Two schoolmates joined together to perform at a talent show, one Mike Viner whom played guitar and one Pat Burgart whom played the drums. For Mike, Pat was an obvious choice to perform music with, as he was given the honor of traveling to Disney World to perform as a
representative of his high school, but they were true friends to begin with for years before this. They seemed to have a good thing going over time. Another classmate of their's Mike O'Neil also played guitar. Mike and Pat asked him to come and play with them, as they needed a bass player, Mike welcomed the opportunity and found playing bass even more enjoyable. Over the years, after graduating high school together, they formed a strong bond beyond their friendship with their music. After having played some shows in public to get reactions and such, they began the search for a vocalist that would fit their sound and style.
After many auditions over time, they got a call in the latter part of 2001, it was in response to an ad they had recently hung up at the local Guitar Center nearby. Their hopes of finding someone that they would be happy with was starting to dwindle some, yet they remained optimistic. Sunday's band practice quickly came and a knock was heard at Viner's front door around noon. Right on time. He opened the door and he recognized the man's face and quickly asked him, "Didn't we work together years ago at McDonald's? I know I remember you." A voice replied, "Yeah, I remember you, this is like deja vu or something." The man felt welcome and introduced himself to the others,"Hey, what's up guys? My name is Chris Davis." The four headed down to
the basement where practice was routinely held. After some hours of playing music and exchanging ideas, Chris told them that he liked what he had heard so far and asked for a copy of some of their songs. He also told them that he would come to the next practice with a song of theirs having lyrics written and melody written for it, so they would be able to gauge how things might work. The next practice came and the first song went well, Chris kept coming to practices with a new song each time, until they had three or four to work with. It seemed things would work out for this foursome. However, Chris was unsure of how long this would last and seemed pessimistic on the situation, suddenly. He told them his thoughts on the matter and thanked them for
the opportunity and their time.
Months later, after having tried out a couple more vocalists, the three were getting frustrated. They really liked what direction Chris was taking with their songs. They decided that what they needed was to structure the songs the best that they could and get a good quality demo of the songs and they did just that. Mike O'Neil then proceeded to call Chris and tell him what they thought and asked him to come over and get a copy of the demo. Chris listened to it for a week, or so and was pleasantly surprised by their progression and also their assertiveness and honesty. He was sold and told them that he was glad that they felt the way they did. At this point, it was Spring of 2002. They were close to having enough material to perform somewhere and knew that is what they needed to work towards, in addition to getting some songs recorded to get their music out there.
August of 2002 was their first show at Mississippi Night's in St.Louis, Missouri. They brought a good crowd and were received well. After a few shows, they started saving their band fund's and put it toward's their first recording. Having eight or nine songs now, they chose what they deemed to be the best four of them and found a studio to record at. The first EP was recorded at Amp STL by Tom Fedke and was mixed and mastered by Kevin Gerdes. After having the first two songs paid off completely, they pressed 1000 cd's with two tracks and sold them at cost to get their music in the hands of listeners. Accompanied with additional shows, they soon paid off their recording and saved up enough to have the EP duplicated. 'With A Clear View' was
released in 2003 and the band continued to harness their sound and keep writing songs. By the next year, they had already began recording with the same studio and the same producers again and decided to release another EP, they would have liked to have done a full-length but money was a factor. Isn't it always? By the fall of 2004 they had made enough money to release the 'Novocain' EP and had 15-20 songs written so far, but not enough time and money to produce them.
The cd release was set months in advance, but personal lives were starting to get in the way, as they do in life. 1000 cd's were in the process of being pressed and things seemed to be headed in a good direction over all. Some one had even stepped in and offered to help out the band, knowing how hard it is to do original music and all. However, he had good ideas that were brought to the table, but they were outdated come to find out. In addition, the drummer was experiencing some personal issues and could no longer function with the band. The three were sad to part with their band mate, but remained friends. With the show two months away they desperately needed someone to replace him. Chris knew a drummer from one of the first bands he was in and knew that he was in a crossroads with the project he was involved in. He contacted him and discussed the idea and played him the new music and asked him to think about it. Shortly afterward, he spoke with him over the phone and this drummer had a bass player that he was still loyal to and insisted on bringing him along. After discussing the matter with the band, Mike O'Neil decided
that to make the situation work, he would go out and get a new rig and guitar and be a second guitarist to Mike Viner. Audtions went well, as expected and the new members Chad Meinders on percussion and Brandon Boyd on bass, began working with the remaining members of the band for the
upcoming show.
