The High Plains Drifters were sired after a night of too much booze and too little food at a Tex-Mex spot in the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea. Fast forward a couple of years, and their second LP (due this year) is produced by Greg Cohen (Nile Rogers, Robin Thicke). It perfects the genre-bending sound that made their debut a buzzing sensation. The first two singles from this collective of seasoned gunslingers – ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’ and ‘Nuclear Winter’– rekindle the spark of eighties new wave but fused with a twist of seventies soft rock.
Today, we sat down with the band to talk about the release of ‘Songs Of Love And Loss’, their upcoming new album, band chemistry, and more.
Electronic Groove: Hi guys! It’s an absolute treat to have you here with us. How have you been doing? How many of you are there? Could you introduce the band to our readers?
The High Plains Drifters: Hey! The pleasure is all ours, and we’re very grateful to Electronic Groove for showing our obscure band some love. This is Larry Studnicky, and I’m the lyricist and lead singer. With me are my good friends, Greg Cohen, our producer, and Mike ‘Doc’ DoCampo, who’s one of our two guitarists along with John Macom. John’s not here and neither are Kyle Cassel (our drummer and engineer), Dave Richards (bass), or Charles Czarnecki (keyboards, accordion, and more).
Electronic Groove: When did you guys decide to become a band? Was it something that seemed feasible at the time? Or was it more a bit of wishful thinking?
Larry Studnicky: I started what’s now ‘the band’, initially, with John and Charles, just to record one song called ‘Get Me Home By Christmas Eve’. It got on the radio, despite our obscurity and lack of label backing. So, I figured: ‘let’s keep recording’. At the time, becoming a true band wasn’t the plan. But by the end of recording our debut album, the lineup you hear now had fallen into place and had really gelled. So, here we are: The High Plains Drifters.
Electronic Groove: What was it that made you think the idea could work? Are your musical backgrounds similar? Could you tell us where you come from, musically speaking?
Larry Studnicky: I was confident the band could go places by the end of the debut album. Something magical happened as we recorded the last three or four songs.
Mike DoCampo: Yes, absolutely. Look, my association with Larry goes back to 1991, when we worked together on a record where Larry contributed some songs. I knew that he and I worked well together. So, fast forward – as we finished the first album, I felt we’d developed into a real band with amazing musical and personal chemistry. Greg produced those last few songs, and he proved to be a unifying factor. He helped us focus and created an atmosphere where everyone’s ideas were carefully considered and self-indulgence and egos were pushed to the side.
Larry Studnicky: Our musical backgrounds are all over the map, which has given us deep reservoirs of experience to pull from as we collaborate together. Fortuitously, Greg in the Eighties was a keyboardist in a band in Manhattan. As a producer, he’s done everything – from Celine Dion to Blondie, Nile Rodgers, Robin Thicke, Justin Timberlake, and John Legend.
John Macom has long fronted his own indie pop-rock band called Binge, which had lots of songs synched in some of the most popular TV shows of the Nineties, including Dawson’s Creek, Felicity, and Party Of Five.
Kyle Cassel and Dave Richards met each other working as the rhythm section on a number of projects in the Nineties. Like the rest of the band, they’re full-time pros and can play anything. Kyle, who’s been a drummer since age 8, has worked with Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, Spyro Gyra, Corey Glover (Living Color), Aaron Comess (Spin Doctors), and Donald Fagen (Steely Dan).
Dave has recorded and/or performed with Marshall Crenshaw, Buster Poindexter, The Indigo Girls, Jewel, Rosanne Cash, Madeline Peyroux, Neshama Carlebach, Little Jimmy Scott, Richie Havens, and others. He has played throughout Europe and North America, doing tours in the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Holland, Spain, Sweden, Canada, and the USA. He has appeared in the Ottawa Jazz Festival, the Toronto Blues Festival, Austin City Limits festival, and music festivals in Spain and Holland.
Charles Czarnecki is one of those true musical geniuses you hear about. He began life as a child prodigy on the piano and then became a classically trained pianist. He made his Broadway debut in Jersey Boys, as the youngest conductor on Broadway at the time, and he followed that with his Carnegie Hall debut (conducting the New York Pops). I’ll let Doc speak for himself.
Mike DoCampo: I’ve been a producer/arranger as well as a songwriter, studio owner, and bandleader, and I’ve toured with some well-known rock and R&B acts (including Blood Sweat & Tears). My background is roots-based Americana influenced by blues, R&B and pop. What I love about this band is it forces me to play outside my comfort zone, which has been liberating. Like, when Greg decided that Larry’s tune ‘How Did I Write This Song’ (coming soon on our second album) should be produced in the bossa nova style – at first, Larry and I were both saying ‘WTF??’. But we trust Greg. So, I spent three solid days doing nothing but listening to classic bossa nova tunes. Then I came in and played on the demo.
