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Chad Schwartz - Havick

havickComp4
    1. Who is Havick? Where did they come from? .

    Havick is a fairly new rock party band out of Des Moines that plays mostly modern rock (90’s to today) with a few classics thrown in.

    Band members are Brian Lincoln on lead vocals & guitar, Jim Cateron on guitar, Chad Schwartz on bass, and Joe Puente on
    drums & vocals. We also have Gene Scott that comes up and plays bass /backup vocals on
    some songs, does his famous band introductions, provides our light show, as well as does everything and anything you can imagine to help keep the band going.

    Joe Puente - has never been in a band besides Havick but has been playing drums for 12 years.

    Gene Scott - has never been
    in a band besides Havick and has played bass less than a year. His first live bass performance was the December 31, 2008 New Years Eve Bash at The Reverse Bar in Perry. Quite a few were shocked and delighted to see him play live for the first time! I bet nobody could guess who his bass teacher is.
Chadmug
CHAD SCHWARTZ OF
HAVICK AND 515 MANAGEMENT




    Jim Cateron - I started a band called Painface with Anders who was the original singer
    of Slipknot, also with Jas
    (guitar) from On a Pale Horse, Nick Bullock (drums) and
    Paul Grinstead (bass). Then I joined Mindsplice with Paul Vanweelden (bass), Mark Loomis (drums), the one and only famous Billy Sevenbergen (guitar), and Kitty (singer) who was the
    ex-wife of Craig Jones of Slipknot. She died a few years back of breast cancer. Then Jim was idle for a few years until joining up with Havick.

    Brian Lincoln - At the age of sixteen started my first band Cyro. We were way into Duran Duran so we tried to copy there look. With the dyed bangs, tails and we even wore makeup. Members were Brian Lincoln-lead vocals; Ron Mcgee Jr.-lead guitar, vocals, and backup vocals; Dave Prince-bassist who was replaced after a couple of years by Curtis Fuller, Jamie Downing-keyboards; Ty Legget-drums who was soon replaced by a classmate from S.E. Polk Jason Brady of Toad Valley Golf Course. We played half originals and half covers. Some Duran Duran, Cars, Fabulous Thunderbirds, Badfinger, and Beatles. Some of our originals were Shadows Turning Red, Nowhere to Run, Audacious Type, and Doves in a Rainy Season.

    My mother managed Alladin's Castle at Merle Hay Mall, so we mostly played there every other Saturday. Switching off weekends with rival band Onyx. We played a battle of the bands at Vittoria Lodge where the Kruze band had dominated. Although we did not win, the Kruze band liked our sound and Rick Maly, Kruze's drummer and sound engineer, wanted to record us. We became great friends with all the band Pat Helan, Dirk Newton, Rick Maly, Ron Kinnenbeck, and their bassist Brian, I can't remember his last name. Some of those members worked at Rieman's Music where Ron Mcgee and Myself took up employment also. Cyro finally came to an end because myself and Ron were getting into harder rock and the rest of the band was getting more techno.

    When We split and me and Ron joined forces with Bill King-bassist, Scott Kacher-keyboards, and Paul Grandquist-drums who was replaced after a year by Tim "Boom Boom" Burrows. We named ourselves "Medallion" and it seemed to be a match made in heaven. We lived and breathed rock n' roll. We all worked then at Riemans except our drummer Tim. He found other ways to make money. We became the house band at Hott Rocks, you might remember it as The Pines. We played there Wednesday thru Saturday. It really helped us get tight. We were all young and cocky with a great song list and an amazing live performance. Our song list consisted of White Snake, G n' R, Sammy Hagaar, Skid Row, Zeppelin, Kingdom Cum, Cinderella, Foriegner, Thin Lizzy, Reo Speedwagon. We played pretty much anything and everything.

    After three or four years going hard all over the state of Iowa at places like Sioux City, Fort Dodge, Ames, Grand Junction, Des Moines, Bill had a choice between his girlfriend Cindy or the band. Foolishly he chose her. Along with some other variables at the time it pretty much dissolved Medallion. We did do a reunion show at Party Town and along with opening for Pat Travers at Hott Rocks it was a great time.

