I first heard about The Esoteric on one of the many fliers handed out after
concerts. Ever since then, I've seen their name everywhere. They have built
a huge name for themselves here in my home town, Kansas City and their home
town, Lawrence, KS. The Esoteric has been together over 9 years and has been
on 5 U.S. tours. They have played with bands such as; Hatebreed, The Dillinger Escape Plan,
Thursday, Shadows Fall, AFI, Clutch, The Blood Brothers, Killswithch Engage, Converge,
In Flames and many, many more. On April 19th of 2005, The Esoteric released their first album
titled 'With the Sureness of Sleepwalking' on Prosthetic Records.The Esoteric consists of
5 members; Cory White(guitar, voice), Eric Graves (guitar), Anthony Diale (bass), Steve Cruz
(voice, electronics), and Marshall Kilpatric (drums, percussion). They are about to begin a
2 month tour starting in their home town and here I am about to interview Steve!

es·o·ter·ic
1.a. Intended for or understood by only a particular group: an esoteric
cult.
See Synonyms at mysterious.
b. Of or relating to that which is known by a restricted number of
people.

2.a. Confined to a small group: esoteric interests.
b. Not publicly disclosed; confidential.

Jill Sixx- According to dictionary.com, that is the definition of esoteric. How did you guys
choose your name?

Steve- Our guitar player cory white came up with the name while watching the awesome 80's flick
"Gleaming the Cube". In the movie there's the bad guys and they're called "Arcane Industries" and
he thought the word arcane was cool. so he looked it up in the dictionary and it said "see esoteric"
and he looked that up, and the rest is history. He was very young at the time, but the name stuck
and although we are on a label and have videos and stuff, we still are inspired by things that
would be considered esoteric.

Jill Sixx- I'm personally not a fan of lableing music, but if you had to, what genre(s) would you
put your band in?

Steve- At the moment the band is a hardcore/heavy metal crossover (not metal-core)
thing on the rock and roll tip with lots of screaming.

Jill Sixx- Who are some of your major influences, musically?

Steve- As a band, at least for the current record we have been influenced by late 90's k.c. rock like
Season to Risk, Shiner, Molly Mcguire and stuff like that. as well as the "weird" metal to come out
during that time like Coalesce, Bloodlet, Deadguy, Today is the Day and other early "Noise Amphetamine
Reptile" bands. However everyone in the band individually listens to a lot of other types of stuff.
Everything from top 40 to experimental electronic music/antimusic , so I'm sure those kinda things
have influenced members individually.

Jill Sixx- When did you know that music was what you wanted to do?

Steve- I knew I wanted to front a metal band when I seen Pantera when I was 13 years old.
It was on the Cowboys From Hell tour and it changed me.

Jill Sixx- You're about to start a tour and the first show is in your home town. I know you've
played Lawrence numerous times, do u still get excited? or nervous?

Steve- We start a tour on January 13th with Scarlet, Calico System and Fight Paris. It's gonna be fun.
We all get real excited to play wether it's in our home town or some place we've never been. If it's
a sold out show or a VFW hall with 10 kids, we live to play.

Jill Sixx- Do you remember the first show you ever played? How did that feel?

Steve- The first show I ever played was in Rose Hill, Kansas outside at a party with my first band
Deathwish I was 13 or 14. I felt nervous and natural at the same time. It confirmed the feeling that
I should scream at people for a living.

Jill Sixx- Do you love being on the road?

Steve- Very much so!

Jill Sixx- Do you get a little home sick?

Steve- Not so much cause my home burned down. We have been on the road ever since, but I
do miss the people and places of Lawrence / K.C. I miss playing records and dancing, cause it's not
often I get to do that on the road.

Jill Sixx- Where was the last show you played? Any interesting stories from the show?

Steve- The last show we played was in Memphis, Tennessee. I drove to that show so I slept most
of the time until we played so there was not much time for interesting stories on that day. I did see
Sun Recording Studios, or at least drove by it. It looks just like it does in the movies.

Jill Sixx- What's your favorite city or venue to play?

