MOTIVES of EXISTENCE circa 1967

The Motives were just a local teenage band who liked to play Animals and Jimi Hendrix music. The 60’s had taken hold on Wildcat and his growing number of friends, and band members had little problem finding all kinds of gigs throughout other parts of southeastern Michigan. After the breakup of the Motives in 69, in 1970, John met and became collaborators with a 17 year old bass player from Hazel Park named Bill Kapenekas. Bill had moved down the street from John and they found they had a lot in common like music, girls, and vices. Along with Ferndale drummer Bob Stienmetz, they forged a sound that tugged away at what Wildcat had evolved into post Motives. The new band was called Katmandu, who in their own basement, level of jamming and recording melded into a brotherhood that carried them into a lot of gigs like with SRC the Fruit, and Frigid Pink. In the 5 years they were together they shared all manner of emotional meanderings involving the many satellite people who revolved around them. Edgy tunes with names like "Woman" and "Time Bomb" were interlaced with a bevy of acid rock licks that made for a contrast as compared to other Wildcat hippie idealistic ballads like "Lonely Town" and "Common Man". Kapanekas would lay the bottom with his stereo pickup Rickenbacker bass driving a 30 inch speaker giving the kind of ballsy distorted sound that could really be felt directly down the spine. Along with Stienmetz’s high finesse kind of rollin drum licks, Wildcat found the perfect pocket to let loose with his unique brand of guitar playing, and could do keyboards-sax-flute-theremin, and even clarinet.

About 1972 Katmandu and company met a kid from Oak Park named Jay Verwiebe. Jay was a green teenager out hitchhiking on Woodward in Ferndale when Wildcat along with this author were cruising to Birmingham in my ’59 Ford Galaxie 500 when we picked him up. As fate would have it, it was a dubious encounter as the Birmingham police pulled over the hapless bunch who had just indulged in some party smoke that was billowing out the car windows putting all involved into a panic. When the cop came up to the driver, he said he wanted to see what it was we had been drinking. It was only some yogurt we had been tipping that he thought was a beer or something. Feigning innocence with a guilty smile and by producing the Dannon cups, the cop let us go.

And such was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Verwiebe, eager to please his new found friends, and delighted when the band invited him to drive them around in a 69’ Buick Wildcat, Wildcat had accepted it when Kapenekas gave him the nickname of Farnsworth, as if he were their personal chauffeur, and he was.

Farns could play the acoustic guitar and sing some country songs, but was relegated to singing backup on some of Wildcat’s basement studio recordings in a space about the size of a crawlspace to the side of the rehearsal room. The inside walls being lined with acoustic foam and having a window facing the practice room, made that little control room a catalyst for the creativity of all those involved, and happened to be a great place to get stoned, and band chicks-of which there was no shortage of.

Starting with little 4 channel mixer’s from Radio Shack and a kind of magnetic tape cartridge deck, and a 2 track recorder reel to reel, this was the road to Nirvana. Sex, drugs, and rock n roll, and a copy of it on an 8 track cartridge was a way into the labyrinth of hedonistic resolution and pure sonic pleasure. After Katmandu split in 1975, Wildcat looked to other people, and considerable new musical ideas. Aligned with a new Teac 4 track overdub tape deck, Wildcat had the power to explore his own inner potential. His next band called Nucleus, were a 5 piece group notable now for the addition of Detroit east side hard blues guitar player Rudy Devona. Rudy’s dynamic guitar licks then allowed Wildcat to concentrate on the Hohner Piano and Farfisia combo organ to fatten his sound enhanced by his acquisition of a couple of early Univox synthesizers. A song called "Serve the Purpose" reflected an almost misogynistic attitude he had had from some first handed knowledge of dating strippers and becoming hip to their shenanigans. The song’s hard funk beat was true and blue Detroit city works having come from the influences of Motown and the Funkadelic. Thus Devona gave Wildcat the tool he needed to explore a kind of King Crimson dynamic with his heavy synth bottom carrying him into even more branches of creativity.

After the dissolution of Nucleus in about 1978, Wildcat embraced the Earthmen as his calling to the moment. Farns learned to play the bass by then and by sheer need, Wildcat gave him a chance making for a 25 year collaboration. Recent gigs in Ann Arbor and Detroit have built the Earthmen’s momentum into a string of successes Wildcat would like to see continue. Now doing covers like "Secret Agent Man" as well as a wide bevy of originals, The Earthmen were turning on a whole lot of young people jaded by the bankruptcy of original musical ideas, and they are coming to embrace the band in it tried and true quest in creating the music that really means something. Solid songwriting. For over thirty years Wildcat has embraced composing with an ease some musicians are jealous of. Now a revitalized Earthmen along with current drummer Detroiter Kurt Henry, who after a 12 year absence from the band, has once again joined up to add his own considerable talents into the mix. Kurt added a new dimension with his sturdy riffs and can even play keyboards and sing quite well. How this added up only time could tell. But with Wildcat’s clean Jazzmaster guitar adding to the mix along with the distorted power sound of his custom Les Paul, Farns and Kurt dug along with some solid backing making the Earthmen more dynamic than ever.