    Ron, Scott and I then tried our luck with the other gentlemen, who we had long time idolized from the Thunderteaz. Lance Harrison- lead guitarist, Tom Murphy bassist, and Kevin Morrissey-drummer who now make up band 3 A.M. and Side Effect. We went strong for about two years under the name Scarlett O' Hara. We played stuff like The Guess Who, Steve Miller, Led Zeppelin, and AC/DC.

What other bands have you all been in?

I’ve had 11 other attempts at putting bands together but Sniffers Row was the first and only other band I’ve really spent some time with besides Havick. Sniffers Row consists of Mark Menegay on guitar, Matt Menegay on guitar, Craig McLaughlin on drums, and for a while Cory Peden on keyboards before he went to Rearview (now Kerosene) then moved down south to Nashville. Sniffers Row started January 2006 and we played one live show at my Birthday Bash in 2008. The song Sniffers Row is most famous for playing that night was Michael Jackson Billie Jean. Never know they could be back out live sometime! It’s really amazing how hard it is to put a band together that lasts for any length of time!




StanndingDamage

Chad sits in with Standing Damage


kip
Kip Sits In on Drums !

3. How did you guys form the band - pick the name?

I met Brian Lincoln for the first time back in February of 2008 while he was singing some tunes with Wickked Sin at the Hull Avenue Tap. I introduced myself and told him I thought we should start a band. A couple weeks later Brian found a drummer (Wes Harker) and a guitar player (Brad Cramblit). After that Havick was born. Brian came up with the name and I decided on the spelling. It’s really hard to pick a band name these days! Mark Menegay designed all of our logos and created quite a few of our awesome fliers!

Havick first show live was at my Birthday Bash in 2008. Our second live show was at The House of Bricks May 2008 with Standing Damaged. While at Bourbon Street watching Deja Voodoo Chris Watrous asked me if I played in a band and if we wanted to play a show with them in two weeks. I said sure! We became great
friends with Standing Damaged (Seven Hells) after that and have done many shows together since. We’ve got some more exciting shows together coming up soon!

Labor Day weekend 2008 we lost Wes Harker. Kip Porter from Gimikk was gracious enough to fill-in for us on two shows Labor Day weekend (Squirrel’s Front Yard Party 2008 and the Iowa Band Beach Bash). Mike Maley filled-in for one show at Shooter’s that following Friday night. October of 2008 we hired Joe Puente on drums. Shortly after that Brad Cramblit decided to leave and so we then hired Jim Cateron on guitar. First live show with current line-up was December 31, 2008 New Years Eve Bash at the Reverse Bar in Perry with Standing Damaged (Seven Hells). Great times! For a few months at the beginning of 2009 we had Chris Darling doing some lead vocals. He performed one live show with us at Sudsuckers with Straight Jacket Coma February 28.
4. What made you want to play the bass?

I got an e-mail from Mark Menegay asking if I ever thought about playing a musical instrument and if I would be interested in starting a band (Sniffers Row). I said sure! He then told me that I’ll be playing bass. I thought bass? But, I want to play lead guitar! (Doesn’t everybody?!)

I had a really hard time hearing the bass lines on recordings back then but agreed to it anyway. “You mean that low rumbling in the background?” LOL! “Yeah, that’s it!” Funny thing is I ended up loving bass and really don’t care that much about playing guitar anymore. But now I have that musicians’ disease of cutting apart every song I hear. I can’t just enjoy the song for what it is anymore!


5. Any musical training? When did you start?


With no prior history of music or playing any instruments I started learning to play bass January of 2006 for Sniffers Row. First thing I did was purchase and complete “Introduction to Bass Guitar DVD Lesson and Workbook” with Bert Casey. What an old cheesy video but it got me started! For 8 months I worked on my own learning finger techniques and songs by TAB.

After that I signed up and took lessons from Bob Pace for little over 2 years at Professional Music Center. For about 6 months I was taking lessons from Ross Vander Werf on Mondays and Bob Pace on Thursdays. Otherwise I just practiced daily and kept trying to learn something new.

I took 3 lessons on guitar from Bob Pace but decided that I loved playing bass so much more and that guitar playing wasn’t really for me right now. I’d rather focus getting better on one instrument since I started so late. Besides there always seems to be a big shortage of bass players around! Right now I’m not taking any lessons but will probably again soon as the winter months approach.

