The Larry Schemel Interview
When and where were you born? What was your childhood like growing up with your sister? When did you first begin to fall in love with music? Were these things that were relevant growing up in your guy's household?
I was born in Everett, WA. on April 8, 1968. Our childhood was a pretty special time, it was the 70’s, we grew up in the suburbs of Seattle in a little podunk town called Marysville. Our family spent a lot of time camping on weekends, fishing etc… A very Northwest upbringing, we didn’t have a lot of money but our parents were creative and loved being outdoors which was great for us kids. We were free to roam without much supervision, different times! My first memories of music were discovering a few records in our parents record collection, they had mostly folk music & Herb Alpert Lp’s but amongst those records were The Beatles “Revolver”, “Rubber Soul“ and The Monkee's second album. I listened to those constantly around the age of 7. Our parents didn’t play music or have many records, they were creative in other ways (photography and art), but something about hearing those records and listening to the radio on camping trips really struck us kids and we gravitated towards music early on.
What would you and your friends do for fun growing up? Who were some of your earliest influences in your more formative years? When and where did you see your very first concert? When did you realize you wanted to spend your life pursuing music?
When we were kids we got into a lot of mischief and trouble, petty vandalism, etc. but nothing too serious, being free to roam without supervision was fun but we were exposed to smoking pot and drinking at an early age because of our older sister & the older teenagers in our neighborhood, smoking joints and listening to Cheech and Chong records was a right of passage by age 12. My earliest influences as far as music & art were discovering KISS, Alice Cooper and my love for Horror movies paralleled my obsession with these bands. Reading Creem magazine and Famous Monsters magazine was my education in the worlds of Rock n’ Roll & Horror movies. My first concert was KISS in 1979 at the Seattle Center Coliseum, the opening band was a band from Detroit called The Rockets. I was 11 years old, our parents took me and my sister. I remember the smoke clouds of pot wafting over the crowd, people tossing frisbees & a few firecrackers being tossed around by tough looking delinquent kids, it was a bit scary & exciting at all once! A few months later I saw Van Halen and my mind was blown once again, I needed to go to as many concerts as I could. When I was a teenager I got my first guitar and that was when I realized I wanted to pursue music, never thinking of it as a career, I just wanted to play in bands, play some shows, maybe release a single. No plan whatsoever, pretty much how I’ve lived my life, no plans just do what I wanna do & not worry about the results, which is both good and bad!
When and where did you play your very first gig and what was that experience like for you? Tell me about the scene during the 90s. You were there and participated in one of the most important if not the most important moments in history.
My first real gig at a club besides house parties was in Seattle in 1990 at a venue that doesn’t exist anymore in the Capital Hill neighborhood called the 1501 Club. My band Sybil played with Mecca Normal and DC Beggars. Our friend Craig Montgomery who was Nirvana’s sound guy did our sound. A bit nerve wracking because our other Seattle scene friends like Mudhoney were there. We got “signed” to a small punk label called eMpTy Records because the label owner Blake who was there liked our cover of The Vibrators “Baby, Baby, Baby”, a fun night from what I remember. The Seattle scene in the early 90’s was pretty chaotic, It was strange after Nirvana blew up in 91’, all eyes were on Seattle, the scene kind of shifted to lots of smaller bands because all the bigger bands in town were constantly on tour. Seeing Nirvana on SNL and the cover of Rolling Stone was very surreal. So many new bands moved here, shows every single night. There was also a dark cloud hanging over the scene because the drugs had really taken a hold on the community, myself included in getting pulled into that darkness. Most of my good memories of that time were in the Seattle scene of the 80’s.
What are some of your most fondest memories during those early days of seeing bands like Nirvana? Jumping ahead, how did you initially meet your bandmates and what clicked between everyone both musically and personally with Death Valley Girls?
So many great memories from the 80’s era, the punk scene was very small but we had some amazing bands- The U-Men, Green River, 10 Minute Warning, Fastbacks, Accused, Rejectors etc… The first time I saw Nirvana was March of 88’ at Community World Theater in Tacoma, it was Nirvana’s first show using the name Nirvana, they had Aaron Bouchard on drums. I remember the set vividly, so heavy. They didn’t move much, but didn’t need to, the songs were all there and the intensity. There’s a bootleg of the show I listened to on YouTube that confirmed my memory. Some of my favorite gigs in Seattle were when cool touring bands came through and our locals opened the show, DOA, Wipers, Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, Big Black, Sonic Youth, an insane free Eisturzende Neubauten show on the Seattle waterfront in 86’ was one where everyone in the scene was there and could all agree it was one the best gigs ever. Death Valley Girls was formed when my sister Patty brought her daughter to school and met another mom, they began talking about music and realized they both had siblings looking to form a band. They put me and Bonnie in contact and that was the beginning! Patty played drums at the beginning and Bonnie’s friend Rocky played bass. The chemistry was there from the very first practice, we all had similar tastes in music and goals in what we wanted to do. It’s been an amazing adventure so far, meeting and working with Iggy, touring and playing in Roky Erickson’s band, touring Europe, meeting so many cool folks. Signing to Suicide Squeeze Records. We still love doing this.
You guys have recorded some incredible records in the last ten years. Would you mind telling me about writing and recording albums such as Glow In The Dark, Darkness Rains and most recently Islands In The Sky? You guys are currently touring with W.I.T.C.H, what has that been like?
Writing and recording our records has been fun but also stressful as well, the creative process in the band is sometimes easy & sometimes tough to get songs finished to the point where everyone is happy with the final song and recording, before recording we usually share ideas in the practice space and Bonnie will have sketches of song’s & lyrics to work with. The reward is so fulfilling when we finish a full record. We’ve recorded all our records at Station House Studios in Echo Park with Mark Rains who produces and mixes everything, he’s amazing! The art & packaging is also a band collaboration, I’ve done a few of our album covers & Bonnie has done lyric sheets & posters. The new album “Islands In The Sky” was the first where we used another artist’s work Gilbert Williams whose painting from the 80’s is the album cover. Touring with W.I.T.C.H. and Abraxas has been amazing. Seeing them every night has been great, Jaggari the leader is a super positive and electric personality to be around and he has so much fun every night, it’s infectious.
Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?
Thanks so much for the interview and letting me ramble about old Seattle days!
