| Steve Perry | |
|---|---|
Steve Perry performing with the Cherry Poppin' Daddies in 2007. |
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| Background information | |
| Also known as | MC Large Drink Buddy Love Count d'Monet |
| Born | October 8, 1963 Syracuse, New York |
| Genres | Rock, ska, swing, punk rock, rock and roll |
| Occupations | Singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, biologist |
| Instruments | Vocals, rhythm guitar, theremin |
| Years active | 1989–present |
| Associated acts | Cherry Poppin' Daddies White Hot Odyssey |
Stephen Henry Perry (born October 8, 1963) is an American musician, best known for being the lead singer, songwriter and rhythm guitarist for the ska-swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, of which he is the founding member.
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Perry was born in Syracuse, New York to a physicist and a social worker, and raised in Apalachin, outside the industrial city of Binghamton.[1] He described Binghamton as being "a poor, run down, loner class town", which would later serve as a significant influence on his songs.[2][3] As a child, he received dance and piano lessons, though expressed an initial disinterest in music, devoting much of his adolescence towards literature and athletics, later discovering a passion for music upon his introduction to punk rock in the late 1970s.[4][5] Perry attended Vestal High School, where he was involved with track and field.[6]
After graduating in 1981, Perry moved to Eugene, Oregon to pursue track and field and chemistry in the Honors College at the University of Oregon, where he befriended fellow student Dan Schmid.[1] After being exposed to the Northwest punk and hardcore scene, Perry became inspired to follow a path as a musician, teaching himself guitar at age twenty.[7] Soon finding himself more interested in "drinking beer and going to punk rock shows" than attending college, Perry dropped out in his junior year in 1983 and formed the punk trio The Jazz Greats with Schmid and drummer Tim Arnold.[1][2][7] Perry was also briefly involved with Snakepit alongside Billy Karren, Joe Preston and Al Larsen before assembling the Paisley Underground-styled band Saint Huck with Schmid and Arnold in 1984.[8]
Throughout the 1980s, Perry lived a devoutly Bohemian lifestyle: sporting eccentric clothing and waist-length tricolor hair dyed red, white and blue, he primarily spent his days writing songs and short stories, living in a house with up to ten other people ("where I slept in fiberglass insulation"), and juggled numerous oddjobs ranging from a telephone dispatcher and construction worker to a squid cleaner at a Greek restaurant and the owner of an avant-garde video store.[1][3][9] Perry recalled that a lot of his free time was spent in a beatnik coffee house, listening to obscure punk, rock, jazz, swing, psychedelia and soul records on a jukebox, an experience he credits for introducing him to the American roots music that would later be explored by the Daddies.[7]
By 1988, Perry had conceived and written a stage musical based on people from his childhood neighborhood, wherein each character was represented by a different genre of music. While the play never materialized, he carried the concept and much of the material over to the next band he and Schmid formed, Mr. Wiggles (later to be renamed "Cherry Poppin' Daddies").[10][11] Inspired by the more experimental aspects of punk, Perry set out to form a band more musically varied than the grunge sound dominating the Northwest music scene, choosing to utilize a horn section and dance-oriented genre eclecticism, placing particular emphasis on jazz and swing.[7]
While the Daddies' iconoclastic music and flamboyant live shows had struck a positive chord with Oregon's counterculture, the band also came under harsh criticism from feminist and P.C. groups who saw the band as promoting sexism and obscenity based on their name and lyrical content.[7][10][12] Perry, being the creative force behind the band, was placed at the center of this controversy. In a 1990 article on the Daddies, Eugene Weekly had called him "the most hotly discussed topic in the local music scene....hailed by some as a creative genius, reviled by others as a foul-mouthed sexist, he clearly is the Eugene flash point for the growing national debate on censorship, free speech, and the rights of the artist".[13] Perry claimed that this notoriety had caused him to be singled out and frequently harassed in his community, so much as once having hot coffee thrown in his face by an irate protester as he was walking down the street.[7] Throughout the band's controversies, Perry stood firmly by his claims of artistic freedom, emphasizing the satirical elements and fictional narrative featured in his lyrics.[13]
During the Daddies' hiatus, Perry temporarily relocated to Manhattan for the better part of two years in order to be closer to his family and "chill anonymously" following the Daddies' brush with fame. Upon moving back to Eugene, Perry re-enrolled at the University of Oregon, pursuing an undergraduate degree in molecular biology. He graduated in 2004 with a Bachelor of Science, and currently works in a biology laboratory.[14]
In 2002, Perry formed the hard rock/glam rock band White Hot Odyssey with Daddies guitarist Jason Moss. The group played steadily throughout the early 2000s, often as a opening act for the Daddies, and released their self-titled debut in 2004 on Jive Records before going on hiatus the following year.
Perry lives in Eugene, and has a daughter with his longtime girlfriend.
Since their inception, Perry has been the sole lyricist, primary composer and producer of the Daddies' music.[15][16] According to Jason Moss in regard to the band's songwriting process, Perry writes nearly every aspect of the Daddies' music, first composing each song on his guitar and then working with each member of the band to build upon his ideas for drum beats, horn lines, bass lines and lead guitar riffs.[17]
Perry has mostly played a Gibson Les Paul in concert, but since the early 2000s has alternated with a Flying V. In late 2009, shortly after the band's signing to Rock Ridge Music, Perry teamed up with Gibson to promote the company's new limited edition SG Zoot Suit guitar, appearing in several picture advertisements.[18] In recent videos, Perry can also be seen playing a Fender Jazzmaster.
See: Cherry Poppin' Daddies discography for complete listing
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