Kurt Deimer has been part of the acting and music scenes for a number of years now. He released an ep with Phil X of Bon Jovi, and now he has released his full-length debut, And So It Begins. Kurt recently took some time while on tour to return to the site and chat about this record and upcoming plans.
Please press the PLAY icon below for the MisplacedStraws Kurt Deimer interview –
On why it took 3 years between the Ep and the new record – When I came out to LA with my demo in 2020 and Chris (Lord-Alge) agreed to remix it for me. And then we became really good friends, and he became my producer. We started, first song was, “Have a Cigar” that Chris wanted to redo the way he envisioned it. I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to do that song. So that’s how Phil (X) and I got together. Then Phil and I just started writing and I kept giving him lyrics and my vibe on songs, and we’ve literally been writing this music over the last two to three years, and there’s probably well over 30 songs in the pipeline.
But, it just took a little while because when you come out and you’re new to the business and everybody’s telling you, “You can’t, can’t can’t”, you gotta find the right people to surround yourself and there’s a lot of chaos and it’s not easy to start something from scratch. I’ve done it in my life before with my oil businesses and stuff, but it just takes a little while. Now that we finally broke the ice and the album is coming, is out now today. We’re off and running. I’ve already got the second one teed up and the third one in progress, so they should start coming out at a more rapid pace now that. Life has settled down a little bit.
On when the tracks were recorded – I had brought, for instance, “Burn Together”, “Whatcha Sayin'”, which is on the ep, it’s not on the album, but it’s gonna come out as a remix single with a collab, and “Big Toe”, and “Fight”, “My Dad”, songs like that. I had already written with my original writing partner, Ben Drexel out of Birmingham when I was down there, really getting into acting more and more. You hear a lot mixed in that I did with Ben and then Chris reproduced it, and then we added Phil onto it instead with the vocals and all that. Then a lot of it is after Phil and I met and did “Have a Cigar” and then toured together and stuff, we were writing like “Live or Die”, “Naive”, “Back of the School”. Those were some of the first ones we did, “Doom”. So, there’s a blend of the two. So, it’s kind of like the very past before Phil, and then there’s the Phil era. So, it’s the Drexel era and the Phil era. All the Ben Drexel era stuff, we reproduced with Phil and Chris Lord algae. So that’s kind of how it all unfolded.
On if his influences lead to the diversity in his sound – I saw bands like AC/DC, the Police, the Scorpions Ozzy with Randy Rhodes. So, I was very influenced by that. Ronnie James Dio and Black Sabbath. But then I also, back in that, those days, also liked the New Wave stuff. I liked the Hoodoo Gurus, was one of my favorite bands out of Australia, I like the Grateful Dead. I like Widespread Panic. I like Phish. I like reggae like Sublime, The Movement, Stick Figure. I like all that kind of stuff. So, I guess I’m glad you can tell and hopefully the fans can, that I’m influenced by a lot of different styles and even in the little country now too.
So, I think it’s important not to put an album out that sounds all the same. At the beginning, people were like, “You gotta go more country rock. You gotta, I go”, how about I just go Kurt Dimer the way I wanna present it and if I like the tunes, maybe 1% of the world will like the tunes. So that’s how I went about it.
On being able to put together a diverse setlist – We’ve opened for Mushroomhead, totally different than we are, for the most part, Drowning Pool, Yngwie (Malmsteen), a bunch of people wanting to see him play guitar and we go in and slap it out. So yeah, you’re right. It fits in, and we have a vibrant set, whether it’s 30 minutes or 45 or an hour, what hour and 15, whatever we’re, we’re doing. We have a lot of songs to pull from to tell a story that night and touch a lot of people’s lives.
When we go from “Naive”, which we’re doing currently, number five on the set list, right into “Whatcha Sayin'”, that’s two different total vibes. I take you on that hard rock and I go out in the crowd and then I come back and we’re talking about “My lord, whatcha saying to me”. People love it. They light the room up with their phones and it’s fun to be able to do all the different types. It could get boring for us as a band too, to play something that sounds the same all the time.
