Steve Kimock was raised in Pennsylvania. In the mid-seventies, the self-taught guitarist, traveled west with the Goodman Brothers, eventually settling in Northern California. Over the years he has performed with a number of individuals including Keith and Donna Godchaux, John Cippolina and Jerry Garcia. In 1984, Kimock and Greg Anton formed the band Zero, which continues to generate high praise and a fervid audience. Last summer he joined the surviving members of the Grateful Dead in the Other Ones. He also performed a number of dates with the varying incarnations of the Phil and Friends (although he elected to leave the current tour in late October). Kimock's current passion is the group that he and fellow Zero member Bobby Vega assembled in January of 1998. KVHW, is an acronym drawn from its members last names, as Kimock and Vega are joined by former Frank Zappa vocalist Ray White and drummer Alan Hertz. In December the band will begin its inaugural east coast tour which will carry it from Vermont down to Georgia (with stops in Boston, and two shows at the Wetlands, among others). For a full list of dates and other pertinent information, visit the group's web site http://www.kvhw.com

B- Let's jump right into it. You current project, KVHW began as a one-off, right?

K- We put it together the week of the gig. We were trying to raise some money to send our buddy Kenny to Europe. Bobby and I decided to put something together- he knew Ray, and Alan lived up the street, he had come crashing throughout the studio once or twice before for various reasons.

B- How did Bobby know Ray? Had they worked together in the past?

K- Bobby grew up with Ray. It was a neighborhood thing.

B- When did you decide to keep it going, and continue to perform with that line-up?

K- Well like everything else in my life that's a day-to-day decision I guess. Every day we get up and we move on. I don't think all of us have ever sat down and said "Okay here's what we're going to do for the rest of our lives" or anything like that. I think we played another gig at the studio and then went to a bar and played unannounced, and it just kind of picked up so we kept after it.

B- What are your musical aims with KVHW?

K- I don't know if there's a specific musical goal or aim that goes out ahead of the desire to try to create an environment or situation for the players where you're getting the most benefit from the chemistry of having those players perform together. The goal is to get the most out of the personnel that you have,and figure out some way to get everybody in a happy, creative space where they're able to really give of themselves and enjoy doing it. And then some music results, the product of which is unique due to the individuals. But I never plan to make a certain type of music with a certain group of guys

B- So in any group you've played in, the resulting music has just been organic to the players?

K- Not all the time. I've been drafted into certain situations where people have said we're going to play this way. But that's not a feature of the relationship I have with the guys I'm working with now. Normally it's just "Let's play something." Or "We've just come up with a bunch of slow songs with odd time signatures, why don't we do a fast song in four." We might get that specific with it.

B- How do you write songs with KVHW and is it different from how you've written songs in other contexts?

K- The KVHW treasure hunt for material is way more inclusive and democratically spread around than any other band I've been in. When it's time for a tune we all bump our heads together on the way to getting our noses to the grindstone to come up with something. It's completely collaborative across the board.

B- Is that true in terms of the lyrics as well?

K- Very rarely will someone other than Ray pipe up with a lyric. He usually has either a head or a notebook full of some crazy visionary poetry at any time.

B- Speaking of which, it is difficult being a very expressive, emotive guitar player who doesn't sing?

K- I think what attracted me to playing music in the first place was that it seemed the clearest way for me to speak the unspoken. I sing along with what I'm playing but I'm just not a singer. I am completely comfortable with expressing myself without using words whatsoever. I say that of course while I'm doing an interview (laughs). If I could play you the answer I would.

B- Fair enough. Do you have plans to record with KVHW?

K- For better or for worse our technical minded fans record every gig and every couple months we do the same ourselves in a multitrack format. We'll probably have something come together after New Years.

B- You say "for better or for worse." Has it been odd for you over the years that people have been taping your gigs? I would imagine that adds an element of pressure to any given show.

K- It's part of the territory. When we rock we rock and when we suck, we suck. I stand by my performances. If I thought that for some reason I was not going to be able to get up there and do a good job or something was terribly wrong and I feared that I was being ripped off or in some aboriginal sense my soul would be stolen by the cameras, then I would say "Hey, don't make a tape." But I've never felt like that. I think it's great that people tape, I think it's great that they trade tapes. I think it great that people are able to network and get exposed to music other than the commercial kind of crap that the record industry has been shoving down everybody's throat.

B- Along those lines are you a net denizen?

K- Not really. I'm not much of a computer guy. I'm certainly no typist. In fact there's a computer sitting right here, and I never turn it on. (laughs) I'm not sure I know how. There's a bunch of guitars sitting right here, I turn those on.

B- As you begin this east coast tour with KVHW, what can these new audiences expect to see?

K- I guess the intent of it is an authentic small band presentation. Two guitars, bass, drums... west coast, guys with lots of experience. Some jazz, some rock and some blues. It's totally mixed up. It's kind of hard to explain in terms of other people's music. It is what it is. Either you come and see it and go "Wow, that's really cool" or you come and go "I don't know, I don't get it." (laughs)

B- How do you feel that this approach is different from what you've done for so many years with Zero. Obviously there's different instrumentation.

