One of the best vocalists we've ever heard, Dennis Peters lead singer of Sonic Circus. Seeing Firehouse in 2004 proved to have it's advantages, not only did we see one of the best bands of the 90's we got to hear one of the best Wisconsin bands as well. Blowing audiences away with their fun filled concerts and amazing music, Sonic Circus shows no signs of slowing down. Dennis recently took time out of his busy schedule to share some information with Shipwreck Island Studios and here is what he had to say....

Photo By: Tony

Island: Who were you influenced by when you started singing & who influences you still to this day?

Dennis: I don't know how far back it goes when I started singing...My first memory of music is when I was three years old when I remember listening to the Beatles' Sergeant Pepper album. This might sound weird, but it was an experience that felt like it was out of body. I actually remember reading the lyrics (yes, I was three and never read anything before...it freaked my Mom out) on the record jacket and remember being just sitting there being mesmerized by this whole new experience. I just knew that it pulled me in and it sunk in my person that I'd be doing that someday...It was a power or a pull on my soul that is hard to describe, but it has lead me to where I am today.

My first and most vivid influences were the Beatles, Deep Purple, The Hollies (remember the song, "All I Need Is the Air That I Breathe", and "Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress?") Those tunes would be cool in an updated form. T-Rex, with Elton John on keyboards too. My first memories are of what would be described now as songs you'd hear on AM Gold collections by Time Life...hahahaha. When I was three years old (1972), if you wanted to hear rock 'n' roll, you'd have to listen to AM radio to get it. FM was in its infancy at that time. Jefferson Airplane/Starship, Cream, the Mamas and Papas, and I can't forget Iron Butterfly as all part of the first wave of musical influences in my life.
 

Not long after that, bands like Journey, Styx, Kansas, Boston, Led Zeppelin, and Kiss absolutely cemented my desire to do what they do. Every singer from those bands have influenced me heavily and still do to this day.

Most people that know me know I'm stuck in the 80's...(love the hair metal), that era heavily influences me too...I constantly get compared to David Lee Roth and whatnot, for better or worse. Definitely the 80's was the most lasting influence on me undoubtedly. I loved everything from Tangier to Tesla...from Bang Tango to the Bangles...(yes, you heard right)...from White Lion to Whitesnake. The 80's definitely were my time.

The singers that influence me now would be by far James Labrie of Dream Theater, Geoff Tate of Queensryche, Steve Perry of Journey, Jon Bon Jovi, Joe Lynn Turner from Rainbow and Yngwie Malmsteen, and your favorite and mine, CJ Snare of Firehouse.

I'm already getting long-winded, and this is only the first question...edit as you wish. I've been incredibly blessed to have plenty of experiences where I've had the opportunity to share the stage with many "heroes" of mine. Including singing "Save Your Love" with Jack Russell of Great White. He's one of the most underrated singers of his time.

Island: When did you first start/join a band?

Dennis: I first joined a band as soon as I moved out of my parents' house. I grew up in a small town, Wild Rose, WI, (pop. 585 when I lived there), had short hair and was chompin' at the bit to play music. A big problem was overcoming shyness however. For those who know me, I was the shyest guy you'd ever meet in high school. I was a class clown, but I was extremely shy about everything. Forget about having a girlfriend...sheesh, I couldn't ask a girl on a date! I heard from a guitar player's girlfriend that I worked with that I was looking to play in a band. It happened that her boyfriend's band needed a singer, and being from a small town, if you could breathe and carry a pitch, you were hired. At the time, I still didn't have much hair...I tried everything from stepping in cow dung to lots of prayer to make my hair grow. I don't think the cow dung helped.

Island: How did you guys get together? Was it just seeing one another in different bands or were you all friends who just got together and started a band that turned into Sonic Circus?

Dennis: Sonic Circus started out as a band called Willy Dynamite. The rhythm section, Mike Rowland, drums, and Dave Fagan, bass, were in the Mulligan's before and after Willy and now currently are in the band Saturday Morning. Our guitar player at the time, Craig (Hawk) Hawkinson also played keyboards. He was with the Circus for the first year or so of the band, and is now in FineLine. The other guitar player, (who's better known as a drummer) Scott Scheurell was the organizing force of the band. Scott also changed back to drums when Sonic Circus came to be and was with us for about a year or so too. He's now engineering up and coming musicians in the Fox Valley area.

Island: How did you/band members come up with the name Sonic Circus?

