Riddle Of Steel
Interview with Andrew Elstner
Words: MacKenzie Pause
Photos: Michael Spadoni

Once again, Riddle of Steel will rock Central Florida. The St. Louis trio just returned from a European tour to show the States what influences like King Crimson, Led Zeppelin and Jawbox have on this stoner, spacey, indie, prog rock band. Tampa gave ROS an incredible reception at the Auto!Automatic!! CD release show last year, and you would be doing yourself a favor to witness the rock first hand. Jimmy Vavek (bass, vocals), Andrew Elstner (guitar, vocals) and Rob Smith (drums) know what it is like to stock up on tour food, sleep on floors and travel around the country, no matter how much the van starts to stink. This band, named from a Conan the Barbarian reference, plays a unique blend of rock that has been compared to Failure, Queens of the Stone Age and Shiner. Comparisons aside, this rock stew has a taste all its own.  

REAX:  Describe the current state of the band and what are the plans for the future?
Andrew Elstner:  Immediate plans are to finish this next record, hit the road a couple more times before we start recording heavily.  And beyond that should be the usual: write, record tour.  It'd be nice to do some more traveling as well, maybe Japan, Australia?  Whatever we can get away with. 

REAX: Can you tell me a little about your upcoming album?
AE:  Well... I can tell you it's not coming out until sometime in late summer/ early fall.  Things come up, the UK/Euro tour happened, we've got some more dates to play at home still.  I'm just one voice of the three of us, but from my perspective, the songs so far are the most straightforward stuff we've ever written as a band.  We'll always write and play what excites us the most, and that's that.  There was never a conscious effort to straighten things out, that’s just how it's been happening.  People who like us will still be into the tunes, no doubt.  People who only worship technique can still find solace in their Dream Theater records.  Ouch, sorry D.T.!  I couldn't be more proud of Jimmy and Rob and the stuff we've come up with.  It'll be a minor milestone for us to put out two full lengths with the same drummer, provided Rob does not explode.    
 
REAX:  I know Florida loves ROS. How is the Florida scene in your opinion? How does it compare to St. Louis?
 AE:  Well, the only bit of Florida we really know is the Tampa scene.  What we know specifically is that we struck gold when we ran into Jack Spatafora, who just happened to dig our band.  The reason we do well in Tampa is because of him.  No doubt.  Not to count ourselves out, I mean, if we sucked then no one would give a shit... well, then again, how do you explain American Idol?  Jack is a one man promotional army.  He talked us up to all the right people, and sure enough now they all come to our gigs.  It's safe to say that we do better in Tampa/Ybor City, than anywhere else in the world.  Tampa and France, there ya' go.  Crazy world.  Jack rules. 

St. Louis on the other hand, Jimmy and Rob might give you a different answer, but speaking for myself, the best thing about St. Louis is that it's cheap to live here and our family, friends and loved ones are here.  As far as any kind of "scene" here goes, there's not a whole lot going on except for clubs closing all over the place, at least at the moment…  sort of in a bummer downswing at the moment here venue wise.  But, it's centrally located in the U.S. and easy to travel from, so, here we are.  If you're a band that tours a lot, that whole "magic city," business starts to lose its legitimacy.   

REAX:  I noticed some out of print albums selling for 1,000. Have some die hard fans showed their financial appreciation yet or are these items too hard to part with?
AE:  HA!  Yeah, I think that's something our best friend/label owner, Hieu did on the AsceticRecords.com page.  I can't remember now if it's a copy of the Burn EP, or an old seven-inch or something, but yeah, it's silly out of print.  Hieu isn't too interested in parting with whatever it is, so whoever wants it better want it bad.  There has been a dude/evil wizard on eBay who's been pricing out a box of Burn EPs for forty bucks a pop.  It’s flattering, yet still strange and mildly disappointing.  Why can't our new disc sell for that much on eBay?  Ok, don't answer that.