Steve- Any city that has kids who are excited and open to the rawk experience. So I guess all of
them. However I hate any venue with out moniters, if I can hear my self than I'll usually have
a good show.

Jill Sixx- Have you made a lot of friends in each city?

Steve- We have been very fortunate to meet some real cool people while we are out and about.
Even though we live in dark times, there are some very friendly and down to earth people out
there, who make touring so fun.

Jill Sixx- You've played a lot of festivals including New England Metal and Hardcore Festival, March
Metal Meltdown, Milwaukee Metalfest, Mid-South Metalfest, the Midwest Metal and Hardcore Festival
and CBGB's Mad Grinderz' Ball. Do you enjoy those shows? Do you prefer to play normal shows?

Steve- We enjoy playing regardless of where or how many kids are there. However some of our best
shows have been at festivals. The more kids the merrier, I guess.

Jill Sixx- What is the craziest, scariest, or funniest thing that's ever happened to you while on tour?

Steve- The craziest we cannot talk about, it's kinda private but I'vebeen known to discuss it when
pressured by the other dudes. The scariest is anytime we are driving in weird weather or when a
certain member of the band is driving with while on his cell phone. The funniest thing would be
when we had a roman candle war with Himsa in the parking lot of the hotel. That was awesome!

Jill Sixx- Who are some of your favorite bands to play with?

Steve- We have also have been very luck to tour and play shows with such cool and diverse bands.
Way to many to name, I would hate to forget someone cause there are a lot. And almost everyone
of them we enjoy. There has only been a few bands we've played with that we didn't enjoy.

Jill Sixx- If you could tour with any band, dead or alive, who would it be?

Steve- Refused, Botch, The Time, Aphex Twin, Faith No More, Wu-Tang Clan, '83' era Motley Crue,
and '81' era Misfits. Oh yeah and Thin Lizzy. We very much want to tour with Cave-In and
Mastodon for reals.

Jill Sixx- How long have you been signed with Prosthetic Records?

Steve- The record came out in mid April we had been in contact with them for a grip before that
but did not sign anything until right before that came out.

Jill Sixx- How did it feel to get signed?

Steve- Pretty good.

Jill Sixx- How long did it take to record 'With the Sureness of Sleepwalking'?

Steve- Marshal layed down the drum tracks in four days and then we took those home and recorded
everything else in the course of a few months.

Jill Sixx- What's your favorite song off the record? Why?

Steve- My favorite song is "Mapping the Fall" cause it sums up the album and has a rawkin beat.

Jilll Sixx- Are you guys working on new material? Is there any talk of a new album?

Steve- We had a day off in Orlando on the last tour and our friends have a studio, so we went in
and busted one out that night, it has vocals by Scott from Bloodlet / Hope and Suicide. Everyone I
think is working on things by themselves but that has been the only time we worked on anything new
together. We talk about a new record all the time but will be touring on "The Sureness" most of 2006.

Jill Sixx- What's your favorite album of all time?

Steve- John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme".

Jill Sixx- So, I've read that you also DJ all around Kansas City and Lawrence... when did you start that?

Steve- Right before I joined The Esoteric, so I guess I've been doing it for about three or four years.

Jill Sixx- What kind of music do you spin?

Steve- I'm mostly known for spinning new wave / dancerawk / electro / party type stuff. But I also spin experimental electronic / weird hip-hop and broken beat. I love all types of music and love to play it out.
I love to share music with people.

Jill Sixx- What’s in your CD player right now?

Steve- I don't have a CD player but as I type this I'm listening to "Blueberry Yum Yum " by Luda.
My computer is on random and it just changed to "Antman" by The Red Chord. This song destroys!

Jill Sixx- Anything else you'd like to say to wrap it up?

Steve- Thank you for doing this interview and thanks to everyone for checking us out, I hope
to see you all soon. Good luck with the hair and the site. You rawk!

Jill Sixx- Thanks!!

The Esoteric On Myspace

interview by: Jill Sixx
phorgraphy by: Selena Salfen