Austin cult band that is always on the verge of psych and space rock.

The band was formed in 1987 and its members were involved in such projects as Tulum, Elegant Doormats, Moray Eels, Vast Majority, My Education, Abigail und Hansel & Roky Erickson And Evil Hook Wildlife ET.

They have a new album out on Pariah Child Records. ‘Over And Over And Over Again’ is a 6-song epic of wild, aggressive tunes that was recorded shortly after some long, yet very fruitful socially-distanced outdoor writing sessions. The result is a very punk sounding space-rock. What was initially intended to be a 7” single has blossomed into a blooming brand new lockdown album.

“The absence of a music scene was very inspiring”

Would you like to talk a bit about your background? Where and when did you grow up?

Scott L. Telles (bass/vox/tapes et cetera): Born in Brooklyn, New York, raised in Rochester NY.

Bobby Baker (BB #2) (guitar/vox/recording/et cetera): Born in Akron, OH. Grew up in South Florida.

Matt Turner (guitar, Aquarius): Born in Big Spring, Texas 1974. Moved to central Texas at age 11.

Lisa Cameron (drums, electronics, Gemini): Born in Medicine Lodge , Kansas. I grew up in Winfield, Kansas.

Bob Bechtol (electronics, keyboards): Born in Tipp City Ohio, did seven years in Minnesota, went to high school in San Marcos Texas.

Was music a big part of your family life?

Scott L. Telles: No. My parents were not musical and were not very encouraging of any of my musical ventures except allowing me to play trumpet in school band. Even though I really wanted to play drums, haha. Mom said no drums in the house!!

Lisa Cameron: My parents were not so much into music but my dad liked Johnny Cash and George Jones, so I grew up around country music. My dad did bring some records home that he didn’t listen to, such as The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky, which I really liked because there were dinosaurs on the cover of the record! I would also listen to the radio at night when I was supposed to be asleep, in the sixties when there was so much good music on the a.m. radio coming down from Chicago.

Bobby Baker: Music was a giant part of my upbringing. My folks played records all the time. They weren’t musicians. But they loved music.

Matt Turner: There was a lot of music in the house. Mostly Texas-based artists like Doug Sahm, Joe Ely, Butch Hancock, Terry Allen. Plenty of blues and country. In lieu of all that the turntable usually defaulted to The Rolling Stones.

Bob Bechtol: Yes, my father enjoyed his records and my Uncle Dwight has played piano in a Holiday Inn in Indiana all his life.

L-R Carlton Crutcher, SL Telles, Cisco Ryder Gilliland, Joel Crutcher

Did the local music scene influence you or inspire you to play music?

Scott L. Telles: Once we got to Texas, yes! We moved to Houston in 1977 and in 1978 I started going to Paradise Island later Rock Island and seeing Houston bands like Really Red, AK-47, Legionaires Disease, Bevatron, the Tix, et cetera.

Bobby Baker: There was a band called Postface in the late 80’s early 90’s in South Florida that made a very big impression on me.

Matt Turner: The absence of a music scene was very inspiring. We gotta get outta this place…

Bob Bechtol: Spent alot of time at Too Bitter in San Marcos where Christopher Cross and Eric Johnson had weekly shows there plus the crunchy country coming out of Cheatam Street Warehouse where in the eighties we would see The Skunks on Saturday nights.

When did you begin playing music? Who were your major influences?

Scott L. Telles: After seeing the Sex Pistols on the Weekend TV show, my friends and I started a punk band. Before that I had mostly been into prog bands like King Crimson and Genesis. I had also discovered Hawkwind through the writing of Michael Moorcock, one of my favorite SF writers.

Bobby Baker: I bought a guitar in 1989 when I was 16. I loved The Jesus and Mary Chain and Dinosaur Jr. and Loop! I wanted to sound like that!

Matt Turner: I started playing guitar around age 10. Influences? I think I was pretty excited about Angus and Malcolm Young back then.

Lisa Cameron: I began playing music when I was about eight, and my favorite bands were The Beatles, The Stones, The Who, The Doors, Blue Cheer, et cetera. I could go on for days about my other influences, haha.

Bob Bechtol: I was a Who fan then became The Jam fan, similar punks different decades.

What bands were you with prior to the formation of ST 37?

Scott L. Telles: Our high school punk band was called Vast Majority. We released a 7″ in early 1980 on the Wild Dog record label. After that I was in a band called The Elegant Doormats from 1983 to 1986.

