The Many Faces of Space Junkie
Chris Manson March 24, 2005 Issue

Space Junkie is a rock band. No, Space Junkie is a rap band. Space Junkie is a dance band. No, Space Junkie is a techno band...

The Space Junkie saga began in 1997 with drummer John Mlynarczyk and guitarist Ken Simmons, veterans of rock band 90 Proof. Robert Hasker was enlisted to play bass, and the newly christened Section 8 revamped its sound to capitalize on the new millennium trend towards dance and hip-hop music. The name was then changed to Space Monkey, followed by Space Junkie. Under that moniker, the band incorporated even more dance and hip-hop into the repertoire, along with techno—generally one of the most difficult styles to pull off in a live setting.

“The reality of it all is that the local scene here is basically conducive to cover music, but we got tired of the ennui and gave it an overhaul,” Hasker says. “I mean, I know we were the first band on the Gulf Coast to do anything close to this kind of music in a fully realized sonic fashion, but I also know we’re not changing the world here. We just gave it a facelift...that and a few extra subwoofers.”

Simmons departed about four years ago, and Robert’s high school buddy Jody Shaver joined the group as guitarist. Shaver had been doing studio work in Nashville. “When I first joined, they told me I’d be playing hip-hop and techno,” Shaver recalls. “Techno is an entire new thing for guitarists. I enjoy the full diversity of this band.” Shaver divides his time between Space Junkie and a jazz band, Red Rodney.

Hasker says the band is working on a disc of original material “but it keeps getting backburnered by various other projects and hurricanes.” With Hasker doing most of the writing, the music will draw from all the styles the front man admires. “It’s basically a lot of songs in every genre, with some bleeding into others. There will definitely be rap, definitely rock, but there are also some tracks where so many styles are twisted into one entity I don’t even know how to aptly describe it. Maybe we should call the album ‘not radio-friendly.’”

Radio friendly or not, Hasker and company have mastered the art of reading a crowd. “I remember we had this gig at the Sky Bar in Destin, and 99 Rock was out there doing remotes. But the crowd was big on hip-hop, rap, dance, and such. One night we showed up and 99 Rock was doing a big promotion inside. The management asked us if we could play some stuff that would appeal to the rock crowd, so we opened with some Nine Inch Nails, Filter, Stabbing Westward, Linkin Park, all that noise. It was hilarious, the radio guys had no clue we knew that stuff, since all they’d been hearing from us for months was like Black Eyed Peas and P!nk.”

Hasker says he really enjoys playing rock the most “because it just feels real. However, if I took a group vote the answer would probably be the songs that look like they don’t belong on any band’s set list.” The kind of songs nobody sees coming. “The first reaction when an audience hears Alice DJ or Darude coming from a cover band is priceless. And while people have come to know us as the band that does Eminem, Outkast, Usher, stuff like that...the truth is we love the rock, man.

“Or maybe after years of doing almost nothing but pop-rap-techno, we just miss it more.”

Hasker says the most rewarding aspect is the honest connection made with the audience. “When people come up and say things like ‘I’m really feeling you guys, I know where you’re coming from, don’t change a thing’—that’s the gold standard. Audiences are fairly sophisticated these days, so when the audience ‘gets it,’ it makes all the work worth the effort, regardless of the pay. It took a long time and a lot of work for this band to end up sounding like it does now, and it’s extremely difficult to stay a step ahead of today’s technically savvy audiences, but people seem to think we’ve pulled it off.”

It’s the most dizzyingly extensive gathering of sounds you’re likely to hear on the Gulf Coast, and it’s not unusual to see a DJ up on stage with Hasker, Mlynarczyk, and Shaver as the “fourth Junkie.” And as their set lists continue to evolve, the band promises a fascinating journey for both themselves and their audiences.

SIDEBAR:

WHO? Space Junkie: Robert Hasker (bass-keyboards-programming-vocals), John Mlynarczyk (drums-vocals), Jody Shaver (guitar-vocals).
APPEARING: March 27-28 at John Wehner’s Village Door and hopefully appearing on a regular basis at a popular Destin nightspot—check their website spacejunkie.org for future dates.
THEIR SOUND: “All over the place," says Hasker. “The influences are far reaching and continue into the present. We really do love all kinds of music.”
FAVORITES: “Jody’s big on indie stuff, fusion jazz, and, of course, every guitar god who’s ever touched a string from Hendrix to (Rage Against the Machine’s Tom) Morello,” Hasker says. “John’s a groove junkie, but he’s an old school rocker, too—he loves anything with a lot of distortion and drums, the heavier the better. I literally like and listen to everything and always have—Crystal Method, Beethoven, Tool, Point of Grace, Eminem, Led Zeppelin, Kelly Clarkson, you name it.”

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