One challenging thing about music is that there never is an end to learning it and there are no short cuts from practicing a lot. To me the “holy grail” to music is being able to easily and accurately learn songs by ear. Hopefully someday I’ll be as good as some of the awesome cats I see playing bass.



Bert



BobPace
Bob Pace Guitar Teacher
@ Professional Music Center


DonChad
Don Ballalatak ( Rearview) and Chad
6. Who inspires (bassist) you as a Bass player

Funny as this may sound first and foremost is me! Getting in the game of playing in a band so late in life really pushes me to get up to speed as fast as I can! Last thing I want to do is suck or not be able to hang with everybody else in the band! LOL!

Famous bassists that inspire me are awesome finger players like Geddy Lee, Flea, Victor Wooten, Jaco Pastorius, John Taylor, John Entwistle, Louis Johnson, Marcus Miller, Billy Sheehan, Rudy Sarzo, Les Claypool, Stu Hamm, Larry Graham, Tal Wilkenfeld, etc.

Local bassists that inspire me the most technically are Scot Sutherland and Tom Murphy. Those cats have some awesome chops and are great at being able to still kick back and play in the pocket! But also any bassist that is out playing live in a band inspires me!

I owe huge inspiration thanks to Don Ballalatak from Rearview, Billy Sevenbergen from Gimikk, and Eric Jones from Seven Hells for being the ones that broke my ass in live on stage repeatedly! The experience has helped me out tremendously! First time I ever played out live was with Rearview at the Hornet’s Nest in Laural, IA March 31, 2007. I played Judas Priest “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming.” I was thinking that I should have brought some spare underwear and had another shot because I was that nervous! LOL!

7. What bands influenced you - what bands influence you now.


Watching the local bands is what inspired and influenced me to pursue a band of my own. I’ve watched and enjoyed the local bands for quite a few years and I thought it would be so much fun to be up on stage myself. Most influential bands to me then were Cold Filtered, Gimmick, Toaster, Full Throttle, Full Blast, Axis, Road Show, etc. You could go out and watch them just about every weekend!

It’s my closest friend bands Gimikk, Seven Hells, Kerosene, and Siktiket that have since given me the most influence. There’s always something fun to do every weekend whether out playing or are just hanging out as friends. They have been there for me in more ways than I could ever start to list! From friendship, to advice, to shows they are always there!


What's in your CD player / on your iPod right now?


The new songs we are working on. I can’t give away to many details yet until we play them out live. I think there will be some surprises. I rarely turn on the radio or just listen to music I want to listen to.

ChadGimmick


Chad with Gimmick


Gimmick

Gimmick



7Hells2

Seven Hells Above

8. Best band you have seen live in the last year? Why?

I’d have to say there’s more than one and they are all local bands!

Gimikk, those guys really know how to put on a high energy fun filled awesome show! They are all great musicians and James Brinker is one awesome front man! That boy can sing some crazy stuff and can work the crowd like no other I’ve seen! The entire band is so much fun to watch! Their song selection is hit after hit all night long and there’s something for everyone. I really enjoy their originals and they fit in well with the covers they play. I’m looking forward to their next original CD!

Seven Hells, is another awesome fun filled party band! Packed crowds, awesome song selection, awesome musicians, and of course Skully Sound making it sound and look great! If you love kick ass hair metal with a twist of modern and classic rock this is the band to party with!

Kerosene, is a new band this year. You’ve got Andy & Jason from Rearview with a whole new line-up! They are a very fun talented band that has a wide music selection! They have little something for everyone. They are great at working the crowd and getting people up on the dance floor having fun! If you haven’t seen them yet definitely check out a show!

Siktiket, is a fairly new band that has been getting people’s attention this year! They put on a great show and have been focusing on playing modern tunes which is a nice change! They perform a lot of tunes nobody else does. They’ve also got some cool originals that everybody is sure to love. Group of awesome musicians and a show you will definitely want to check out!

Other great bands I highly recommend going out to see (no special order) is Road Show, Alchemist, Straight Jacket Coma, Cold Filtered, ONLY, Deuce, Scrue, Toaster, Axis, Standing Hampton, HyndSyte, Pretty Noose, The El Dorado’s, Bob Pace, Shatter, Calous, Jason Brown, The Nadas, Maxx Menagerie, Bonnie Finken, Douglas Acres, and Dark Mirror. Also don’t forget to go check out the house band and all the talent that goes to Blues on Grand Open Jam Thursday nights!



