An evening with Dane of Half Step!  Read about everything, from the painful, life-threatening birth of the band, confessions about day jobs, and the purpose of life (hint: to rock) all in this in-depth interview with Phoenix's infamous Megz:

When did the whole idea of a band come up? 

--Well I have a pretty musical background. I have a relative who is a famous opera singer in Germany, and a great uncle that was a famous musician during the Big Band era of the fifties. My father and stepmother met in a band that the two of them were playing in together, and my step father was the manager of a successful rock band named "Thunder Head" in the sixties/seventies.  Music has always been important in my home. When I was four I started playing the piano, and I kept doing that for eight years. I hated practicing though, so I gave it up. But my parents thought I needed some kind of music, so they bought me a guitar. Oh my god I am so glad they did! That's pretty much what started me in the whole band thing, and since I was twelve I have been in and out of bands with a bunch of different members. A lot of the earlier ones weren't very serious, but I wouldn't trade the experience for anything...no matter how juvenile and horrible the music might have been.-- 

Has it always been the same people in your band? 

--Well, sort of. Pif and I were in a band before called "Dry Frog" but it wasn't really all that happening of a thing. The music was pretty unorganized, and our drummer didn't even have a drumset, oh my god...it was horrible. So the two of us started another thing called "The Something Project" that was just a little acoustic thing. The only thing we have to show for that though are a few unfinished songs on a CD. We were pretty discouraged, and we had been looking for a new drummer for a long time. We were just about to give up when we found Alec. He came just in the nick of time.-- 

Did you have tryouts? 

--Well, Pif and I just started jamming together, because that's what we liked to do. I had played with a lot of other people before, but I never really expected to start a band with Pif. We would hang out and I would show him some cool thing I wrote on the guitar, and he would instantly just find the right notes to play. It got to the point where if we were hanging out, we were jamming together...that's just what we did.  With Alec it was a bit different. Pif and I had been looking for a new drummer, and like I said, we were discouraged. But my stepdad told me that one of his friends’ sons was really rockin' on the drums, and that he came from the same kind of background that I did. We have both had our problems with certain substances in the past, so he thought we would understand where one another were coming from. So Pif and I jammed with him...it wasn't super prevalent at the time, but I could tell that there was the same understanding with Alec that Pif and I had...where he just complimented what we were doing so well. It's all about the musician-ship, and we have it in spades.-- 

Who is in the band now and what do they do? 

--Alec plays drums and does some vocal work, it's great because he has so much energy. Pif rocks the bass...he's the strong silent type so he doesn't really like the mike too much. And I sing and play guitar...I like being the singer because it lets me be very vulnerable and very powerful at the same time.-- 

Was it harder now or when you first started out? 

--This question is so good. It's kind of strange, because we have different things to worry about now. At first it was just three guys getting together and jamming, it didn't really matter what came out. The actual writing process has gotten easier as we've become closer friends and closer musicians, but our band has also become a serious thing now...don't get me wrong, it's still fun! But it's also work. We have shows to book and we have to convince people to come, t-shirts to make and sell, stickers, a website to update, CD's to record and distribute, everything is about promotion, there is an obligation to make our new songs better than the last, we have to worry about keeping fans and making more...and then there is the act of juggling my job around my practice/show schedule...sometimes I get off work and I'm tired and aching and my throat hurts and I don't feel like practicing, but you have to anyway. I'm always happy to practice once I'm actually there though.-- 

Who writes most of the songs and what are they about? 

--Everyone is responsible for their own parts. Alec writes drums and Pif writes bass. I write the guitar parts, melodies, and lyrics. But that's not to say that we don't listen to each other’s opinions. If one of us doesn't really feel the vibe of what another is playing, then we can voice up and know that the opinion will be respected.  As far as what the songs are actually about... that one's hard. I'll bet if you asked every member of the band separately they would give you a different answer. I can tell you what they are to me though. They are my thoughts and feelings on love, life, death, sorrow, wishes, rejection, God, happiness, suicide, substance abuse, relationships, heartache, loneliness, our government, sex, pain, abuse, work, lies, betrayal, childhood, freedom, honesty, religion, Utah, home, the world as a physical thing, the general public, ugliness, beauty, revenge, spite, greed, peace, longing, war, regret, shame, and acceptance.--  

How often do you practice together? 

--We try to practice together as often as we can. But since I work so much, and Alec has school and whatnot... it gets hard. We do practice about two to four times a week though. It's what we live for... honestly,it's what I live for. And I mean that in the most serious way, if it wasn't for music I don't really know if I would still be here. It's gotten me through a lot of seemingly hopeless situations in my life, and kind of showed me that there is always hope. Sometimes it's just hidden and you have to put a little bit of effort into finding it.-- 

How often do you practice alone? 

--Always. That's all I do if I'm by myself. I always have a guitar in my hand, playing old songs, making new ones...I like to play a lot of Dave Matthews if I'm jamming out acoustically because Dave is tops.-- 

Where do you practice? 

