the record's release Evan says, "I think it's going to be heard by more people than anything we've ever done before. Of course we hope people will like it. I want to record a lot of albums. Who knows, maybe someday we'll play a show in celebration of the ten year anniversary of this first album"

Ryan says, "With a lot of people who have been with us for the entire process it's sort of become like a joke. They'd ask when the album was coming out and then they'd smile knowing we were about to explain the latest delay. But now that it's about to come out I feel really relieved. A big weight has been lifted. My friend compared it to one of those toy race cars that you pull back to wind up the motor. When you let it go it races away from you at a fast speed. She told me that the album was like one of those race cars and that it had been pulled back as far as it can go, its all wound up, its motor is revving, and eventually the hand will just have to let it go. And that's a great analogy. Because Damnit my hand is tired of holding this little car."

And with any luck that little toy race car is going to take The Stairs places they've never been before. It's the least they can ask for.

Written by H.D Fantasia

December 2002

contact: hdfantasia@thestairs.com

[The legendary upright piano can be sought out off of exit 9 of Rt.95 in Rhode Island. Bear to the right and drive 1.7 miles. Walk, to the right, into the woods about 200 yards. It's, supposedly, in the middle of dilapidated foundation for a no longer existing house.]