This pioneering Kansas City band has survived fire, flood, tornadoes, and van crashes and lived to talk about it.
Season to Risk play a genre-bending mix of heavy indie rock. Singer Steve Tulipana’s captivating stage presence quickly got the band noticed in the early 90s and signed to Columbia (Sony), with vocals in the lineage of Nick Cave and David Yow of Jesus Lizard. The band changed direction with each release, quickly pivoting away from the grunge and nu metal wave, showing a surprisingly diverse range of influences and interests, gradually adding darker noise and synthesizer. Reviews ranged from “the next Soundgarden” (1st record) to “metal for recovering
indie rockers” (2nd record).
In 1993, they were selected to perform as a futuristic punk band for the club scene in the film “Strange Days” about the Y2K apocalypse, but their song was cut from the soundtrack for being “too noisy”.
Burned and Submerged
A series of disasters has tested Season to Risk as if God herself wants their music destroyed. The band blew through a dozen vehicles while touring relentlessly through the 90s, suffering near-death accidents along the way, cracked engines, careening backwards downhill in Seattle with no brakes, and a rollover on an icy stretch of Minnesota highway. They also suffered line up changes with the loss of several early drummers leaving at pivotal moments in the band’s career.
No less than four members have left the band to join their alt rock cousins Shiner, also from Kansas City. Tim Dow played drums on early Season to Risk songs but left before the recording of the eponymous debut record. Current Shiner rhythm section Paul Malinowski and Jason Gerken left after the 2nd album “In A Perfect
World”. And noise guitar prodigy Josh Newton joined Shiner after the 3rd album “Men Are Monkeys. Robots Win.”
Season to Risk’s first two album masters burned in the Sony/Universal warehouse fire of 2008, which also claimed 150,000 other master tapes from John Coltrane to Nine Inch Nails. The band’s recording studio was totaled in a flash flood which almost claimed the lives of guitarist Duane Trower and drummer David Silver as they tried to save equipment while muddy water submerged their recording console and ruined the building in 15 minutes. The tape masters for their third album and other clients’ projects were lost in the flood, along with their touring RV, their studio investment, and their morale. Trower built a new recording studio, Weights and Measures Soundlab, and eventually remastered the synth-drenched album years later.
Multiple Personalities
Bass player Billy Smith and guitar/synth wizard Wade Williamson joined their ranks in 1999 to complete their 4th album “The Shattering” with producers Jason Livermore and Bill Stevenson (Descendents /Flag). After touring for that record, the band took a breather and worked on other projects through the 2000s, often together, releasing many albums with differing musical styles as Roman Numerals, Thee Water MoccaSins, Olympic Size, Sie Lieben Maschinen, and CoNoCo.
1-800-MELTDOWN is a return to their noise rock roots, released by Init Records
on limited-edition neon green vinyl for Record Store Day 2025.
