By Brian Tucker

It took time but Stephen Kellogg became comfortable as the guy next door who plays in a rock and roll band. While egos and bad behavior sometimes define and drive musicians, humility does too, perhaps with less media attention. In conversation Kellogg is humble, appreciative of what he’s accomplished, and of his family, evident in the song “My Favorite Place” on the band’s acoustic driven rock album Gift Horse.

“We’re in the middle class of the music world,” Kellogg said of his band the Sixers who will perform at Brooklyn Arts Center Thursday night.

The singer-guitarist was introduced to heavy metal music by his sister growing up in a house where his parents listened to Jackson Browne. Kellogg played in a metal band in high school, later on found the Grateful Dead, and says he nearly drove his future wife insane “with the Dylan thing.” Kellogg found his way to the likes of Tom Petty and John Mellencamp, and cites North Carolina’s Whiskeytown and its founder Ryan Adams as a favorite. But it began in earnest attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst where he met other musicians who would later form the Sixers. All were working conventional jobs and Kellogg worked for a music promoter.

“It’s a big state college, around 20,000 people. We all had our own bands on campus. We knew about each other. We didn’t play together there. It was really after when we were out of school. We all happened to be in the same area and working. You start looking around going, who do I know? There has to be somebody who wants to do this,” Kellogg said. “It’s what we built the band on – finding people to go out on the road and take the risk. If you can make that happen you’re 50% of the way there. A lot of young artists don’t believe that, but the toughest part is finding people that are willing this gamble and like playing music that much.”

The band formed eight years ago in western Massachusetts and Kellogg describes them as regular guys who play music for a living, something he knows doesn’t make for great print, much to the frustration of publicists looking for an angle to sell the band. But he stresses that they’re about making music people can relate to, see themselves in the lyrics. And they’re okay with making music they consider to be the meat of the country, what some call heartland rock and roll. There’s no desire to be bad boys in a rock and roll band, or say things they don’t mean.

“What I care about is feeding my family, living a life that I can feel proud of and doing an honest day’s work. Those are the motivating factors in our music. We came to terms (with it). We don’t want to dream up something that doesn’t exist. We’re just going to be absolute normal dudes but we’re a rock band,” Kellogg said. “This is the record where we really embraced it. I’m a dad. I’m a husband. I’m just going to be this guy.”

Gift Horse is about the past, fatherhood, and themes identifiable to most people. Kellogg sings nostalgically about how he’s the father of three daughters, who was once a young man meeting his wife at sixteen (“We met in high school, she’s an ace. I hit the jackpot with her”). Kellogg attended high school in the same town as John Mayer and was aware of Mayer’s determination to make it big. Kellogg played in his own band but believed he didn’t have what it took to succeed.

“The Sixers became this band of guys that didn’t think they were good enough. It was only after we signed a couple of record deals, had some wins and did bigger things that we thought we’re good enough and should take this seriously. We’ve rocketed past being in a starving artist place but we’re not household names either,” Kellogg said. “We’re out doing good music and trying to good shows and give them an experience they won’t soon forget. Isn’t that enough? We know who we are. We’ve all grown up a little and it’s exhausting trying to pretend to be anything that you’re not. This is the record where we really embraced it, too. I’m a dad. I’m a husband. I’m this guy. So I’m just going to be this guy. ”

Between 2003 and 2005 they toured around 250 days a year. Kellogg doesn’t regret the years working to establish the band but today he tours differently, balancing it with family.  

“As you get older you realize you have to take control of it or it totally controls you. I feel like if we were going to win on quantity alone we would have done that. I’m happy to tour a little more moderate now and keep the quality high.”

The band has had memorable experiences along the way. They performed at Sun Studios for PBS, in Central Park honoring Simon & Garfunkel, and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival which opened the band up to playing in Colorado more. And the band did a month long tour overseas for the troops that led to performing for the Prime Minister of Israel at the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv on the 4^th of July. It’s all part of a day’s work, something he says he accomplished due to his family.

“I have three daughters and a great wife and that’s how you make it work. There are challenging moments when you’re away for longer than you want to be. You come up against the same things; your kids want you to be at home and don’t understand why you’re doing this. But I love it. I Iove playing music, love what I do. And that’s how we keep the lights on here so to speak.” 

