homeless j
By Kevin Erb (4/10/03)

Brad Amstutz likes to think of himself as a real glutton for punishment. Or as, the lead guitarist for homeless J, one of the Fort Wayne area’s rapidly rising rock groups, says, he’s always “been attracted to chaos.”

So when Amstutz and fellow bandmates — made up of lead singer Chad Van Meter, guitarist Matt Minnik, drummer Lance Hill and his brother, bassist Lance Hill — had the dubious honor of opening for 1980s schlock rockers Foreigner at last year’s Three Rivers Festival, Amstutz says several of the natives in the crowd began to get restless towards the end of their set and actually began heckling the group while they were still on stage.

“I liked it,” he says matter-of-factly. “It may sound sick, but I like being booed. There’s something about a challenge like that that I just feed off of as a performer.”

Fortunately for the guys in homeless J, experiences like getting heckled by whiskey-drunk mullet-heads over-excited about the chance to hear “Hot Blooded” and “Head Games” live have been few and far between. Since the quintet’s formation in 2000, homeless J have been on the fast track to widespread notoriety and critical and commercial successes. The summer of 2002 brought with it a recording deal with New York-based Uninhibited Records, an MCA subsidiary, and an extended recording session at Music City’s renowned Sound Kitchen recording studios.

“It’s one of the top five recording studios in the country,” Amstutz says. “It’s a great studio. The recording process was a lot of fun, and it went really smooth from our perspective. Jonathon has taken care of us, and made sure the process was as worry-free as it could be for the band.”

For those wondering, the Jonathon mentioned by Amstutz is Uninhibited founder Jonathon First, who signed homeless J to the label and maintained an involved presence with the group in Nashville throughout recording.

First has two other acts in his Uninhibited stable as of now: Marcus Eaton & the Lobby, a Boise, Idaho-based rock group that plays throughout the Rockies and the Great Plains, and is opening a show for Guster this week in Denver; and Born into Kaos.

The as-of-yet unnamed album will consist of 10 or 11 original songs, Amstutz says, selected from a group of about 15 in total that they recorded while at the Sound Kitchen. A little more than half the songs, he adds, were culled from their vault of original material they’ve been playing since the group’s inception. The rest were either developed during recording or were relatively new to their play lists.

“One of our first songs we did as a band, ‘B Fly,’ is on there, but there’s also a tune that we just sat down and wrote there in the studio,” Amstutz says. “So we felt we had a good balance of material that showed where we came from, and how we’ve developed.”

Just how far the group has evolved in its songwriting, the group’s members contend, is significant.

“I’ve been playing with Chad since the early 90s, and we used to go about songwriting in a trial-and-error fashion,” Amstutz explains. “He would have an idea about melody and chord change, and then I would help him build on that.

“As time has gone on, we’ve really expanded the songwriting process to involve the whole band. We’ve expanded our opportunities and possibilities by doing so. And the material keeps getting better.”

The group expanded its opportunities and possibilities even more when they added a fifth (and former) member — guitarist Minnik — just after recording was done.

“Chad had been playing guitar along with me, but we wanted him to be able to take on more of a traditional frontman role,” Amstutz explains. “Matt was part of the group before, but moved to Florida a few years ago.

“We’ve always felt that we’re a two guitar band. We heard Matt was delivering pizzas and working 80 hours a week in Florida, so we gave him a call.”

Minnik’s return has brought with it an immediate impact in the group’s capabilities, he adds. It’s also something he says the group has been kind of expecting all along.

“In my mind, he never really left the group; he was just on vacation,” Amstutz says. “His return lets Chad be more free to move around on stage and connect with the audience. It feels more complete, and improves our sound, because Matt is also a talented songwriter.”

The deal with Uninhibited and significant studio time in Nashville also increased the group’s exposure, bringing with it more opportunities to play shows on the road. They’ve played several Nashville concerts in recent months, and have also been picking up performances in other places throughout northern Indiana, including Goshen and Elkhart.

“We have a group philosophy of not trying to over-saturate ourselves,” Amstutz explains. Since the number of good places to play in Fort Wayne can be limited sometimes, we haven’t been playing that much, because we don’t [want] people to become bored with us. So we’ve been starting to play out of town more often, trying to branch out. I like playing out-of-town shows; it seems challenging to me.”

Hence that whole “attracted to chaos” attitude the group always seems to emote. They handled challenges like a power struggle at MCA that has resulted in the delay of their first album’s release for an indefinite amount of time. (Amstutz says the group is working on compiling an EP they’ll at least to be able to sell at live shows.) Besides that “chaos,” however, and, of course, the constructive criticism of a few beer-addled Foreigner fans, things are advancing at a pretty healthy clip for homeless J.

“We’re really getting into our prime,” Amstutz says. “Getting the deal and recording the album has really catapulted us, and getting Matt back was the icing on the cake. We keep getting better as a result.”

Copyright 2003 Ad Media Inc.