The Blackouts

The Blackouts formed almost five years ago in the small town of Odell, IL (population 1,030). "We built this band in Steve’s parent’s basement when he still lived with his parents out in the country in the middle of a corn field," says lead guitarist Joe Prokop. "When Steve and I started jamming, our main influences were Billy Childish and The Cramps." Lead singer/guitarist Steve Ucherek chimes in, "One day when we were on our way home from cross country practice Joe was like ‘check this band out’." That band was garage rockers The Makers, who had quite an influence on the band in its early days… which at the time included Ucherek’s older brother "Creech" on drums in a lineup that featured two guitarists, was basically a bastardized surf rock band. "We did some surf and some Sonics covers and a lot of Link Wray," says Prokop. Getting gigs wasn’t an easy task. "…you had to know people to be hip," Ucherek elaborates, "We didn’t know anybody and we were loud as hell."

The band, still in or barely out of their teens at the time, gradually moved in a different direction as their tastes evolved. The awakening, as drummer Mark Schroder (who joined the band a little over two years ago and also hails from Odell) tells it, came when the group first heard the Nuggets garage rock box set. The roots of garage rock as found on the Nuggets and Pebbles compilations gave the group a new insight into rock and roll and encouraged them to expand their sound beyond a basic three-chord attack. "We have no boundaries now," explains Prokop. "We’re doing exactly what we want to do. We write with a garage backbone and then we go off from there." — interview from lostatsea.net 2002