Dennis: Current keyboard player, Johnny Palecek, Scott Scheurell, and I were briefly in Vienna Skies back in 1996 and early 1997. I just kept the seat warm for a while there. That was a very talented band, and quickly moved through the local ranks back in the day. The guitar player at the time has written, engineered, and played on a national recording contract not that long ago. I cannot divulge more than that. It was there that the familiarity with each other started. After the guitar player left for Atlanta and his recording contract, the band called it quits. There were a couple of attempts to put together another Vienna Skies after that, but it wasn't to be. Once Scott, Johnny, and I got over that disappointment, Johnny joined Boogie and the YoYoz and played with them for a year or so. Scott and I put together Willy Dynamite Some good things were happening for us, even with a good drummer (Scott) playing guitar and a darn good bass player (Craig) playing guitar and keyboards. Johnny contacted us about wanting to play a more challenging and fun array of music while still attracting larger crowds. Scott Scheurell had also been talking about a bass player named Dan Comperini who had been playing with The Dowgs at the time. Scott talked about wanting to put a band together with Dan for as long as I've known him. Dan decided to leave The Dowgs. It was then where Sonic Circus came to be.
 

We struggled to find a name suitable to the show that we dreamed of putting on...Johnny is a school teacher, so we need to be protective of that and not have a controversial name, so Willy Dynamite left town. It was the inspiration of Johnny's wonderful wife, Margie that came up with the name. Johnny told her of our musical and show ideas, and she exclaimed, "You guys sound like a Sonic Circus"! Ta dah...

Island: I for one love the bands logo, who designed it?

Dennis: The band's logo was designed by a local artist, under Scott Scheurell's direction. I think it fits who we are and what we do. The logo and name Sonic Circus is a registered servicemark and trademark. We have a few stories to tell about how we had to go about protecting our name and logo...yes, it involved legal action.

Island: Sonic Circus does a lot of touring around Wisconsin, is there any state you haven't toured that you would like to? Hawaii I hear is nice but that's my suggestion.

Dennis: I'm sure Hawaii's always nice. Who do you know that'll get us there. I hate winter with a passion. It's hard being a singer with the winters Wisconsin has and the smoky bars that come with it. If you can make Hawaii happen, I'll drive baby! Whoo-hoo! We've had some interest from as far away as the Philippines about having us come and play. As of this time, it's not feasible to travel that far. I'll tell you what, the Circus train will go wherever we can to spread the word about our show. It's all about showing people a great time. I, personally haven't toured since the first Bush was President, so it would take a lot of work to get us to even a regional level as a band, but plans are in place now to get us to the next level...whatever that means. HAHAHAHA!!!

Island: Your vocals are amazing, I remember the 1st time we heard you. We said to each other (Jere & Myself) haven't we heard this guy before, which leads me to the next question. What type of regiment if any do you do in order to keep your voice in top form?

Dennis: I appreciate your compliments. I'm not real good at receiving them, but the doctor says I'm making progress...HEEHEEHEEHEE!!!! That's the old shy kid part of me. Thank you Tony and Jere for the kind words. You've seen many awesome bands, so I'm humbled. As far as a regimen is concerned, wow, it helps to be in some sort of physical shape. A whole lot of desire is the core of what has gotten me to this point. Most of the men in my family sang bass, and I swore to myself that I'd bust my butt to go in the opposite direction. I can sing bass, but it's more fun trying to climb the ladder so to speak. I can tell you honestly that my voice is seldom in top form. I'm also my worst critic. I work a lot of hours as a mortgage broker during the day, so having more than a full-time job really cuts into the training that I'd like to do. A singer has to view themself as an athlete and therefore train that way. I've been blessed that my voice is rather resilient, and a whole lotta prayer never hurts, even when the throat does hurt. I just recently overcame strep throat in February. It took a full month to get my voice back to anything close to what I had before being sick. We even cancelled a show, which is something I haven't done since 1990. To the people who've seen us play in February, I apologize if I stunk up the joint. I hope you still had fun anyway.

Technically speaking, I learned a lot about singing from joining choir 2nd semester of my sophomore year. I frankly wanted an easy A and a lot of my buddies were in there too, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I'm really a soft-spoken guy, so singing takes a ton of energy and focus to bring the noise. You have to have a good lung capacity and strong abdominal muscles in order to have any consistency at all. You also have to stay away from junk food (yeah right) and drink tons of water. I usually brew Echinacea tea and have that on stage with me along with two gallons of water to get through the shows. Sleep would be nice, know where I can get any? Tee-hee...Again, thank you for the kind words. It really means a great deal to me.

Island: Let's talk about Sonic Circus's original material that you're working on: What can fans expect? Sound wise, is it going to be familiar like 80's type music or are you going for your own sound?

Dennis: Alright, let's talk about Sonic Circus's original material...as I write this, Sonic Circus is bringing a new guitar player into the fold. His name is Scotty Meyer. He's played just about everywhere in Wisconsin as primarily a three piece bluesy band. This is a whole different world for him musically, but he's coming along wonderfully and when he gets up to speed, he'll add to what the Circus is all about. I started out by mentioned Scotty because we've been on hold until we could get him into the band. Steve Schreiber busted his butt to graduate from college with a recording degree. He's going to spread his wings and fly into that field and leave the Circus after this weekend 3-11/3-12. We all in the Circus wish him all the success in the world. He's an outstanding musician, recording engineer, and an even better brother to all of us. Rock on Steve.

