Rock Sound Issue 36 May 2002
As the seemingly endless parade of new bands from New York continues apace, it's well worth making note of Longwave-and not just because of their personal mythology as rock sound discovers
I'd like to think that the guitar was glowing slightly in a supernatural, Excalibur-ish way, when little Stevie's dad first saw it. Perhaps it was starting to rain and he rescued it just in time. Whatever. Mr Schiltz got out of the car and wandered over to the guitar, picked it up and turned it over in his hands a few times. He looked up and down the street. No one was watching. He tucked the abandoned instrument under his arm, got back into the car and drove off. It's now about 14 years later. We're sitting in a bar in Brooklyn, New York and Steve Schiltz, frontman of Longwave, is explaining the exact, precise moment when he decided that he wanted to be a musician. "I wanted to be an artist till I was about 10", he says. "But then I started playing the guitar. My dad found me a guitar in the garbage. It was just left on the curb somewhere, or something," he continues vaguely. "He plugged it into the stereo for me and it was way out of tune but I had no idea of course. An d then (he mimes strumming hard) it came through the speakers and I was like 'alright!'" Alright! How implausible is this story? Maybe Steve's dad nicked the guitar. Either that or he bought it but told his son that he'd found it so he wouldn't look too soft. I mean who leaves guitars in perfectly good condition lying around in the street? Thing is, it's a great story anyway, because when you see Longwave play they still look like they're totally blown away by the sheer variety of sounds that a rock band is capable of making - from pop that's reminiscent of U2 or REM to blasted squalls of My Bloody Valentine guitar.
Personally, I could easily believe that Mike James had his first drum-set delivered to him by a Native American shaman, Dave Marchese stole his bass from the Costa Nostra and Shannon Ferguson received his guitar in a dream from the great God Quexyfxpedlycotl. And if that seems slightly excessive (well alright it slightly excessive) bear with us because Longwave are from Noo Yawk and it's always been the rule that you have to mythologise New York band-from Velvet Underground to The Strokes. Plus Longwave do the same to us, seeming strangely, fascinated by everything from Britpop to our strange take on the mother tongue. To them New York is just home; Croydon, Scunthorpe, East Cheam and Whitley Bay are hugely strange and exciting. Maybe this is because New York is where Longwave have jobs "moving boxes for a big bank", while London is where their Fantastic single 'Exit' is starting to cause more and more of a stir. "I'm the only one who's a proper employee at the bank," says Steve. "I'm kind of the anchor and I bring these two (mike and Shannon) in around me". Do you feel responsible when Mike and Shannon don't show up? "Yes," says Steve with mock bitterness. "But I don't think we're going to be there for very much longer. There are a lot of things in front of us now like record deals and publishing deals and all that kind of stuff. We could have directly quit our jobs about a month ago, but we wanted to be smart about it and take out time making a good decision."
Longwave have already had a crash course in The Way The Record Industry Works as a result of being friends with The Strokes, with whom they've recently toured in the UK. "They seem to be dealing with it pretty well"," says Shannon. "I don't think any of them are going to turn into rock star assholes." But a key difference between the bands is that while The Strokes have a song called 'Meet Me In The Bathroom', which seems to be celebratory of rock 'n' roll hedonism, Longwave sing 'Meet Me At The Bottom'. "We went out one night in Brooklyn," explains Steve. "And we ended up at this place called (deleted for libel reasons) and there's this kind of horrible scene and it is the bottom. It's really trashy and there are a lot of drugs. When I heard The Strokes had written a song called 'Meet Me In The Bathroom' I went (groans) 'oh, God.'"
Trevor Baker