"We're out on tour in support of our "Work Hard, Rock Hard" EP that came out last year when we were touring with Geoff Tate from Queensryche. So, we're continuing that momentum but we are calling this the "Be A Hero Tour" because we have a big single coming out on May 6 called "Hero" and it'll be all over the place on social media, internet and streaming everywhere before we make the push to radio; it's quite a song, it's in the vein of those kind of anthem songs you hear that people tend to pick up and want to play and chant to in stadiums and at ball games, sporting events; it's one of those that can capture every human in the world because it is just so prophetic about just how people should be and can be in life and I try to get that across in my lyric."
Kurt Deimer has a simple philosophy, work hard and you'll get rewarded and for Kurt; the proof is in the proverbial pudding as he is currently balancing a stellar music and acting career, running a horror film franchise, "Hellbilly Hall" and reaping the benefits of his entrepreneurial skills from years past. Oh and one more thing; don't ever tell him he can't do something.
Currently on the road as a supporting act for guitar legend Yngwie Malmsteen and releasing a new single the day before their May 7 Grammercy Theatre show in New York City, Deimer is elated to be in the position he is and thrilled to be on the road doing what he and the band do best; performing live. So, how did he get himself into this certain situation; sometimes hard work couples with just being in the right place at the right time.
"I was on the Shiprocked cruise in January performing with The Stowaways and I got a Facebook message from this booking agent that had worked with me when I was going under a different name and just kind of making my way out to L.A. before Chris Lord-Alge discovered me and my voice," he began. "They hit me up with a message saying that Yngwie was going out and needed a killer band for direct support. I passed that onto my management who were on the cruise with me and once we got off the cruise he reached out and we got it all put together and here we are and to my management I was like, here ya' go, I teed this one up for you (laughs) and they weren't even my managers at the time these people discovered me. So, I said, here ya' go; let's see if you can make this happen. Yngwie is one of the best guitar players, if not the best in the world; let's go out and support him and give everybody one of those evenings. We've got two other bands before us and we've all kind of got our own style and then Yngwie comes out and does his thing, I think it's a very entertaining night of Rock 'n' Roll for people."
Deimer feels a strong commitment not only to his music but also his fan base and along with his current management team, they have devised a method to continue releasing both past and new music while touring.
""Work Hard, Rock Hard" has six-tracks; we're doing six song EPs and we're going to do that for a little while. There are six tunes out on there but we have another EP coming out in August and "Hero" that we are releasing on May 6 will be on that one. My management thinks that doing EPs six at a time; Phil, Chris Lord-Alge and I, we've probably got like 40 tunes that are ready to go that we could release that aren't filler or anything, they are just awesome kick-ass tunes. So, if we put them out as EPs, then what we can do with the album or if we put out vinyl, we can start packaging the songs that people are really digging off of the EPs and then put full-length albums out to compliment the EPs that have come out to introduce it to the people; the way we are putting out singles is that we are putting out singles on an EP. I'm real big into wanting rock to be the way it used to be and having our own sound, kind of like when Van Halen came out; they had their own sound. They were simple, it was Van Halen, I'm Kurt Deimer, I have my own sound, I have my own voice. Phil X can be himself and not a studio guy for everyone else or playing Richie's parts in all of the Bon Jovi songs; it's me and Phil X creating together and then our producer Chris Lord-Alge adds all of his special sauce and he's one of the best in the business so, we've made quite a team here; it's unbelievable really."
Entrepreneur, actor, musician; so, what came first in this chicken or the egg scenario? According to Kurt, all three and here to, it was another case of the right place at the right time.
"Well, thats kind of why I'm back in music now," he said with a slight laugh. "I was in music until I was about 20 back in Cincinnati; I was going to the University of Cincinnati and I just knew that I was gonna fail if I kept trying so hard and at that time I didn't have the wherewithal, the maturity or the confidence that I have now. So, I kind of hung it up, did the family thing, graduated, started my own companies and one of those companies that I owned later in life was the Starfire Oil brand and we were doing a cameo appearance with me and the brand was featured in a movie called "Trading Paint" starring John Travolta, Shania Twain and Toby Sebastian from "Game of Thrones." So, I went down to do this cameo and I'm walking around and everybody was taking pictures of me and they said, "We'd like to give you a speaking role" and all of a sudden I'm learning lines and about an hour later I'm in the final scene of the movie as the track announcer planning out what I'm doing with John Travolta and Toby Sebastian; Shania was right there and we're talking and I'm like; what the hell just happened to me? (laughs) This was a big crowd scene so, there were people all around me, lights, camera, action; BOOM! I nailed it, I was in the movie at the end and the next thing I know I'm offered a role in "Halloween" and getting offered the role of the gas station teller; I get killed by Michael Meyers. I'm one of his epoch kills, I was featured in magazines; it took three hours to put the prosthetic on and I'm in the 2018 version of "Halloween." So, that just kind of launched it and I thought, well, if they can do this and they did that film back in the day and now with the success of the film I was in, which I think has done well over 300 or 400 million worldwide if not more; I thought, I'll do this myself. So, I started my own horror franchise called "Hellbilly Hollow" and we're about to wrap it and post-production and it should be going to market real soon and then hopefully come out this year around Halloween time or in the Fall. So, that will be my first feature film