Bobby Baker: I played in a bunch of bands in South Florida before I discovered ST 37 in 1998. I played in Blanket (Blankey), Death on a Stick, Wolf Boy and the Fantods, Game 4, Mr Entertainment and the Pookie Smackers, Baby Robots. I moved to Austin in 2003 and continued Baby Robots and started a band with King Coffey called Rubble. I also currently play in Austi as well.

Matt Turner: Too many to list. Some you may have heard of, most you haven’t. I was in Rubble with Bobby and King. Most of my creative focus has been on my one-man-band Quttinirpaaq. Six full length albums, 2 splits and many compilation appearances since 2007.

Lisa Cameron: The first major band I played in was Brave Combo, and I also played in Glass Eye, Roky Erickson and Evil Hook Wildlife E.T., sporadically with Daniel Johnston, and Three Day Stubble… I saw many shows with ST 37 on the bill and became interested in playing with them because their drummer was leaving and I liked their sound.

Bob Bechtol: I was in Elegant Doormats then formed Thanatopsis Throne with Jon Torn.

Can you elaborate on the formation of ST 37?

Scott L. Telles: In January 1987 the Doormats merged with the Austin band Tulum, who had been briefly signed to Rabid Cat Records, Scratch Acid’s label. Basically, we shed the dead wood of the people in both bands who weren’t really that interested in playing music anymore.

L-R Joel Crutcher, SL Telles, Mark Stone, Lisa Cameron

What does the name “ST 37” refer to in the context of the band name?

Scott L. Telles: Carlton Crutcher named us that after the song by the great San Francisco band Chrome, from their album ‘Alien Soundtracks’. It was not until later that we discovered it was the name of a throat antiseptic product!

Have you all made any changes to the lineup since you started or is this the original lineup?

Scott L. Telles: We have been together so ridiculously long that inevitably there have been several lineup changes. Joel Crutcher and I are the only original members remaining. However, Lisa Cameron has been in the band since 1997, Bobby Baker has been in since 2006 and our current electronics wizard Bob Bechtol did a stint in the band in 1988-89. Even our “new guy” Matt Turner has been in the band since 2015.

(Vanderbilt Ln. house) Mark Stone, Joel Crutcher, Lisa Cameron, SL Telles, Carlton Crutcher

I usually ask about particular albums, but that would be absolutely impossible in your case. You released so many different albums. Would you mind sharing a few sentences about each?

Scott L. Telles: Yeah, you’re right. Pretty impossible. Highlights for me:

‘BillygoatNothinghead’, our first cassette from 1987 – our rawest expression.

‘The Invisible College’ CD, 1991 – Where we hit our stride, so to speak. Cherry Red is about to issue ‘Ghosts of Tempera Nymphs’ from this CD on their forthcoming space rock box set. ‘Ghosts of Tempera Nymphs’ was our first attempt at interpreting J. G. Ballard – in this case his 1987 novel The Day of Creation – presaging our forthcoming new studio LP ‘Ballardesque’ – which is written but not yet fully recorded – that is a concept record adapting Ballard’s work.

‘Glare’, 1995 – Double LP that many consider our finest moment. We had signed to Twin/Tone but this came out on Electric Jug, an Italian label – as an Austin band in the spirit of the Elevators, we loved the name!

‘Down On Us’, 2002 – Perhaps our most cohesive LP, with the fan favorite ‘A Huge Rare Cheese’ on it. Has been mooted for a vinyl reissue…perhaps, we shall see!

‘Destiny’, 2004 – After we scored Metropolis at the original Alamo Drafthouse in 1998, I became a huge Fritz Lang freak and we did another score for this film, which I loved. This live recording has its moments.

‘I’m Not Good’, 2014 – A very good double LP. Has some of our finest songwriting and best moments as a band, IMO.

‘Over and Over and Over Again’, 2021 – The new one. One new song from Joel and five stellar improvisations, which came out so well that we have arranged two of them and started to play them live regularly!

Lisa Cameron: I think my favorite ST 37 record is ‘Glare’. In my opinion it is one of the quintessential Texas psych rock albums ever made. I didn’t play on that one, the favorite one that I played on is ‘And Then What’, I feel we had a nice balance between our improv stuff and our songs.

I also think on ‘Over and Over and Over Again’ we are firing on all cylinders particularly well and the three guitars sound fantastic.

How’s this last year under lockdown been for you? Have you found the isolation creatively challenging or freeing?

