INTERVIEW: The Urge’s Steve Ewing Talks About Live Music, New Venues, and Did Someone Say NEW URGE Music?!?!

Hello Midwest Rewind family, it has been WAY too long since we last spoke! I hope you all, each and every one, are happy and healthy as you read this.

It seems like an eternity since I was able to write anything to do with live music but that is all changing as we speak. Saint Louis is about to go on an epic run of live music and one of the first shows on tap is STL’s very own…The URGE.

The Urge will be headlining the Point Big Summer Show at one of the area’s brand new venues, The Saint Louis Music Park on August 14, and I like many can not wait to check it out! Steve Ewing (Vocalist, The Urge) was gracious enough to give me a few moments of his time to discuss the upcoming show, the STL music scene and what the future holds.

It is great to be back, Saint Louis!  Have a look at our conversation below and don’t forget to get you tickets (online HERE) and PTMFUS!

Peace!

Keith.

Keith Brake: Steve, first of all thanks for taking the time to sit down with us and have a chat! So, how great is it for you that STL and other places are opening back up “full swing” with Live music?Steve Ewing: Well, it’s great, it’s like it’s everything for me because my whole life ,or a good portion of my life, revolves around playing live music so everything for me comes back on line…it’s really nice.

KB: I think you, like all of us, are holding our breath hoping that it lasts…that we don’t fall off the ledge again?

SE: YES! Hopefully it stays like this.

KB: So, The Urge have a Point Big Summer show coming up on August 14th…thoughts?

SE: Yeah we are just about ready we got about a good three to four more rehearsals left and we are getting pretty tight and everybody is super excited about the show. It’s been a little while since we played a show so it’s been a while since rehearsal too so it took a second to shake off some cobwebs but we are ready to go.

KB: Do you have your cardio on point so you can sprint around the stage?

SE: Yeeeaaaahh we are almost there! It’s hard to replicate in training what we do on stage but I think I am ready to go.

KB: You are always 170% on stage and that is one of the things that make an Urge show so fantastic. The show has a very cool lineup that is both cohesive and diverse. What are your thoughts on the line up?

SE: Yeah, the line up is really cool. We have never played a show with Soul Asylum but we are all super familiar with their music; Local H, we have done some festivals with them and Julianna Hattfield we are all familiar with how awesome they all are live so people are going to get their money’s worth. It ties everything from that timeframe of music like mid to late 90’s when all of us were kinda doing our thing like right about that time so there is definitely a little nostalgia happening, no doubt.

KB: This show will be my first visit to the new venue (Saint Louis Music Park), have you been inside yet?

SE: Yeah. So, I got a chance to look at it and I’m pretty dang impressed. It’s a nice layout and pretty much every seat in the house is a good seat, you can see the whole stage from everywhere…they did a good job setting that up. We are super excited to be one of the first acts in the new venue, the stage is huge so it will be a full production, so yeah, we are excited.

KB: Speaking of music from that time frame, did you get a chance to see Fred Durst at Lollapalooza putting out the total dad vibe?

SE: (laughing) I haven’t got a chance to see it yet but I have heard about it so it’s definitely on my list of things to check out for sure. (laughing)

KB: You and Fred formed a friendship some years back, yes?

SE: Yeah we totally did. We did a little bit of touring together and did some shows together, we really hit it off. He is such a nice guy and I’m really excited about them getting back out and playing again; they have a huge amount of people who love them so it’s just awesome.

KB: I think when you get a chance to check that out you are going to love it because I thought they really killed their set.

SE: Sweet!

KB: So when you are from or around STL you know that it has always been a great music town but we seem to keep getting better. We have new venues and we have a great concert lineup on deck are there any concerts that you are personally excited for as well as your overall thoughts on the lineup?

SE: I am personally excited about seeing “The English Beat” come back to STL and they are coming back with one of my all time favorite bands “The Fix ” so that’s super exciting. As far as the lineup, they announced our show then right after that announced like 40 shows, or something like that, in the region and that’s amazing. I don’t think I have ever seen that many concert announcements in that amount of space. So, it just goes to show you that people are definitely ready to come back out, it’s gonna be awesome for our city. With all these new venues we will get more bands coming through, more bands will have the opportunity to route through our city so it just makes it awesome.

KB: For people like us life could not be better than when concerts are happening all the time.

SE: Yep, and you’re not just getting people from STL you’re getting people from surrounding areas coming into the city and other areas and it’s just great for the local economy and the other businesses so it’s really good.

KB: Switching gears from music you will have a brand new Steve’s Hotdogs location…how’s that going? Anything new we should know about?

SE: Yeah, so it’s a brand new spot. We are moving into the old Manja place so we totally like, for the most part, re-did it and it looks really awesome. We did leave the Wayne St. Wayne mural up which people are excited about. We are trying to get open like the second week of September the way it looks right now so we are getting close. Everybody is super, crazy excited about it. We got a lot of neighborhood support. We are going to have live music regularly, special drinks with a full bar and we will be adding “fries” to the menu so we are doing some cool things.

KB: I am sure you will be plenty busy when those doors open.

SE: Yeah, we are looking forward to having some very busy nights.

KB: I know you and your staff have been working hard on this so our congratulations to you all. So as we round things out here, is there any cool information you would like to share with our readers and fans?

SE: Keep your ears open for some new music, that’s the next thing on our list. After we kinda get settled in here and get some shows under our belt and get into a slower part of the year then we will start trying to get back in and finish up some songs that we have been writing for awhile. So, we have quite a few things that just need to be finished so that’s what’s going to be the next goal for The Urge, get back into the studio and get some new music out.

KB: I am certain that anyone who reads this will be more than excited for new Urge music. And you guys have the show on August 14th but we will also get the annual Thanksgiving show, right? Is it back in the schedule?

SE: Yes it’s already worked out. It is always that Friday after Thanksgiving, so we can look forward to that and it’s gonna be a KILLER lineup!

KB: Steve, thanks again.