I recently had a chance to talk with Steve Ludwig, the former Nations Afire frontman who now finds himself behind a drumset as a member of Sederra. Yeah, you read that correctly! It turns out that Steve put his inner “frontman ego” aside and got behind a drumset, a post he had held way before his Nations Afire days. Funny thing is, Steve feels right at home on the drums.
We talked about the band’s recent “best rock band” nomination for the Orange County Music Awards, the difficulty in transitioning from being in front of the band to being behind the band, as well as where things are going to go musically for Sederra now that he’s there. Check out the full interview here.
Sederra were our latest guests for the Dying Scene Sessions. The videos will be posted early next week, as well as an exclusive interview with two special members of the band. Check back early next week to find out who we talked with.
Steve: How’s it going, bud?
Dying Scene: Yo dude, what’s up?
Steve: not too much, man…just here in California, hanging out. How are you doing today?
Dying Scene: Haha, i’m in Boston, dude. It sucks. It’s all cold and overcast. I’m definitely missing Cali.
Mike (Publicist): are you all depressed, are you huddled up in a pub crying? haha
Dying Scene: Yah, I think I’m passed the whole depressed and crying part, that was just the first week. now I just want go home hahaha. but yeah, i got back 2 weeks ago and the day before I got back it was around -9*F and we had a huge snowstorm the day after. This past weekend was pretty mild, it was around 45*F and it felt warm
Steve: Geeze, mild and 45 degrees, huh? yeah, I don’t think it’s even gotten down to the 40’s in California
Dying Scene: Are you California born and raised?
Steve: Yeah, I think i might be going surfing tomorrow
Dying Scene: Oh man, way to rub it in. Lets dive into Sederra stuff. You had your coming-out/debut show a couple days ago. How was that?
Steve: It was good man. We had the show over at Slidebar. It was actually my first time on drums in, probably, 6 or 7 years. I played drums in a band called Nightfall, way back in the day. I played drums for 12 years before I started singing. It’s always been sort of a passion of mine.
Dying Scene: Is this something you feel more comfortable doing? being behind a drum set instead of a mic or are they both equally comfortable?
Steve: I guess each one has its own kind of things you need to get used to. I’ve done both for a while so I have no problem switching between both. I like doing both, it’s a lot of fun either way
Dying Scene: The frontmen of the band’s usually tend to have an ego, right? do you find it hard to put your ego aside and getting behind the drums or are you comfortable just kicking your feet back and going along with the flow
Steve: Yeah, you know, I’ve never really been one to have a super huge ego and i feel that I work well with others. I know everybody has their creativity that they want to express and I kinda know my place. I’m the drummer now, i’m not going to tell Tom how to write his lyrics and how he should write his melodies and I feel like he’s not going to tell me how to play the drums either. I feel like we all have a pretty good mutual respect for each other and that’s one thing I’m looking forward to in working with these guys.
Dying Scene: How did you get to be a part of the band? did they come up to you or did you come up to them or what?
Steve: I guess it was kinda mutual. We had played shows before. When I was still in nations afire, we’d always talk and had been friends. After i left Nations, i wasn’t doing anything and went to hang out at a show. I talked with Eric and Mike and they were like “We’re looking for a drummer” and I was like “oh, i play drums too, we should jam sometime” and it kinda went from there.
Dying Scene: So you’ve been a part of the band since then, you know, unofficially. How long ago did this take place?
Steve: Officially I guess probably a month ago. I’ve only been a part of the band for a short time but we’ve been jamming for about 4 months now. I learned the catalogue of the band’s song and they were like “if you want to do this for real, lets make you a member” and i was like “alright, cool, lets do it.”
Dying Scene: Were the parts difficult to learn or did you add a lot of your own touches to the music?
Steve: I practiced all the songs. You know, they gave me a CD with all their tracks and stuff and i learned the songs the best that I could just by listening. They were pretty lenient about what I could add and stuff. they kind of wanted me to put my own spin on stuff and I did a pretty good job. I try to follow the CD as much as possible just cause that’s how I like to do do things. If it’s recorded a certain way i like to play it that way but i definitely try to add a little of my own thing in there.
