JS: I'm still not sure. I know that I didn't break the band up. Maybe no one did. I don't know. Maybe it just naturally imploded. There were tensions there for one reason or other. To be honest, I'm not a great communicator and that was probably part of it. But there were other things, disagreements on how often we'd practice, what sort of places we'd play. I didn't feel like we were working very hard there in the last couple months. And I wanted to play out much more than we were doing. I'm not proud. I'll play anywhere. But I don't want to put so much of myself into a band if everyone isn't on the same page in terms of what your goals for the band are and so on. But if it was up to me, we would've probably taken a couple weeks off to simmer down and then come back together. It would have been great with me if we were all still together. Everyone has sort of gone their separate ways now. The sad thing is I don't think any of them are really doing anything much musically. I think Brock plays on occasion. I'm not sure what Brian and Dave are doing musically. I had a couple gigs lined up that would've been a gas to play, though. The Little Grill (a local music hangout in Harrisonburg - JW) called twice during the summer and practically pleaded for us to play. And another local place wanted us to play too but then they went out of business. And then some guy from up in New Haven, Connecticut called a month or so ago and wanted us to play up there in December. But, you know.

JW: What is it with you and bands?

JS: Ha ha! I don't know. I can't find people who are really focused on making something happen. You know, I have been in a lotta bands but not one of them lasted more than a year. It's sort of like the Muddy Waters syndrome. Do you know what I mean? Muddy Waters (the late great blues legend --JW) always played with these young guys who were like decades younger than he was and his band was constantly changing as the young guys would move in and out. Short attention span or something. I don't know! The older I get, the harder it is to meet new musicians. And my music is odd. Sort of stuck in other eras. But not a product of any particular time, you know? I mean, I'm influenced by stuff from the late '60s through the early 90s. But I'd love to play again live. I'm ready. But I just don't want to go beg someone to play. I mean, hell, I'm not that desperate.

JW: Would you call yourself a micro-star?

JS: What in the hell is a micro-star?

JW: It's a new concept. I came across it on the internet. It's the idea that every locality is a kind of micro-world with its own constellation of larger than life people. In other words, micro-stars.

JS: That's very interesting, but I ain't no micro-star. I'm just one more dumb white boy with a Fender guitar.

JW: What's the best band you ever played with?

JS: Oh that's hard. I can't answer that. The times I've played with Brian Temples have always been special because he's such a brilliant bassist and a really good singer too. I always felt like he and I produced a special kind of spark together. But our musical interests are probably too different in the end. I really liked the last band because at first it was very creative and willing to do all kinds of stuff. But I had to do most of the lead guitar work and I am a terrible lead guitarist. But the most fun I ever had was playing with some kids who were fresh out of the high school where I teach. I think they were all like 18 or 19 at the time. It was just a one night thing and we'd thrown together four or five songs together that afternoon because one of them had asked me to play at his band's last ever show or something. I don't remember the occasion exactly. But I'd been close to all three of them and they seemed to be so into the music. There was only maybe 40-50 people at the show but everyone of them was just really there for the band. You know what I mean? But it was special in a way I can't explain and this probably makes no sense to you or anybody who's reading this. If that group had asked me to join them I'd have said 'yes' in a heartbeat! They were called the Necromantics. Great name, I thought.

JW: Yeh it is. Funny. Say something about your last tape, SO FAR IN EVERY DIRECTION.

JS: Well, that was supposed to be BIG BUSINESS MONKEY, VOL. 4 originally. But it turned out to be more than just a loose collection. I thought it kind of held together as an album. So I gave it a name and put it out. There are a few songs on there that I think are as good as I've ever done. Probably some clunkers too, but I like it. It's sold something like 10 copies. Another huge money maker for Ain't Records.

JW: You know, you are always telling me how frustrated you are that so few people hear your music. Why do you keep on doing it? Make music, I mean.

JS: I don't know. I don't want to do it, anymore, to be honest. But I can't stop. Isn't that the craziest thing? I think to myself how inane it is to keep making music and that it's time to grow up and forget about music but I just can't get the lyrics and music for the next song out of my head. Music's always clanging around inside my skull and it won't go away. Maybe one day the frustration will just get to be too much and I really will stop, but I wonder. Maybe it's because I'm a relatively isolated person in many ways and music's the only way I have to keep a connection open with people. That's probably it. I have thought about it a lot. But I don't know the reason I keep writing new stuff.

JW: So are you going to eventually start another band?

