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The University Daily Kansan > Jayplay > April 20, 2000
AFTER TWO YEARS, PREFERRED VILLAIN IS... POUNDING Clay McCuistion out its sound
Matt "Cricket" Kirk, Bret Ditgen and Damian Siwek of Preferred Villain rehearse Friday night. The group will preform tomorrow night at the Battleneck Photo by Jason Dailey/KANSAN
The soles of Damian Siwek's bare feet bounce up and down on the reverberating floor.
Three other pairs of feet surround Siwek's.
Siwek pounds out aggressive riffs from his Gibson Les Paul guitar, his hair dropping into his eyes as he strikes rock star poses. The room shakes.
Drummer Adam Mitchell's feet are busy behind his black Sonar drum set. Bassist Matt "Cricket" Kirk's black sneakers are planted solidly on the ground as he rocks back and forth with his five-string. Singer Brett Ditgen's tennis shoes bounce up and down as he clutches a microphone to his lips.
Together, these four men form Preferred Villain, a Lawrence band that's playing its second public show at 5 p.m. tomorrow at The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St. Admission for the all-ages concert is $3 at the door.
Preferred Villain is one of a multitude of Lawrence bands attempting to make a name and place for themselves in a crowded environment. Members said they have fun but that holding together a worthwhile band took work.
"If you want to get a band together and you want it to go somewhere, it takes a lot of dedication — probably more than most people are willing to give," said Ditgen, Houston senior and business administration major.
Matt Dunehoo, guitarist and singer with Proudental, another local group, said the Lawrence music scene was competitive.
Dunehoo, a Shawnee senior and member of the Kansan editorial board, has played with his band for four years in Kansas City and Lawrence.
"A lot of bands get swallowed up and ignored," he said. "It's hard to start a local band."
Forming the band
The start for Preferred Villain was nearly two years ago.
Siwek, a Wichita senior triple-majoring in English, creative writing and political science, decided to put a band together. He'd been playing electric guitar seriously since his junior year of high school.
Through a mutual friend he met bassist Kirk, veteran of a Wichita group called Lilama. The two bonded quickly.
The pair began to look for a drummer and eventually stumbled onto Free State High School student Mitchell — again, through a mutual friend.
"On Friday and Saturday we were in my living room, with the beers, working on music," said Siwek, who named guitarists such as Eddie Van Halen, Slash and Young Malmsteen as influences. "It was a sorry existence for a while."
"They never really told me I was in the band, they just started coming over," said the wiry, long-haired Mitchell, whose music of choice is European metal bands.
Since that time, the group has rehearsed at the ranch-style, west Lawrence home of Mitchell's parents. The home's basement — nicknamed the "cork room" because of its floor — became home to stacks of black amplifiers, tape recorders, cords and empty pop cans.
But the group didn't have a singer. For nearly a year, Siwek, Kirk and Mitchell auditioned candidates, all the while honing their instrumental chops. They even played at the Bottleneck in the summer of 1999 as an instrumental trio.
PREFERRED VILLIAN
Preferred Villain with Sturgeon Mill and Current, 5 p.m. tomorrow at the Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St. Tickets are $3.
More than 60 singers tried out, coming from as far as Oklahoma and California.
"It got frustrating." Sweet said. "Before we met brett we had almost broken up because we didn't think it was fun anymore."
Finally, Siwek met Ditgen, a Jim Morrison fan, at a party in October. Ditgen was in the group by December, singing on the group's three-track demo, Sixth Sense.
"The vocals are pretty challenging because I haven't done anything like this for a long time," said Ditgen, who has sung in choirs since sixth grade. "My voice hasn't been used for this."
Finally, the four-piece band played its first show at an open-mike night at The Bottleneck. More than 300 people attended the Feb. 28 show, which was thoroughly promoted by the band.
"The place was packed," Siwek said. "I hadn't seen that many people in The Bottleneck for a long time."
Making it in Lawrence
"I thought it was neat to see a group of individuals in a band so enthusiastic about making the possibilities open to themselves," he said. "They really have a hardcore, earnest approach to self-promotion."
Dunehue was part of the crowd at The Bottleneck that Monday night.
In addition to his work with Proudentall (whose album What's Happening Here was reviewed in the April 13 issue of Jayplay), Dunehoo is student station manager for KJHK radio and a former live music coordinator for Student Union Activities.
Adam Mitchell, Free State High School junior, plays drums at a Preferred Villain practice. The group practices in the basement of Mitchell's parents' house. Photo by Jason Dailey /KANSAN
Wichita senior
"On Friday and Saturday night we were in my living room,with the beers,working on music."
Damian Siwek
"I'm very excited about the music scene in Lawrence right now," Dunehoo said. "It seems like there is a lot of people interested in making music and making good music."
He's followed Lawrence-area bands closely during his time at the University.
Not all band members, of course, pursue their careers with the same drive as the men of Preferred Villain.
"People take their bands with different levels of seriousness," said Dunehoo, who is planning to take the fall semester off to explore his music career. "It depends on how much you're willing to do."
Also in the audience that Monday night was Neil Rasmussen, producer of the Channel 6 cable show Fusion. The weekly, half-hour show highlights Lawrence-area music with footage of performances and interviews with bands.
masmussen was at The Bottleneck to
rasmussen
tape another
band but said
he
was impressed
with the polished quality of Preferred Villain's performance.
"I was surprised it was their first
More information
An enhanced version of
this story with audio clips
from Preferred Villain,
"Fool's Paradise" and
"Eyes of the Snake," is
available on the Web at
www.kansan.com
gig." Rasmussen said.
The producer will be at The Bottleneck tomorrow, taping the band for an upcoming Fusion episode.
"I'm excited when I hear a member of a band who's excited about getting out their sound," Rasmussen said. "If it sounds like they're not just thrown together, I'll give them a shot and put them on."
Rasmussen has followed the Lawrence music scene since arriving in 1980 and has worked on Fusion for two and a half years. His advice for up-and-coming music groups was simple.
"It's just persistence," Rasmussen said.
"To not give up."
"I won't give up."
"I wouldn't want to do anything else."
"I wouldn't want to do anything else." In the cork room, the thundering of three instruments and one voice eventually subsided. Preferred Villain wrapped up its Friday night practice.
screened-in deck of Mitchell's house. The bodies atop those feet sat down. The group members drank glasses of water, smoked cigarettes and waxed philosophical.
The four pairs of feet walked to a
They discussed songwriting - all of the band's material is original.
"We have a lot of different styles and different influences."
a big melting pot of ideas, and the ultimate result is that everything sounds a lot different."
Siwek said collaboration n was between everyone.
See BAND on page 2B
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Horoscopes . .2B
Crossword . .2B
Music . .3B
Fine Arts . . . 4,8B
Movies . . . 6B
Classifieds . . 6,7B
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Sold-out Broadway hit Annie hits the Lied Center stage Monday.
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A Kansan reviewer says submarine flick is action-packed but REALLY loud.
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