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"Pulse Weekly's Steve Swift Interviews 40 Lb. Head"
Steve Swift
Pulse Weekly — May 8, 2002
40 OZ. to freedom, 40 days and 40 nights, 40 LB. Head, wait, 40LB. Head? What's that? Well smartypants, 40LB. HEAD is a band from Nanticoke, a small town in Northeast Pennsylvania, south of Wilkes-Barre.
40 Lb. Head is made up of the Egenski brothers: Steve (guitar,vocals), Brian (bass), Jason (vocals,keyboard), and friend Mike Zubritski (drums). Playing together for the past six years, Head has gathered a large faithful following in Northeastern PA, and is looking to gain support in the Lehigh Valley and beyond.
Their two current albums, "Savior Self" and "Hills and Valleys" are filled with straightforward rock and roll, and a third CD is in the works for release in the summer, which could be described as Lenny Kravitz meets the Foo Fighters.
I sat down with the 40 LB. Head foursome over a few drinks at the Grotto Pizzeria in Wilkes Barre to get a sense of what wisdom a 40 LB. Head could hold.
Oh, by the way, one day they were bored and were all weighing their heads on a bathroom scale. As it turns out, each one of their heads weighed about ten pounds, thus the name 40 LB. Head was born. So don't ask them how they got their name, they'll kill you.
Steve Swift: You'll have been together for the past six years in the beginning of June, do you see yourself playing together forever?
Steve Egenski: I see us playing together as a band as long as we can,m as long as we enjoy it. I can't see us not enjoying it but, there might come a time when people won't come to see us anymore, and then we'll all just have to come to the realization that we're washed up. Then we'll just play in the basement again, like the way we started.
Steve Swift: Say someone had to leave the band for some reason; do you think you'd find someone to replace that person? Or just decapitate the head, if you will.
Steve Egenski: I think I would go with the decapitation because we kind of struggled with members at one time. We made a bad move and we were going to replace someone in the band and it was the stupidest thing we've ever done. Now we've come to the decision that no one will ever leave the band, if someone does go in their own direction, we'll just call it quits.
Brian Egenski: Even if Mike were to lose a hand we would just superglue a stick so he could drum rather than find a replacement.
Steve Swift: So what's going on with your new album?
Jason Egenski: It's waiting on me actually because I have a couple of more songs to do the vocals on, then we'll mix and master it. I'm hoping we'll have it done by our sixth anniversary, which will be around June 12, somewhere around there.
Steve Swift: So are you guys going to tour for it?
Jason Egenski: We'll just plug it over the summer and let everyone know that's it out. There's a website that sells out merchandise, so we might do something on the internet as far as sales go, but we're lazy.
Steve Egenski: We've been doing real well with getting rid of the CD's that we have just by playing all these summer shows. People always come by and pick one up, we really do get rid of a lot.
Steve Swift: What's your favorite place to play?
Jason Egenski: Locally, The Voodoo Lounge in Luzerne is a really good place for us to play, there's always a great crowd and about 90% of the time it sounds good. The last couple times at Banana Joe's was a rippin' time.
Brian Egenski: Club Excess in Edwardsville is a lot of fun, and it's always fun to go out of town to Fager's Island in Ocean City, Maryland, it's like vacation down there, every clubs a little different, we enjoy all the clubs. Bazaars are great, we get a couple thousand people there, it's amazing to see.
Steve Swift: If you had to play anywhere in the country, where would you play, say like CBGB's?
Mike Zubritski: We took a bus full of fans to CBGB's in New York City. We just said "Hey we're going to CBGB's, if you want to get a bus full of people together let us know." A lot of people came up and said, "Yea I'll go, how much?" So we found out prices and this and that, and we just loaded up and went to CBGB's. Thank God people went there with us, because nobody would have been there, it was a Tuesday night and there were only a couple of other bands there, but just to play GBGB's was awesome. We finished at about 12:30 and just hung out in the city till about 2 a.m.
Steve Swift: Do you have any shows that stand out as your all time favorite?
Steve Egenski: The Newtown Bazaar has always drawn our biggest crowd. It's hard to put a number on how many people were actually there, but the Fire Chief came in and told us that there was about 11,000 people were in and out of the place during the night. Everybody is so responsive and excited there, when we get through with a song the crowd always goes crazy.
Steve Swift: Speaking crowd response, which of your songs get the biggest response?
Brian Egenski: I think "Around the Bar" goes over the best.
Mike Zubritski: A lot of people sing to it, and it's an amazing sight to see hundreds, even thousands of people singing your song back at you while you're playing.
Brian Egenski: The same can be said about "Worm and the Toad." That's off our first album, so we've been playing that song now since '98 and it's been on mp3.com's top 100 charts for like a year and half now.
Steve Swift: How about when you do covers, what are your favorites to play?
Brian Egenski: We stay pretty current, there are some songs that we've played since day one that none of us enjoy playing, but the crowd wants us to play, so we keep playing them, they seem to like the really good old party songs or the stuff that's on the radio.
Jason Egenski: Puddle of Mud, Jimmy Eat World songs are always good to play.
Steve Swift: So what do you think the future holds for 40lb Head?
Jason Egenski: Playing tunes, just rockin' and rollin'.
Steve Egenski: We have a guy from Arista records looking at us, but who knows what's going to happen with that. We kind of gave up on the idea of ever making it big, I don't think it was ever any of out priorities to ever make it that far.
Jason Egenski: If it should happen though, we would investigate all the opportunities when they arise, but we tend not to get our hopes up anymore.
Inside the Head of 40 LB Head:
What's in your CD player right now?
Jason Egenski: Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Alice in Chains, Steely Dan
Mike Zubritski: The new 40lb Head so I can learn the songs, Blind Mellon, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Pink Floyd The Wall
Brian Egenski: Black Sabbath, Matchbox 20, Goo Goo Dolls
Steve Egenski: The Strokes, Placebo, Bob Marley, Tom Petty
If you could have 40 of anything what would it be?
Jason Egenski: Million Dollars
Mike Zubritski: Harley Davidson's that run.
Brian Egenski: Cases of Budweiser
Steve Egenski: I'll take 40 of whatever Brian isn't taking.
Favorite 40 Oz.?
Everyone: Budweiser
Finish this sentence, Ali Baba and the 40...
Mike Zubritski: pound schwantz.
Brian Egenski: beers.
Steve Egenski: chickens.
Jason Egenski: i have no idea