Western Courier - A little slice of 7th Heaven
By Rob Wilson
Published: Friday, April 23, 2004

7th Heaven has become a favorite on the local bar scene over the last 8 years.

Dan Miller seemed uncomfortable doing the interview alone. I'd gotten to the Change of Pace at 10 p.m. hoping I might get to interview
the band prior to its first set. The only band member in the Pace was Miller 7th Heaven's drummer. I asked the soft-spoken man for
a few words but he insisted I talk to Richie Hofherr. Everyone insisted I talk to Hofherr.

A Blue Moon beer later I was standing outside of the club face to face with Hofherr the group's lead guitarist. Miller and singer Andrew Blake
were there too. Mark Kennetz the bassist/vocalist would drift in and out of the scene. We stood and rapped out there on the street corner
for about 20 minutes. The following are excerpts from our conversation:

Edge: How long have you guys been together?
Richie Hofherr: 7th Heaven has been together for 18 years; this incarnation of the band is just coming into our first year.

Edge: Who does the mixing when you guys record?
RH: I produce and mix the band. We have a studio that we use for the band that we've invested in. We can go in the studio as much as we want.
We can take as much time as we want - that helps a lot. We're not really pressured into getting it done on time and what's good about that is that
then we can make a product that we believe in and can stand behind because we were able to tweak it to our satisfaction.

Andrew Blake: We have 30 songs on this CD which a lot of bands can't do that because they're paying $90 an hour downtown.

Edge: Which do you guys prefer - being on the road or in the studio?
Dan Miller: I like both.

AB: Rich and I go into writing mode and that's all we do. We record.

RH: No social life.

AB: No social life no gigs; we did that for about a year. And then it was you know "We're done!" Then we were going in promotion mode
Rich would stay on the phone all day book shows. You have that CD that you worked on for that year and you send it to everyone.
We'll stay out on the road for a year; then we'll go back into writing mode. We'll be burnt out on this by then. We'll say
"My knees hurt; my voice is cashed; let's go back into the studio and write."

Edge: You said you do most of the booking yourself. Do you prefer to do it that way or would you prefer to pay somebody to do it?
RH: We're pretty much a self-reliant company; we're a business. We've got 15 people who work with the band. Everybody has a different job
and everybody brings strengths to the table. We all capitalize on everybody's different strengths to create one big strength. And then beyond that
we have street teams that can help us in other areas. For example here at Western (Illinois University) we have Nate who's our street team
leader here. So even though we book most of the shows between point A and B we have Nate here to fill in some of the blanks.
We have multiple people in multiple regions working on our street teams. All of them can interact with us off of our Web site. We're also very
accessible and they're accessible so we communicate very well with each other. Having a good infrastructure of people really helps.

Edge: Is there extra pressure on you guys to succeed having all these other people work with you? Or is it more a family type of atmosphere?
RH: I wouldn't say extra pressure. Definitely a family type of atmosphere. This band is a family type of atmosphere without a doubt ...
I think what makes a difference is always improving what you're working on so that they're enthusiastic and having a good time.
So that's how it is; it is something like a family and we're all very close. You gotta realize that when we come into a place like Macomb here
we don't really know many people besides someone like Nate here and we repeat this process in many towns so you're kind of close knit
with everybody because it's like a family.

Edge: How many times are you guys going to gig this year?
RH: With our acoustic shows we'll probably do over 150. There's no better time to gig than now. We just worked our ass off in the studio;
we want people to hear our music. It's really that simple: We wanna play.

DM: I just wanna say that if you go to our Web site one of my favorite places to play is Macomb. Whenever we come here the fans are
always great. We've been playing for at least five years here.

RH: Eight.

DM: Eight years and from the very first time we came here it's always been great. The people here are great the fans here are great
the club is great - it just makes for a great show and that's why every time I look forward to coming to play here and every time I leave here
I really feel like everybody had a great time.

Inside the club the band mounted the stage to begin with some original songs including "Gravity", "Kill the Cycle" and "Ethereal" from the
"Silver" disc then it launched an assault into the modern rock cover songbook that included Rage Against the Machine and a Metallica medley.
The crowd at the Pace ate it up and one could see why this is one of 7th Heaven's favorite venues.
The audience sang along not only to the cover tunes but to the originals as well.

The Pace faithful rocked to each and every tune. Make no mistake 7th Heaven gave fans what they wanted and vice versa.
Most fans stayed through the two-hour plus set and probably would've stayed longer had the band kept playing.