The Treadway Interview
This is a story of a youthful friendship and one passion. Two lives that live separate but equal dreams that have yet to harvest their boyhood visions of a historic US tour. It’s a story of two men in Appalachian “flyover country” opting to live their dreams despite a plague worthy of a Hollywood movie. It’s the age-old story of following your passion no matter the odds.
For lead guitarist Greg Seaver, the story begins with Floyd Cramer and Conway Twitty’s less than exciting sounds on the stereo mixed with the Osmond’s and Partridge family’s harmonies at home. In high school band, Seaver marveled at how composers blended a recipe of brass, strings, woodwinds, and percussion into a dish of harmonies. At 17, Greg saw guitarist Tom Schultz of Boston blend his own recipe of hot licks on a Les Paul guitar, and the ember of rock and roll ignited.
Fifty miles away in an east Tennessee hamlet called Erwin, a young poet listened to his parent’s religious music and classical symphonies and yearned for a different soundtrack. In his high school band, Jim Phillips discovered the same blend of disparate instruments into something of beauty. But his ember to becoming a rock and roll lyricist, composer, and rhythm guitarist began in a shop where words, colors, and registration were the essence of the printed page.
“I was a paste-up artist and graphic designer at a print shop when I’m introduced to the new guy – a tall, imposing figure hired to the tedious task of cutting acetates for the printing process,” Phillips remembers. “Greg looked like a guy that was not to be messed with at all. But once our first conversation occurred, I knew immediately that I was dealing with a rocker.” A friendship was immediately kindled by Greg’s love of rock.
Jim had been experimenting on an acoustic guitar while Greg had honed his skill as a lead guitarist. “I taught Jim how to play power chords, and he caught on quickly. He had a lot of passion for the music and was great at taking a riff and doing something with it on a rhythm guitar with some lyrics.” This was around 1986.
Mutual respect for talent and a rock and roll passion united the two as they played together as a loosely formed band at Greg’s home weekend after weekend. Here they wrote their first complete songs and dreamed of recording their work. But then life happened. As careers and relationships distanced the two friends into two separate tracks, they stayed connected through social media. Jim moved to Knoxville and took his passion for words and music with him to create graphic designs and interactive experiences for several well-known Fortune 500 companies. Greg moved to Johnson City to continue a printing career that evolved into commercial photography at an ad agency, then working late at night as a talented journeyman lead guitarist in several cover bands.
“We didn’t want this album to be about nostalgia, we wanted to produce a series of songs that represented a true rock and roll passion and deliver something entirely new and uniquely our own.”
The Tempest Amid the Pandemic
“Being a lead guitarist, playing someone else’s riffs is fun but not fulfilling,” says Greg. “I found myself constantly coming up with my own licks, sometimes recording them on my iPhone, and going back and back again to refine it more and more. I wake up one day with the frustration of a 50’s-something rock and roller with quite a few great hooks and no way to take them further.” With the COVID virus building, out of the blue, Jim contacted Greg on Facebook with the message that they had “unfinished business” to attend to. With this simple message, SØNICWEAPØN was born.
Pledged to do their best work, the two agreed upon a singular mission. “We didn’t want this to be about nostalgia,” says Jim. “We wanted to produce a series of songs that represented a true rock and roll passion and deliver something entirely new and uniquely our own.” A listener can read into the music something that might conjure thoughts of their many influencers, like Boston, Bad Company, AC/DC, or Black Sabbath. Still, we never wanted to produce a copy of anything these legendary acts created. We wanted to make something that was of that time. Our concept was to create a band that could have opened for any one of our heroes in the late ’80s and ’90s.” When asked about the aging population of dedicated rock and roll fans, Jim replied, “There is still an audience for rock and, I’m convinced that listeners will find something fresh and compelling in our music.”
Building the Recipe
Only a friendship that spanned nearly a half-century could rival the synergies between Greg’s musical compositions and Jim’s poetic abilities. Much like the Elton John, Bernie Taupin of pop, the Seaver/Phillips duo was magical. “I remember I was pressure washing my driveway when I received a text with a link on my phone. Greg had sent me a fully realized track of incredible music for our song Days of My Youth. I stopped what I was doing and immediately went into my studio and began to work quickly and almost effortlessly. I sent back the full lyrical approach with all the vocal melody and harmonies in place in four hours. All fueled by a killer rhythm riff and Greg’s comment that the sounds he’d generated with his Les Paul reminded him of his younger days. I instantly understood this feeling, and I ran with the idea.”