Dying Scene: With the new material, was this written before you came on board or did you have a say in the writing process?
Steve: The new material was recorded before I joined the band. when we play live, like i said, i try to play everything as close to the CD as possible but i add my own little fills that aren’t on the CD.
Dying Scene: So when it comes to writing new material, do you think they’ll ask you for your input or are they pretty much just gonna let you do your own thing and let them take care of the music?
Steve: I’m not really much a guitar player to begin with but i’m more than happen to. We jam in the garage, we’ve been jamming on some new tunes and jamming on some new ideas that we really haven’t shown to Tom yet but anything they need me to do, i’ll be there. i’m down to write, down to make it happen.
Dying Scene: Cool, so you came on board when the band was coming through a transitional phase, sort of a relaunch. there was the new material, the OCMA’s, etc…has there been time for you to kinda step back and take everything in or are things still going full-throttle for you?
Steve: Yeah, man. I don’t really feel that there needs to be time to step back and take it all in. I mean, this is business as usual for me. With Nations, had a lot of things going on we were touring Europe and stuff. I just want to get the ball rolling. It’s like “alright, cool, we got the nomination” but it’s just a piece of the puzzle out of thousands that we’re going to need to keep moving forward.
Dying Scene: Speaking of Nations, how are they different than Sederra? Do they do things differently or is the adjustment difficult or what?
Steve: I’ve been in several different bands over the years but i’ve been trying to make a career out of this for the past 10-15 years of my life. It’s just like anything else, you know? it’s more about adjusting to the different people and personalities and stuff like that. It’s just like any other job.
Dying Scene: Yeah, definitely. I like the new material too. Seeing you guys at the video shoot, you guys have a good dynamic. I see that you guys have great chemistry. What’s your favorite track, both old and new. Is there one that stands out?
Steve: I guess my favorite track will have to be a newer one called “The World Will Have To Wait.” I’m just a big stickler on production, and not that the production on the old record was bad, it’s just that on this new one, the production is better than we’ve ever had.
Dying Scene: The songs sounded great, at least the two new ones that I heard at the shoot. So what’s next, besides the record? do you guys have any big plans?
Steve: We’re kind of shopping around right now. We’re trying to find a label that will release it for us. We’re planning on releasing it before the end of the year, we’re just not sure what time. we’re trying to find people that will jump on board with us and put a gameplan together.
Dying Scene: Oh, dude, the cymbals on fire. What’s the deal behind that? was that something that was planned or did you do it, you know, spontaneously? haha
Steve: haha, honestly man, it was kinda crazy. I had never done anything like that before. Our new manager, Stoney, had toured with Bigwig back in the day and they set their cymbals on fire every single night. He was like “you gotta do it, it’s gonna look awesome” and i’m sort of freaking out and saying “I don’t; know, dude, this is kinda crazy” and thinking about the worst. but it ended up looking pretty cool, i was stoked on it. It was rad.
Dying Scene: Hell yeah, i’m sure the crowd was totally into it too
Steve: yeah, everyone was going crazy. It looked cool, for sure.
Dying Scene: So how was the crowd response to the new material?
Steve: I thought the crowd response was really good. I’ve been to a few Sederra shows in the past. We brought a lot of people there, more than the two other bands that night. We had people crowd surfing and stuff, 100+ people. It was definitely a good show, I cant have any complaints.
Dying Scene: I’m on your Facebook profile right now, your taste in music is pretty diverse. Where do you get inspiration from?
Steve: Inspiration for my music comes from daily life, i listen to a lot of stuff. As far as inspiration for my drumming goes, I’m influenced by Aaron Gillespie (ex-Underoath,) Jon Theodore (original drummer for Mars Volta.) But as far as music for myself, i listen to a lot of stuff. Boyz II Men, Cartel, Rihanna, whatever anyone will play. Only thing I don’t like is country haha.
Dying Scene: Cool. I think that’s it, man. Thanks for talking with me, Steve! I appreciate the talk and thank you for doing that Session with us.
Steve: I appreciate you giving us the interview, man. We appreciate the coverage! Thanks again, dude!
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