where I'm the star and that's how it all started right there and once that happened I kept getting acting roles down in Alabama and I met Ben Trexel and he had three songs that he wanted me to hear and he sang them and the songs were cool and I said, my voice is way different; people either love it or they won't like it. That's my voice, I've got that kind of deeper voice where I can talk and do all kinds of crazy shit and I made his songs sound so good that they were part of the demo I took to L.A. when Chris Lord-Alge said he'd mix it and he discovered me and said he wanted to take me under his wing and now we're like best friends, we're literally best friends and we can't stop writing. Then he brought Phil X in as a studio guy, he convinced me to do "Have A Cigar" which was off the demo Ben and I did and I wasn't really stoked about doing it and he convinced me that we could make it cool if we did it my way with my voice which is the only way we'll do covers now and I heard the guitar solo he put on there and I was like; who the hell is this? He finally told me it was Phil X and we met when we shot the video and we've become great friends. Our families hang out together, birthdays and all that stuff; it's very surreal and I feel very blessed. I mean, I can't even believe it's really happening because you know how everybody is; you're crazy, you're never going to be able to make it in music; do you know how many bands are out there? My answer was, well, if you do it right like I said I'd do it if I could someday and do it the right way; I'll do it because you have to be able to take the punches and get back up and go and now I have the wherewithal to do it. That applies to everything, even when I started my own oil company people said, you can't start your own oil company, you can't do this, you can't do that. I'm a guy who is very competitive and I'll prove you wrong and I'm very smart; I've learned things the hard way. I wasn't handed anything, I wasn't a trust fund kid, my parents did their best. My dad worked very hard to take care of us and raise me and my sister right and I take the punches and I just don't give up. You have to believe in yourself and if you have the talent it's nothing without hard work; I always tell everybody that. As long as you work hard and have the talent; you don't have to have everybody in the world like you. I don't like a lot of the music out there but I don't disrespect people, I respect that they have the courage, the strength and the wherewithal to put that music out there and that's their talent and they'll find one percent; if you just have one percent of the world like your music; do you know how big that is? That's a lot of people (laughs)."
Deimer is also well aware of the importance of those aforementioned live performances and has assembled a band that is very much on board with his take no prisoners approach to their shows.
" The band is Phil and I, Christian Sturba is our bass player, Michael Vassos is our other guitarist and an excellent vocalist and Dango (Empire) is our drummer. I grew up seeing the bands where you always saw the same dudes all of the time and when I went out to L.A. a lot of people said, you're an individual so, we can just give you session players when you go out and play. I said, I don't want that, I want to build a band; I'll go under my name but I want a band, I want a family. Phil and I have built this family and Phil couldn't make the first couple of shows; we just did The Rainbow Room 50th anniversary out in L.A. the other day and kicked ass and we're gonna kick-ass these next couple and we're ready for when Phil gets with us soon and then we'll go on tour and kick ass. We've got a great energetic stage show, I'm limited as to what I can do because I'm direct support but our goal every time we go on stage is to play it like we're playing Madison Square Garden and he and I are always preaching that to the guys because that's our goal and to go all over the world and we have to do it every night and someday it will happen. Once that happens, be ready because I'm going to be putting on one of the best; remember Van Halen back in the day? They'd come out on that stage with all of that energy, that's what Phil and I've got and we have a unique sound like they did back then or like AC/DC or any of those influences that I had then and we bring it like that no matter how big the space. Before our tour with Geoff Tate, we did a couple of our first shows as a band together with a different drummer who we had to replace because he didn't fit in with us but we played a local place in Cincinnati called MVP, it was a wing place and Phil and I always laugh about it because he was just coming off an arena tour with Bon Jovi. That's how hard we work and we know that we'll get there if we bring it every night and shred it; if we just bring our brand and our style it will take-off; don't disrespect the people you count on to make a living or those who are fans of yours. I will never do that; you have to put on the same show. I don't like going to shows where everybody is just standing at the mic and singing unless it's like the Grateful Dead which is a totally different thing but if it's a rock band, I want energy. I move around, I don't stop, I don't know what I'm gonna do every night; I just kind of let it happen."
The epitome of hard work, Deimer is constantly on the go and he likes it that way. This current tour just kicked off and has very little time-off but like any successful individual or band; there is always an eye to the future.
"I think it's like 25 shows between now and June 5 or somewhere around that many," he said with uncertainty; "We have a bunch of stuff teed-up and ready to go and I told my management the other day that by the time I get off this tour I want to know exactly when the next one is and the one after that because I want to tour all the way until November; maybe with a few breaks here and there and then shoot a movie over the winter. That's the plan to keep touring, promoting "Work Hard, Rock Hard" until August when the new EP comes out and then we'll tour on both of them and we have a special tune coming out on Father's Day which I think everyone in the world will dig because we all have dads called, "My Dad;" it's quite an epoch tune. I''m very proud of what we've got coming out between now and August."
To discover more about Kurt Deimer, please visit https://kurtdeimer.com/.
That's it for this week! Please continue to support live and original music and until next week....ROCK ON!
