Courtesy Gerard Erker
A complete host of St. Louis music royalty gathers in Blue Lotus Studios to movie the video model of “Hey KDHX!”
When Mighty Pines multi-instrumentalist Gerard Erker first heard about some drama at St. Louis group radio station KDHX, he knew he needed to remain out of it. He’d allow them to work out their points, he thought. He cringed however thought one thing related even when he heard the station had axed longtime DJ Tom “Papa” Ray.
However then they got here for DJs Andy Coco and Drea Stein.
“It was like a intestine punch as a result of these are my two closest allies on the station,” he says, explaining how the 2 had performed the Mighty Pines’ music, invited the band to the studio and even filmed them there. “It was pulling my heartstrings.”
There’s an apparent motive why pissing off musicians has historically been unhealthy PR: All of your misdeeds will seemingly get blasted out in a superbly rendered piece of music. And, in case your actions anger a few of your metropolis’s most lauded musicians, a lot higher the attain and a lot the more severe for you.
That’s a great distance of claiming that Erker responded to the information about Stein and Coco by writing a protest music. He was set to launch “Hey KDHX!” on a Friday, after which the subsequent massive factor occurred: KDHX fired 10 extra DJs.
“‘Oh God, do I have to rewrite the refrain?’” Erker thought, earlier than realizing it was good as is. “I simply left it as a dedication to all the DJs.”
Erker launched a solo model (and it obtained its world premiere that day because the final music on Ital-Ok’s last KDHX present, because the DJ resigned on air), and it’s now out there on Spotify. However he dreamt of additionally recording a model with a bunch of top-notch St. Louis musicians.
A few of these he reached out to had expressed some hesitancy at getting concerned. However that Friday afternoon bloodbath modified their tunes.
“We needed to indicate an indication of unity amongst the St. Louis musicians as to the place we stand with the state of affairs,” Erker says. “[We] needed to let the music do the speaking for us.
“The DJs have handled us musicians so nicely over time. It is principally the one station on the town that routinely performs all of our music. And to see them simply get fired left and proper, it does not appear proper. So I wrote the music, however all these folks got here collectively as a result of we’re all on the identical web page.”
That model of “Hey KDHX!” was launched early this morning. After it’s up for a couple of days, Erker can also be going to launch a music video, through which native followers will acknowledge fairly a couple of faces.
The music options Erker’s Mighty Pines bandmates Neil Salsich, John Hussung and Mike Murano. Different St. Louis music heavy hitters embrace Al Holliday, Funky Butt Brass Band’s Aaron Chandler and Adam Hucke, Unity Quartet’s Ben Reece and vocalist Emily Wallace. Sean Canan of the Voodoo Gamers produced it.
“It was simply actually cool to simply see all people come collectively,” Erker says, noting that everybody donated their time or gave their providers at a reduced charge, together with the videographer and Wallace, who made the observe’s paintings.
“The video appears to be like superb,” he provides. “The entire observe, once more, I am unable to look ahead to it to come back out as a result of it turned out actually, actually good. I’m actually, actually pleased with it.”
The video has a easy setup with all the aforementioned stars taking part in “Hey KDHX!” in a basement studio (which is definitely Blue Lotus Studios, an expert studio situated in Paul Niehaus IV’s south metropolis basement). The digicam pans to every in flip, interspersed with drone-capture movies of KDHX’s Grand Middle station.
Courtesy Gerard Erker
Ousted DJ Drea Stein embraces Gerard Erker of the Mighty Pines. Erker wrote “Hey KDHX!” after listening to that Stein and DJ Andy Coco had been dismissed.
The music itself opens with jangling guitars and a sound that followers of Mighty Pines’ roots-rocks jams will probably be drawn to. Regardless of the subject, it has an nearly jaunty really feel, which Erker appears to allude to when he calls it “hopeful.”
He says that it’s a “lyrics-forward type of music,” and it certainly has the specificity of a Randy Newman hit. There are three verses interspersed by a refrain calling for KDHX to “carry again Andy Coco, carry again Drea” and ending with “I really like the station with all of my coronary heart, but it surely’s falling aside, and it breaks my coronary heart. It breaks my coronary heart.”
The verses discuss how nice KDHX was as a station (“good folks volunteering/for the betterment of the/St. Louis Group”) and what’s occurring now (“issues have began to decay,” “you’re pushing everybody away,” “please don’t throw all of it away” coupled with a repeating “there’s obtained to be a greater means”) and a few judgment (“What you’re doing, it simply ain’t proper,” “All these volunteers have a lot to carry/they’ve given their lives. They’ve given all the pieces.”)
It was Erker’s first time writing a protest music. Nevertheless it’s additionally greater than a protest music.
“It is also a love music to the station,” he says. “However I very deliberately didn’t villainize anyone.”
Erker consulted with each Coco and Stein earlier than he wrote something. Stein even stopped by the studio in the course of the video shoot with snacks for the band and to speak about what was occurring. How she was serving to lead the DJs of their combat and about her pending lawsuit towards the station. How the music had affected her.
“When she lastly noticed me, she gave me the most important, warmest embrace that she’s ever given me and it was simply so heartfelt,” he recollects. “It was actually, actually candy and emotional.”
Hearken to “Hey KDHX!” on Spotify and watch YouTube for the video to drop within the subsequent few days. You too can catch the music’s reside premiere in the course of the Mighty Pines’ set at Pines Fest on the Huge Prime (3401 Washington Avenue) on Saturday, October 14.
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