We have a ton of material that we've been working on either individually or in small groups for about a year now. We've been promising our friends and fans a taste of our own music for quite some time now. Thank you to all who've been very supportive and patient. We couldn't produce our own music with any flair until the switch on guitar was complete. I expect that by fall, we'll have enough material to hit the studio, and we'll also work on our sound with special appearances of our material at select shows. Everyone in the band writes and contributes to our songs. For those who haven't heard Scotty Meyer's original stuff, I suggest y'all introduce yourself to him at our shows. He'll have CD's available. Scotty is going to add a raw energy to our sound that help us get the rock out the old fashioned way...lots of blood, sweat, and tears. He plays a lot like Richie Sambora from Bon Jovi...talk box and all. We're catering our show to accentuate his strengths, so he's looking forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks.

I can tell you the fans to expect even more energy with our own material when it becomes available. We've been caged up for over a year now, so our music will explode when you hear it. We have lots of aggressions to get out. It'll be fun. We are combining all our influences to form our sound. We're in the process of becoming comfortable and confident with our ideas and input to each other's songs. We all share writing credits no matter who brings the song to the table. That's one of the things that I enjoy most with these guys in the band. It's a collective effort and everyone shares in the responsibility and contribution. While it's a slow process at first, it's also the most enjoyable because we've all had a hand in it...we're a team baby! To be continued...

Island: Also will the group be releasing this new material on an album, or is this strictly a live show set of material?

Dennis: I suppose I answered most of that above, but our primary focus in the coming months is to have enough great material to record a full album by fall. Every song we write I promise you is going to be built around the energy of a live performance. The studio will just help us clean up and clearly define our ideas better.

Island: What one piece of advice would you give an upcoming musician?

Dennis: This is a question I take very seriously because I remember being a kid and finding any helpful information to be a musician was hard to find. This is also a very poignant question because a very good friend of mine in the business passed away a couple weeks ago driving home from a show he was working. My advice is this...if you're going to take the time to be a musician, do not waste a precious second of it. Life is too short...it's not necessarily your music people will remember from you when your time on earth is over. They'll remember you for you are as a person and how you carry yourself. I think you need to make this place a little better when you leave it than when you came into it. That philosophy carries over to everything you do in life. We only get one chance to define who we are and it's a short ride...do your damndest to make it a great ride.

Oh yeah, practice your butt off and find as many ways as you can to find inspiration. I'm not talking about finding it all from music. That's too narrow of a focus. Look around you and your life for it. Improvement comes through inspiration, sweat, and desire. You need all three working at the same time. Trust me, talent is something you can develop. You don't have to be born with it. One last thing, always have a smile on your face. It makes people wonder what you're thinking...

Island: Out of all the albums you have listened to, what is your top 5 all time greatest albums?

Dennis: My top 5 greatest albums...hmmm...let's see...
1. Dream Theater-Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory
2. Journey - The Essential Journey
3. Bon Jovi - New Jersey
4. Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime
5. Firehouse - Hold Your Fire
 

All great singers...ask me tomorrow and I'm sure I'll change it up. Special shout out to Ray Charles and Johnny Cash...two very inspirational cats that'll be missed.

Island: What is your favorite song to perform?

Dennis: My favorite song to perform? I'll give you my favorites from opposite ends of the spectrum. I'm a sap for a great ballad so Faithfully from Journey does it for me from a passion standpoint, from an energy standpoint, there are too many fun ones in our set list to single out. One night it might be a Boston tune, another night the Outfield, another Orgy. We picked our songs to have a ton of with and they all shine in their own light. I find inspiration in every song we play. That goes back to the advice earlier. Always be inspired about the music you're playing. If you're not, it shows...make it fun dang it!

Island: Thanks for stopping by www.shipwreckislandstudios.com Dennis any final words you would like to say to your fans/our readers?

Dennis: Thanks for giving me the opportunity to yack with y'all at Shipwreck Island Studios. It was a pleasure answering these questions and sharing them with Tony and Jere, and everyone associated with the website. Thanks for sharing your passion for music and entertainment with all who care to view your site and with all whom you know. To the fans of Sonic Circus, thank you for inspiring us through good times and not so good. I promise your support and patience will be rewarded when our music hits the shelves. To your readers, keep the fire burnin' and keep coming back to shipwreckislandstudios.com, your main source for local entertainment news from the inside out...the way it should be.

Take care all and let's catch you the next time the Circus comes to your town.

Dennis Peters
Sonic Circus