Tag: Candy

When I went to see Jeff Scott Soto and Jason Bieler live a few months back, this CD was in the Merch booth. I got real excited real fast. Slam is a band Jeff was in way back in 1991. Jeff received a call from former Beau Nasty guitarist, George Bernhardt, about doing a project. Jeff didn’t have a steady gig yet as Talisman wasn’t a full time band so he was up for doing some demos. George’s songs that he sent Jeff were full of funk and groove and that is exactly what Jeff loved so the two hit it off immediately. They did 7 songs together and the band was formed. Well, the name Slam was really all they had as there was no real band since it was just the two of them so far.

They found a drummer, in Boston, by the name of Mark Bistany and then through an ad found two more New Englanders with guitarist Craig Polivka and bassist Chris McCarvill. Craig & Chris replied with a demo of a song that would become “Dance the Body Elektrik” that appears on this disc. There was a problem as these three new guys were all on the East Coast and Jeff & George were on the West. Jeff actually drove to the East Coast and picked the boys up. Once back out west, they added a fifth member, rapper EOG (Eric Grinstead) and he rounded out the band. With this line-up the band had a rock, a rap, a soul, a funk and a whole lot of other cool sounds in their music.

But, it didn’t last. The boys from the East coast decided to go on their own and then EOG left as well. But they did bring on another guitarist that would become a regular fixture in Jeff’s life, Gary Schutt. Ricky Wolking would come in on bass, but again..it didn’t last. After 3 to 4 months, they scaled down to a 4 piece with Gary out now, but the band could not get a deal. And Slam would eventually go out with a thud. Now, 30 years later, we get the full set of songs they worked on and we have 16 choice cuts to ponder. Let’s go through them and see what they were up to 30 years ago.