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The Urge’s Steve Ewing comes home
By Steve PickPhotograph by Mark Gilliland
No, you aren’t imagining things. That really was Steve Ewing, former singer of the megapopular St. Louis rock/funk/ska band the Urge, checking out the produce section at your local Dierbergs. Though he moved to L.A. during the heyday of the Urge’s assault on national popularity, he’s headed back to our town for a very simple reason.
“Really, the decision to come back was us wanting to start a family,” Ewing says. “Once we found out we were pregnant, we just went ahead and put the ball in motion. My wife and I don’t have any family out there—it was just the two of us.”
Ewing, 35, expects to become a papa at the end of January. Of course, he’s been developing a number of musical offspring in the years since the Urge called it quits.
“The last record we did (Too Much Stereo, 2000) got to be weird,” he says, by way of explanation for the band’s demise.
“Everybody in the band was thinking of different ways to go, musically. I wanted to delve into a more melodically-based thing and get away from the riffs we used to base our songs on. We decided it would be cool for us to stop rather than to have it diminish slowly.”
Given the freedom to follow his own direction, Ewing released three records under his own name, including last year’s Pacific Standard Time. With trippy programmed beats and sound effects and Ewing’s soul-influenced vocals, his solo music is different yet clearly from the same guy who led the Urge all those years.
“I’ve always been into electronica,” Ewing says, “so it’s a mix between full band and all the programming that I do.”
Ewing has also been producing acts on his own SaS Records label. “While I was in L.A., I interned with the guys who made the last Urge record,” he says. “I worked with Quincy Jones on a few things and Steve Griffin on some of the Don Henley records. I learned a lot—and then I started my own label.”
Commuting back and forth between L.A. and St. Louis, he’s worked with several bands, most notably up-and-coming local outfit Lojic. “I took them under my wing and put them on shows the last three tours I’ve been on,” he says. “Little things help when bands are first starting out. I never thought I would actually say it, but I enjoy teaching—that whole helping-out thing.”
Touring occasionally around the Midwest (he still plays 80 to 90 shows a year) while producing and giving sage advice to a variety of regional bands, Ewing is excited to be back home. “For the past few years, I’ve been flying back and forth,” he says. “It makes more sense to stay here.” And being recognized and complimented by fans who grew up loving his old band? “It’s cool,” Ewing says, then pauses.
“It’s awesome, actually."
For show dates and CD release information, visit www.steviee.com and www.myspace.com/thesteveewingband.