More with Stephen Kellogg

What changes have you made from the beginning to now?

Kellogg: As you get older you realize you have to take control of it or it totally controls you. I don’t regret the years we went out and I was travelling 260 days of the year. That’s what I was doing from 2003 to 2005. I think you gotta do that to establish something and then see what’s next. It’s like any business, you’re running it, the start up takes quite a bit of inertia and you see where it goes. I’ve got my foot on the gas and trying to make things happen. I still want more people to hear our music than are currently hearing it. I have limits now. I’m happy to tour a little more moderate now and keep the quality high.

How did performing in Tel Aviv happen?

Kellogg: As we were going along we said let’s not wait until we’re as big as U2 to make contributions in some way. We asked, what do we care about, and for me its kids. It’s a big thing. Once you have them you’re addicted. We played a couple of times at children’s hospitals like St. Jude’s and we’ve been to St. Louis Children’s Hospital and played and ran a few drives for them.

We all appreciate what the men and women of the military do so we booked a tour and went overseas and did a month of dates in the Middle East and played bases. That was a great experience and we got a call a couple months after asking if we’d come the play the 4^th at the US embassy. They said, you’re going to play right before the Prime Minister. I didn’t envision as intimate a situation as it was. But there we were in Tel Aviv. It was like, he spoke, we played, and there were fireworks. It was one of those neat moments like, did somebody screw up or how the hell did I get to do this?

I saw the video of the band at Sun Studios in Memphis. Another unique experience.

Kellogg: Sometimes stuff gets so crazy that your manager just says you’re going through Memphis tonight, stop at Sun Studios. We thought we were walking in to maybe get a tour. No one really briefed us on what was happening. Our tour manager didn’t say anything. We walk in and it’s Sun Studios. They (say) the camera crew will be here in a minute, we’ll set up. You should have about eight tunes ready. We were touring as a trio at the time and weren’t even musically that together. Then we found out this was for a TV show and wound up staying in Sun most of the night recording songs and chatting and doing all this cool stuff.

Did you get to record besides the live material?

Kellogg: We stayed in touch and went back and recorded a song there recently. It was one of those things where I thought we were walking in there to say hi and then eight hours later we’d been recording songs all night, doing interviews, and it ended up on PBS. The song we went back to cut hasn’t come out yet. (The recording) was something just to do when we were driving through again. And in a way we wanted to rewind the experience and be able to do it again. Sometimes things happen like that too and it’s good you’re not too prepared for it because you’d be nervous.

That’s happened on occasion?

Kellogg: I got invited to do this duet last year at this thing honoring Simon & Garfunkel. Again, I had no idea what I was doing. I get there and I’m looking at the list of players that night I’m easily far and away the least famous guy on the list of people singing. There we were in Central Park playing for the mayor and Simon & Garfunkel and all these cool artists like Aimee Mann and The Raconteurs, all these great people I look up to and I’m singing a song.

Because I didn’t think about it much you don’t get nervous. I think we’ve gotten more…now I just enjoy it. Now if I meet somebody who I admire I just say, man, I’m a fan and its fun to meet you. I really savor it. I don’t get too nervous about it anymore. But I’ve had my share of stupid things I’ve said to people I look up to. In lieu of more traditional benefits like health and dental care, things like that, we get to meet cool people and do things like that with them.

When you run into musicians like that, who has surprised you?

Kellogg: There’s a band called Dispatch. I met them first backstage at a show where there was 80,000 kids there to see them play. I remember being so blown away, just like, this can’t be. These are the most normal guys I’ve ever met. They couldn’t have been nicer, couldn’t have been humbler. They had their families around and were very concerned with their families and friends. This was some years ago and it made a huge impact on me. I thought that’s exactly how I want to be. I want to be that type of guy.  As I’ve gotten to know those guys they’ve never disappointed me. Anytime I’ve seen them offstage they’re everything they purport to be in their music. Those were the guys that I thought this is the real deal, this is the coolest. That (Zimbabwe concert), it’s really inspiring and as great as it is, I’ve been impressed by a load of people but they’re def top of the list for me.

Why is Whiskeytown such an influence to you?