The truth is in the music.

Wildcat leads the way.

Wildcat’s latter tune "Icon of Beauty" reflect that with half a century of life behind him, he and the Earthmen can sound as fresh as ever in a sort of timeless hope and worldly innocence. "Icon" has strong crossover appeal and might be the tune Wildcat can use to get over. Fans would watch for any gigs the Earthmen were doing, and hold onto their seats if they liked it loud and to the point.

At the age of eleven John Wildcat picked up his first guitar, which he crudely made out of plywood and scrap lumber and the strings were made of speaker coil. John was already taking piano lessons, but the guitar constituted involvement in Rock & Roll. Music from the Beach Boys, Jan & Dean and Dion were an influence as their music poured out from the radio. However, when the Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time in 1964, the true note of enthusiasm struck in his heart. This was the fork in the road in which his musical travels would begin.

Around six months later John obtained a cheap but "real" acoustic guitar which would become the first step in forming a band called "The Ant Eaters" which consisted of two other kids from grade school. At this time there were local talent shows on television such as Poop Deck Paul, then following came Starlit Stairway then there were "stars" in "The Ant Eaters" eyes. When the BEATLES hit big, groups of youngsters flocked to the Poop Deck Paul show. Pantomime and Lip-Syncing to current hit songs took off as the fad of the times.

"The Ant Eaters" had no amplifiers or sound machines, but they still sang and played music with enthusiasm. Finally, in March, "The Ant Eaters" were to perform on the Poop Deck Paul show. However, the night before the debut the two other band members called John and wanted him to stand in the background, play guitar and not sing. With this change in program the night before the performance, John declined to play, and "The Ant Eaters" bit the dust!

That summer, John and two or three neighborhood kids got together and chose their vocal parts to the current hits of 1965 radio. After a multitude of hours spent singing, and progressing to playing instruments along with the records, the record player was put to rest. It was at that point that the band "The Dragsters" were born.

"The Dragsters" quickly progressed and as the 1965-1966 summers of love approached they picked up on bookings, and began writing some of their own material and changed their name to "Motives of Existence", which carried them through Junior and High schools. During this time the band fluctuated between three to five members and managed to record "My Love", composed by John, at Pioneer Studios in Detroit.

It was the High School year of 1967-1968 that the band hooked up with George Williams, a booking agent, who got "Motives of Existence" playing engagements from High Schools and Wedding Receptions to the YMCA and the USO. After High School, misguided boyish enthusiasm brought an end to their business relationship with Mr. Williams and subsequently brought an end to the "Motives of Existence".

Then came a short lull of traveling around the country inspired by a star-crossed love affair, during which time John still kept in touch with music by sitting in with blues bands and playing one nighters in coffee houses in California and Washington State. Inevitably, John returned home to Detroit.

A new road was being paved which lead to the Grande Ballroom, East Town, The Michigan Palace and the Birmingham Palladium. After seeing groups like SRC, All the Lonely People, Savage Grace, Iggy & The Stooges, Wilson Moore Pursuit, T Garden and Van Winkle, Amboy Dukes, The Rationals, Mitch Ryder, and Bob Seger a new musical awakening arose in John.

At first these bands seemed to be completely out of John's league and almost intangible though after a few front row seats of concert's, watching fingers and taking notes on equipment he realized that after many late nights of experimenting he could do that too! These progressive Detroit based bands had the same effect that the Beatles did years before to the the fire burning again.

In 1970, the early stages of the new band "Bison" was being formed. Composed of all original songs "Bison" quickly landed a job playing at the Fruit Palace in Mt. Clemens. However, when John heard the female disc jockey on WABX mispronounce the name as "Bixon" the band decided they needed a catchier sounding name and that's when the new name "KATMANDU" was born. The band got more gigs as weeks went by and added a flamboyant front man and became a glitter show group of the "70's".

In 1972, numerous local bands including Bob Seger engaged the Belle Isle band shell to perform concerts for free. "KATMANDU' was among these local performing artists. Bob Seger, being the most renowned of any of these acts, caused the members of ''KATMANDU'' to decide that appearing as an opening act for such an artist would indeed give them a chance at a larger audience.