If you did not know what was going on behind the scenes, it was as if no problems were occurring whatsoever and that the band had simply added to their sound. After some shows with the new lineup, the new bass player was visibly unhappy and decided that he needed to move out of town and desired to play heavier music than what the band as a whole could offer him. Frustrated by this sudden change of events, Chris spoke with another bass player of a band that was dissolving and asked him if he was interested in what the band was doing. He was and seemed to work out well, then after some more shows. Something happened. It was not evident to the original members at the time, but this band turned into a revolving door of members, it lacked something
very necessary to a band's survival. New music. While they released new music and continually played new music at shows, the switching of members created a problem, the problem was that it was not unique for the new members. The original members having played these songs many, many times, the new one's got to the point of being able to perform them well live and then another member was gone. Time was spent getting the new person up to speed and things became stagnant. After the summer of 2005, it became evident that things were not going to last. The new bass player Johnny Prophet was looking for something different and wanted to move on. When our first bass player, now second guitarist got wind of this he was visibly annoyed. Chris asked the new drummer to think the week through on what he wanted to do and let him know at the next show. The next show came and it was to be the band's last show in a full-band/electric format for years to come and it took place at Pop's in Sauget, Illinois. Left in the wake of the show, the only members that remained were Mike Viner and Chris Davis. After that night, they decided to take a couple weeks or so, away from each other to think on what to do next and let the frustration and
anger subside a bit.
Chris and Mike got together that winter, heading into 2006 with no band, no direction and things had changed significantly in each others lives since they began doing music together. Both had their own share of hardships, as everyone does and over time, they both always did their best to remain optimistic. After many, many auditions for bass players and drummers, nothing seemed to work. Mike went out and got a digital recorder and started practicing recording with it and
they began working on some demos in which to work songs out to stay busy. They feared of turning into some kind of closet band. Having tons of material with not enough people to play it. At this point, they had around thirty songs. After working on these demos of electric stuff, Chris got a call from his friend Greg McNeely and he asked if he and Mike would be interested in having him over to play some guitar. They agreed and Mike and Greg's style seemed to somewhat mesh and while working on demo ideas, it occurred to them besides just trying people out and recording new demos, they needed to get out there and play in front of people still. They didn't want the name to just disappear. The trio worked on a thirty-minute acoustic set and played a couple of shows at the original Creepy Crawl. Greg seemed to start losing his patience with the band member search and wanted to move on to something else.
Having done a couple of acoustic shows, Topher and Viner now realized that in order to move forward they needed to just stop the stale auditions and they had plenty of new demo material worked out, so they began writing acoustic material of their own. They took a couple of new songs and switched them to an acoustical format and then proceeded to write more songs original to the acoustic format and also acoustically-minded. Nothing to fancy, seeing that it was two people.
They began rehearsing not only at practice, but when they could at open-mic night's at the Ten Mile House. In time, they met new people and ran into old friends, some wondered why the two were acoustic. After awhile of performing acoustic shows and getting the word out by making it known, they found a good prospect. A young man by the name of Ryan Hawkins who played the bass. He was seventeen at the time when the three first met, but he could play and he could hang. With the
acoustic shows going pretty good, having the capability to record their own music acoustically and almost being done with all the writing, the new focus began to start working with Ryan on getting him up to speed on the bass. They also worked on new ideas too, to help keep things fresh from Ryan's perspective. The trio heard about a drummer and proceeded to audition him. He seemed to work out and the newly formed band was rounded out by Adam McClain on percussion. Nearing the end of 2007, Ockum's Razor had come full-circle, once again.
Working out a mix of a classic O.R. tune or two, plus adding in new songs from the past demos while on hiatus and integrating in brand new material, it seemed to balance things out well and keep everyone's perspective fresh and exciting. Ockum's Razor returned to the stage in February of 2008 at Cruisin' Route 66. To their suprise, the place filled to capacity and it was a memorable night, especially for Topher and Viner. The band continued performing shows and by the summer time, they worked their way up to landing a show at the Pageant. This was to be Adam's last show, as he was moving out of state. Having been circulating in the scene, they had met a prospect for a new drummer at an out of town show in Alton, IL. that Topher and Viner played
acoustic at. Over time, they stayed in contact as the prospect was from another state, but then later moved to St. Louis. Going into the Pageant show, the three new that afterward a tryout was imminent for the potential new drummer. Things worked out well and Ockum's Razor quickly evolved into a different type of monster than accustomed to before. While finishing up the acoustic cd, Topher and Viner worked with Ryan and new addition Voodoo on a forty-five minute set and
performed their first show at Pop's Nightclub toward the end of 2008.
After a handful of local shows and some out of state shows, the new acoustic cd was ready to be unveiled, however one day before it's release a problem arose and the venue had to cancel. The two just moved forward and released it anyway that day at a Hot Topic in-store and made the best of the situation. This full-length cd was recorded by O.R.'s own Mike Viner and was mixed and mastered by Mike Ryan. In 2009, the band performed alot of shows, while getting the opportunity
to re-connect with old fans and make alot of new ones in their town and also out of town. They also wrote more new material and continue to do so. 2010 seems to be a break through year for the band as it will release the new full-band/electric EP entitled, 'Pusher' that was recorded, mixed and mastered by Mike Ryan. This will be the band's first full-band release of any kind since 2004 due to so many personal changes. With plenty more new songs on the way, it just goes to show that by continually shaving the problems at hand and facing the fears of what comes with them, Ockum's Razor is a band that chooses to welcome adversity and then overcome whatever it may bring.