JS: I don't know that either. I'd like to. I really enjoy playing live though in some ways it's nerve wracking and a hassle. I hate hauling equipment around. And before a show I'm a nervous wreck. But actually playing live and watching people get into your music is a gas. If someone were to come up to me tomorrow and say they wanted to start a new Book of Kills, I'd probably say yes.

JW: Where do you see your music heading next?

JS: Well, I have some new songs about done. A couple of them are a little more complicated than most of my stuff. More changes involved. The lyrics are real sort of stream of consciousness. I don't mean I'm turnng into Yes or Genesis or something but it's a little more...um...involved. But then I've also done some real simple folky stuff. Very basic.

JW: Where do you see yourself in music? What importance do you attach to what you do?

JS: What? Importance? Oh Jesus. I am a pimple on music's ass. I have no importance as a musician...

JW: Calm yourself.

JS: I am a middle-aged teacher who puts out cassettes of his own music once or twice a year and who has a tiny tiny base of people who listen to that music. I get an occasional nice review from the magazines that cater to home tapers. What importance can you attach to that? I am making noise for an audience of one. You know what? Since April of this year I have sent a demo package to 21 different shitty little record companies.

JW: And?

JS: Not only did not one of them send me a rejection letter, not one of them even made the effort to reply to me. That ought to shed some light on my importance.

JW: So you define your success by whether or not a "shitty" record company accepts you?

JS: What other definition is there? Hey, even most of the people around Harrisonburg who count themselves as fans of Book of Kills don't bother to buy my tapes. If I was important musically on any level I think that people would at least locally...oh hell. I don't know. It's frustrating. Ha ha! I suppose I need to realize that my stuff just doesn't connect with most people. Maybe it sucks, I don't know. I hope not!

JW: What are your own favorite albums of yours?

JS: Oh there are 3-4 that I know are better than the others in terms of lyrics, performance and so on. THE HAUNTED LIFE, SPLENDID TRIGGER, ST. JUDAS. I like SONGS FOR A GONE WORLD just 'cause it's so strange. I think THE BEST OF tape comes off pretty good. See, I like almost all my tapes a lot. I mean, I'd be an idiot not to, wouldn't I? All those tapes are me. If you want to know who I am, the best chance you'll ever have is through my music. Even the songs that seem to be about other people are more or less about me. I look back on the last 9 or 10 years and sometimes I can't believe that I spent all that time and effort writing and recording all those songs. Gotta be around 200 songs now. But I loved every minute. It's a wonderful thing to write a song and then put it together instrument by instrument on a piece of magnetic tape. I've never been a real expert at recording and mixing and all that but I love the whole process. Home multi-track tape recorders probably saved my life.

JW: Why don't you use other musicians on a more regular basis to record?

JS: Well, it's just really hard for me to get people together in one place and coordinate the process of recording a bunch of songs. It's much much easier for me to do it myself. There are trade offs. I'm not a very good musician and have to settle for clunky musicianship but the process of recording is almost inextricable from the process of writing and building a song.

JW: How so?

JS: I tend to write while I record. And a lot of re-writing goes on at the same time. Sort of like how you hear about bands writing albums in the studio. I do that more or less.

JW: If you had to narrow it down to a handful of bands, who would you say were your greatest influences?

JS: John Lennon because of his love of sound manipulation. I don't think I show much of a Beatles influence but Lennon is by far the most important single influence. Then there'd be Bob Dylan. That period in his career from 1965 to '68 or so when he was writing these fabulous surreal lyrics influenced by the Beats, the French Imagists, Walt Whitman. No one before or since has done anything like it. Probably the third most significant influence would be Husker Du. That sort of strummed ultra-distorted guitar sound. A lot of the stuff I did up through ST. JUDAS was based in part on the Du. I'm sort of the Beatles trying to do Dylan as interpreted by Husker Du. Badly! Ha ha!

JW: Do you feel like you're still in touch with what's going on now in music?

JS: Hell no! I mean I am, but I don't care to try to imitate say Prodigy or Nine Inch Nails or the Chemical Brothers or whatever. I do what I want and don't care too much anymore what others think. You have to do what the voices in your head tell you to do. When you start trying to be current you start making dishonest music. That's no doubt one reason why few people listen to BOK. I don't really have a sound that would appeal to your typical teenager or even those in their 20s. I'm stuck in another time frame. I realize that. Very few people can bridge the musical gap between the generations. But I always felt like if you just did what you felt, if it was honest, then in a way your music could stay outside of time.

JW: How does your job as a teacher affect your music? Or does it?

JS: My music and my job don't really intersect too much. About the only thing I can say about the two is that I wish I could stop teaching and just do music. But that's a pipe dream. I know now that it will never happen.

JW: Why not?