Based on the songwriting team of drummer and producer Joey Peters; guitarist, singer/songwriter and producer Rich McCulley, and bassist, singer/songwriter and producer Ted Russell Kamp, Stash has been writing, recording and singing songs about life and love, striving and surviving, yearning and learning, and pain and cheating. All three met while living in Los Angeles where they had all moved to better hone their craft. “It’s where we could take our careers as far as we possibly could,” states McCulley. “It’s where we have made most of the music individually and it’s where Stash was born.”
Kamp is a solo artist with more than a dozen albums, to his name and a highly in-demand session bass player and producer. He has played with Shooter Jennings and his band for over 15 years. He received his first Grammy playing on the Tanya Tucker record, While I’m Livin’ last year. Peters is a respected composer and drummer in the film and TV world. He was also a member of the acclaimed and influential band, Grant Lee Buffalo and now plays with the alt-country band, Rusty Truck. McCulley is an amazing singer and songwriter with many solo albums to his name. He also produces, engineers and acts as a session player, as well as writing songs for film and TV. He has also toured with and been a part of many major label (Geffen, Columbia) and independent acts.
Self-described as the British invasion meeting outlaw country, McCulleys rock & pop influenced guitar melds with Kamp’s cosmic California country influence and Peter’s alternative rock backbeat. Walk the Walk was recorded at Red Hill Recording (El Paso, TX), The Pop Garage (Topanga Canyon, CA) and The Den (Los Angeles, CA). Produced and engineered by all members of Stash, the record was mastered by Mark Rains at Station House (Echo Park, CA).
“We all just worked in our own home studios trying to keep making music during the covid lockdown,” said Kamp. “Sometimes we were working in the morning sometimes late at night after the kids were asleep. Making this music really helped to get us through the pandemic.” Adds Peters, “This really was our escape. The songs themselves gave us a chance to be creative and writing and recording via Zoom calls and sending tracks to each other gave us a chance to deepen our bond of friendship and be social in a time where we all felt so isolated.
Stash played every note on the record themselves with the exception of Anna Maria Rosales who does harmony vocals on “Talk the Talk”. McCulley and Kamp are both multi-instrumentalists, who McCulley claims were like “Kids in a candy shop. If we had a sound in our heads, one of us could figure out how to play it.” Although his main instrument is guitar, he also played mandolin, harmonica and keyboards. Kamp focused on bass and vocals, but also played guitar, keyboards, banjo, trumpet and trombone. Along with his groovy drumming, Peters added any percussion instrument the songs needed. “This is our first record as a band,” noted McCulley. “It’s a cool synthesis of who the 3 of us are as musicians, songwriters, and friends.”
The trio recorded the songs one at a time, writing the song first and then recording that week. They recorded over 20 songs and picked their favorites for the record. From the soulful bluesy sound of “Smoke and Mirrors” to the outlaw country of “Queen of the Highway”, the mandolin-tinged ballad, “Into the Sunset”, and the spaghetti western vibe of “Ain’t That Kind of Man”, Walk the Walk shows the full range of Stash’s songwriting skills and expert musicianship. “How many records do you own that go from mod to spaghetti western or from power pop to outlaw country?” asks McCulley. “It’s pretty eclectic and authentic because we’ve all spent so much time playing so many different styles of music.”
Kamp adds, “We are all life long musicians and part of doing that is really holding your ground in an aesthetic sense: trying to make music you really like and are inspired by. We have all done that in our own way and are now known for certain things. I think the surprise on this record is that it really is collaboration and we debated and met in the middle about lots of the little decisions on writing and recording the songs. I think many of our individual fans will hear each of our voices on the record, but will also see a new side to us.”
Satisfying melodies, driving grooves, twangy guitars and whiskey soaked vocals give a heartfelt urgency to every song they write and play. As the saying goes, “Don’t talk the talk unless you can walk the walk”. Stash proves that they can do just that.