9. What bands current and past are totally overlooked by most deserve some credit?


I don’t want to name any names but there are some really great bands out there with a lot of talent that get overlooked by fans or never really get a good following. Often times it is things like song selection isn’t crowd pleasing, the sound mix isn’t great, don’t put on much of a stage show, have habits of taking extended breaks or starting way late, can’t adapt to working with different venues and opportunities, or come across as straight up arrogant and unprofessional.
I give any band credit for being out there but if they paid attention to what’s going on and worked on making some improvements they’d get pretty popular and get the credit they deserve.



Ok Then we will give credit to" Dancin Dan " ( Pictured Left )
Dan




rearview
Chad and Andy ( Rearview then - Kerosene Now )
10. What's in a rig? ) ... what do you have to have live?

My bass rig consists of a GK Fusion 550 head with one or two GK NEO 2x12 cabinets, Korg DTR1000 digital rack mount tuner, and Audio-Technica wireless. I always run direct to the PA and let the sound guy work their magic. I really enjoy GK bass rigs. They have a lot of punch, power, and growl. Also every sound guy seems to like the direct outs on them. The GK Fusion head has the warmth of tubes from the full tube input section and active EQ but then has the power and punch from the solid state output section that GK is known for.

What do I have to have live? I’m as simple as it gets. All I need to have to play live is my bass direct connected to the PA with some bass ran back in my monitor. I’d play through any bass rig and otherwise would prefer to have just a tuner and a wireless. I hate being tied down to a cord. I just can’t move around freely otherwise. Few people can’t live without a cord cause wireless “sucks out their tone” but I’ve never been told my tone sucks so freedom comes first to me. I never got into using pedals. I’m a firm believer that 90% of a bass players tone is in your hands and that’s the tone I’m happy with. If I wanted to use pedals I’d play guitar. The other 10% is where having a nice bass and bass rig helps if you know how to use it. The good players still sound good playing pretty much anything.


11. Basses - favorite makes? Why? How many do you own?

My favorite makes of basses are Tobias, Fender, Music Man, Warwick, Rickenbacker, and Gibson. I really enjoy playing a high quality hand-made instrument especially custom shop, limited edition, or vintage. You can set them up to play like butter and they always have awesome tone right out of the box. Right now I collect and own 14 basses. I’ll grab whatever I feel like playing at the time. Every bass I own has been gigged out least once. Never know what you’ll see but most likely you’ll see least one Music Man Sting Ray played out live. I seem to really enjoy playing the Sting Rays. They are a one of the best bang for the buck American made basses out there and cut through the mix well. They are built like tanks.

12. Tell us something about the other guys in the band..they don't want us to know ..

Ha! Well, there really isn’t anything! (Boring, I know!) Sad as it is we really are just a group of average working people having fun playing in a band!

Guess for me is that I’m a farm boy from small down Denison Iowa! I grew up helping my dad raise hogs! And people wonder why my immune system is so high and how I can keep going all night like the energizer bunny! LOL!

13. What is your favorite gig to Date?

Wow, that’s hard to narrow down to one! There are so many awesome ones! But, I’d have to say my Birthday Bashes take the cake! They are always crazy packed with friends and fans! I‘m usually pretty toasted the last half of it! I become a walking shot target! LOL! Can’t wait until next year! It will be even bigger with Gimikk, Kerosene, Havick, and Seven Hells all in one night!


14. Horror Story of a gig?

Funny that my favorite gigs also had some horror stories! Birthday Bash 2008 I had a crazy drunk punch a big hole in the wall at the Victoria Lodge that was rented in my name! I was lucky to have Gene Scott come to the rescue and fix the hole and save my deposit! The other crazy thing was that I gave all the bands and some friends’ free drink passes that night and the bill came to over $1,400! LOL! That’s what inspired me to have my Birthday Bashes at Sudsuckers going forward!

