STUDIOTONE’s 25th Anniversary Holiday Reunion Performances

If one flashes back to the early turn of the millennium in the period of 1999-2000, one of the Mid-Michigan’s many golden ages of Rock Music where creativity and inspiration coalesced into places free from calculated manipulation, two bands from the Great Lakes Bay Region dancing on the verge of national acclaim and performing regularly at venues like The Hamilton St. Pub consisted of The Verve Pipe and another crowd-pleasing collective known as Studiotone.

In a profession not necessarily known for its linier fidelity, the arc of one’s career can experience its share of changes, with musicians coming and going in various directions, line-ups changing and evolving, and some bands surfacing to national acclaim and its  accompanying incarnations of fame in different configurations from where they started.

With a respectable list of alumni, Studiotone was a band that regardless of personnel changes, always managed to retain a signature sound while consistently evolving their approach in shaping that sound. For nearly a decade they managed to get themselves heard - a difficult proposition in today’s gargantuan social media universe where one can truly get lost in space or stuck between the grooves.

Finding their way to airtime on Midwestern radio stations with their debut release Digital Radio, the group also was featured on respectable compilation albums and recorded a motion picture soundtrack, battling its way to the top three contenders in Detroit’s biggest Battle of the Bands competition, eventually going on to perform with impressive national acts such as Sponge and many more too numerous to list.

And now - just in time for the holidays - Studiotone is reconvening and poised to return to Michigan for a pair of 25^th Anniversary Shows.  First they will be performing in Detroit on Friday, December 20^th  at the legendary Hamtramck venue Smalls Bar, 1039 Conant Street, along with Woolie and All Over the Shop for a $10 All Ages show. Doors will open at 7 PM with Studiotone performing at 10 PM.  The following night the group will perform in Grand Rapids at Turnstiles, 5526 Stocking Ave. NW for a 21 & up show at 9:45 PM, with doors opening at 8 PM.

In advance of these reunion shows, recently The REVIEW was fortunate to catch up with lead singer, songwriter, and founding member Brent Nuffer for a chat about what drives Studiotone and how he views its evolution over the years.

REVIEW: What prompted this reunion show?

Brent: Over the years we’ve done frequent holiday shows up until the pandemic, and the last couple of years we didn’t perform at all. But since 2007 we’ve done at least one show a year up until 2020. The first one we did was back in 2007 at the Hamilton St. Pub, and we hope to get back to Saginaw soon.

REVIEW: Is this reunion including all the original members?

Brent:  Original guitarist and vocalist Bryan Mauro and I pretty much form the core of the band, and I don’t think the group could exist without at least one of us. We also have Dana Boyette on bass & vocals, Jeff Graham on guitar, and Pete Schaller on guitar, who started the band with us and originates from Saginaw, along with our first drummer Greg Shoppe. We lost our original bass plyer Keith Witt a few years ago to a heart attack, and it’s also important to note Josh Woodland, who was a major contributor. He hasn’t been part of these holiday shows, but he made great contributions to the band.

REVIEW: Looking at the evolution of the band, back in the day you guys were really pushing your original songs a lot, which is hard for bands to find stage time to do nowadays, especially with all the Tribute bands out there.

Brent: We released Digital Radio in 1999 and Where You Left Off  in 2003 and then I left for Los Angeles in 2007. Up to that point we all had designs to do another record and were tossing around the idea of releasing a live one and also about going in a heavier direction with the band’s sound. We always avoided the trends, and wanted to explore using bigger guitars and developing a bit more aggressive sound, but I’m proud of those songs we were compiling for that third album.  However, as fate would have it, I made the decision to head to the ocean so we went on an indefinite hiatus. I loved those guys, but had to see what else was out there.  We’ve always been supportive of each other and I’m proud of the fact we’re still playing together and doing it to this day.

REVIEW: What always struck me about Studiotone’s originals were the depth of the lyrical content mixed with the musical irreverence of the Foo Fighters, coupled with the fact the recordings also translated well into the live performances.  What do you feel distinguished the band’s sound the most?

Brent: I’ve been thinking about that lately and reflecting on it. I’m not usually one to do that because I’m always looking forward to what’s next, but I think a lot of it had to with the trends happening at the time that we stayed away from and decided instead to just write good songs. Looking back now the songs and recordings are kind of timeless. We tried to stay the course, avoid the trends, and not toot our own horn, but because we followed that very conscious decision to not follow trends and write good material the songs still sound fresh.  We worked with some great producers and would test all the original songs out on the road, so by the time we got into the studio we had a firm idea of how we wanted to present them. I’m still that way to this day - just give me one or two takes.

REVIEW: Why do you think these songs translate well into today’s context?

Brent: Listening to some of the songs lately like Digital Radio, within a lyrical context I remember being leery of technology back when it was coming out into the market over 20-years ago. The internet was coming on strong and growing and that song contains the verse: A modern technicality, a virtual animosity, and look where we are today. Then we have the opening lines, Hello Middle America, tell me have you heard the news….there’s a man on your TV…. which when I listen to it today gives me the chills, but that’s kind of how art works. If you keep highly sensitive to the world around you there’s a tendency to pick up on things that somehow will become things we have to address forever.

With the first album we focused on being a solid rock & pop band that was out to grab people with big hooks, and then there was a big digression from that approach by the time we recorded our second album Where You Left Off. I was a kid going through a break-up and in a darker mood, a little more mature, so was exploring a little more with softer sounds and talking about different topics.  I largely work as an artist by keeping attuned to what’s going on around us on this planet.  And there is so much to address. I think it’s our responsibility to document what’s around us in rock & roll - that’s where the broad range of topics comes from.

REVIEW: Apart from sustaining the legacy of Studiotone, what else have you been up to since moving to L.A. back in 2007?

Brent: I’ve been working with a band called the Barbarian Overlords for a long time. We started around 2011 and it took me time to feel out L.A. after I moved here to find the right band, which is a whole other conversation. When I first met those guys they were super into Led Zeppelin, so I went back and studied the blues and guys like Charlie Patton and Ledbelly, however Studiotone is more of rock/pop band and they’re more of a straight up rock & roll band.  I also recorded a couple Arthur Autumn albums and another album with Andy Reed, and most recently I released an original with Channing Lee from The Verve Pipe.

I perform live with Arthur Autumn at The Hotel Café here in L.A., which is my home base as an artist, and also helped develop the Electric Moon Foundation, which is my primary focus. We work with vulnerable youth and show them how music can become a transformative force and give them direction in life.  

We’re grateful to have the support of The Killers, Guitar Center Music Foundation, Hohner, Ernie Ball, Blu DeTiger an so many more; and it may be worthy to note the support of Detroit’s own late great Wayne Kramer from the MC5 through his organization Jail Guitar Doors and The Capo Center here in Los Angeles. To find out more people can visit electricmoonfoundation.org.

For those interested in keeping up with Studiotone, here’s a few vital social media links:  @studiotonemusic (Instagram) and studiotone/facebook

For links to Brent’s current project and work with Arthur Autumn visit @arthurautumn23 and arthurautumn.com

Click here to check out Arthur Autumn's new single 'Falling Slowly' with Channing Lee from The Verve Pipe.