--The Pit. It's a small little practice space in Alec's basement. It's nice though, we have a couch.-- 

How and when did you get your first gig? 

--You know, I can't really remember how we got our first real gig as Half-Step, but I do know that it was at a club called "The Solarium". We played there two nights in a row...it was kind of hellish though, because it was right when summer was starting to kick in, so things were hot, and we were playing five shows a week, which meant no time for practice. We pretty much only had time to load and unload our gear from one show to the next, and it was so hot...-- 

How and when did you get your first single? 

--I was listening to the local music show on one of our radio stations out here, and I was getting pissed off that so many bands sucked and were getting played, and we were so good and we weren't. So I called up the DJ and told her that I thought all the music sucked. She basically told me that if I thought I could do better I was welcome to try...well I knew we were better, so I took our CD down there and delivered itto her personally. She thought it rocked, and she slapped us on the radio. Our first single is a song called "Must Have Died" and it's about this relationship that I had for two years...parts of it were extremely unhealthy, and I kind of display those aspects of it in this song. Our second single is a song called "Take it Softly" and that song is about accidentally enslaving yourself by getting too caught up in what was thought to be freedom. Our next single will be a song called "June" which is about trying to be something you can never be to get something that you desperately need...all the while you are just being led on, and the big joke is that you will never get what you need...you will be forced to settle with something else, probably because what you need is too good for you.-- 

How and when did you get your first CD? 

--We took everything out of the Pit, and stuck it in my basement, turning my house into a miniature recording studio for about a month. We ran everything through the PA system into my brother’s Macintosh. He did all the recording and mixing for us. He also helped me a lot when figuring out the harmonies that would best compliment our music. We started recording in early October, and released it on Nov. 1st. It has fourteen killer tracks, and over an hour of music. We already have plans for another album though, and we're going to record it a bit differently. We have new, better equipment this time and we're going to take a little more time with it. We don't have a date yet, but we do have a track listing...All I can tell you is that the album is going to be called "From the Ashes" and it is going to blow everyone away...we are extremely excited. --

Do you hang out with other bands? 

--We do when we get a chance. I enjoy the girls from "Indemnity" and I went to school with the kickass band "A Second Left"... "Captain Kolob" are also very chill guys, and no one talks bad about "Aqua Lounge" around me and gets away with it. But a lot of bands around here don't like us very much. We don't know why but we think it has something to do with the strong straight edge movement that we don't take part in. Andw e also think that vegans are stupid. But don't get me wrong, I love animals... they're delicious. -- 

Does your band have any rules? 

--Not really. One I think we need to establish though is the "Bro's before Ho's" rule, because I could see a girl very easily tearing this band apart...-- 

Do you plan on going on tour? 

--Yes we do, and you better believe that we're going to come through Phoenix and play a very special Megz dedicated show!  But before we leave Salt Lake City, we are going to take a few more months and establish ourselves as more of a threat to the other locals. People are just now starting to take notice that what we are doing is important...I want to really nurture that and help it to grow into something that people aren't just going to have an interest in and maybe pursue, but rather something that is going to be in everyone's face, something they will crave to be a part of.--  

Do you think you will be extremely successful? 

--I think that we have all the talent me need, and I think that we have the ability to please a crowd and create the buzz. The only thing that I am afraid of is getting a smacked across the face from real life...people in the beginning were always telling us that we need something "real" to fall back on, that the odds are against us, that we aren't being realistic in thinking we will make it big. That has kind of dwindled though as we've gotten better, but I still do know how hard it is out there. And only so much of making it is how talented we are. A huge percentage of it has to do with how willing people are to accept us, fans and AR people alike. If the labels don't like us, than that's it...we either change what we're doing, or go somewhere else. So far, however, we have been blessed with waves of acceptance.  It's a very cool thing.-- 

Do you have a back-up plan? 

--Not really. I mean, I am smart and I am a good visual artist, but I kind of have all of my chips riding on this one hand right now. It's okay though, because I'm not bluffing.-- 

Are you going to college? 

--No, like I said, I am kind of just working a dead-end job in hopes that my music will make it through. However, I'm still young so it's not like I am making any kind of life-ruining decisions right now. I still have plenty of time to go back to college if I so choose, but school was never really my thing. I didn't like going to high school and feeling like I was smarter than my teachers. And I know college isn't that way, but the whole school experience was kind of ruined for me...I dunno. College is a good place to pick up on chicks though.-- 

Do you ever fear you won’t make it as a band? 

--Sometimes. But not really. I am pretty confident, maybe a little over confident. But the truth is tha twe rock. We have good songs, we have an amazing live show, we are all attractive guys, our music is original, and we address issues that everyone can relate to. I can't see any reason why we wouldn't make it.-- 

If you want to know more about all that is going on then you should check out our website http://www.halfsteprocks.com and sign up for our mailing list. If you doubt our rocktitude, check out all the MP3's on our music site and see if they don't just rock your f***ing socks off.