BACKSTAGE PASS ARTICLE SEPTEMBER 1997
DAWN PATROL
Written By: BOB CELOSKY
About a year and a half ago Adam Schoenwald decided to form a new band. After playing on the circuit for years in various projects, he decided that he was fed up with struggling to get people to like his original music and made up his mind that he wanted to “just have fun playing music again”. Like so many of us, Adam grew up listening to bands like Survivor, Night Ranger, and Bon Jovi. So, he felt it was time he started paying tribute to the bands that influenced him so much. Hence, Dawn Patrol was born.
“When I was auditioning people I was so picky about the musicians. I wanted good musicians, with similar tastes, and I wanted them to be really good vocalists because there’s a lot of harmonies in the music that we do,” says Adam. “ It was taking a long time to find the right group of people. I think some of the original members were getting kind of discouraged because they thought the band wasn’t going anywhere. So we had a few members that left during the early struggle.” Adam finally found that right group of people, and they are: Len Deptula on drums, lead and backing vocals, Steve Michaels on Keyboards, lead and backing vocals, Ronnie Rivera on Bass, lead and backing vocals, Adam Schoenwald on guitar and backing vocals, and Kevin Wending on guitar, lead and backing vocals. The band rotates the lead vocal responsibilities because, “One singer is not going to be able to sing all of the songs that we do. Each band has a different singer with his own sound and between the four of us that sing, we can pretty much cover all the bases vocally,” explains Len.
Dawn Patrol’s set list looks like something off of a CD you’d order off of television late at night from K-Tel Music. The list includes such classic songs as “Don’t Tell Me You Love Me” by Night Ranger, “Hold On Loosely” by .38 Special, “Wait” by White Lion, and “Round and Round” by Ratt. Other bands that Dawn Patrol pays tribute to are: The Tubes, Eddie Money, and Little River Band. “A lot of people think that we are just a tribute band. There’s a difference between a tribute band and what Dawn Patrol is”, explains Adam. “We cover songs from many different bands, not just Night Ranger. On our press kit, it says: ‘Night Ranger, Loverboy, and other 80’s guitar rock’. And that about covers what we do.” Adam originally just picked out about a dozen songs that he wanted to play and the list just grew from there. They have quite a long list of songs so that they don’t have to play the same ones every show. However, they know which ones get the best reaction from the crowd and those are the main staple of their live show.
Dawn Patrol gets mixed reactions to the kind of music they play. Most people get excited about hearing this type of music again. Some people are turned off by the songs they play because they’re not in style. Len says, “One time we played three songs from our set and were asked to leave by the club. We still got paid for the full set, but they didn’t think the music was a good enough draw. We even explained exactly what kind of music we played when we booked the show, and they still didn’t want us to finish the set.” Some people even have a delayed reaction to the music. “People ask us what type of music we play and we tell them 80’s guitar rock and they’re like ‘Oh, no! That music is so out of date!’ “says Adam. “Then after our set the same people come up to us and say, ‘I forgot how much I like this music and what great songs these are.’”
Looking towards the future, some of the members of Dawn patrol would like to venture out and play original material. Ronnie writes original music, as does Len and Kevin. They are looking at Dawn Patrol as a way to keep their chops up and an avenue for them to continue playing music they really love. Kevin and Ronnie, obviously the smart-alecks in the band, also have bigger aspirations for their futures, “I want to write music for porno movies,” laughs Kevin. And then Ronnie laughingly chimes in, “And I want to star in those porno movies.”
It’s all about fun. It’s all about good music that sparks great memories. The music Dawn Patrol plays comes from a time when the bands were more than just one-hit wonders and bands that you never even learned the names of before the radio station is already playing the next trendy band. “Most of our crowds are in their mid to late twenties,” explains Len. “They come out to hear these songs because they can’t hear them anywhere else. They want to have a good time, let loose, and forget their responsibilities for a little while. That’s what we let them do. That’s what Dawn Patrol is about.”
For performance updates and band info, you can call the Dawn Patrol 24-hour band hotline at (312) 661-9055.