K- Zero for better or worse stylistically was a more varied bag. We went through a lot of stuff, a lot of different kinds of material and different players. We might have a bunch of horns, or a female singer, it could be total instrumental, or we'd be on stage with Robert Hunter playing Robert Hunter songs. It was all kinds of stuff at every level of quality and inspiration. I think that KVHW consistently hits its mark more often than Zero might have done over the years. KVHW is a real safe bet for me musically. These guys are very supportive. So in a lot of ways I think it is a clearer presentation.

B- Where does that leave the future of Zero?

K - Well...I'm kind of not in the band. I mean I don't know if I am or not (laughs). From my perspective I've put in fifteen years with that band, I think that in part I should give that a rest.

B- What about Bobby?

K- I don't think he'd do it if I wasn't doing it and I know I wouldn't do it if he wasn't doing it. Me and Bobby pretty much go together. I love all those guys, and I love the fans, and I love and stand behind the work I've done with that band, but it was a long time for me to keep my nose to that grindstone. I think I gave it a real good shot, and I just can't make it a priority for me.

B- I know that KVHW has gigs with Zero on December 17th and 18th of December. Will you perform with both bands?

K- Of course. No, I'm talking more about the future and getting more Zero stuff happening. My impression is that we will continue to occasionally gig as Zero in the existing line-up. In the meantime though it's kind of a backburner project for me. There has been talk to get Zero back to Hawaii, that's kind of turned into an annual event for us so I hope we can get that together.

B- Why don't you come east more often?

K- It's mostly been a logistical situation. You have to pay the band and it's easier to pay a band when you don't have to pay for plane tickets, hotel room and rental cars, and things like that. We seem to be doing okay playing on the west coast although of course we like to play more in the east.

B- Do you find that there is anything distinctive about the audiences on either coast?

K- There are a lot of people who will tell you that an east coast audience, say a New York audience, is different from a San Francisco audience. I'm sure that's true because there are people in both places and their whole thing is different: different air, different temperature, different bunch of people together for different reasons.

B- I think of you as a quintessential west coast player.

K- Although I'm a total Pennsylvania boy through and through. I just couldn't make a living back there playing music.

B- You first came out west in the middle seventies?

K- 74, 75 something like that to play with the Goodman Brothers, a wonderful band. I'm playing with Billy tonight, in the San Geronimo Valley cultural center.

B- Do you play out often, in unannounced or low key gigs?

K- Every gig I ever played was an unannounced low-key gig until couple of years ago (laughs).

B- Which reminds me. Jerry Garcia had that famous quote in which he dubbed you his favorite unknown guitar player (Guitar Player March 1989). Did that come as a surprise and did that pronouncement burden you in any way?

K-Did it burden me? No. It was awful sweet of him to say that. It was completely unexpected and unsolicited, and it was cool. And if he was around today I'd say "Hey, thanks for the support."

B- What was you reaction at the time? The next time you saw him what did you say to him about it?

K- I don't know if was something we ever discussed, if I ever discussed it with him at all.

B- Speaking of which, do you read a lot of what is written about you?

K- No, the basic dynamic being it's kind of hard to stay on any kind of path, both in terms of praise or criticism if you read something and take it to heart. It just creates a kind of duality- this person thinks this about me and I think this about myself. Pretty soon you're entirely in your brain, in your mind. I'm sure I've said this before but if there's any place I'm trying to be with the music, it's in a flow state where there's none of that duality and anything that creates that kind of duality. "I don't like what this guy's playing" or "I wonder what she thinks of me," anything like that you're automatically not in the zone, that flow space. You're trying to get there all the time and you can't get there if you're looking in a mirror

B- When you were out there performing in the Other Ones or Phil & Friends did you feel any additional burden or responsibility because you were playing someone else's music before a crowd of people who were very familiar with that music.

K- Honestly, I felt my responsibility was just to maintain some sort of beneficial presence, that's all. Nobody's going to replace Jerry Garcia. Nobody's going to play or sing the way he did.

B- Did anybody give you in advice in terms of how you should approach the job from a musical standpoint? Did they tell you how to play?

K- You know what, on the Furthur Tour, every minute of every day everybody told me something else (laughs).

B- On to a harder topic. I know that many people are disappointed that you didn't make the journey east to play with Phil and Friends. Is there anything you would like to say to those people?

K- If you added up all of those people's disappointment it was nowhere near as disappointed as I was not to be there for them. I felt unfairly placed in a difficult situation and my decision to leave the tour, as painful as it was, was an affirmation of my own integrity relative to my own musical trip. I did not want to leave.

B- Well, and I think what the readers of our site really want to know, short of butting our heads into the specifics of your private life, is whether the differences were related to the music or whether they reflected something else.

K- It had nothing to do with music. And for the record, it had nothing to do with money. I loved that band. I loved playing with those guys. That was the happiest I was playing with anybody, ever. Those last couple performances with Phil and Friends, for me, were the finest couple of performances I've ever pulled together in my entire life, and I think that sentiment might have been shared by other members of the band. At the Fillmore in Denver, sitting between Molo and Bill Payne, the keyboard player from Little Feat, I had tears of joy. I had no problem with the band, no problem with the crew, I just felt myself disrespected in a way that crushed the life out of me.

B- One final thought, returning to your own music. I know you've been writing songs and performing for many years, is there any one song or moment that you're particularly proud of?

K- There is not one thing where I reach over and pat myself on the back and go "Wow, I'm cool," nothing like that. I'm just real thankful that I've found somehow to continue playing, and that people continue to come and enjoy the music That's the goal.