Birthday Bash 2009 Kerosene’s bass player decided to not show up 2 hours before the show! Luckily Jeff Foertsch was able to come in last minute to save the show! He ironically became their new bassist permanently. Things do happen for a reason!


birthdaybash09

"Birthday Bashes take the cake!"

GeneS

Gene Scott Sings - Plays Bass and Does Drywall ?



bradWes

Early version of Havick
Back: - Wes Parker Drums - Brad Crambit Guitar
Front Chad Bass - Brian LincolnGuiatr & Vocals

15. The Des Moines Music Scene - your take?


I think the music scene is very much alive and well! There are an amazing amount of local bands around with tremendous amounts of talent! It’s very unfortunate that the messed up economy has made us lose some of our music venues! But, at the same time I keep seeing more and more new ones pop up. I have a feeling there could be some more talent from Des Moines getting big someday.

What I have been doing is trying to get the bands and fans to work together, become friends, and help support each other! For example, when you put together fun multi-band shows you get the music fans from all the bands coming together all at one place. Often fans end up enjoying the other bands and become fans of theirs too. The fans become friends with each other, they tell their friends about all the fun they had, and before you know it there’s a huge group of people that want to come support you bands shows. When you’re not playing yourself grab your friends and go support your friends shows too!

Another thing that I think is way cool is when bands will get other musicians that are at their show up on stage with them! It helps promote other bands as well as it is fun for the fans to see.

I started 515 Promotions with Doug Sheldon little while back to help put together shows for the local bands and music venues. It seems to be working out pretty well and we have booked quite a few successful shows. But in reality 515 Promotions isn’t just two people promoting shows but it really consists of all of us working together and having a name to go through. I send out weekly band schedules and events to over 200 people each week.


16. Shows - what makes a good local show (You seem to have some good ideas and crowds)


Crowd


Well, for me it is getting as many awesome bands as you can together in one night and just tear the place apart! LOL!

When I have a multi-band show I make sure to preplan the entire stage setup before hand so that you only have to setup once and have it work for all the bands. There’s nothing worse than having to watch 30-45 minutes of gear swapping in the middle of your show! The bands have got to be friends and be respectful of each other’s gear. When you do that it will only take 3 minutes tops to switch between bands. It also makes it much easier for the sound guy. You can alternate or do anything you want that way all night long!


I like to start the shows early at 8:00 if I can. Almost never is it empty at 8:00. Latest is 8:30. Always make sure you start on time (bar time) and never take a long break! Minimum 45 minutes playing time with maximum 15 minute break! But, I prefer to go all night with non-stop music! One band takes a break while the other gets up and starts playing right away. We’ve done few shows that were 60+ songs in a night! When the crowd is hopping and it’s possible at the venue I like to make sure a band is playing past 1:00.

The most important thing is to have a good PA and a really good sound guy running it. It’s definitely worth the expense! The show is only as good as the sound coming out to the audience. If it’s not good you might as well pack it up and go home!

If possible make the show free or extremely cheap for your audience! People have a hard time with wanting to pay cover and there are a lot of people who hate paying cover but will spend a lot on drinks.

Advertise, advertise, advertise! Advertise on desmoinesregister.com, stars4iowa.com, facebook.com, myspace.com, e-mail your friends, etc! Make fliers and post them everywhere! Advertise early and often to get the word out!




Sudstock 17. What's the Story behind Sudstock?

Sudstock is a music festival and bike rally at Sudsuckers September 26th. It will have Seven Hells, Kerosene, Siktiket, Havick, and Side Effect rocking you from 6pm until 1am! There will be food, raffles, prizes, and more! There will be a raffle on a guitar signed by the bands! We will also be celebrating Jodie Gress, Sheri Morrison, Jason Spurlin, Brian Lincoln, and Curtis Schwartz birthdays!

Carla and Charlie have wanted to do a bike event at Sudsuckers for a while now. Hawgstock moved quite a bit away from supporting many of the local bands this year which helped fuel making it a reality. Chris Watrous from Seven Hells came up with the name. Charlie and Carla have been the main event planners along with some help from the bands participating in the event. It is sure to be an awesome time and the beginning of a fun yearly bike event!


18. Which "famous band" should call it quits - and who should have a reunion?


I never really gave this much thought. I give credit to any band that’s out there expressing themselves. No matter what there’s always somebody out there that enjoys it. There are a lot of bands from the 80’s that should have a reunion. Quite a few were one hit wonders and got lost forever.
19. What are your interests besides Music?

