Joe Cafarella of STEMM
Like a lot of other people that follow STEMM, I first fell in love with the band when I heard the theme music for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. "Face the Pain" opens up every UFC show, and after hearing it time and time again I became addicted to the song. I dug a little deeper to find out more about the band and bought the band's album "Songs for the Incurable Heart". I started exchanging emails with vocalist/guitarist Joe Cafarella. From there, we played phone tag for a few weeks before we finally got the chance to speak to each other. Among the things we talked about in our conversation, we got to cover the band's ties to the UFC, releasing a major album, and Joe's love for Spiderman.
Asif: Hey man! It's great to finally
talk to ya!
Joe: (laughs) Yeah! Sorry about all the phone tag earlier!
Asif: Ah man, it's no sweat! So, last week when I was gonna’ talk to ya’,
you guys were recording. You workin' on a new album?
Joe: Well, right now we are just demoing some new songs. Then we're gonna be turning them over to Ben Schigel at Spider Studios in Cleveland, Ohio because I think he's going to be producing the new CD. We have a lot songs for the new CD, we just don't know which ones are going to make the CD and which ones aren't. But yeah, we're definitely writing for the new disc.
Asif: Sweet! Well, I want to get the obvious question out of the way for all of the UFC fans out there. How were you guys approached by the UFC for the use of "Face the Pain"?
Joe: We had already been working with them as they had already been using some of our songs. They really liked the way we were working together and they actually called us and asked us to write a song that pretty much had the lyrical content that had to do with fighting. They wanted it to be an aggressive song, but not a violent song. So we had a couple tunes in the works and we demoed them and sent them out to them. The next thing you know, the music producer for the UFC flew up to Buffalo, we rented out a studio, and we tracked "Face the Pain" in one day.
Asif: Whoa. That's fast!
Joe: Actually, two days! We tracked it in two days. He mixed it and
mastered it back in Las Vegas.
Asif: So, I've heard you guys are fans of the UFC too. Who are some of your favorite fighters?
Joe: Chuck Liddell is my favorite
fighter, even before he was the champion. (laughs)
Asif: Liddell rocks man!
Joe: Yeah! I always liked his attitude. I had the pleasure of meeting him in Atlantic City during a UFC fight. He was just there hanging out. He's just really down to Earth, a really cool guy. Him and Randy Couture I'd have to say are my favorite fighters.
Asif: Cool man. How have things been
going for you personally since T.J.'s departure from the band? Has it
effected you to the point that you've maybe had to change your style
musically or lyrically?
Joe: Strangely enough, not really. It
stinks that T.J. had to leave. He's going through a lot of stuff right now
and he felt that he needed to leave the area to straighten out some things
in his life. But lyrically, T.J. and I always handled the lyrics for the
songs. I've always been a voice in the band, I just never really liked to
announce I was a voice. T.J. and I used to work very closely with the
words. Now that T.J. has left I guess the spotlight is a bit more on
myself. It's nothing that I don't think I can't handle. We've already
tracked "One King Down" and "Poop Mouth" and put them up on MySpace. We've
gotten a great response from all the fans, and that's made us really
happy.
Asif: I was gonna tell you that I really love "One King Down" bro. It
kicks ass!
Joe: Cool! Thank you!
Asif: I know it's been slightly over a year at this point (June 2006), but how did it feel to release a full length album, "Songs for the Incurable Heart", on a national level? Where does that rank on a scale of personal accomplishments for you?
Joe: It's cool. The label helped us out in a couple aspects as far as getting the name out there a bit more, but honestly the label didn't pull through with the things they said they were going to do. So, it was little bit more of a letdown than an accomplishment. So, we've moved on from I Scream Records and we don't have any more obligations for a new record with them. But we do have something else in the works with another label, we're just not at liberty to discuss it yet.
Asif: That's good news at least.
Joe: Yeah. We're still [with] a national [label], we're just not working with I Scream. I mean, it was cool - some of the things they did – it’s just when the record came out…to be perfectly honest with you, when we were just an independent band, we had the CD in more stores and in more markets than the label did.
Asif: That's messed up dude!
