PHOTOS OF STOCKHOLM SYNDROME BY KURT SWANSON
PHOTOS OF DAVE SCHOOLS
PHOTOS OF JERRY JOSEPH
PHOTOS OF ERIC McFADDEN
E-MAIL: kurtswanson@juno.com
When Widespread Panic bass player Dave Schools and acclaimed writer-artist Jerry Joseph of the Jackmormons decided to do something together, each initially figured a joint project would be a cool change of pace. Schools was currently touring with Panic, but was eager to sink his teeth into something a bit meatier. Joseph, meanwhile, decided it couldn't hurt to air out his career-long predilection for what he wryly describes as "religious-sex-junkie-heartbreak songs" in a collaborative scenario with an upbeat guy.
They came up with a wish list of players one or both of them had worked with in the past. At the top were three names: Eric McFadden (a versatile San Francisco-based guitarist whose extensive resume includes work with Keb Mo', Primus' Les Claypool and George Clinton's P-Funk All Stars), Danny Dziuk (a keyboard player from Berlin who collaborated with Joseph on a German release) and drummer Wally Ingram (an L.A.-based drummer who has worked with Jackson Browne, Sheryl Crow and Tracy Chapman, among others, spending the last few years with the brilliant multi-instrumentalist David Lindley). All three musicians eagerly threw down for the project.
While Stockholm Syndrome readies to serve its potent brew of provocative songs and thrilling, genre-transcending musicianship to American audiences with their new release Holy Happy Hour, Schools is already contemplating the future. "We'll take it as far as it wants to go. I think that everyone is really enjoying playing together. Some of the guys may have been looking at it as a recording session until we got together and realized that this was really special. Then it ceased to be a recording project and became a band."
The band's unusual choice for a name, Stockholm Syndrome, refers to the psychological phenomenon in which a hostage bonds with his kidnappers. It seemed an apt moniker for the pair's somewhat twisted view of their new endeavor. ~ stockholmsyndromeband.com