Kellogg: Ryan Adams in particular is one of my favorite songwriters. To me, it’s an authenticity. The music sounds real but it’s from my generation. Usually I just listen to Jackson Browne, Crosby, Stills & Nash, The Rolling Stones. I love that stuff. But I definitely sometimes feel, and sometimes my wife will tease me about it, but I feel like, what am I? Some throwback? I feel like I’m not a dinosaur, I’m not just wanting to be back in the 70s. I’m happy to be a guy in the 21st century.

Whiskeytown has all that flavor but it just feels a little more current. That’s what I dug about it. Ryan Adams went on to do really great work. On our last tour we took Caitlin Cary from Whiskeytown with us. So we got to know her and Mike Daly (he became a later member of Whiskeytown) has produced some things for us.

The throwback material, it feels personable much like your music.

Kellogg: It’s so that way. It’s where I came from and where our music sits right now. I think that works for some people but when I do read critical reviews that’s one of the big indictments, that we’re singing too much about personal stuff. I just came off reading a negative review that suggested I was going to hang it up because I had written a few songs about fatherhood on. I thought, what the hell are you talking about? I’m 35 years old, what am I supposed to be writing about? This is what’s going on. I’m out in the middle of a four month tour and its like, am I hanging it up? Does this look like the act of a man who’s hanging it up? But, I also realize it’s not for everybody. But it’s for me. That’s what I came up on and it’s still what I dig.

I don’t think that same writer would have said something about Eric Clapton writing “Tears in Heaven.”

Kellogg: Right, exactly. You can’t live and die with a review, positive or negative. What? Am I not doing good work here? What a below the belt shot it felt like.

Its personable in that its music can people relate to.

Kellogg: You grab onto it, like a Jim Croce song. (His music) feels like something I can grab onto. I feel like Country music is the only place where that is really being embraced right now, just to say it like it is. I think what we’re trying to do is carve out a spot where you can be a rock and roll band and do it like that, too.

Starting out as a folk artist I didn’t play the guitar very well, wasn’t always great at what I was singing. When I finished a song it was a natural instinct to share stories with people or funny thoughts. Because that’s who I am. With some people it’s going to resonate with some. One thing I’ll say about the Sixers, is you don’t leave the show (thinking) I don’t know what those guys are all about. Its pretty clear by the end of the night between what we’ve said and done there’s a sense of who we are. That started back in the solo days telling stories. For the most part it’s helped us a lot more than hurts us.

I went to college and I was an unlikely candidate for a professional musician title. I did it but I grew up in the suburbs. It wasn’t like I was in some cultural hub where others I knew or saw were doing it. I wasn’t overtly talented at it. I was a likable guy I guess and I liked singing in a band. We were okay but we weren’t the big band around town. Then I went to college and the songwriting thing became the outlet for everything I was feeling. That’s when I started writing my own songs.

Summer jobs working at Brooks Pharmacy and doing other jobs was pretty dull. I figured I could play guitar at a restaurant and make a few bucks. I still was never thinking I’m going to make it big someday. Then I got out of college and got a job. I worked for a promoter and I was around (music) but was never seriously entertaining it. I had gone to high school in the same town as John Mayer and I saw these guys so determined and talented to make something happen. I’m thinking, I don’t have that, this isn’t going to happen. That’s where the Sixers became this band about a band full of guys that didn’t think they were good enough and it was only after we signed a couple of record deals and had some wins and sold out some bigger shows and did some bigger things that we thought maybe we are good enough and we should really take this seriously. The last three or four years we’ve worked really hard at it and tried to be the absolute best we could possibly be. …if you want to be successful you really have to try hard.

In other interviews we’ve not talked about this to anybody and I think you make a great point. That’s how it feels to me. We’re out…we make music night to night with the people who come out to buy the tickets. Sometimes we’re in Laurence, Kansas and there’s a 100 people and sometimes we’re in Boston and there’s 800 people. Regardless, we go and we make the music and go to the next city. We bring home the money we can and we use it to pay the mortgage and we get opportunities where we can and we hustle. It feels what it was like before there was the social media machine which is not to take anything away from the big musicians. I’m trying to do what I can to for the family and have a good time doing it.