While singer-songwriter Steve Plessinger has been writing music for years, his new band’s first EP was released in November and was celebrated with a show Dec. 4 in the Player’s Pub.
Plessinger said he originally wanted to record some of his original songs on his own and asked friend and musician Mike Stogdill if Plessinger record in Stogdill’s home studio about five years ago. After hearing the songs, Stogdill said he became interested in playing with Plessinger, and the band, Warm Bloods, began to take shape.
“The idea was to take the songs I’ve been playing acoustically and turning them into rock arrangements,” Plessinger said. “I have a lot of different influences and like those to come through in my music.”
The band released its self-titled EP for streaming on Bandcamp in June, and now physical copies of the CD are available at the band’s live shows and at Landlocked Records. Stogdill said the album took almost five years to make. He said he and Plessinger, despite having different musical influences and writing styles, worked well together on the material.
Although the Warm Bloods’ EP is a recent release, Plessinger said the band is already looking to the future. He said the group has five more songs it would like to record in February.
“We really just want to do kind of a marathon weekend recording session,” he said. “We want it to have a different feel, like a spirit-of-the-moment type thing and knock it all out in a weekend and put out an EP this spring.”
Plessinger said when it comes to songwriting, he sometimes uses a personal experience for the emotional core of the song and creates characters to express those feelings. He said some songs are more happy-go-lucky, while others deal with more painful emotions.
“I think it’s great when you write a happy song, but if you write a really good sad song it helps people connect with how they’re feeling. Ultimately, if nothing else, what we do with music — making money or doing shows — these are all great, but if you don’t have an emotional impact with your audience, to me it’s not good art. If people walk away from a show feeling something, that’s the real success. That’s the satisfying part.”
While Stogdill said the Warm Bloods are toying around with the idea of playing some of his original songs, Plessinger remains the main songwriter of the band. Stogdill said this is the first band he has been a part of for which he has not been the lead singer.
“It’s different, but it’s cool,” he said. “I really like it. I like being able to sit back and kind of check out the crowd and do my own thing and not worry about it. There’s a lot of stress that comes along with being the lead singer of a band, and I kind of enjoy not having that with this.”
Stogdill said although the album isn’t perfect, he is happy with it. He said it is difficult to find musicians like Plessinger who truly care about the music and are unwilling to sell out.
“Steve doesn’t write music because of what’s popular,” Stogdill said. “Steve writes music from his heart. It’s real, and I respect that, and because of that I think we have put something together that is timeless.”
