HIT THE GROUND RUNNIN'HIT THE GROUND RUNNIN'
By Nicky Baldrian
HIT THE
GROUND RUNNIN' are an awesome melodic hard rock band, and with
fifteen years of playing live gigs and recording albums under
their belts it looks as if the band are showing no signs of
giving up just yet, in actual fact things are looking quite rosey
at the moment as the band are recieving some much deserved
attention from various European record labels, so I got together
with Paul Piccari to find out what keeps HTGR ticking after all
these years....
I went on to ask Paul for some
background info on the band and I asked him about their new album
"Control Yourself", for an independent release the
production is very good indeed, I also asked about their concerts
which are rumoured to be full of energy..
Paul:-The band is
made of 5 guys, who are all brothers from different mothers, that
have been making music for about 15 years. Blair Rumsey, lead
vocals, Al Agunus, guitar & vocals, Rob Knauss, Keyboards
& vocals, Craig Soma, Drums & vocals, and myself Paul
Piccari, Bass and vocals. In 1985, we signed a production with an
east coast company called Nise Productions. At the time, they
produced a national television dance show call "Dance Party
USA", seen on the USA network. It was huge in the states.
Everyday at four O'clock pm, they played all the top forty Pop,
Rap, Rock and Dance music. They gave first TV appearences to
artists like Madonna, Duran Duran, New Kids on the Block, and
"Hit The Ground Runnin"!
We were packing clubs 4 nights a week around our hometown of Delaware County, a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Our drummer at the time worked as a part time drum instructor and gave a tape to the stores owner Bob Gorman, who had a contact at Dance Party. When his contact, record producer Dan McKeown heard the tape, he immediately came out to one of our gigs because he was dying to meet us. It took him over an hour to get in because there was always a line of people (chicks) waiting to get in. The club held about 600 people, but of course the owner would jam about 800 in! By the time Dan made it in, he immediately offered us a five year production contract, and of course we took it. I mean they had the biggest dance show in America, and we were their only act. It was a no brainer. We were hosting, and making appearences at least once a week.
We recorded our first album "Sudden Impact" at Power House Studio's, located in Camden, New Jersey, and owned by the shows producer Mike Nise. Dan McKeown along with Hilary Schacter, helped us produced a product that caught the ear of a Canadian independent company "Autograph Records", which is distributed by BMG. The album and our first single "Over & Over" was released sometime early 1989. The stations in Canada were playing our record. Our video was on rotation on Much Music. We toured Canada, picking up endorsments from Vestor Guitars, Maypex Drums, Labatts Beer, etc., and while on tour was asked to play the 20th anniversity of Monerey Pop Festival, Monterey, California. At this point we started making a name for ourselves, but didn't have an American deal until we got a call from a management company "The Music Group". They've gotten deals and managed some of the biggest acts in the states. So we excepted.
They wanted us to immediately
start working on our second album, for an international release.
So we started writing and recording our demo tracks, in which the
mangement company would review and decide what would be
re-recorded in their studio, with their producer. The tracks that
you hear on "Control Yourself", are the actual demo
tracks that we presented. Those tracks were recorded at 2
locations, Power House Studio's, which was a 24 track anolog
facility, and Dugeon Studio, owned by a friend of mine Paul
Britto, which was a 16 track facility outside of Philadelphia. It
took us about a week to write and record the tracks, because we
were eager to please the new management company.
We started recording around the summer of 1990, and lived in that
studio for about a month. Then all of a sudden, it was like the
whole fucking world started caving in on us. Dance Party USA was
cancelled after 9 years on the air. The new management company
was going through some legal problems, in which our recording
budget was frozen. Our lead singer Blair, was going through a
divorce and everything we worked for, was gone. It was like
winning the Lottery, and losing the ticket!!
By this time, everyone was tired of the business, and decided to
take some time off until recently. Dan McKeown had the demos in
his sock drawer at home and ask me to post it on MP3. Oddly
enough there was talk of HTGR
getting back together, because alot of people that use to come to
our shows had missed us. I picked up a local newspaper one day
and in the classified section someone put "What ever happen
to Hit The Ground Runnin".
We just had an offer to reunite for a benefit concert by an
organization call B.A.C.A (Bikers Against Child Abuse). They have
450,000 members all over America that raise money for shelters
for abused and homeless
children. We accepted. We've been rehearing for the past couple
of months, and it was like we never stopped .......not only that
we've all matured musically......we kick ass even harder!!!!!
Nicky:- The songs are very pure and melodic, I didn't realise that they went as far back as 1989, what's amazing is that they sound very fresh and exciting, can you tell me about them?
Paul:- The songs like I told you
were written in 1 week. They reflected what was going on in our
lives at the time.
"Control Yourself" was basically written to our female
fans. It was cool. Chicks would want to jump up on stage with us,
and we didn't mind but they would go fuckin crazy. I can't play
my bass if some chicks trying to play
with me. It's the Peter Principle...it can't be done! The song
"Lost", I actually wrote in a dream. The next day I
called Rob and Blair to help me finish the song, that weekend, we
went in and recorded the music tracks, then two days later the
guys and I kicked out the vocals.
"Surrounded by Fire"
was recorded after a 2 cases of beer and a half gallon of Jack
Daniels. Like our first album, we like concept songs that produce
visual mental pictures. Smoke a bone and put a pair of headphones
on. Your right there in the middle of an inferno and HTGR is
there suppling the fuel. "Still Life Lover" was written
after we caught a friend of one of our roadys masterbaiting on
the bus to a Victoria Secrets Catalog. (LAUGHS)
"Pain" was written about Blairs breakup with his wife.
"Back Again" was
actually written for a Rocky movie. Tommy Morrison, the boxer
that Stallone had fought in one of the last movies made, knew our
manager Hilary Schacter, and wanted a song to use in the film
that represented him. Thats was during the same week we were
writing songs for the new album. We recorded in 1 day from top to
bottom, and put it in Tommys hands. He flipped.......gave it to
Stallone, who inturned told him he had already promised the music
production to someone else. It didn't matter to us, it just added
another great song to our album! The rest of the tunes, were just
from our creative imagination.
Nicky:- How long have you been playing music and what inspires and influences you you (to everyone)?
Paul:- We influence each other.
Of course we all have our favorite artist or groups, but we've
been together for such a long time (15 years) that brotherly love
feeds our soul with rock and roll!
Nicky:- If you could describe your music as part of a woman's body, which part would you choose?
Paul:- The BOOTY!! It's hot, It's sensitive and there's always a party going on down there!
Nicky:- What the long term goal for Hit The Ground Runnin'?
Paul:- We've been through a lot
these past years. It's like the blues, you can't sing it if you
haven't lived it, and what we've lived through will make great
songs for the next couple of albums, we have enough material (at
least for now) for two more killer albums. We are going to do a
benifit album for B.A.C.A. (bikers against child abuse) vist
their site http://www.b.a.c.a..homepage.com We are doing their web site so it is
still underconstruction,.One of our other long term goals is to
help kids, STOP CHILD ABUSE.
Nicky:- IS there anything that you would like to say to the rockers here in Europe and the UK?
Lets all join together and bring back the Rock & Roll that makes you feel good, fall in love and party your fucking ass off!!!