Press

Interview with Laurie Kaplan

Steppin' Out Magazine 2/11/09

I know you were born in NYC....were you raised there?
We only lived in NYC for five years before moving to New Jersey. My parents left because of how rough the city was in those days, compared to the Disney Land it is today; You can read about it and watch all the documentaries, but I would have loved the experience of being right in the middle of it, instead of on the fringes like the bridge & tunnel rats that my friends and I became growing up.

When did you first get into music and when did you realize you wanted to be a musician?
I was twelve when I first started taking guitar lessons, and not long after that that my friends and I “recorded” our first song on my dad’s reel to reel. I never got over the feeling of played something, and then being able to hear it back from the recorder. Then when you add to that the immediate human response that you get when playing live, it’s all just very addictive.

What's a memory involving your musicianship that stands out as something you will always remember?
Hearing our band’s song on the radio for the first time, even if it was a small local station. I think that’s always the most memorable feeling for a musician, especially if you’re a songwriter.

How long have you been with the Prophets?
Well the Prophets kind of evolved from the albums that I had started making around 2000. They weren’t exactly solo albums, but I didn’t exactly have a traditional “band” either. Rob Savoy, our drummer, was with me from even before that, but we had this sort of unintentional revolving door of musicians. It seemed like every six months, someone different was in the band. It wasn’t until Marc Gambino joined us last February on bass and vocals, that I think we became a real “band” in the pure sense of the word.

Have you been touring?
We haven’t in a long time. While we’ve been recording the new album, we were doing a lot of local gigs, mixing in covers and our originals, but with the album coming out in February, we hope to start moving around a lot more. Also, we were selected to perform at the NACA (National Association of Campus Activities) Festival in March, and we hope to pick up a lot of college shows and put together some tours from that.

Have you recorded an album, or two?
The new album “Roadhouse Party” will be the first one under the moniker “Kimon & the Prophets,” before that I released four solo albums, before that a national release from Psonica”, before that… seems like they back forever, I’ve been doing this a long time.

What's your favorite song on the album?
They’re all our babies, we can’t play favorites!

Where can fans hear your music, either live or on the radio?
Just like any other indie band… on the internet! Although, we do have some promoters working the new album, so we do hope to get at least some college radio airplay on this one. There are some smaller regional commercial stations that have played some of the previous stuff, I think we have a shot at those too.

How would you describe the type of music that Kimon and the Prophets play?
We’re basically a funk blues band, with a little reggae and hip-hop thrown in. Even the covers we play, we always try to put our stamp on them somehow; change the rhythm, tempo, whatever it takes to try to kind of “brand” our sound on them.

Do you consider yourself lucky to be as successful as you are in the music biz?
I consider myself very lucky to still be playing and making records (MP3s?) after all these years. I’m nowhere near as successful as I had hoped and dreamed of being, but whatever, it doesn’t matter, we still have a great time when we play, and people always come up at the end of the night and ask why we’re not bigger than we are, and that’s pretty cool, and keeps us going.

Are you married? Kids?
Married with a five year old daughter. They are very understanding, especially on rehearsal night in the basement.

Message to the fans?
We don’t have the money for these major label style ad campaigns, so thank you for continuing that “word of mouth thing.” We’ve been flying under the radar for too long!

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