Embedded Files
CLICK HERE FOR STEVE'S EDUCATION CAREER WEBSITE
"Imagine yourself slipping on ice, the sensation and realization of another space and time….
this is where the drummer lives….
A great band with a good drummer may be a good band.
A good band with a great drummer is a great band….
The drummer is the spirit and soul of any band who helps make the music and the listener feel good…….Not as an 'artist' but a muse opening doorways."
-Steve Missal Sr.
INTRODUCTION
“You have had a seemingly very interesting life….you should write a book.”- Friends & Family (HOW ABOUT A WEBSITE?!) Something happens as you approach the age of "OLD." One begins to realize that there is a finite amount of time. Certainly there is less coming than has been. Autobiographies invariably are embedded in questions such as: What motivated you to seek a career in the music industry? How did things work out?
This website is not just for a collection of events and personal record, but to serve as a window into life passages for anyone interested in the arts, particularly music. Most careers are highlighted by a shooting star moment that designates a point of reference and provides a lasting imprint of one's major accomplishment or notoriety. As a lucky muse for music, my legacy is my family. This was made possible by a chance meeting with the best Jersey Girl ever. I also don’t believe in the designation “artist.” That being said I apologize for anyone not given total credit or recognition for the contributions to a really great Rockin’ catalog culled from a “seemingly interesting life.”
Really now..... Other than my immediate family, who would be interested in the recordings and the accompanying stories of a musician-educator from the south side of Chicago? Yikes, yet another self-indulgent piece of trivia that will find its way to the vast wastebasket of the web? Or looking on the bright side, could it be a story of lessons and grace and realizations that might at its worst be entertaining, reconnecting many of the people involved in the catalog and at its best possibly providing insights for aspiring musician educators?
These questions came to me as I was developing a catalog of my experience as a journeyman-musician-producer-writer-educator. It became obvious that the real story of the recordings was through the connections of the people I had the pleasure and displeasure of working with and working for. Notes developed for each of the sessions and bands took a life on their own that had as much to offer as the recordings themselves. And to be honest a lot is out there on the web regarding my work and I wanted to set the record straight on misconceptions and misgivings that surface on the Internet.
I suspect the project might also might be a right of passage, in that as a Boomer in my 70's, I feel compelled to leave a history of my work in both music and education. I have taught history and education courses for 25 years in both K-12 and post secondary settings. The challenge of this project is really trying to figure out a viable platform for presentation. Hundreds of musicians and vocalists and writers and producers who were part of the catalog might be interested in downloading some of the songs that we worked on together as well as adding or commenting on their perspective of events. So the problem is what would be the best platform to provide the recordings and images that people are interested in downloading?
That is how this site was conceived and continues to develop. Rock on!!
PHOTOS:
TOP-SELFIE 2018
STICK ENDORSEMENTS
SONOR AD PHOTO SESSION
SESSION NYC 1979
HEAD SHOT 1983
STEVE MISSAL SELECT PUBLICATIONS BIOGRAPHIES/INTERVIEWS
As a singing drummer with stage and recording experience, Steve became an in-demand pioneer on the city circuit. He developed a local Chicago band, the Tellstars, that became a midwest touring staple. After graduating from the University of Illinois, Steve hit the road with a number of touring bands, gettng a glimpse of where the power in music was based....NYC or LA. NYC, as music mecca for a midwest kid, provided Steve with his first taste of national success. Leber-Krebs Mgt. signed Steve on as a touring and session artist. Steve toured and recorded with the top names in rock and countless bands and recording sessions and TV appearances, later signing to Bill Aucoin Mgt.
Steve's performing career began in Chicago, Ill. Performing at the Saint Peter and Paul grammar school stage productions brought the attention of Loretta Rozak, an internationally acclaimed ballet instructor. She sponsored Steve for many years including performances with the Bolshoi Ballet at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago. As an altar boy, Steve began singing in the choir and received professional training from local Chicago pop and church performers. The 60s came to South Chicago in the form of civil unrest, and a pop musical explosion ..and a way out of the steel mill mentality. Steves brother Bill gave Steve his first drum kit. All the dance and stage moves were morphed into a unique style of rhythm and visual excitement. Rhythm and blues, pop, rock, jazz, soul and hymns formed the basis of a style Steve developed through the lens of another Chicago south side icon, Gene Krupa.
