Stickband had a sound crew, which became a huge asset, especially for the last version of the group when Mike and Michale were with us. By then, we really needed to have a sound crew that understood our show. We ran everything through the main mixing board, which gave them a lot of control over the live show and made for a very good live stage mix. We played a weekly gig at Gilbert Zapp’s for over a year and a half, which gave us the opportunity to really get the show tight. Dave and Peter were a very important part of the success of our sound.

Peter and Dave acted as comic relief at times, as they are both pretty fun and were always able to maintain a pretty balanced attitude, even when I was getting intense because I was stressed when we were performing. We always wanted everything right, but we were always working under a time deadline which made it difficult to get everything done. Knowing that we had extremely competent people working our sound mix took a lot of pressure off of me, and allowed me to focus on other things, but the fact that we had two great personalities to go along with all the technical knowledge is more rare than you might think.

Both Peter and Dave were part of the winning combination that made the group sound so good in a live setting.

Dave Schneider

Dave always loves to tell the story about how one night somebody walked into Zapps and stood close to the mixing board for a while and watched Dave mixing the band. He finally said “Hey – are you using recorded tracks”? He could not believe we where actually singing and playing everything he was hearing. We where never sure if he truly was convinced that we were not cheating, which gives you an idea of just how good our mix got be over that year and half at Zapp’s. That is a great compliment. Dave was an outstanding sound man and we were very lucky to have had someone so dedicated to our to our group.

Peter Chaplain

Peter was the other half of the great sound crew that we used for the last version of the band. Peter always had a lighthearted personality – he was funny, and really fun to be around. That really is more important than you might think, as the difference between positive and negative really shines through when you’re working in group situations. Having that lighthearted fun personality around, especially when sometimes things get tense when you’re working on getting your sound right, really helps.

We were very lucky to have both of these guys on the team. Both Dave and Peter truly did become family. We were all so into the project and what we where working towards, and they definitely added to the success of our live shows. Looking back after all these years and reflecting, I really do want thank them both for all of the great energy and creativity that they contributed to Stickband.

Thanks, guys.