Stavesacre Biography
Southern California's Stavesacre, the progressive quintet consists entirely of people from former California alternative, punk and hardcore bands. Members include vocalist Mark Saloman of The Crucified, one of the most influential West Coast thrash/punk bands of the eighties. Sam West on drums from Scaterd Few, a groundbreaking punk band who opened doors for many of the bands today. Dirk Lemmenes from the hardcore band Focused on the bass. Ryan Dennee formerly of Plankeye fame on lead and rhythm guitars. And last but not least Neil Samoy previously of Stairwell on rhythm guitars. You can hear the existing line up on the Split / Ep they did with Denison Marrs.
When the members of The Crucified, consisting of Mark on vocals, Jeff Bellew on the bass, Jim Chaffin on drums and Greg Minier on guitars, decided to break-up they all went on to other things. Mark released a rap album under the moniker NativeSon. Greg released 2 alternative albums titled Minier the other AppleHead. Jim sat in on many recordings with many different bands in the area including Mortal and XL&DBD. And Jeff released an industrial album in the vein of 9 Inch Nails under the name chatterBOX.
Shortly after recording their debut cd FRICTION for Tooth & Nail Records, Jeremy decided to leave the band to pursue married life and seminary school. So now the remaining members again needed a drummer. Stavesacre went out on tour without a fulltime drummer, borrowing drummers from fellow tourmates such as Roadside Monument. Ultimately Sam West filled the void. So again with Carlstrom and now with Sam West on the drummer's throne Stavesacre recorded a masterpiece of musical poetry that many other bands could only dream of. With the imagery of lyrics such as Zzyzx Scarecrow, about the endtimes, or Two Heavens, about the struggle with one's past sins, and Sand Dollar, the song of hope in these trying times, Stavesacre broke the sophmore curse that most bands in musical history dread. The band then toured like never before, all over the states and overseas. To fatten up the sound, Ryan Dennee formerly of Plankeye stepped in as rhythm guitarist. So from quartet to quintet Stavesacre was a force to be reckon with. As before they wrote new songs while touring testing them on the crowds that traveled to see them perform live. These new songs, Free Fall, Disquiet, Minute Man and the cover of The Cure's Fascination Street would become in part, of the new cd to be released in 1999. As with the old adage three times a charm Stavesacre recorded Speakeasy, with Bryan Carlstrom as co-producer, for Tooth & Nail records. The sound again was phenomenal and the lyrics seemed to express more emotion in the songs Rivers Underneath, Gold and Silver and the closing song This Love. But for the fans of the band this would be a bittersweet release. During the recording of Speakeasy founding guitarist Jeff Bellew resigned to spend less time on the road and more time with his new wife. And then there were four, again. Even though Speakeasy was recorded with Bellew as a member of the band his image was omitted from the inside photos to keep with the new direction Stavesacre was heading. Also with the change in personel again, the band's contract with Tooth & Nail records had come to a close. From the beginning with Mark Saloman on vocals and Dirk Lemmenes on bass, Stavesacre now had Sam West on drums since Absolutes, Ryan Dennee on lead and rhythm guitar since Speakeasy and the newest member Neil Samoy on rhythm guitar. With Jeff Bellew vacating the lead guitar spot to Ryan, Neil stepped into the rhythm spot once owned by Ryan. Neil left a band he had started called Stairwell as guitarist, lead vocalist and songwriter to join Stavesacre not sure on how fans would react to him replacing Jeff Bellew. As time would tell he would be accepted. With leaving Tooth & Nail in hopes of signing to a mainstream label the band recorded a Split EP with Florida's Denison Marrs, with the band's latest line-up. In the winter of 2001 at Cherokee Studios in Hollywood and The Blue Room in Malibu, Stavesacre recorded three songs with the production and engineering skills of Clif Norrell for Velvet Blue Music. Night Town, Island and Sad Parade all have an up beat sound in keeping with the sound they have developed on all previous efforts. Not missing a beat with the absense of Bellew, Stavesacre recorded three straight forward rock-n-roll songs with catchy hooks and melodies that you can't help but sing along with and that stay in your head long after listening to them. Tooth & Nail later released a collection of songs previously released and new versions of Rivers Underneath, Keep Waiting and Gold and Silver with female harmony vocals courtesy of Shelly Dael Walker, a string section and with SAM on Piano. These three new versions were recorded at the Compound in Seattle, Wa under the production of Danny Hill and Aaron Sprinkle. Plus two cover songs that were never released from the Absolutes sessions with Jeff Bellew on guitar, American Music Club's Rise from the Everclear album and X's classic The Hungry Wolf from Under the Big Black Sun. In October of 2001 Stavesacre signed with Nitro Records, home to T.S.O.L., The Vandals, AFI as well as the Offspring's back catalogue, to end the search for a new label. Since then they have been honing new songs for an upcoming cd release with the award winning production skills of David Bianco, whose work with AC/DC, Tom Petty and Coal Chamber to name a few, will compliment the sound and direction of Stavesacre.
In July of 2002 Stavesacre released a live E.P. on XS records recorded at a club called The Door in downtown Dallas,TX aka DEEP ELLUM hence the name of the cd. All four of the live tracks are from the Speakeasy release, Sundown Motel,Gold and Silver,Rivers Underneath,Minute Man, and Keep Waiting. But that is'nt all. With a new cd to be released October 1, 2002 they added a demo of a new song called Witch Hunt to tease their fans.
With recording and mixing the new cd and touring with the Warped Tour, Stavesacre looks to be busy for quite a while.
HM Magazine Interview from June 1996-
Photos of Jeff Bellew and Jeremy Moffett provided by C.K.Harold
But the Original version of Stavesacre started out a little different in 1996. While Mark and Dirk have remained in their current positions the drums and guitar roles were handled by Jeremy Moffett and Jeff Bellew respectively.
When Mark and Jeff decided to hook up with longtime friend Dirk, who was still with Focused on bass, to start a new band they still needed a drummer. Enter Jeremy, lead vocalist for The Blamed, Jim Chaffin's new band since The Crucified split. Jeremy had played drums previously for Deliverance on tour and many others. They set off to the Eldorado studio in Hollywood to record their debut with the help of Bryan Carlstrom at the helm. With his co-production and sound engineering, he provided a level of sound quality for Stavesacre that few heavy bands have ever captured. Carlstrom has worked with such top bands as White Zombie, Alice in Chains and hardcore favorites Orange 9mm.
Coming from other bands such as Scaterd Few and Savior Machine, Sam seemingly altered the sound of Stavesacre with his expertise on the drums. The band then toured relentlessly to promote FRICTION, they were gelling, becoming a tighter unit. The band had even written new songs while on the road for their sophmore release ABSOLUTES.
The future is only looking brighter for this band from Southern California
"They're not a Supergroup"
HM Magazine Interview from July 1999-
"TOOLing it down"