Steve studied with and became a protege of Bernard Purdie (for feel) Jim Chapin (for charts and the Moeller Method) and Stanley Spector (for theory). Steve has endorsed and sponsored a number of products including Sonor Drums, Meinl Cymbals, Roc N Soc Hardware, Regal Sticks, Vic Firth Sticks and various recording materials. The MD ads were frequent in the 80s as Steve toured extensively as a clinician. The ad below is autographed by two of Steves colleagues on tour, Sam Ulano and Tito Puente. Steve and Karen in the Rhythm Team 1986 Maintaining a NYC lifestyle and the need for a personal performing - rehearsal - storage space led Steve to establish a mainstay on the NYC studio scene. He opened Shelter Recording Studios in 1982 and developed a special relationship with the music scene in NYC. Artist affiliation included KISS, Madonna, Billy Idol, and countless aspiring musician, writers and producers, dancers and photographers (Chip Simons).
The studio offered the opportunity for musicians to connect with musicians, support their efforts through a performing club opened in 1988, and as a product development site for Steves projects, which led to the launching of MISSILE records in 1992. Artist on the label included a unique 12 piece rock orchestra, the Rhythm Team, featuring 3 drummers , one of the first rock-rappers, Cold Rock, and a punk girl ensemble, the Mystery Girls. Steve joined Billy Idol in 1982 and recorded some of the most influential drum tracks of the 80s on the Billy Idol album, which went gold. Steves classic tom fill on White Wedding and Bernard Purdies influenced R&B rock grooves could be heard on numerous rock tracks throughout the era. After many years on the rock circuit, Steve was drawn to the roots folk scene and began a 11 year stint with a number of artists, including the Green-Linnet Record label. As a member of the Kips Bay Ceili Band, Steve toured the US and abroad performing at numerous international festivals. The band has been credited as a pioneer in the development of cross-cultural music. World renowned bassist, Richard Lindsey from California partnered with Steve in a rhythm section that transformed Irish-roots-folk music.
Steve married in 1988 and started a family that now consists of 5 daughters and a son. Moving to New Jersey, Shelter was relocated to Westfield and Steve began free-lance film, touring and recording projects. (see the film Fast Food.) In the interim, Steve began a relationship with education that continues today. He fused his passion for music with his newly acquired passion for teaching and learning. The result is American Stories Through Song, and as a renowned educator. American Stories Through Song is a featured presenter for the American Institute for History Education Institutes. Steve continues to write, produce and perform. A recent session for Jennifer Cutting produced a grammy award winning production Ocean Songs for the Night Journey.
INTERVIEW FROM MODERN DRUMMER MAGAZINE 1995
By Robert Santelli: Bob Santelli is a world renowned music journalist. He is the co-author of The Big Beat a best selling book containing interviews with past and current famous drummers. Mr. Santelli has served as Educational Director at the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland Ohio, director of the grammy awards museum and most recently curator of the Bruce Springsteen Collections
MODERN DRUMMER INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW BEGINS ON PAGE 106
Steve Missal is living proof that you do not have to be Irish to play in an Irish band. But the Kips Bay Band, for whom Missal keeps the beat and sings, is no ordinary Irish band. The New York-based quintet blends traditional and contemporary strains of Celtic music with rock,rap,and funk. Its the kind of band that might have Missal knocking out a soul groove behind his kit one moment and using brushes on a plastic garbage pail the next.In fact,Missals middle name could be versatility. Before falling in with the Kips Bay Band,he helped create the hard rock sound behind Billy Idol,playing on Idols signature song, White Wedding, as well as other songs on his self-titled album. Missal also worked with Ted Nugent and led his own band,the Rhythm Team,which featured not just him,but two other drummers,a horn section and an all-girl vocal section.Missal has also logged plenty of time in recording studios;for twelve years he owned and operated out of Shelter Studios in New York before setting up shop in New Jersey and producing local and regional bands. Though Missal is no longer in the studio business,he still does jingles,scores films,develops educational material for teaching history through music, and can be seen in ads and clinics for Sonor drums,Meinl cymbals,and Regal-tip sticks.
Ive always tried to expand my possibilities within music,says the forty-three-year-old Missal. But Im always a drummer first. Ive been playing a long time,and Im as passionate about playing today as the day I started.
RS:How did you go from playing hard rock with people like Billy Idol and Ted Nugent to playing Irish music?
SM:Believe me,I never thought Id see myself playing in an Irish based band. Im from German and American Indian ancestory. A band was renting my studio in NY and asked me to sit in. The time signatures were different,the melodies unique,and the players were excellent. As a player,you should work with musicians who you can learn from and expand your style base.
RS:Describe the music of the Kips Bay Band.
