The Walter Eugenes, Star Song's newest find, are a lively, aggressive ensemble, offering a mature and original sound that constantly skirts the perimeters of "pop" and "alternative" music while somehow maintaining a solid grip on both. Musically infectious, lyrically honest, and individually personable, Rick May and Paul Robinette (who together form the core of the Walter Eugenes) render in their label debut a project with appeal, creativity, and substance.

The Name

Walter Paul Robinette
Rick Eugene May

"Walter and Eugene..." says Walter Eugenes' lyricist and vocalist Paul Robinette, "Those just aren't the kind of names you want the other to find out about when you're in school. But when Rick sarcastically threw out the name Walter Eugenes, it stuck because it really captures one of the core elements of what we're about as a band: Be who you are. It's the reverse of peer pressure."

The Ingredients

Simmer U2 Boy and Achtung Baby in the same crock pot. Throw in a dash of Sting. A fistful of Cactus World News. A light sprinkling of Simple Minds. And a bunch of stuff that you're not even sure what it is. Cook on high heat for about 8 years and Voila, out pop the Walter Eugenes!

The music is guitar based, aggressive, and mood-inducing, alternating between introspection and euphoria. Paul's vocals are delivered in a haunting, penetrating, whispering, lulling, snarling, swirling, open-hearted manner. But comparisons have a limited usefulness at best. Ultimately, the Walter Eugenes wind up sounding pretty much like the Walter Eugenes.

The Chemistry

It took eight years of experimentation before the Walter Eugenes settled into their current rhythm of songwriting collaboration. Rick, who has figured out some way to play most every instrument (technically acceptable methods notwithstanding) is responsible for all of the music. Once the tunes are on tape, Paul adds the lyric and the vocal line.

"When I write," Rick explains, "I respond totally off of sounds. I key off of moods in myself."

"Nothing is lost on Rick," Paul adds, "Noises just reverberate inside his head until he turns them into music."

Paul, on the other hand, finds his lyrical inspiration in Rick's music, seeking to marry his verbal emotional response to the rhythm and the texture of the tunes. "Our music is all chemistry," Paul offers. "Somehow it unlocks doors inside of me that never would have been unlocked without it."

"It's a 100% collaboration," Rick concludes, "Not me. Not Paul. It's both of us."

The Lyrics

As the Walter Eugenes lyricist, Paul struggles to honestly express the tension of "the now and the not yet;" that friction born of carrying the hope and promise of heaven in one's heart while simultaneously living as a broken person in a fallen and oftentimes painful world.

"Our lyrics don't really express a notion of 'Follow Jesus and everything will be great'," he says, "because life is just not that way. Look at the Psalms, look at Job, look at the suffering and martyrdom of Paul and the other apostles. The Bible certainly never says that everything will be comfortable. What it does say is that God will be faithful and will always offer the grace that we need to walk through whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, and that there is consequently a deep joy even in the midst of unhappiness. We don't deny the presence of mourning, but we see that even in the center of the deepest mourning there is an eternal hope that leads to joy. In that regard, all of the lyrics on the album are based in the reality of my experience of Christianity."

The History

"I had never seen anybody play drums like Rick could," Paul reminisces about their first high school jam session together, "And then he sat down at the piano and played my songs better than I could. And then he said 'this would be really neat with a guitar part' and instantly laid down a guitar part, and then he picked up the bass and I couldn't believe it!"

Sometime after high school, a mutual friend asked them to serve as the guinea pig band for a recording engineer workshop school. Seven months later they had a ten song demo that was picked up 'as is' and released nationally on Ocean Records, an independent Christian label.

At the same time, the Walter Eugenes had been testing the waters of the gospel music industry and weren't yet convinced that was the direction they wanted to go. "We started playing bars and clubs for a while, but soon discovered that those environments were very foreign to us. The end result was that we got very frustrated and started seeking the Lord for direction. It was during this time that Dave Perkins stepped in as a mentor. He challenged us to dig deep and to follow our hearts."

That challenge not only effected the Walter Eugenes' music, raising it to a new plateau, but it focused their vision as well. "Despite the pressures in the gospel music marketplace," Paul concludes, "we discovered that it's really where our hearts are and where our commitment is. We want to play to youth groups, to sing and talk with kids, and share our hearts and our backgrounds. This is our home. When it came right down to it, we saw that this was who we were and where we wanted to be."

The Philosophy

"The most honest thing would probably be just to say 'It feels great to be playing music in your basement one day, and the next day to have a record deal'," Paul reflects, "But we have lives to live whether we're making records or not. What's more important than anything is our families and our personal relationships with our friends. We're just doing what comes naturally, and we're happy that we might be able to make a living at it."

A Word With The Producers

Tag-team producers Dave Perkins and Lynn Nichols (of Chagall Guervara fame) were pleased to offer their spin on the Walter Eugenes once they learned that free sandwiches were involved...

From a musical standpoint, how would you describe the Walter Eugenes?

Dave: Mid-western, corn-shuckin', rock n' roll polka in a pink party dress...

Lynn: Lou Reed visits Hee Haw kinda thing...

When you agreed to sing on as producers, what strong points did you see in the band?

Lynn: They chose us to work with them. I think that showed a lot of promise right there...

Dave: And they're both strong, strapping Ohio farm boys, so we figured if we could get them down here to do some recording, we might be able to get some yardwork done as well...

Lynn: Mulching, weed-eating, catching gophers...

Dave: The truth is, we were drawn to their music. There's a real strength that comes from their long term relationship of writing and playing together.

Lynn: It's either what you'd call "commercially alternative" or it's "very artistic pop," and the Walter Eugenes are a strong live band. Concert exposure is really going to propel their career.

How did you go about translating that live energy onto tape?

Dave: We didn't really have to do anything other than "chase" the demos that they made in their basement. Our task has just been to take them a step further...

Lynn: We just took them from their basement to ours...

For a basement it sure looks an awful lot like a bus..

Dave: Well, the studio is in an old 1948 Flexible bus out in the yard. A lot of albums have been recorded in that bus. Bob Dylan, America, Ted Nugent, ZZ Top, etc. And it's still driveable. But we don't take it out much...

Lynn: Just an occasional spin around the yard to impress the neighbors...

Dave: Or to confuse the Walter Eugenes while they're trying to record...