Austin Music

ACL FEST 2007

For Austin's under-20 Steps, some long strides

Two of the Steps are still in high school, but they're already headed to London to promote a new single.

By Joe Gross
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, September 14, 2007

Once upon a time, rock music was made by, for and about the young. The various Beatles started in bands as teenagers. Jimmy Page quit school at 14 to play rock 'n' roll. Hard-core punk pioneers Minor Threat even made a band name out of their underage status. As hip-hop and R&B seem the music of youth, young rock bands are few and far between nowadays. The closest thing to young rockers you'll find on the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart are the Plain White T's, and they're approaching their 30s.

The Austin quartet the Steps, all of whom are between 17 and 19, would like to bring classic rock back to the kids.

Tammy Perez
FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN

(enlarge photo)

The Steps, who count both the Stones and the Strokes among their influences, are already Emo's veterans. The band includes, clockwise from top left: Z Lynch, Steven Ross and cousins Will Thompson and Sam Thompson. Hear their music at www.myspace.com/thesteps.

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Lead Step Will Thompson was a 15-year-old Austin High student when he started his first band. "I actually got a guitar for Christmas and had it off to the side for awhile," Thompson says. Everything changed after he discovered the Strokes' skinny-tie-wearing, classic-sounding pop rock. "We're all huge into the Stones, but the Strokes were the band that made me want to write my own material," Thompson says. "I wanted to make rock 'n' roll with a more modernistic tone and that's what the Strokes were doing."

His first band, Cairo Speed Limit, futzed around with various members until a lineup slowly started to solidify around Thompson and his guitar-playing cousin Sam Thompson, 17, back in 2005 (the band is currently filled out by 18-year-old bassist Stephen Ross and 17-year-old drummer Z Lynch).

So what does a 19-year-old classic rocker write about? Three guesses. "Songs about girls definitely work really well," Thompson says. "But I love the way Bob Dylan and country songs tell a story. I always want my songs to have a story within them." The band's smart, clipped retro/modern rock built a strong word-of-mouth following at the home high schools, followed by some touring around Texas and Louisiana.

Steps drummer Alexander "Z" Lynch goes to Westlake High. He and Sam Thompson, an Austin High student, are the two Steps still in high school, but it's only recently that the band has become a big name on campus. "There aren't any other real bands there," Lynch says of the tony public school. "I do feel lucky, but it's really not that big of a deal. Everyone knows everybody else anyway."

Well, maybe, but not every high school-age drummer has a big-name manager. Things started to pick up speed when the Steps were courted and signed by Los Lonely Boys' minder Kevin Wommack. "There's something really powerful about them," Wommack says. "They really reminded me of those classic British bands."

The Steps have toured a little, but it's the Internet that's really worked for them. Some of their most vocal fans are from Europe. The MySpace page of a 19-year-old gal by the name "Kine-flowers" features a clip of the band. "Their style is original, cool and interesting and I really hope they make it," "Kine" writes via e-mail. "I would love to see them get a record contract with some record company, because they deserve it and I know that there is a lot of kids out there that would love their music."

The band recently inked a single deal with Young and Lost Club Records in the UK, a place where a good single and a fair amount of hype can get a strong write-up from the taste-making weekly British music press. (Which is exactly how the Strokes got famous.) Wommack said seven tracks were cut at Frenchie Smith's Bubble Recording Studio in Austin ("It was our first time locked-in and really working on songs in the studio," Thompson says). The label will ultimately pick the single tracks and the Steps are looking to head over to England in November for a series of London dates to promote the release. (Lynch sounds nonchalant about having to miss class for the London trip: "I'm really not going to worry about it." Spoken like a true drummer.)

But Thompson says he's not entirely sure how he's going to pay for his plane ticket yet: "We've saved up a bit. My parents are going to help me out a little." Even with mom and dad chipping in, all of this isn't too shabby for a band years away from legally drinking. Jimmy Page would probably approve.

jgross@statesman.com; 912-5926

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