Longwave’s Steve Schiltz On The Band’s Reunion, Working With Blue October & Life As A Dad

Within a few years of forming in 1999, the quartet known as Longwave had a big record deal with RCA Records. Touring was done alongside The Strokes, The Vines, and OK Go, music videos were made for singles like “Wake Me When It’s Over,” “Everywhere You Turn,” and “Tidal Wave.” The group went on hiatus not too long after touring in support of 2008’s Peter Katis-produced Secrets Are Sinister, yet none of the “classic lineup” members of Longwave gave up music for the long-term.

Earlier this year, Longwave announced on its social media accounts that it was returning for an April 2018 show at New York City’s Mercury Lounge, also noting plans of releasing new music. Last week, the band announced the release of “Stay With Me” — its first new music since 2008 — on October 5th via indie label Bodan Kuma Recordings. Furthermore, beyond a headlining date at New York’s Bowery Ballroom, the quartet would be playing 9 shows with Blue October; the first show of that run will be on October 11th at the Royal Oak Music Theatre in Royal Oak, Michigan.

To learn more about the past, present and future of Longwave — which consists of vocalist/guitarist Steve Schiltz, guitarist Shannon Ferguson, drummer Jason Molina, and bassist Christian Bongers — I had the pleasure of doing Q&A with Steve Schiltz, who remains a resident of Brooklyn all these years later. More on Longwave can be found online at www.longwavetheband.com.

“Stay With Me” is your first new music in a long time. How many songs has Longwave recorded for eventual release?

Steve Schiltz: It’s been a while! We started with about 50 or so song “fragments.” That number quickly got whittled down to about 20. Then we just started going through everything and seeing what we liked. In the end now, we’ve got 10 finished and mixed songs for the new record, and about 4 more that are finished — not mixed — that got left off.

When in the recording process did you come up with “Stay With Me?” Was it one of the first songs?

Steve Schiltz: “Stay With Me” was written in the years-long break between Longwave activity. I wrote it on my own, and it was in the batch that I played for the other guys, to see if they wanted to work on it. As I remember, it was our bass player Christian who was an early champion of it. But it was always in the mix, from the first batch.

We recorded the record in my studio, in DUMBO, Brooklyn. A lot of the record was just us working up the songs, and then hitting record…NOW! Live and loud, in a little room. “Stay With Me” was one of those, we were going to just use the “demo.” But there was a problem with the bass, and since the bass was live in everyone’s mics, we had to redo the entire song. We had an engineer friend, Matthew Cullen, come and help us do a better job the second time around. So it’s still us playing live together…just recorded well.

One thing that has been surprising to me, doing this new Longwave music, is that I forget how good the band is at playing together. When the band gets into a groove, we can record live together and it’s pretty satisfying.

Since the members of Longwave don’t all live in New York, were demos for the new album e-mailed back in forth? Or was writing done in the studio?

Steve Schiltz: Yep, we Longwave live in 3 different cities now! PERFECT, right? (laughs) So I originally sent everyone my favorite ideas and fragments from that first batch, and then we blocked out time and got together to work on the stuff. What I DIDN’T anticipate was that we’d start working on something, and then Shannon would start playing a little guitar riff when we’d take a break, and the next thing we know, we’re 3 hours into writing a new song. There were a few songs on the record that were written that way.

We had to strike a balance between moving forward and staying on track, but also being open to stuff like that, unexpected things. Those songs were like gifts, like little expressions of the joy of playing together again. Me personally, sometimes it was good to remember that that is why we decided to do this again. Not always TASKING. We were having fun.

Do your upcoming dates with Blue October, your headlining show in New York and having a new album coming out mean that the band is officially back?

Steve Schiltz: Well we ARE, albeit in a limited, dads-in-a-band capacity! Meaning, the band is no longer our financial livelihood, and we have other responsibilities that we didn’t have the first few times around.