Scott L. Telles: A mixture of both. I did manage to get some stuff done, and even began a few new projects, but after a while I kinda lost motivation and took quite a few breaks. Luckily, I was able to keep working on overdubs with my other band My Education, and ST 37 was able to meet sporadically, so that really helped keep me going. And as I mention in the press bio for ‘Over and Over and Over Again’, when ST 37 was able to meet, we’d been deprived enough that we really had a kind of fevered intensity to our playing that maybe we don’t ordinarily have!

Bobby Baker: Both. Luckily ST 37 has been somewhat active. The other bands I play with have been less active. I moved out to Elgin, TX so that’s been a factor, me not living in Austin.

Matt Turner: As far as ST 37 are concerned no pinche Biblical plague is going to slow these guys down. Oh no.

Lisa Cameron: I think the pandemic has had an unusually freeing effect on me, and has really driven me to do many different projects. I’ve recorded with six different projects since the virus took hold.

Bob Bechtol: Isolation has led to releasing an album that was recorded a while back called ‘Vacation To Boerne’ by Pynchon Dual. It also contains a side of Abigail und Hansel (Joel’s udder mudder project)

I’m stoked about your newest album, ‘Over and Over and Over Again’. Can you share some further details on how your latest album was recorded?

Scott L. Telles: The first song and title track was recorded during our last studio sessions before the pandemic with Evan Kleinecke at 5th St. Studios. It of course is not a Ballard-related track, so we had already decided to release it separately from the Ballardesque material.

<a href="https://st37.bandcamp.com/album/over-and-over-and-over-again">Over And Over And Over Again by ST 37</a>

We thought about doing a 7″ single for a while, but then we started recording these crazed improvisations and thought they were worthy of release, so the concept evolved to cassette and now CD.

“The story of ST 37 has largely been told in the tension between our more song-based efforts and our improvisational and experimental tendencies”

How do you usually approach music making?

Scott L. Telles: The story of ST 37 has largely been told in the tension between our more song-based efforts and our improvisational and experimental tendencies. We tried to segregate them for a while with our purely improvisational/experimental releases like ‘Nunavut’ and ‘John Deere Isolation Tank’, but now they really seem to be growing together and it’s becoming harder and harder to keep them apart. Of course, since our earliest beginnings we have songs that come together out of improvisation aka jamming, but all of us have been known to bring fairly finished songs into the band as well, with myself and Joel submitting the most.

Bobby Baker: “Hey! Y’all wanna play? Cool! When and where?! Haha.

L-R Bobby Baker, Joel Crutcher, SL Telles

Matt Turner: Mostly about finding novel ways of commodifying mental illness.

Lisa Cameron: One thing I really like about ST37 is that it is so easy to just start playing music and we know what to do and how to deal with each other sonically. That’s actually pretty rare in a band situation!

ST 37 related project WTC (Waters Telles Cones) live at Club 1808 in 2012 L-R SL Telles, Chris Cones

Bob Bechtol: As the electronic buzzer, I drift in and out of the rhythms and whooshes instinctively aware of the moods and movements.

L-R Joel Crutcher, Lisa Cameron, SL Telles live at Trailer Space records

Are you inspired by psychoactive substances like LSD when it comes to music making?

Scott L. Telles: Without a doubt, unquestionably. Joel?

Joel Crutcher: Noooooooo!!

Bobby Baker: Haven’t eaten LSD in a long time. But I can feel the vibrations from the folks that do! I may have consumed psilocybin on occasion though.

Matt Turner: You bet.

Lisa Cameron: Say what? Uh, yes.

Bob Bechtol: History has taught me well, I don’t need a current dose when I can just revisit past trips.

ST 37 circa 1991 L-R Craig Johnson, Carlton Crutcher, Shane Shelton, SL Telles, Jpel Crutcher/ Squatting is drummer Lance Farley

You were also involved in such projects as Tulum, Elegant Doormats, Moray Eels, Vast Majority, My Education, Abigail und Hansel &Roky Erickson And Evil Hook Wildlife ET.

Scott L. Telles: Vast Majority we’ve already mentioned. The Doormats were formed as an outgrowth of Jerry Grigadean’s History of Rock and Roll class in 1983 at the University of Texas. We mentioned Tulum as well – this was Joel and Carlton’s punk/psych band that existed around 1983 to 1986 – Shawn McMillen recently reissued their cassette. My Education is my other band, we’re a post rock instrumental outfit that has a number of records out and has toured Europe (2013) and the States (many times).