Larry Studnicky: Yeah, Greg and John had already worked out some of the basic chords. Doc came in and nailed it. You’d think that he’d been playing bossa nova for decades. Then again, he has long made a living as a professional guitar instructor. So, I guess we shouldn’t have been too impressed. But damn was it ever impressive!
Electronic Groove: Being there are 6 of you … How do you guys decide which material to work on? Is there a bit of compromise here and there?
Greg Cohen: The initial song ideas always start with Larry. If he doesn’t want to do a song, we’re not doing it. Sometimes, he comes to my studio with a nearly fully-fleshed-out song: lyrics, melody, verses and a chorus, maybe a bridge, and ideas for various instruments. Sometimes he has only some of that stuff in his head.
And other times, Larry will have just a snippet of a lyrical phrase, or only a song title, swirling around in his head. Then fuller melodies and lyrics take shape. I’m accustomed to getting random emails from Larry containing an iPhone recording done in a parking lot, or as he’s driving somewhere, and that recording becomes the basis for a new song.
In fact, we’re working now on a tune called ‘Until We Dance’. Larry sent me the first verse and chorus this past June, after singing it into his phone in an airplane bathroom flying home with his family from their first post-Covid vacation.
Mike DoCampo: Our job as musicians is to bring each song to fruition. We do a lot of pre-production work, and we’re all professionals. So, we’re good at self-editing to keep each track focused. And Greg is great at keeping us focused too. Everyone collaborates beautifully. Everyone has a creative voice, and it’s heard and respected. Most importantly, we know that we serve the song, not ourselves.
“When people ‘in the business’ write stuff like that, you sit back and go, ‘Okay, we did something right. Not sure what
it was we did right, but we should probably see if
we can do better'” – Larry Studnicky
Electronic Groove: And creatively speaking … Is there a blueprint, or a set of predetermined notions that you guys go through when a new song comes around?
Larry Studnicky: There’s not a ‘blueprint’ as such, but some general rules hold true. Like, I pick the songs with Greg, but he determines each song’s overall sonic direction. John is usually tasked with figuring out a song’s backup vocals. He’s a genius at that stuff. And, if I get stuck and can’t write a bridge for a tune, I know that John will deliver a great one – as he did on ‘Virginia’ (on our debut album) and, on the current record, on a ballad called ‘Michelle’.
Greg Cohen: Some songs, when Larry first presents them to me, are clear-cut in terms of sonics and style. I know where we’re going. Other times, things take an unexpected turn. Doc spoke about the tune ‘How Did I Write This Song’.
This one was presented by Larry without having any instruments that he heard in his head. After he sang it, I said, ‘First, I love it. Second, you’re going to say I’m crazy, but I hear it as a bossa nova tune.’ He looked puzzled for a second, and then he said, ‘Why the hell not? The band will figure it out. They can play anything.’ The whole band killed it. We’re about to mix it, and it’s sounding pretty awesome.
Electronic Groove: 2019’s ‘High Plains Drifters’ was very well received, even spawning some high-profile video premieres … Were you guys expecting something like that? Did you know you had something ‘different’ straight away?
Larry Studnicky: We had zero expectations of fawning press coverage. We were shocked to get any coverage whatsoever, much less have reviewers comparing tunes on the debut album to works by Simon & Garfunkel, Johnny Cash, and Carl Perkins. But when people ‘in the business’ write stuff like that, you sit back and go, ‘Okay, we did something right. Not sure what it was we did right, but we should probably see if we can do better.’ Like I said before, as we were wrapping up that album, it seemed like we had gelled and developed a really cool chemistry. So, another album was a foregone conclusion.
Electronic Groove: How do you go about creating the scripts for the videos?
Larry Studnicky: We can’t properly take much credit for the great music videos. Others who are super-talented have to be thanked. My favorite of our videos is the one for ‘Jennifer Aniston’. That song is about ‘obsession’, and producer/director Behn Fannin captured the song’s essence in a unique, quirky way.
More recently, for the songs on Album 2, we’ve been working with Norwegian producer/director Lars Skaland. He too has brought an amazing vision to the videos for ‘Santa! Bring My Girlfriend Back’ and our current single ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’. His two videos for that tune look like major label productions. Lars also was entrusted with our forthcoming video for ‘The One That Got Away’. It’s visually stunning on many levels.
Working with all those guys throughout has been our marketing consultant, Jonathan Chang. He has been instrumental in formulating the early concepts and treatments for all our videos.