SM:Well,when you say that you play Irish music,people think of Van Morrison,U2,The Cranberries,but our music is not like theirs in that we take the traditional ideas and melodies and give them a world beat sense and flavor.Were a tradtional-based Irish-American roots band.
RS:Was it difficult to make the transition from hard rock to Celtic music?
SM:My exposure to Irish music came initially from the NYC Saint Pattys Day Parade. I would record the regimental drummers and incorporated their style into my performances. I really couldnt tell the difference between a jig,a reel or a hornpipe. Subsequently myself and bassist Richard Lindsey,working as a rhythm section, have broken new ground for Celtic rhythm styles and approaches. I have come to appreciate and understand the connection between American country music and Irish music. It is based on the traditional rhythms and melodies brought over by the immigrants and mixed in with African-American influences as well.
RS:Do you come from a country music background?
SM:No. Buddy Rich was asked by a nurse before taking a shot if there was anything he was allergic to and Buddy replied Ya,country and western music! But seriously, I grew up in South Chicago. In my neighborhood you either listened to the Beatles or James Brown, Psychadelic or Motown. I leaned towards R&B.
RS:What drummers did you listen to while growing up?
SM:When people hear that you come from Chicago,they usually think that you grew up with the blues drummers. I was influenced through osmosis but I was really into any style on the radio that caught my liking. I became influenced by John Bonham,Keith Moon,Louise Bellson,Gene Krupa,Dino Danelli and countless others. I admired the dance band drummers of the big-band era and I was literally a ballet and tap dancer.
RS:How did you get involved in dancing?
SM:The Loretta Rozak school of dance was located across the street from me and I saw all the nice girls attending. So at age thirteen I started my dancing career. I started with tap and then ballet. I actually performed with the Bolshoi Ballet troupe from Russia.
RS:Why didnt you continue dancing? It seems as if you had a lot of potential.
SM:My brother picked up a set of black and gold Slingerland drums and when I sat down that was it! All the things I learned as a dancer-the syncopation,hand movements,body expression-naturally carried over to the drums. The music at that time-in 66 and 67 was really great and I wanted to play in a band more than anything else.
RS:It seems that you have been a real journeyman style drummer.
SM:I studied with Bernard Purdie who introduced me to a lot of work. I became a real figure on the NY scene which led to a gig with Idol. Ive been lucky to work with so many great people but I always believe that the drummer should be the leader of the band.
RS:When did you start singing?
SM:When I realized that if you were able to sing,it was another way of surviving in the music business. I also began composing. These are tools that make any drummer more marketable. The more things you can do,the better your chances are of landing a good gig,because you can more easily go beyond what the traditional role of the drummer used to be.What Id like to see happen is the drummer be the main guy up there on the stage. After all,the drummer is the spirit,the focal point and the heart of any band. You get respect from being a true professional,
Gaining confidence and always trying to improve by actively working and honest risk taking.
RS:Tell me about your drum style.
SM:What Im interested in is a signature sound,feel and look. Style should be any drummers main objective.
Someone hearing me for the first time should get the impression of cleanliness of technique. I also hit with a vengeance,and most important,I have fun! I hammer down as the Nuge would say. Visual presentation is crucial.
RS:Where do you get your composing inspiration from?
SM:From anywhere and everywhere-influences,ideas,tours,
Situations. Writing is an important creative outlet for me. The real money in this business comes through publishing.
RS:By singing,writing ,producing and playing drums,you cover the musical gamut. Are there any other creative drives that you need to fulfill?
SM:Just to be he best drummer-singer that I can be. Thats what matters most to me. The energy of playing the drums cant be topped. I am a drummer above all else.
INTERVIEW FROM NEW JERSEY'S STAR-LEDGER NEWSPAPER
The Star-Ledger Thursday ,January 9,1997 Today Section By Jay Lustig STAR-LEDGER STAFF
Schoolteacher Steve Missal is stamping his feet in front of his fifth grade class at the Louise A. Spencer School in Newark But he's not mad. He's teaching his pupils about patterns. He pounds the floor once, then twice; then once, then twice; then once, then twice. Why is that a pattern?" he asks, and hands shoot up all over the room. "Because it repeats," calls out one pupil. You can take the drummer out from behind his kit, but he'll still think in terms of rhythm.
With his shaggy hair, rumpled shirt and loosened tie, Missal looks like an overgrown teddy bear, but he's really a rock 'n roll animal who has been in scores of bands and backed artists like Billy Idol and Ted Nugent. He currently plays drums, writes songs and sings for the Irish-rock band Kips Bay, and recently released a solo album, "American Connection," on his own label. His claims to fame include playing at Madison Square (with Nugent) in l976 and performing on Ido1s 1983, "White Wedding." But his pupils, who weren't even born when "Write Wedding' was all over radio and MTV, arent exactly in awe of him.
