interview w/Swifton Vito 5.30.07

BP: My good friend Swifton, how have you been?

SV: Randy, I've been great! It's a good life my friend. Some trials and tribulations

but that's what makes us all strong!

 

BP: Well said....Ok let's get right to it......your musical career spans many,

many years. Tell us about your childhood, and what "pointed" you in a

musical direction.

SV: Well, my mom was a music teacher and she still plays piano and

directs choir at church even to this day. She was a big influence. I started 

singing in church choir back when I was probably what....4 years old

maybe? I don't know but I really enjoyed it. I played in band in school and took piano lessons for 8 years in there somewhere and played trombone before finally settling on the drums at about the age of 15.

 

BP: Who were some of your influences growing up?

SV: Oh man....there was Deep Purple, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin, UK, Kiss, Aerosmith, Starz, Uriah Heep, Styx, Doobie Brothers, Allman Brothers, CCR, Charlie Daniels, Chicago, Bread, The Grass Roots, The Isely Brothers, Funkadelic, Van Halen, Journey, Montrose, Black Sabbath, UFO, Budgie, Rush, Mahogany Rush, 38 Special, ZZ Top, Emerson, Lake, & Palmer, Ted Nugent, Jim Croce, Bad Company, and I'm sure there are others I'm overlooking off-the-cuff here...

 

BP: One of your earlier bands finished second to Sheryl Crow in a talent competition right?

SV: Yeah, that's what I was told by my mom. I really don't remember but it may be right. There was a talent show in Kennett, MO when I was just 15 and hadn't been playing long but my brother Aspen and Dwight Hickerson (he goes by Dallas now) had a group that was kind of like Emerson, Lake, & Palmer called "Destination" and we played originals kind of like them (ELP) with me on drums, Aspen on an organ /synthesizer, and Dallas on piano. We went to Collins Music the day of the show and rented an amp for either Aspen or Dallas because we thought we needed it to really "rock out." Well, we didn't know spit about setting an amp so we just turned every knob on "10" thinking that would work out great! Well, it probably sounded like crap ....who knows.....even so, we pulled in a second to some chick singer who I think was Sheryl. I really can't confirm that. If she went to the Cotton Carnival to compete that year then I guess it was her. I also remember some guitarist, somewhere in there, named Shawn Lane actually winning a Strings & Things contest / Rock 103 contest somewhere in that time. Man, what a time for music back then! He had had blonde hair back then and looked like he was Michael Schenker on stage from what I remember from the photo I saw back then. Of course, he went on at the age of 15 to rock out with Black Oak Arkansas. I still have a bootleg tape that Butch Stone's son, Dennis, let me borrow and I copied of him playing live with BOA back in the day! Want a copy? LOL!!!!

 

BP: I'd love a copy! Remind me to email you my address. Alright so you've played with numerous acts over your career........can you give us a rundown or tell us about some of the bands you've been involved with?

SV: How long is this interview! (laughs) Man, it's been a fun ride over the years. I told you about Destination. We then tried to organize one called "Legend" with Aspen, Dallas, and my good friends Tracy Tope and Butch Edwards that I ended up playing in a band or 2 with later on. The first bands after high school though were: Bad Habit, and Snap, Moon, & Co...........I went to college and one day ran into Clark "QT" Quertermous, singer for Strutter and also Rellik (a few years later). That ended up with me auditioning and getting to play with Strutter back in '80-81......After Strutter I moved on to Peach Creek for a while. I originally was working with Peach Creek before I joined Strutter....go figure. Their drummer had quit when we broke up so....go play and make some money! .....I got an offer from Spiderwolf to join their crew. At the time, they were playing more of the kind of tunes I wanted to play........We had a fun time playing all over for about a year, culminating to our last gig in Poplar Bluff where I stepped off a stage (transport trailer) after a New Year's gig and knocked a few teeth out, went to the emergency room and got some stitches.....I'll leave off the other details for now!! lol!

 

I had a band in Kansas City before Spiderwolf called Power Exponents that played some big parties and I played guitar and sang in it. Other bands such as The Mystery were bands that I loved even though we didn't do that many gigs but we rocked and I got to play with my cousin, guitarist extrodinaire, Kip Brockett and Ty Roxx, eventual members of the band Rellik! ..........Voyage came along when I was working at Moore Music in Sikeston and working part time also at KYMO radio. We did shows with Black Oak Arkansas and others and played at King Tut's in Cairo, Drive Inn Jam with Cobra (with members Jimi Jamison - Survivor, Mandy Myers - Krokus & Asia, Tommy Keiser - Krokus, Jeff Klaven - Krokus, Jack Holder - Black Oak Arkansas & accomplished producer for CBS and other major record labels even today), Medievil Steel..........After and during these gigs I played in a house band named High Cotton from 3 to 5 nites a week at the Showcase Lounge in Caruthersville, Missouri, the Delta Club in Osceola, AR, and eventually at the Cotton Club / 25 Club in Holcomb, Missouri. I'm guessing I put in nearly 9 years with them off & on doing house band-type gigs playing country and a lot of ZZ and Southern rock tunes to keep the cash flowing and pay bills........I also was in a band that played similar stuff with Tracy Tope and Butch Edwards called Triple Play that played for about a year in 1986 all over the area. Also worked on a project called Picasso that had a bunch of great tunes but broke up. I may record some of those tunes some day.

 

Eventually though I went down to Butch Stone's ranch (manager for Black Oak Arkansas, Stillwater, Krokus,

Hanover, many others) down in Arkansas. It was a cool 13 acre ranch with a creek running through the back

yard. I stayed up in the guest house and rehearsed with Frank Zirone, Dennis Stone, some other guitarist(s),

that I can't remember at the moment, and Joe Feeney. That was for the band Hanover who had a recording

deal with MCA Records at the time. Fun time! I left the day before that Roger Clinton was being released to

come down to the ranch and we were supposed to maybe put together a band to play behind him. Long story

.....maybe, just maybe I screwed up but......naaaaaaa!

