Southern Fried
By Adrian Gregory Glover
Portrait
March, 1999

If rock and roll's become a foreign concept to the world at large then don't tell drummer Steve Gorman and his partners in crime the brothers Robinson Chris (vocals) and Rich (guitars), veteran keysman Eddie Harsch and new recruits Guitarist Audley Freed and Sven Pipen.

Bred and based in Hotlanta, GA they're currently campaigning their fifth and latest LP the rejuvenated By Your Side. Here's what Gorman had to say when he dialed up the Portrait offices.

Growing up in Atlanta, I remember seeing you guys open for Tora! Tora! At the Cotton Club like 11 years ago.

You're kidding!

No... believe me it took me awhile to publicly admit that I paid $$ to see the worst of the 80's blues/metal bands.

I remember that show because we were just starting to get our feet on the ground then. I'm sure you remember that the scene back then wasn't our cup of tea. I guess we've always been out of fashion for what's hot.

Yeah, hair bands overran Atlanta with names like Panda and the Dirty Blondz.

Well at that time we were part of another group of musicians that had nothing to do with all of that. There were times where we had to play shows with those bands but we weren't like the most popular band in town to see. We totally sucked back then and it's only by total luck that we even got a deal.

How would you say that you guys gelled? Obviously Chris & Rich grew up in the same house, but as for the rest of you...

The cool thing is that Rich and I learned how to play our instruments. Musically, he and I are as much brothers as him and Chris. Obviously there's a dynamic with those two that's a family thing, but for the most part Rich and I have been together since day one.

That would explain Rich's uncanny sense of rhythm if he learned how to play with a drummer.

Oh yeah, Rich recently got into playing leads a lot because he pretty much had too although Audley plays them also. Umm.. I would say that goes for me also as far as how the playing was influenced. I definitely wouldn't be the same drummer if I wouldn't have learned how to play with a guitarist.

Speaking of which, your peers hold you in high regard. How's that make you feel.

Really? No one ever says that kind of stuff to me. Maybe they just say it to other people.

One thing that immediately comes to mind is an old Stone Gossard interview in some musicians mag where he goes on about you being this incredible rock or something like that.

That's really nice. I'll let you in on something. I've always considered myself to be in the mold of Ringo Starr. It's so obvious to me how I take from him in certain ways (yet) nobody's ever pointed it out.

Hmm... I'll throw on Revolver later and play name that fill...

(Laughing) Just do me a favor don't print the results. Really though, we're just a rock band that loves doing what we do. We've been at this for a long time.

You've gone through some stylistic changes over the years. One of which that through me off was the Deadhead, barefoot, jammy thing.

We've gotten a lot of feedback on that. I think that's because we did the Further Festival and it was a real easy way for people to describe what we were doing at that time.

We tried a lot of experiments and a lot of them came out shitty. We're willing to admit that. That's what bands do that grow, you try some things and sometimes it just doesn't work.

Let me tell you though, (onstage we were looking for a certain thing. When it worked... (pauses) it was awesome. There were some moments that in my opinion should e considered rock and roll classics. I mean that, but because more times than not we couldn't consistently hit that we decided to focus more, so to speak.

Were there any one or two moments that signaled that truth?

There were a few, we can sum that up by saying it was most evident when we played songs like “Sting Me.” That type of song brings out something in us and in the crowd that makes this band what we are.

Do you want to talk about the personnel changes?

We can, how do you want to do it?

I'd rather not beat and dead horse going over what happened with Johnny (Colt) and Marc (Ford).

Thanks... I'm with you there.

Let's talk about how Sven joined. Since as a bass player he's the one that you interact with the most.

Shit that was the easy part. Here's the funny thing about the situation: Sven was the first bass player that I ever played with. Obviously things didn't work at that time, but he's always been a good friend.

So when Johnny left, it was like 'Ok, let's call Sven.” He was the only bass player that we tried out.

If it didn't work out would him not getting the gig have affected your respective friendships?

I don't know, that's speculative. I'm glad it did worked out because he fit in and gave us the opportunity to keep going without missing too much.

Last words?

Yeah, thanks to everyone whose stuck by us through it all. It's only getting better from here.