Meet the Musician: Steve Mead, Keyboardist for The Muddy Crows

This post profiles Steve Mead, who currently plays with the Muddy Crows (voted Best Original Band in Washington City Paper) and who played in the Flashband Thanksgiving showcase in November 2014.

I discovered Flashband when a friend of mine told met about a group that set up fun, temporary band gigs. I was curious as to the process and the types of musicians, and wanted to see what it was like.

In Flashband, you see some incredible talent, as well as musicians just starting out (i.e. testing the waters). After my first meet-up, I was incredibly impressed with the musicians, enthusiasm and hard work of everybody I met, and had a lot of fun putting together songs, creating an original, and performing (and recording) it.

I really liked the mixture of people, backgrounds and interest involved with Flashband. When you go from playing "known" material to new material, it really makes you think about how you approach music. This to me is fascinating, as your own perceptions of what music is can be constantly challenged when you see how others approach it.

I still consider myself a novice, as I am constantly learning new material, techniques, and improving my own ability to perform and entertain an audience. My music career started when I took piano lessons from ages four to ten. I did percussion in marching band and choir in high school, and then didn't do anything musical until about eight years ago. Since then, I’ve worked through multiple cover bands and four original bands until I started performing with my current band, The Muddy Crows, which was voted "Best Local Original Band in DC” and performs regularly around the city.

I enjoy playing keys, but also love the warmth and sound of the acoustic guitar and the raw power of the electric guitar. Frequently, I also pick up hand percussion, and provide extensive background vocals for all the original material my band puts together. I have worked with multiple artists in the studio and provided piano, keys, organ and other synth parts for multiple albums. The most recent album I worked on was with The Muddy Crows was released in October of 2014 (available on Itunes). 

I’ve heard the expression, “Don't just learn the material so that you can play it right; learn the material so you can't play it wrong.” But I didn't really know what it meant until I worked with others on the Flashband project. Then I understood the difference between just learning something and being able to fully work with the material and incorporate all the various nuances of the performance into your own version of it. 

I would absolutely love to be a full-time musician, but in order to get there is going to take a lot more work, time, and effort, so I'll get back to you in a couple of years!