“A Song from Under the Floorboard” – Magazine (1980)
The Welders survived several personnel changes and our new members Colleen and Lyla helped us to grow musically. We played shows sporadically and also recorded a few times. I got tired of playing drums and wanted to be more creative so I moved to keyboards. I had a Vox Super Continental and a Farfisa Compact Fast organ which I played through a flanger. Our sound became influenced by bands like Joy Division, Ultravox and Magazine. The music was more serious, melancholy and accomplished.
Having spent our teenage years in this band, not really finding success or even much acclaim (I know, surprising because we knew we were unique and fabulous) – we broke up on Christmas day 1980.
After the Welders, I continued playing in almost a dozen different bands in San Francisco and Los Angeles such as the Mini Skirt Mob, Anemone and Hello I’m a Truck. I stopped when I had my son in 2002. I still have dreams where I am playing on stage or in a van driving to shows.
In 2009, St. Louis-based label BDR Records released a 7” vinyl EP of 4 Welders songs. We were then on the cover of Maximum Rock and Roll Magazine in 2011. Our guitarist Rusty was interviewed in 2013 by PRI for their Studio 360 show on high school punk bands. There is now talk of a full-length album of various odds and ends we recorded during our career. Although the Welders didn’t make the big time, against all odds, my dream of being a drummer in a rock’n’roll band did come true. How crazy is that?