Electronic Groove: Now you’re on the road to release your new six-track EP, ‘Songs of Love & Loss’. What is the inspiration behind this collection of songs? Do you guys write from personal experiences, or are you drawn to fictional narratives?
Larry Studnicky: I’ve known since Summer 2020, when Greg and I first started picking songs for the second album, that we’d be dealing overwhelmingly in the age-old themes of love lost and love found (or almost found). The EP itself wasn’t planned. We threw it together, after getting about 75% done with Album 2, after DJs who’d been playing ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’ started asking when we’d have new music. Rather than wait to complete the album, we took most of the finished up-tempo tracks and made them into this EP.
Some of my songwriting is very personal, but in the main, I try to fictionalize things if only to try to make each song speak more universally to our listeners. On the ‘very personal’ side of the ledger is ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’. I wrote it after experiencing a heart-crushing breakup long ago, when I was still naïve enough to believe in the theory of ‘the one and only’.
On the fictional narrative side is ‘He Reminds Me Of You’. I wrote the lyrics that are sung by Christina Benedetto (she’s one of our backup singers). I wrote them from the perspective of someone who’s missing a lover where the relationship was a bit off-kilter (i.e., sadomasochistic). Despite having been single in Manhattan for arguably way longer than was healthy for me, I never encountered a gal who wanted to whip or pierce me or even tie me up. I feel cheated. But somehow I was able to knock out that song.
“We’ve become like brothers and sisters, and we turn to humor both to blow off steam and to create that private place where you feel like it’s ‘us against the world'” – Mike DoCampo
Electronic Groove: And one of the tracks, ‘Jennifer Aniston’ is remixed by acclaimed global techno/EDM pioneer Kris Vanderheyden. How did that come about? Did you guys know Kris personally? Did you know what to expect? What do you think of the end result?
Larry Studnicky: Like so much of what’s happened for The High Plains Drifters, this was a lucky accident. I’ll let Greg explain.
Greg Cohen: Kris is like my brother. It’s quite a long story, but I’ve known and collaborated with Kris on many projects over the years. I would play Kris’ stuff as we were working on the first HPD album, and he absolutely fell in love with it. He really wanted to be a part of the project. So we passed the baton to him with ‘Jennifer Aniston’ and gave him free rein to do what he does best. All I can say is he killed it.
Larry Studnicky: Yeah, I’m figuring that we’re keeping Kris involved. None of us can do what he does. But we all spent enough time in NYC’s clubs to be huge fans of that electronic, dance-inspired sound. I’m thinking we should have one such song on every album going forward. Just like (to date) we’ve had one Christmas tune on every album.
Electronic Groove: Aside from singing, playing guitar, bass, or drums … what skill is each one of you good at that usually comes in handy? Which one is ‘the cook’, or the ‘designated driver’?
Larry Studnicky: Doc and John keep us laughing all the time. John’s sense of humor is dry, whereas Mike’s is dark and irreverent. My main non-musical skill is, too often, eating the donuts that I beg Greg and Kyle to stop bringing to the studio. We’re a band of mostly guys, so we don’t cook, much. But we are very enlightened guys, and we don’t ask the girls to cook either.
Mike DoCampo: We’ve become like brothers and sisters, and we turn to humor both to blow off steam and to create that private place where you feel like it’s ‘us against the world’. No outsider gets into that circle.
Electronic Groove: What’s in store for The High Plains Drifters in 2021? What new milestones can fans look forward to?
Larry Studnicky: We’re just now finishing the last few songs that complete our second album. I gotta figure out what to title that sucker, and we’ll have to think about a release date.
In the interim, ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’ is getting us noticed on radio, in print, and online. We’re hoping the tune has legs and will get played increasingly so that more people will discover our music. With luck, our next video release, for ‘The One That Got Away’, will get some attention. It should. Lars Skaland cast a gorgeous ‘Norwegian girl-next-door’ as the star. Interestingly, the proverbial ‘girl-next-door’ seems cuter in Norway.
Mike DoCampo: I’m really optimistic about the band’s prospects for 2021 and beyond. I have been involved in the music business for decades. I’ve always kept my expectations down to earth as I’ve navigated many ups and downs. Lately, with this band, it’s hard not to feel that we are onto something special and ‘Why Not Us?’ – ‘Why Not Now?’. We’ve all worked towards this all our lives, and maybe it’s our time.
Electronic Groove: Thank you for sitting down with us guys! We wish you all the best!
Larry Studnicky: Everyone in the band is really grateful to you for this opportunity. We know that you’re only doing it because you love Kris Vanderheyden, but that’s cool. We love him too!
The High Plain Drifters’ ‘Songs Of Love And Loss’ is out now. Grab your copy here.
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