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Doing What They Believe Is Right
Scene Magazine, April 13-19, 1995
By Mark Holan
Transcribed by Robert Ferent
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Talking with Hot Tin Roof kingpin Tom Lash, you’re struck by his thoughtfulness and insights into the inner workings of the Cleveland music scene. Lash’s master’s degree in the how’s and why’s of the local music industry has made him a kind of spokesman for his fellow musicians in the area. Not that he set himself as such. It’s just that having been a working musician for so long, Lash speaks from experience.

Hot Tin Roof have just released their latest CD, My Empty Sky, and the latest HTR lineup is the most powerful vehicle got Lash’s music and lyrics he has ever assembled. Drummer Alex Szarafinski, bassist Blaine Brinton and guitarist Greg Zydyk were the core musicians prior to recording My Empty Sky, but Lash wanted to add some muscle to the lineup for the songs’ power-chord structures.

“We made some changes for this record by adding a guitar player and taking keyboards out of the lineup,” Lash says during a visit to Scene’s offices last week. “We added Mark Minatodani as the new rhythm guitar player. With the direction the songs were going, it really needed some additional guitar, especially in the live setting. This record is a lot more guitar focused than the last record.”

Lash has evolved into a superb songwriter, as the songs on My Empty Sky show. “Forgiveness,” which was chosen for the Straight Outta Cleveland compilation, and “One Horse Town” crackle with sonic density and lyrical passion. On the former, Lash practically spits out his rage: Love me then abhor me/Stalk me then ignore me/Hold me then contort me/Hear me then distort me.

Written, produced and arranged by Lash, My Empty Sky is HTR’s most compelling work yet. In terms of the overall sound of the disc, Lash feels that it’s the way the songs were written. “It just kind of goes that way,” he explains. “If you look at any work you do and any type of creativity, hopefully you improve upon it and make it better as the years go by. Since the last recording to this one, that’s just part of the transition – just moving to a more guitar-focused sound.

“This group of songs,” Lash continues, “was sonically and thematically linked, in my mind, to be a complete work that should be presented together. Lyrically, they explore a theme of struggle and disappointment of relationships, and musically, they had being much more guitar-aggressive to express that struggle.”

One song, in particular, that was written from a Cleveland music scene veteran’s perspective is “One Horse Town.” In that song, Lash gives us his feelings about the backstabbing that goes on amongst members of the local music industry. Lash sings: I gave up trying to prove my point/Gave up on the savior machine/On the outside looking inside/And we don’t want to come in.

“That song,” lash says, “does talk about being in a ‘one horse town’ and trying to take a stand and try to do something and have everybody around you constantly try to pull you down.

“It’s like that Albert Einstein quote: ‘Great spirits being opposed by mediocre minds.” That’s usually the case, and it’s even more prevalent in the entertainment or music side of the business.

“From my position,” he continues, “I see a lot of energy being wasted in multiple directions by people at all levels. From a band perspective, there’s a lot of animosity when another band becomes successful. Two weeks after Dink were signed, everybody in town was badmouthing them, and that’s a sad statement about where things are at. Instead of being for them that they finally achieved what they were working towards, that the pie that’s out there is so small, that there’s this huge cloak of animosity that hangs over the music scene here in Cleveland.”

Lash also has an unique perspective on the process of being signed to a major label. As someone who is as “well-connected” as any musician in town, Lash remains philosophical and, more importantly, realistic about the old adage “it’s all in who you know.”

“I don’t think bands are signed necessarily where they’re from of who they know or what kind of scene is going on in their town,” he explains. “that may bring a little bit more attention to you, but you really get signed at the end of the day base don the quality of the song, the viability that they could get commercial airplay with it and sell ‘X’ amount of records. “You could almost make a comparison between someone who’s a relatively good basketball player in high school… what’s their chances of getting into the NBA? The numbers are probably about the same. If a major record label signs three or four bands a year, and there’s only a handful of labels, the odds are pretty limited.”

One of the most powerful people with whom Lash has maintained a friendship is Trent Reznor, and one would think that between Reznor and NIN manager John Malm they would see fit to sign HTR to Nothing Records. Lash, however, doesn’t see it that way.

“I’d rather jeopardize my career aspirations than my friendship with Trent,” he says. “It means more to me than that.

“I get asked that all the time,” Lash adds, “and I guess the response should be, ‘Could it be on American Records or Matador Records?’ Nothing Records is being run like a business. They’re full-time, cranking 10 hours just trying to keep afloat with what they have going right now. They also are the product of a lot of really hard-focused work.”

HTR have achieved success on a regional level on their own terms. They’re planning on opening for as many headliners as they can, and they will continue to make music and release recordings. What else is there to do?

“Someone once said, ‘This is an industry built on rejection,’” Lash says. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more true statement. You’ve got to look past all of that in order to keep going and to keep doing what you believe is right.”