 

I did end up doing a show with Hanover, after driving up with Dennis Stone, loaded down with drums and

amps and guitars, going through customs, in my beat-up Suburban, to Toronto to audition with them for a few

days and nites. It was a fun time getting to jam with Frank Zirone and George Bernhardt (Lee Aaron and many

others....do a google search on his name and Frank's). Hanover's big name to fame at the time was that they

had a song on the soundtrack "The Wild Life" starring one of the Penn brothers and it was a killer tune. While

we were rehearsing for our Dogpatch show in Harrison, Arkansas, the second album was released with the

single "Fits You Good" off the album "Hungry Eyes", a Bryan Adams remake that sounded really solid and I really thought would move up the charts with Frank's vocal. I really hated trying to reproduce that drum machine part though!! Pretty tricky!!! Not sure how far up the charts it moved.

 

My main project coming up though was in the way of Catch-22. I always wanted to release my own stuff and even though Strutter released a single that was played on KSHE-95, WLS and several local area stations, I never had really ever been a part of releasing anything significant that I had been a part of the recording......We recorded it at Cotton Row Studios in Memphis with Ronnie Kittel at the helm and it turned out pretty good on "our" (read borowed from Kentucky Finance) $2000 budget. We eventually released a couple thousand copies of the EP and it got some airplay on several area stations in Jonesboro, Springfield, Cape Girardeau, Mt. View, Mt. Home, Harrison, etc.... with a few even saying it was "a most requested song" for a few weeks.......After Catch-22.....on to Memphis and The Good Lovin' Blues Band, The Memphis Bad Boys and eventually, The Boogie Blues Band. I played with the Boogie Blues Band at the Rum Boogie Cafe on Beale St. from Feb. ' 94 through July '95 as the house band there Tuesday through Saturday. During that time I got to jam with Bo Diddley, Rufus Thomas, The Doobie Brothers, Jesse Dupree (of Jackyl), and many other blues artists that I can't recall the name of too. I also let Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Artimus Pyle (Lynyrd Skynyrd), drummers for BB King and Bobby Blue Bland, drummer Kenny Aronoff and scores of up-and-comings sit in on my kit. Got to meet Kevin Cronin (REO

Speedwagon), John Entwistle (The Who), Red Beard, Dusty Hill (ZZ Top), Travis Tritt, David Porter (Sam & Dave), Pablo Cruz Band, Knox Phillips, Sam Phillips, Paul Rogers, Kings X, Blue Oyster Cult, .38 Special, Starship, Danny Joe Brown and Molly Hatchett, Jim Dandy, Krokus, Saliva (Josie before he created the band), and just so many more that, unless I get out my list, I won't remember all of them just trying to bring up old brain cells!

 

After all of that I played with the New Memphis Mafia for a few years while back in college getting my accounting degree. Handgun Gordon, who now runs the Blues City Cafe on Beale, Bob Camp (notorious Cape Girardeau

mobster), and Barry Swain (Mississippi 6-string gun slinger) made up that fun / great group.......

 

BP: Holy crap that's alot of bands! You're truly the Dennis Rodman of music. You'll pimp your talent out to whoever needs it. Haha, that's great. Ok, so who was the most memorable band you were involved in, and why?

SV: See above..... they all had their special moments.

 

BP: Nice conservative answer, lol. So you've jammed with some pretty notable musicians over the years it sounds like....

SV: I think so. There is a lot of talent around if you know how to find it. Again, see "above" but a couple I failed to mention was Jerry Laseter, who wrote "Down On The Farm", and was an item with Tanya Tucker for a while, and Jon Moore, who's with 10-49 now but also played for a time with Violet Ashe and Voyage. He also kept me

employed for a while at Moore Music back in the early to mid '80's.

 

BP: Ok, let's talk about your new website, www.swiftonvito.com. Tell us about that?

SV: I Just wanted to get back in touch with my music side and it gives me a vehicle to stay in touch. I plan to just let it grow and see what happens with it. I hope to get some of my music, new and old, on there in the near future and maybe even hook up with some new musicians out there that, like me, want to record and see what we can create.

BP: You're also doing a promotional/management type service, called M.I.S.T. - can you tell us a little about that?

SV: I just wanted to put together something, not unlike other ideas out there, where musicians can meet up without having to pigeonhole themselves and/or sell their souls right off the bat to people they either barely know or have just met.

BP: And you're also doing some recording on the side right?

SV: Whenever I can find the time. Like the Steve Miller tune, it sometimes seems "to get tougher every day". Hopefully that will change this summer if I can find my groove and get my new room together.

BP: Alright, anything else you want to mention.......here's your freebie......

SV: I appreciate you taking the time to interview me Randy, and wish you and Banned Promotions much success! Oh, and check out my Burn lounge at www.burnlounge.com/svito. Everyone can get a free one there for themselves too....just follow the links.

BP: Thanks bro, I appreciate that. Ok, Swifton it was great talking to you! You're doing a great thing with the website. I know how it is - working so hard and getting little or no compensation in return, so it's very admirable what you're doing, and I wish you the best of luck too! Thanks for the great stories and thanks for the interview!

SV: No, thank you and Banned Promotions! God Speed.

-Randy Mallett, BANNEDPROMOTIONS.com

www.bannedpromotions.com/swiftonvitointerview

Visit Swifton online at www.swiftonvito.com & www.myspace.com/swiftonvito

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