So many hobbies and so little time!

I was heavily into studying and teaching Tae-Kwon-Do from ages 10-24. I earned my 2nd degree black belt at 14 years old. I’d like to get back into it if I ever find the time.

I like to go fast! My dad got me into drag racing at 15 years old. I built and drag raced a ’80 Olds Cutlass (low 14’s), ’79 Hurst/Olds (12.5’s), ’87 Buick Grand National (11.40’s), ’86 Buick T-Type WH1 (low 11’s/high 10’s), and ’04 Dodge SRT-4. I still have the Hurst/Olds, T-Type, and SRT-4. I haven’t had much time to get them out lately! Been too busy with band stuff!

I’m also into motorcycles. I have ’05 Ninja ZX-6R 636 that I ride when I get a chance. People like to make fun of me often for not riding a Harley but all I have to say is eat my dust! LOL! Actually it’s kind of nice riding something different than what most everybody else does these days. I remember the days when Harley’s were the rarity.

I’m pretty big into collecting wrist watches. I got into it when I was a little kid and have been collecting ever since. I’m sure a few have noticed that I wear a lot of different watches.

And of course I’m into computers. Started when I was 12 and ended up making a living with it. I’m also an Internet junky (shocker I know.)



Club Ninja ?

ninjas

Chad on his - Ninja ZX-6R 636


BuckCherry

BuckCherry
20. What is your favorite "Rock star moment", meeting hang-out story?

Actually it’s meeting Josh Todd with his backup band at the time perform at Hairy Mary’s. They didn’t come in a fancy bus or big touring rig. They played in front of a crowd of about 15 people. The show was awesome! Great performance! Few months later I hear Crazy Bitch on the radio and Buck Cherry is back together making it big again! If he thought the Bitch was Crazy well, I thought that was crazy!

21. Plans for Havicks Future?

Well, after having played 30+ multi-band shows in a row it might be cool to do a whole night of our own sometime! LOL! Multi-band shows are so much fun it’s like crack!

Definitely have plans on writing some of our own originals and someday release a CD.
Like for us to get into playing some larger events and play a little more often out of town.

Otherwise, we’ll continue working on making our shows better and better for our fans. It’s quite the challenge when our friends are smoking hot established bands and we are the “newbie little guys” on the block!

22. What did we forget to ask? Who would you like to thank?

We’d like to thank…

Jodie Gress for always being there supporting my dream through all the countless hours I’ve worked on music, been away practicing with the band, busy performing on stage, or being a social butterfly at shows! You definitely are a rare one to have!

Gene Scott for always being there for us! If it wasn’t for you Havick wouldn’t be possible!

Charlie, Carla, and all the crew from Sudsuckers! You have been so awesome to us since the beginning! It’s our favorite place to party on and off the stage! Great bar, great friends, great bands, great times!

Barry, Chris, and the crew from The Reverse Bar in Perry! You also made us feel like home when we played there! Some of our best shows and best times were there! I wish it was still open!

Trent from Professional Music Center! Pretty much every last nut and bolt of my music gear was bought from Trent! It is by far the best music shop in Des Moines! Feels like family when you walk in there! Shane, Jenny, Kevin, and Marty all have been amazing to us too! If you need music gear this is the place!

Pat and Lewis from stars4iowa for all of the hard work you do to keep everybody informed on the music scene! Don’t know what we would do without you!

Bob Pace and Ross Vander Werf for helping me out learning the bass!
You were a tremendous help to me!

Big thanks to Skully Sound, Doug Potter, and Shane Bain for the kick ass job on our live sound! There’s nothing more important than having a good PA and a great sound guy running it! It doesn’t matter how great your band is if you can’t be heard and these guys make sure you are heard!


ChadJodie





We’d like to thank Gimikk, Seven Hells, Standing Damaged, Rearview, Kerosene, Siktiket, Straight Jacket Coma, Extinguisher, and Shatter for doing all of the shows with us! Thanks to all our friends, fans, and venues that support us! If it wasn’t for you Havick wouldn’t be where it is today!

And thanks to everybody else I may have missed by accident!!

Party on!