“The Toll is a story about today. Living through this pandemic, its tragedies, its isolation, frustrations, and heartaches,” Phillips says. “Satisfied has a lot of meaning to Greg and me. We both have great marriages, and the lyrics are about finally growing up to understand and appreciate the love of a woman and soulmate that we both have found. Truly understanding the strength and power of a great relationship for guys like us can, unfortunately, take decades. This song is a direct acknowledgment that we finally understand just how good we have it. It’s an unfiltered “I love you, and a thank you for always being there despite my stupid ways” kind of song.
“I love the way Jim could take one or two words of inspiration, or just a comment about the way that I felt when I came up the sound to turn it into something real, unique, and meaningful,” Seaver explained.
Finding the Sound & Talent
COVID would rule out in-person studio sessions to crafting the music, which turned out to be a good thing. Each number would be assembled by sharing electronic files from artist to artist in a single file. This process freed up Jim and Greg to conduct a worldwide talent search for a vocalist and percussionist. “We left the egos at the door and invited our talented contributors to bring their A-game to the collaboration, and we were completely open to their input.”
“There are plenty of talent sites featuring a wealth of guns-for-hire online. Greg and Jim hit the jackpot when they found former LA Guns lead signer Scott Foster Harris. Tracii Guns of Guns & Roses led LA Guns. “When we first connected, he might have thought ‘who are these guys far off the beaten path in Tennessee?’ but when he heard our music and started singing the lyrics, we bonded over the creation of something exceptional.”
For drums, talented session percussionist and touring musician Ike Thurston out of Chattanooga was tasked with providing foundational bedrock for the band.
Both musicians innately understood their mission to bring the best of their experience, craft, and passion for great music to this incredible labor of love.
“Jim would write the lyrics and compose the vocal melodies, we’d send Scott his draft file – and what he sent back was extraordinary,” Greg says. “Scott would send me a 14-track file with four being the lead vocal and ten tracks of him singing the various harmonies that made the music so full in-depth. For Scott, it was all about providing us a wealth of melodic options, and he trusted us to make those hard decisions regarding what to use and not to use. He’s an amazing talent and a true professional. Ike was the same on drums, and his beats are so important to several songs that we created.” The entire process from inception to completion covered February through November 2020. “There were no creative differences. No ego at play. Just a passion for making great music and getting all the details right.”
There’s Just Something About Rock
Greg finds solace in the massive riffs and runs of lead guitar. Jim laces words and melodies into a fine weave that focuses on telling stories. It’s tradecraft that is organic in skill and truth. “I love all kinds of music that are thoughtful. I’ll never be a lead guitarist like Greg. If you think in terms of the band AC/DC, I always wanted to be Malcolm, not Angus. Together, Greg and I are a great team collaborative team. We complement each other’s creativity without stepping on each other’s toes. We couldn’t have achieved the creation of this album as individuals in isolation. It would have never happened,” states Phillips. “It sounds like a cliché, but it’s been a magical journey.”
“We want people who truly appreciate great rock music to enjoy the ride we’ve created. The stories in the songs are part of the lives of two young men that fell in love with this genre of music decades ago,” Greg concludes. Greg has more tracks in waiting. Jim has his pencil sharpened. There will be a second album on the horizon.
While COVID accentuated the search for the right artist to collaborate on The Toll’s compilation of work, it has also been a significant impediment to the last bit of this story.
“We will play these songs together on stage soon,” pledges Greg. “Jim and I on stage with guitars cranked to eleven in front of a responsive crowd is the right way to play these songs. There’s something about our songs, and there is just something about rock that demands a live audience. We will be there, and we will be live.”
Tony Treadway is the former sports anchor at CBS affiliate WJHL-TV in Johnson City, Tennessee. He is President of Creative Energy—the region’s premier advertising and public relations agency. Tony loves good music, too!