Rabid Children

Singer-songwriter-guitarist Steve Hammond hasn’t lived in the Capital Region very long, but he’s already made a mark with his blend of experimental psych-rock, folk and country.
He’s currently working on a project that will culminate in an album entitled “small songs.” Every week he writes, records and releases a new song onto his Bandcamp page. The first song, “goodbye mr daylight,” came out on Jan. 1 and this week song number 13 will be out in the world.
Each track is unique, bound only by the madcap instincts of its creator. Hammond incorporates a wide range of sounds from song to song and sometimes even within one tune. It’s an ambitious, sweeping project driven by a desire to follow his creative muse.

“The song-a-week thing came out of this compulsion,” Hammond said. “It's been fun to basically write any whim that comes to me. I'm a weirdo and I love weird, messed up songs. At this point there's no danger of creativity drying up, and I actually write faster than one song a week on average, but I'm only at week 13 so we'll see how I feel at week 50!

“The only restriction I placed on myself was a two-minute time limit. I've written a lot of long, epic, complicated, multi-part songs over the years and it's nice to do short little snapshots,” he continued. “I'm writing a lot more pop and soul songs these days which is great. Everything is still pretty psychedelic or noisy though, for the most part. It does take some time to record everything how I hear it in my head, but there's nothing I'd rather be doing. Recording is probably my favorite thing in the whole world.”

Writing and recording have been a passion of his since 30 years ago when the then-12-year-old Kansan first learned to play guitar. A tween skate-thrash punk, the music he enjoyed was too technically complex to play, forcing him to forge his own way. He hasn’t looked back.
“I started writing my own songs right away,” he recalled. “Songwriting has always been a part of my musical identity and I am constantly writing. It's almost more of a compulsion at this point. Some people pick up their instrument to practice it; I pick up an instrument and write a song. Almost every time.”

Prior to moving to Troy last summer, Hammond and his wife had spent the prior 11 years living in Albuquerque, NM. It was here, in order to put out material from his longtime band Leeches of Lore, that he started his own DIY imprint called Lorchestral Recording Company (LORCO).

Listening to the Lorchestral releases, you can hear the roots of the “small songs” project. Noise rock, metal, punk and experimentation permeate his work and that of his peers. And despite the move from New Mexico last year, LORCO is still an active label and Hammond plans to release more material he records locally, as well as that of his peers on the other side of the country.

“We were pretty unique. The music was very reflective of our environment, the city of Albuquerque, the desert and mountains. It was a heavy noise rock sort of band, but we were highly experimental and did all kinds of crazy things,” Hammond said of his old band. “We did a show/live album once with a 10-piece band, horns, accordion, double drum sets, lots of percussion and vocals. Kind of like a spaghetti Western Melvins. We got burned by a bigger indie label for our first record, so we started self releasing our records.
“Besides the ‘small songs’ project, this year there will be more releases in my Honky Tonk Record Club series, and new music by Dad & Steve, a garage rock duo I have with drummer Eric Lisausky from Philly” he added. “Hopefully my old noise-thrash band Tenderizor, from Albuquerque, will get our newest EP out too. I've released over 30 records in the last 20 years with different projects. It's a pretty stupid amount of material!”

Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, Steve Hammond and His Rabid Children was booked to play this week as part of Super Dark Collective’s Super Dark Thursday. His other group, a lo-fi thrash metal power trio called Ice Queen, is scheduled to play its first show on April 6, but based on the current state of affairs, that one seems unlikely as well. If that is the case, Ice Queen’s live debut could take place May 8 at the Low Beat.

While it’s a real downer not getting to play these shows, Hammond has a good, humorous sense of perspective on it.

“I'm definitely bummed about not being able to play live for a while. I've got a really great solo band right now,” he lamented. “The Rabid Children are sounding so good and it's so fun, I'm definitely disappointed having to cancel our shows. - Albany Times Union