They couldnt care less, confides Missal, sitting at his after schools out. Gold albums dont matter. They are impressed with fairness and you caring about them. And other things as well, according to the schools principal, Joseph K. Brown Jr. Children respond well to Missal, he says, because they like the creativity he brings to the classroom, and the way he combines his good sense of music and his great sense of humor with instruction. Missal, who's 45 and lives in Scotch Plains with his wife and four young daughters, has been working as an elementary school teacher -teaching reading, writing and arithmetic, with an occasional touch of rhythm -- since 1992.
He's a product of New Jersey's Alternate Route System, which helps adults change careers and become teachers. His new profession allows him to support his family and still play music at nights, on weekends and during the summer. Missal says he could still support himself as a musician and a recording-studio owner (for most of the 1980s, he ran Shelter Studios in New York), but teaching offered the opportunity to spend more time with his family and earn a steady income -something he didn't know much about as a journeyman drummer. He was only with Nugent for six months. And Idol employed him for only 2 years. Most of the bands he played with between 1972 (when he left his hometown of Chicago for New York) and 1992 had far less success. There was the Stu Daye Band, which opened a tour for Aerosmith but never went very far on its own. And Revolver, which had a record deal with Epic, but misfired. And Zipperfoot, and the Allies, and the R Band, and Ronnie & the Jitters. And plenty of others. "'My thought now is, where are all those guys -- the bass players, the keyboard players, the singers?" says Missal. "I know where I am. I'm teaching in Newark. And if they see this article, it's going to freak them OUt."
Unlike most of the musicians he's worked with, he hasn't hung up his rock shoes. He just keeps them in the closet most of the time. He describes Kips Bay, originally know as the Kips Bay Ceili Band, as "an American roots band with an Irish accent." The group's signed to the Green Linnet record label and performs frequently. Its busy times are March, when club owners like to present St. Patrick's Day shows on or around the holiday, and the summer, when it can play at outdoor fests. The band's first shows, about six years ago, were in Irish bars in the Bronx, places "where you have to play the traditional jigs and reels, but they want Eric Clapton thrown in," says Missal. As opposed to some Irish-rock groups, which use traditional Irish percussion instruments, Kips Bay uses a full rock drum set. "I'm a rocker," Missal says. "I play loud and heavy, and I hammer down. I have fun. I'm not a subtle guy when it comes to drums." He is more than just a basher, though, writing some of the band's material, and singing in a style that borders on blue-eyed soul.
Steve Addabbo, who produced Kips Bays latest album, Into the Light, as well as work on American Connection, says Missal can do it all, and do it really well. Hes almost a kid in a candy store when it comes to music. He can sing great, he can play great, he can write songs. And his energy is incredible: He just throws himself into everything. Addabbo, who has co-produced albums for Suzanne Vega and Shawn Colvin, remembers when Missal had six drummers in his late 80s band, the Rhythm Team. I told him, Youre crazy. But he didnt care. He said, This is what I want to do. Thats the kind of person he is. Indeed, Missal sounds strikingly confident as he talks about balancing a full-time teaching career with his musical endeavors: I can do both. Next year Ill be all over the world again, but I can work it out. Its doable. Ive always done whatever it took to be a musician. To me, this job is supporting my music. He says it helps that principal Brown is supportive, and Brown in turn says Missal's extracurricular activities don't hurt his ability to teach. Though there are weekend and occasional weeknight shows, "every time he goes on tour, school's not in session," Brown says. "It really isn't a bad mix between the two." And there's even an extra bonus for Missal, the musician. "These kids are really in touch with whatever the latest beats are," he says. "Before New York or Los Angeles even knows what's happening, I'm here listening to it. I've seen it happen."
Franklin's Steve Missal is now marching to a different beat
BY AVA GACSER • STAFF WRITER • JULY 31, 2008
On the surface, one might assume the Franklin father of six to be a mild-mannered educator. And that would be correct. But do a little digging and one quickly uncovers a completely contrary existence as a drummer for one of the biggest names of '80s rock 'n' roll: Billy Idol. And to think it all started so simply enough. "There's this guy from England and he needs a band" is how Missal, 57, recalls first hearing about the job with Idol. It was 1983. Idol — the spiky-haired, bleached-blond punk rocker whose sneer became a symbol of the MTV generation — was working on the follow-up to his "Don't Stop" EP and needed a guitarist, bassist and drummer to join him in the studio. That's where Missal came in. Already an experienced drummer who had toured with Aerosmith and Ted Nugent, Missal — a Chicago native — took the gig. The album was "Billy Idol," and it featured three songs which subsequently became huge hits for the British singer: "Hot in the City," "Dancing With Myself" and "White Wedding."