Fans often enjoy removing their clothes at ST 37 performances

Lisa Cameron: The Goddess provided me with the opportunity to play with my idol Roky Erickson in 1983 for about 2 months. I moved to Austin to play in his band, Evil Hook Wildlife E.T…. after two months, Roky was committed to Austin State Hospital. I did make two records with him though, and we played about 5 gigs. We were doing his solo material about the monsters mostly, which are fantastic , but one night our guitarist was sick and his brother Donnie played with us and we were able to play all of the 13th Floor Elevators songs that we could fit into the set. That was electrifying. Just being on the stage with Roky was amazing, he was such a great singer.

The Touring Party: This lineup played 30 shows in 31 days across the US and Canada in 2015 with Acid Mothers Temple L-R Joel Crutcher, SL Telles, Lisa Cameron, Bob Bechtol, Matt Turner

Scott L. Telles: Joel and Bob are indisposed right now, but I wanted to put in a good word for Abigail und Hansel, their long-running psych/folk/country collaborative outfit with Michelle Waterman, Joel’s wife, who used to be in the fantastic Minneapolis band the Romulans. They have a new cassette out called ‘Found Down’ that is very, very good.

Who are some of your personal favorite bands that you’ve had a chance to play with over the past few years?

Scott L. Telles: We have been very lucky in this regard. We have toured the US and Canada with Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. (40 shows in 41 days, spring 2015) and have also shared the stage with Bardo Pond, Hawkwind and Chrome, total favorites of ours.

Bobby Baker: Psychic TV!, AMT, The Gary, Obnox, Brother JT.

Live at Emo’s L-R Joel Crutcher, SL Telles, Bobby Baker

Lisa Cameron: We’ve played with many awesome bands over the years including Chrome, Hawkwind, Silver Apples, Träd, Gräs & Stenar, the Black Sun Ensemble, Rusted Shut, Suishou No Fune, and even Oxbow!!

If you could collaborate with any current musicians who would it be?

Scott L. Telles: An Eno production would be nice…!! I got to record some stuff with John and Michael from Bardo Pond, that was pretty sweet… I’d like to do some drones with Sonic Boom…! I know! An LP with lyrics by Ron Mael…

Bobby Baker: My band Baby Robots is the backing band for Brother JT when he comes to Austin! I absolutely love that.

Matt Turner: La Monte Young or Billy Barty.

Lisa Cameron: In the last few years I’ve been recording and playing shows with some fantastic musicians including Tom Carter, Sandy Ewen, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Raquel Bell, Suspirians, Damon Smith, and Alex Cunningham.

Bob Bechtol: Would love to play with Roedelius.

What are some future plans?

Scott L. Telles: Well, we have about half of ‘Ballardesque’ recorded and are now cleaning up the arrangements on the rest of the songs, so that is a huge project for us. Fingies crossed, the AMT tour we were supposed to do in spring 2020 may very well happen in fall 2022. That’ll keep us busy.

Bobby Baker: To keep playing with these fools til they kick me out!

Matt Turner: The present is all we have.

Bob Bechtol: We’re still working on changing the world one psyched mind at a time.

Let’s end this interview with some of your favourite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?

Scott L. Telles: OK, here’s one from left field – I just got ahold of a copy of ‘Sacred Songs’ by Darryl Hall, the third part of Robert Fripp’s ‘MOR trilogy’ along with Peter Gabriel’s second record and Fripp’s ‘Exposure’, both records I grew up with and loved to death. Very interesting and informative to hear this piece of that puzzle. As far as “new” goes, I’m afraid I’m a dinosaur…I like a lot of the new Horse Lords stuff…’A Winged Victory For The Sullen’ is pretty awesome…locals who are awesome include How I Quit Crack, Troller, Thousand Foot Whale Claw, Dylan Cameron, Croy and the Boys…from San Antonio we have The Grasshopper Lies Heavy and the perennial Hickoids…I could go on…

Bobby Baker: All the Syd Barrett stuff!

Matt Turner: What was music?

Lisa Cameron: When I recently saw La Monte Young in the Velvet Underground film, I started listening a lot to his and Marian Zazeela’s work, such as the 5 hour long ‘The Well Tuned Piano’, which is incredibly psychedelic. Also another Young / Zazeela work, the Tambouras of Pandit Pran Nath.

Bob Bechtol: I’ll just put on some Ray Wylie Hubbard.