Todd Poole starts over, gets stronger with StiffKitty
Like the title of one of his songs, Todd Poole is “Bulletproof.”
“I’ve been around a long time,” he said. “I started Saliva. Then I had Rail.”
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And, he said, “I’ve worked hard. I got a record deal with Roxy Blue. All of a sudden I’m traveling on a bus and going, ‘Yes, we want five cases of beer and a deli tray.’ And we were getting it. The only job I had to do before I went on stage was to ask my road manager what city I was in so I wouldn’t (screw) it up.
“When you get to that point and it’s taken away from you and you have to go back, you have a better perspective, a lot more appreciation. So I don’t mind going from people loading my stuff to going, ‘You know, I’m no better than the guy that’s over here who’s doing it. I’m gonna pick my amp up and do it myself again. I’m gonna start over and make myself stronger.’ And that’s what I did.”
The result? StiffKitty, Poole’s new band, which includes Ronnie Knight on drums, Flexer on guitar and John Snyder on bass.
After Rail disbanded, Poole decided to take some time off. Then at one point he thought, “All I’ve ever done is original music. I’m gonna try something different. I’m gonna try to go in T.J. Mulligan’s and do the cover stuff.”
That was the original premise of StiffKitty, but Poole, StiffKitty’s lead singer and guitarist, began dropping in some originals. And the audience wanted to hear more.
The band took time off, and Poole wrote all the songs for the band’s self-titled CD, StiffKitty. “I ran a tile and marble showroom in Olive Branch. My boss told me, ‘Bring your guitar to work every day while you’re out there. And when you don’t have any customer stuff, I want you to just write.’ I wrote the entire record at work.”
Describing “Out of Control,” he said, “It’s going against the grain; that’s all it is. It’s like when Eddie Van Halen came up with his guitar style. When Jimi Hendrix decided feedback was music — if he didn’t decide that that’s something new, then he would have just walked the straight line like everybody else. It was a way of saying, ‘I’m gonna break out of my shell and I can be out of control.’”
“Bulletproof” is “a metaphor for the whole world outside your door. When people are unhappy, they try to bring you down. If you stand up strong, when you’re bulletproof, you not only make yourself stand up but probably influence a few other people to come aboard and be positive.”
And, he said, “I guess it’s kind of an anthem for the kids to say, ‘Hey, man. You know what? Life is OK out there.’”
StiffKitty plays at 9:30 p.m. Saturday at Neil’s Music Room, 1835 Madison. Cover: $5.
Listen Up spotlights area performers. Michael Donahue can be reached at 529-2797.
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