On his current touring band – My band now, we’re pretty much set. That’s the other thing. It’s taken a little while getting the guys that believe in what we’re doing as the band, Kurt Dimer. Getting the best musicians possible to always be tight, which is very important to me. I want the fans to see the same guys all the time. Now we’re, we’ve settled in on a four-piece band and it’s Sammy Bowler on lead guitar and vocals, and then Marco Perra on bass and vocals, and Isaiah Perez is our drummer. It’s a four-piece banging show and hell, if Led Zeppelin can do it, Rush can do it with three. Triumph can do it with three. Kurt Deimer can do it with four. So, we’re having a lot of fun. This is probably the best tour we’ve ever been on as far as the crew and the band and just morale, and we’re just all on the same mission now.
On choosing to open rather than headline small venues – My first tour was with Geoff Tate from Queensryche, and he did the song “Burn Together” with me. We went out on tour together and he really helped boost us and get us off to a good start where we didn’t have to start out locally or in the bars. We just brought our presentation right to the stage in front of a lot of people. We’re very blessed that we got to do that, or that these artists that are legends thought we were good enough to go and do this with them.
On if he will continue to work with Phil X – Yeah, we’ll keep working together. He’s part of our little team, me and Chris and Phil at the studio. He’s got a lot going on, but we we’ve got several more songs that aren’t even on this album that are killer (that) him and I did together. We’ll put the finishing touches on that and if I write another song and feel a vibe, I know I can call Phil and send it to him, and him and Chris and say, “Hey, let’s put it together like this”. And we would do that together.
On reaching success later in life – I share this with everybody, I only have one life. We all only have one life. I’m a dreamer, I’m a visionary. I’m a very take the high road, positive guy, and I was raised that way by my parents. It’s just what keeps me going, I just have a competitive drive. I always have. I’ve always been entrepreneurial my whole life. Did I get, A’s in high school? No, I got C’s, but I figured out how to get C’s without studying so I could go work all the time, do my own company. I started my own lawn business when I was 10. I was making $500 a week down in Houston. I’ve just always been a worker, and it’s helped me through a lot of times in my life by being a hard worker. I just carry that over.
When I got into the first movie and the opportunity presented itself, it was like a sign. It came out of nowhere. I wasn’t expecting it. I wasn’t trying to get it ’cause I was very busy anyways and successful. Then that came along and the music, I’m like, “Well, I always wanted to do this”. I said, if I could ever do it and win the game, I would do it. In this business, it’s rough. You gotta have the wherewithal to be able to take the punches and get back up, or you’ll never make it. That’s why so many great bands never do.
How, how old are we really? We’re only as old as we feel. People always ask me how old I am, and I always turn it back on them. I go, “How old do you think I am?” I get anywhere from 38 to 48 most of the time. So, I guess I’m doing something right. I got friends from high school, or people that I know from high school days and stuff, they look like they’re in their seventies. It’s just a matter of stress too. I’m not stressed anymore because I experienced so much negativity and positivity in life. I know what to expect and how to recover so. That’s the important part is the recovery.
On upcoming plans – We’re gonna keep touring. We’re working on more tours for later in the year when we finish May 22nd with Buckcherry. I’m gonna go shoot my fourth movie that’s coming out called Relapse. I play the dad who’s a rock star of the daughter who’s addicted to fentanyl and stuff. We’re gonna bring awareness to that, donate to MusicCares, and got some big names in that movie. After I shoot that, I’m gonna see you in June with Tesla and those are gonna be great shows ’cause we can bring our whole set, all our screens and everything, which you didn’t get to see before. Then hopefully got another movie project I’m working on that could be legendary. It’s from a legendary director bringing, bringing his final movie to fruition.
Then we’ll hopefully be touring the rest of the year into the late fall and who knows where we’ll be next year, but I know we’re on the uphill climb and if everybody just keeps following and sharing and digging our stuff, we’ll be coming to a city near you soon. So that’s the plan to keep touring, and then in between work on the second album and finish it up, which it’s already pretty much done. I just gotta get out there with Sammy and Marco and make some tweaks and, put the finishing touches on it and then we’ll probably hole up somewhere for a week in the winter and do the third album altogether as a band.
