Since first hitting the
Owensboro scene from north of the Ohio River this past summer, Akacia
(pronounced ‘Ah-Kay-Sha’) has the power to make crowds move and groove, thanks
to the diverse musical tastes of each of the band’s four members. With Charlie
Dicus’ lead vocals and fully rocked-out guitar playing, Mike Blemker’s addition
of solid six-stringing and backup vox, Fred Bassett’s grooving, butt-shakin’
bass and the decades-long experience of drummer Joel Doehrmann delivering the
goods from the riser.
Akacia’s repertoire includes the old and the new, from
classic rock – think Aerosmith, Led Zep, Montrose, ZZ Top, and AC/DC – to newer
stuff from the likes of Velvet Revolver, Kings of Leon, Buckcherry, Seether and
many, many more. They’ll even toss in a full-on dance/funk number from The
Commodores or Wild Cherry with a dose of crunchy rock thrown in for extra
flavor.
Charlie (or Chaz, as he’s also known) chatted with us
about all things Akacia:
N4U: Let’s talk about how the band got together; what
are the origins of Akacia?
Chaz: It was around 2002,
and I was invited to play with some guys in Evansville, and that included Mike Blemker,
who’s the other guitarist in the band. At that time, we had the name Exosonic;
we played a few gigs, changed a few guys over the years… and the current lineup
has been around for a little over a year now; Fred was the newest guy in. Him
coming into the band has helped out a lot; he comes in with a blues background.
He played a lot with Tommy Stillwell & the Hellcats; he’s been around a
lot; he’s played some pretty important gigs throughout the world… basically how
we got together was by word of mouth, and we all became friends. We’re not just
a bunch of musicians who meet for shows; we do get together and hang out and
have cookouts.
To kind of name-drop – what are some of the bands
Akacia’s members have been a part of in the past?
Our drummer, Joel Doehrmann,
back in the early 80s, was with a band called Kikker… he has an article from
back then on his basement wall, so he’s been around for a long time. Of course
Fred, we talked about that, he’s been with Tommy Stillwell. Mike, he has kind
of the same past as I do… I don’t want to say ‘no-name’ bands… I’m originally
from Illinois,
and I got my start when I was 18, playing in bars. Mike and I had mutual
friends along the way, and that’s how we got together.
The songs you guys play – how do you pick ‘em?
When we first got together,
we focused more on doing new rock. We thought that that was what we needed to
be playing in order to get the gigs. And it almost seemed like we were doing
too much new rock… you can never go wrong – as clichéd as it sounds – with
playing a little bit of classic rock. With all of our influences, Joel is more
of an Album-Oriented drummer. He loves Rush; he loves the bands of the 70s and
early 80s. I grew up on classic country and pop music of the 80s, but I turned
around and started loving the old school heavy metal; that’s kind of where Mike
is too; he’s also a hard hitter with the blues. Fred goes with the flow;
especially with his blues past – that’s his forte. Over the years we got away
from just doing the new rock; we started adding classic rock. And then we
started adding stuff from the middle; it isn’t so much that we’re playing what
the people want to hear – that’s a part of it – but when you see us onstage,
you’ll see four guys who genuinely like to play what we’re playing.
How about your gear? What are your tools of choice?
I got a Crate Voodoo 120; it
doesn’t stand up to a Marshall;
it doesn’t stand up to a Mesa Boogie; I’ll be the first to say that. It was
very industrial metal-sounding; I got it in 1996 as a graduation gift, and it
did the job at the time, and over the years, after learning about tubes and
getting a degree in audio production, I’ve had it hard-wired – went through a
couple of rounds of different tubes – it has Ruby tubes in it now; I used to
use Groove tubes. It has taken a lot of the bite out it and given it more of a
growl. Most of the places you play around here, to get a tube amp to sound
good, you gotta crank it up, but you can’t do that in some places. So it’s
changed the sound overall in a more positive light. I have an Ibanez S470; that
was my first guitar. Thanks to Fred, I purchased a Fender Strat Highway 1; that
thing plugged into the Crate head is great. I guess you could say it’s like a
[Iron] Maiden crunch; it isn’t too overdriven, but it’s just a nice crunch.
Occasionally I’ll get the Ibanez out, but it just doesn’t have the beefy-ness
like the Strat has.
What’s one of the things you really like about
playing in Owensboro?
They have been quite
accepting of us, and we are the same of them. They dig the rock & roll. In
our eyes, it’s a really fun place. There’s a lot of great places to play in Owensboro; we really
enjoy going over there.
And fans of good, solid rock & roll have a number
of chances to catch the band in the coming months. Akacia will be at The Boiler
Room October 16 & 17, Borderline Cantina in Tell City November 13 & 14,
back at the Boiler Room December 4 & 5 and at Milligan’s December 18 &
19. Be sure to check out myspace.com/akacia and akaciarock.com. for more on
what the guys are up to.
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