Joe: (laughs) Yeah, you know what I'm saying!? We actually felt like things got taken away from us. On a publicity standpoint, the label really did push the name and got the name out there more than expected and more than we could have ever done. It was a catch-22. We needed to go through this together and learn the rights and wrongs of it. We're not bitter, no one is mad or anything like that. Signing a record deal these days isn't what it used to be. We have a lot of friends that are on labels bigger than us, and they have to fight for every inch. There's no free ride in this. We didn't expect a free ride when we signed our deal, but we expected to be able to work together hand-in-hand, but that didn't happen either.
Asif: I'm sure,
well at least we can hope, that with the next label and the new album
things will be different and there will be a better collaboration.
Joe: Yeah. We are definitely excited about what's to come!
Asif: I know you’re a fan of Spiderman…and you have him listed as a hero on your MySpace page.
Joe: Yeah! (laughs)
Asif: Why Spiderman? Why not Superman or Batman? What makes Spiderman so special?
Joe: I have no idea. I just think that all my friends, when I was a kid…liked Superman and Batman. My mother was trying to cram Superman down my throat.
Asif: (laughs)
Joe: I just wasn't having it! No one really seemed to mind too much about
Spiderman! (laughs)
Asif: (laughs)
Joe: I kinda’ thought he was a unique character anyways. But I have mad
respect for Superman and Batman. I don't think the new Superman movie was
that good though.
Asif: Man, I didn't even watch it. I saw the previews and was like, "Man,
that's garbage! I'm not even going to watch it."
Joe: (laughs) Well you can stop watching it after the airplane scene.
After that, just stop watching it!
Asif: (laughs) Is that the first scene in the movie?
Joe: It's pretty close. It's probably 20 minutes into the movie. That is an amazing scene!
Asif: Alright man, I'll take your word for it. I'll rent it for the first half hour.
Joe: (laughs) Then you can just turn it off!
Asif: (laughs) You guys have done tours with artists like Trivium, Three Days Grace, Cold and Arch Enemy, just to name a few, and huge tours like the Jagermeister and you were on the last Damageplan show with Dimebag. What band would your dream tour be with?
Joe: Ultimately, we'd love to be able
to go on tour with Pantera but we know that's never going to happen
anymore. Love to be able to share the stage with Slayer. Love to be able
to share the stage with Metallica. I'd say probably the most fun we ever
had on the road was with Chimaira or Bleed the Sky. We've always had
really good times with those bands; they are class acts, no attitudes,
nothing. Black Sabbath with Ozzy would be amazing. I dunno…that's a tough
question to answer! (laughs)
Asif: When you're on the road, what do you like to do for fun?
Joe: We're still van-and-trailering it, so once we get down to the venue once we get into town, we usually just checkout what's in the vicinity. If we get a hotel room, some of us like to just crash out. We'll go look for a local restaurant or local mall…hangout and just try to take the people in. Sometimes we get noticed so we like to try to promote the show for whatever city we are in and we just go from there. So, pretty much, the after-show festivities is our favorite part! (laughs)
Asif: Hell yeah!
Joe: (laughs) When all the work is
said and done you can just kick back and have a couple beers with the
fans! That is my favorite part of being on the road…being able to hangout
with all the fans. Not everybody knows who we are yet so when someone can
walk up to you after the show and shake your hand or want to talk to you
or buy you a beer or buy a piece of merchandise off of you or something
like that, that's my favorite part. To make a friend or make a bond while
I'm on the road and hopefully see that person the next time around.
Asif: What kind of beer do you drink?
Joe: Bud Light. Heineken. Guinness.
Corona.
Asif: (laughs)
Joe: (laughs)
Asif: You don't discriminate, do you!?
Joe: Pretty much! We don't take the Stroh's or Old Milwaukee! (laughs)
Asif: (laughs) Old Milwaukee!
Joe: (laughs) Yeah, we don't take any of that stuff!
Asif: When we meet up, I'll get you anything but an Old Milwaukee and we
can continue this conversation and just get wasted!
Joe: (laughs) That would be awesome!
BY: The Asif
EDITED: J.P.
PHOTOS: Courtesy of Brian Garman, Bob Mussell, & STEMM
SPECIAL THANKS: Joe Cafarella of STEMM & Jenifer DeMichele @ JC Promotions
