ALTERED STATESMAN

Impact Weekly
Volume 8, Number 36 (September 7, 2000)

The Elusive One: An interview with the mysterious Altered Statesman
by Don Thrasher

"I have a lot going on right now but it's good," said Steve Poulton, the leader of local group The Altered Statesman. "It's better than being bored and it's easy to be bored around here and that can get you in trouble."

It's mid-day Tuesday in the middle of August. John Coltrane is spinning on the turntable. Poulton, one of many underappreciated songwriters residing in Dayton, is sitting in the living room of his home in the Five Oaks neighborhood. Although he has toured the world numerous times and performed on dozens of albums, the multi-instrumentalist and singer is still relatively unknown in his adopted hometown.

Although Poulton isn't a Dayton native, he is someone we can be proud to call our own. He is originally from either Kentucky, Tennessee or Utah, depending on when you talk to him, but family members confirm he did spend some time in all three states prior to relocating to the Gem City in the late '90s. At the time of his migration to Ohio, Poulton was a member of Birddog, a stripped-down folk outfit led by Kentuckian Bill Santen. Poulton recorded two albums with the group before leaving to devote more time to his own projects. It's a good thing he finally made the move because the talented musician has been hiding in the shadows of other performers for too long.

Poulton first gained indie rock fame in the early '90s as bass player for Paul K & the Weathermen. The Kentucky-based outfit led by junkie songwriter Paul Kopasz never achieved commercial success status but the critic's darlings made a decent run for it. The Weathermen toured Europe a half dozen times and released a string of acclaimed LPs on Dutch label SilenZ and now-defunct American indie Homestead. Poulton, who joined the Weathermen at age 19, remained with the group for seven years. He left after Love is A Gas (Alias) was released in '97.

It's clear Poulton gained a wealth of experience during his tenures with the Weathermen and Birddog and he is using it to his advantage. Since that time, Poulton has been on a creative hot streak, writing and recording new tunes at an alarming rate. A musician leery of accepted conventions, Poulton thrives on breaking the rules. When he first started performing live under the moniker The Altered Statesman in 1998, he was singing soulful ballads over trippy, pre-recorded tracks that he played back through a 4-track machine. He occasionally embellished the cuts, which were something of a combination of Tricky and Hot Tuna, with simple keyboard melodies.

Although Poulton soon started enlisting other musicians into the fold, he continued to proceed in a manner that many would consider unorthodox. Until recently, he rarely used a bass player, preferring to back his opened tuned guitar playing and soft, sweet vocals with lap steel, baritone guitar and laid back drums. Multi-instrumentalist Tom Byrne (Johnny Smoke) has been the only constant in Poulton's revolving door of musicians over the past year.

"Tom is much more that just a musician in the band," Poulton said. "He takes an active interest. If something logistical needs taken care of, he'll offer to do it."

The Altered Statesman has released a pair of discs that Poulton and Byrne duplicate themselves on CD-Rs and sell at shows and via the Internet. The group is currently finalizing its third and most experimental album to date, The Altered Statesman & DJ Rockwood. The collection of four-track recordings is a continuation of the electronic bent of Poulton's early live performances. The group is also finishing up tracks for an upcoming single. This will mark the vinyl debut of the Altered Statesman and will also be the first release featuring the new rhythm section of Chris Koltay (Sistern) and Joe Burns, a pair of musicians and studio engineers from Cincinnati.

"It's great because not only are they friends and good musicians but they also have all of this recording knowledge," Poulton said. "Chris is the geometry guy; he's worked at Ultrasuede (studio in Cincinnati) and he knows how to get great sounds. Joe is the tech head and he has a studio set up in a house in northern Kentucky."

When Poulton isn't working on his own material, he can often be found doing session work or simply jamming with friends. After relocating to Dayton, he spent parts of '97 and '98 playing bass for local country punks Johnny Smoke. The following year, he played organ for short-lived local garage rockers Big Marauder, a group led by Matt Bowman, an occasional guitarist for The Altered Statesman.

Poulton recently contributed bass and vocals to a large multimedia project spearheaded by Chicago-based producer and musician Michael Krassner. The concept is that someone is putting together a retrospective about a fictional label that operated from 1952, the early days of rock 'n' roll, until the late '70s. The music, recorded by Krassner ant Truck Stop studio in Chicago, runs the gamut from rockabilly and '50s pop ballads to upbeat R&B and psychedelic rock. The CD will be released in conjunction with a coffee table book and will be supported by an extensive Web site.

"It could've been really cheesy but Michael really has his shit together," Poulton said. "I think it's good. He brought in a lot of great people to work on it like Fred Longberg Holmes and Edith Frost. The Web site they're working on is mind-blowing. It tells the history of this made-up record company and all these characters they created."

Somewhat inspired by this project, Poulton recently launched his own Web site, www.alteredstatesman.com. The group's online headquarters features photographs, one-minute movies, links and more. Log on to band's site for up-to-date news and tour dates.