"It is really considered a groundbreaking album," Missal says. And he should know: A copy certifying it gold hangs in his living room — and more than 25 years later, he's still receiving royalty checks on it. Conversing with Missal involves discussing his current passion, education, and his longtime love, music, and includes tidbits about a time in the early '80s in which he owned a recording studio and shuffled Idol — and a certain aspiring singer/dancer — around New York City in his Dodge Colt.
"I used to drive Billy and Madonna home to (Greenwich) Village" from the recording studio, Missal recalls. "Madonna was in the middle and Billy was on the right. (Guitarist) Steve Stevens and (bassist) Phil Feit were squeezed in the back with all the equipment."
Or this recollection on how "White Wedding" came about: "Billy used to watch spaghetti westerns, (the music of) which always had that twangy riff . . . He heard this riff and came to the studio and played it." "We knew it was a hit instantly." Missal has fond recollections of his time with Idol, whom he says was a huge fan of the late Doors singer Jim Morrison and was ecstatic when his band was booked at one of the singer's favorite haunts, the Whisky A Go-Go in Los Angeles. "(Idol) always had a bottle of tequila and a guitar with Elvis stickers on it," he says. "Billy's a true rocker."
A New Calling
Trying to reconcile Missal's former life with his present one is practically an exercise in futility. After all, how many former rock musicians can you think of who are now content working at a school every day and staying home with their family? But that's not to say that music has been entirely stripped from his life. Shortly after he began teaching, Missal started up American Stories Through Song, a multimedia musical performance group or, as he describes it, " "Schoolhouse Rock' on steroids. "It's a collaborative effort between Missal and fellow musicians and educators. They compose songs (often online) about historical subjects — such as the Underground Railroad and the Battle of New Orleans — and bring them to teachers and pupils across the state. The idea stems from his belief that children respond more positively to learning through music.
"Music is a window into time periods in history," he says. "It's a way to get kids to connect to core content, to make it interesting to them." It's also a way to inspire teachers.
"We perform for history teachers to show them how to use music to teach history," he explains, adding that the group will perform at Central New Jersey high schools this month.
Missal fell into teaching after he and his wife Karen moved to Scotch Plains and started a family. A self-described history buff with a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Illinois, he began substitute teaching to support his family.
"(I thought) "This is OK,' " he recalls. "And before I turned around, I had five years in the (teaching) business."
After many years in Newark, Missal moved on to the Plainfield School District, where he was an educational specialist. His tenure there ended in June. He currently serves as an adjunct professor of education at Saint Peter's College in Jersey City.
While Missal acknowledges that there are certain things about the rock 'n' roll lifestyle that he misses — the magnetism, the notoriety, the applause - it's home and hearth that have a lasting hold on him.
"Family life and finding a niche are much more satisfying than being in a band," he says. The rock 'n' roll lifestyle was "certainly not for me. If it was, I'd still be doing it."
Missal's children have inherited his passion for music and the arts. His youngest, 7-year-old Steve Jr., is an adept guitarist and drummer who plays weekly at the West End Coffee Bar in New Brunswick. Rebecca, 12, and Kelly, 14, are active in Villagers Theatre in Franklin. Donna, 17, takes part in Bucks County (Pa.) Playhouse summer stock. Linda, 19, is a member of the Rutgers University a cappella group Deep Treble. And later this month, 9-year-old Catherine debuts on Broadway in the new musical "A Tale of Two Cities."
"We're like "The Partridge Family' of Franklin," jokes Missal.
Yet reminders of his former life pop up every time Idol goes on tour.
"I still get e-mails from all over the world," he says. Those e-mails should be picking up once again, since Idol has several concerts scheduled in the tri-state area this month — including Asbury Park's Stone Pony on Wednesday, Aug. 27.
And, lest anyone forgets about Missal's rock 'n' roll past, they need only catch a glimpse of the drum kit, which stands front and center, in his basement.
Watch Missal slide behind his drums — into the "spiritual seat," as he calls it — and it's obvious that his passion for music has not subsided in the least.
"Let me know when you've had enough," he says, pounding out a rocking beat.
Playing drums is "the opportunity to become a muse for an energy connection that very few people ever get to experience," Missal says. "It leads to real, real satisfaction."
Ava Gacser:
(732) 565-7276
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