Subsequently ''KATMANDU'' contacted Punch Andrews, Bob Seger's manager, via phone and discussed this issue at length. Andrews was friendly and open-minded about the idea but nothing ever transpired. Four days later booking agent Joe Pereno had been scheduled to stop by the rehearsal studio to hear ''KATMANDU''. When Joe walked in the door he said, "Oh, you guys are "KATMANDU'' I was in Punch's office when you called. I don't know if they're going to go for that opening act idea, but they sure did love your name!''. Within a year Bob Seger's national hit "Kathmandu" hit the charts. It gave the band a quick boost in name recognition, culminating in a three day show at the Trading Post at 13 & Gratiot. However, about a third of the crowd knew the band, another third thought the song was about the band, and still more thought the guy on stage was the guy singing the song on the radio. Needlessly to say, that was the demise of "KATMANDU'' as a band.

Within the next year John was writing more new material and exploring the possibilities of recording with full creative control. When Jay Farns brought an old reel to reel Webcor tape recorder to a rehearsal session, John was skeptical as having heard scores of amateur cassette recordings. That night they hooked up a 1950 microphone (Elvis Presley type) to the ancient machine and on playback through the P.A. system everyone was pleasantly surprised at the sound quality. Here began the quest for progressively better recordings.

As the recording techniques progressed from using a rack of old language recorders to achieve primitive form of over dubbing, it steadily evolved to four track, then to eight track and so on. In the midst of this prolific period of writing and recording the group "Nucleus" came about which consisted of five members, John, Jim Burkhert, Rick Stevens, Pete "Rudy" Devona, and Larry Bilycki in the original line up. Groups like Styx, Kansas, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Boston, Yes, Jethro Tull and various Jazz Rock fusion bands comprised the inspiration for the all original sound of "Nucleus".

After a few bad managers and politically unsuccessful performances, needlessly to say the line up changed to where Jay Farns, former roadie and technician, took over as bass player, vocalist and co-producer of the band. From this point "Nucleus" moved forward in writing, recording and performing.

After finding that the name "Nucleus" was too universal in that bands were popping up around the globe with that name, and with the advent of New Wave and Punk, "Nucleus" decided that they needed to go with a name more basic, and how could you get more basic than the "EARTHMEN''? After a few changes of drummers, the latest drummer was Dan Rimmer.

So far, this musical biography of John's career has led you up to the phase of The "EARTHMEN", as a unit, and has had an extensive history in as far as diverse types of performances. All throughout the "EARTHMEN" years, as well as performing, writing and producing for the "EARTHMEN", John has done live sound for many local groups and also produced many recordings for local groups. John has traveled on the road for the Freeman James Band as a sound engineer and technical consultant. Also, being a guitar technician and builder, he has worked with companies such as Dick Polk Music Factory, Gus Zoppi Music, Music Stand in Berkley, the M Studio in Detroit and Wonderland Music in Dearborn, as well as independent work, and stage prepping of guitars for such bands as The Cars, Blondie, UFO and Heart which was handled through Wonderland Music.

Throughout these years of musical endeavor John has composed approximately over a hundred songs in various areas of music which include Rock, Blues, Country, Folk, Punk, Jazz Fusion and one Rap tune. Each song is distinctly unique in that the styles span from the fifties to the New Millennium. At one time or another the "EARTHMEN" have played at almost every live music venue in the Detroit area. The advent of the CD "Motives of Existence" by the "Earthmen" would become more available to the public in the coming months.

In the middle of the year 2011, The Earthmen band disbanded due to some long time unresolved conflicts. John Wildcat began spending quality time with his soul mate Mamma Cat (Nancy Jean Campbell) and he worked on upgrading his vintage 1930 Ford hot rod and his 1973 Chevrolet Corvette, and he worked on putting the final finishing touches of mixing and mastering his next CD titled "The Prophets of Popular Culture". In the meanwhile, John Wildcat was also contemplating his next move in his musical career.

In the summer of 2012 John Wildcat enlisted the help of his long time friend and Ferndale neighbor John Hayes, who is also a guitarist\vocalist in a local band called 3 Hour Tour, a classic rock cover band. In a months time John Hayes learned all of Wildcat’s songs from his latest compiled song list on the bass guitar using John Wildcat’s recordings on CD, and the two friends played as a duo every week at The Stage Coach Lounge in Detroit, while seeking out a drummer to join them. With Craigslist.org’s help, they soon found Dave Hengstebeck, a drummer who John Wildcat and John Hayes were acquainted with from playing alongside other bands in the past, where Dave played for Jeff Maylin’s blues band. In just two weeks time after having just two practices with Dave, the trio began playing out at clubs every weekend beginning December 22 nd, 2012 and John Wildcat’s newly formed band with John Hayes and Dave Hengstebeck went back to the group name The Motives of Existence.

The newly reformed band, The Motives of Existence, currently has a vision to warm up for major acts in the Detroit area, and to get some of John Wildcat’s original music on the radio airwaves.

ROCK N ROLL IS AS ROCK N ROLL DOES