But in a way, this is the point of doing it. The adult responsibilities that anyone our age has are very tough. So the question is, is it tougher to take on a little more stress, a little lost work for some of us, and maybe mess with some family routines in a temporary way, to do this? Or is it tougher to NOT do this, when we have the desire and ability to do it?

For us, we’re doing these dates, the New York City show, the new single and 7″, and we have a record to put out. So we’ll see in the new year how much we are able to do.

Longwave aside, what are you currently working on?

Steve Schiltz: There’s a Blue October record that came out a couple of weeks back now, that I had a hand in. I played guitar on almost the whole thing, and helped to write 3 songs. That record’s doing pretty well, and it’s great. Those guys are good friends now.

I’m also playing guitar in a band called Wah Together. Wah Together is me, Vito from The Rapture on drums, Phil from LCD Soundsystem on bass, and a singer named Jaiko Suzuki. The music is kind of PiL, maybe a little Can. It’s different from Longwave and it’s another way for me to have fun and get to keep playing, especially here in town. We’ve done a whole record, that is at the mix stage now.

Aside from that, I do TV and movie music for a living. That means I do a lot of TV commercials. It’s a good way to make a living for a musician who likes to record, when you can’t or don’t want to go on tour.

How did your relationship with Blue October first come about? I ask as you have been working with the band’s members for a long time.

Steve Schiltz: Yes! Well we did a tour with them in maybe 2008? Longwave. They asked us to come out with them, and I guess they’d been asking for a couple of years THEN?? We had no idea. Anyway, we did that tour, and became friends. I particularly became friends with their drummer, Jeremy. At this point we text and call each other pretty frequently, just being friends. We eventually decided to make some music together and formed a little side group called Harvard Of The South.

I don’t think I can even remember now how I started actually working on proper Blue October records?? At some point I guess they asked me to play guitar on 1 or 2 songs, and I flew to Texas. That was 4 records ago. This last one, I did all the work here in DUMBO.

When not busy with music, where does your free time go?

Steve Schiltz: I have a little family, and that’s pretty much the answer! My wife and I have two young boys, and between music work and them, that’s kind of it. It’s beautiful and challenging. Most of us in Longwave are dads now and again, it makes it tougher to have a band, but all the better when we actually get to PLAY and record music together.

What was the last concert you attended for fun?

Steve Schiltz: I saw Radiohead recently! MSG. It was great, and they are amazing. It’s unfair how good they are. One thing I noticed, after seeing a lot of bands now that play to click-tracks live, is that Radiohead does not. I could feel the music speeding up, slowing down. my Pro-Tools-brain was saying…NO! But my music-fan-brain was saying, ahhhhhhhhh. Humans, playing music, and the music is incredible!

Oh, and the lights were EPIC.

Finally, Steve, any last words for the kids?

Steve Schiltz: No, you can’t watch the iPad again. Sorry, that was for MY kids.

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Tags: Blue October, LCD Soundsystem, Longwave, New York, Radiohead, Steve Schiltz, Wah Together

About the Author

Darren Paltrowitz Darren Paltrowitz is a New York resident with over 20 years of entertainment industry experience. He began working around the music business as a teenager, interning for the manager of his then-favorite band Superdrag. Since then, he has worked with a wide array of artists including OK Go, They Might Be Giants, Mike Viola, Tracy Bonham, Loudness, Rachael Yamagata, and Amanda Palmer. Darren's writing has appeared in dozens of outlets including the New York Daily News, Inquisitr, The Daily Meal, The Hype Magazine, All Music Guide, Guitar World, TheStreet.com, Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, and the Jewish Journal. Beyond being "Editor At Large" for The Hype Magazine, Darren is also the host of weekly "Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz" series, which airs on dozens on television and digital networks. He has also co-authored 2 published books, 2018's "Pocket Change: Your Happy Money" (Book Web Publishing) and 2019's "Good Advice From Professional Wrestling" (6623 Press), and co-hosts the world's only known podcast about David Lee Roth, "The DLR Cast."