The Nautilus Studio M31 Files interview singer Steve "Mr Soul" Kahler (part 1)

Studio owners Mr Bill (Nautilus Studio) and Yves LF Giraud (Studio M31) interview R&B singer Steve "Mr Soul" Kahler, (part 1).

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Greetings. This is another series of the Nautilus Studio M31 Files. And today we have with us a man uh known as Mr. Soul, uh Steve Kaler. And uh what what's this picture you got? Oh, that's that that's Steve's mom right there, and he wanted to show you his beautiful mom. Yeah. And uh we got some other pictures we'll show of uh Steve. But you know, the first question I wanted to ask you, Steve, is and answer this yes or no. Have you stopped beating your wife? No. Good.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

All right, so uh is there an inside joke there?

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Yeah, there is, because I'm not married. Yeah, oh okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

Well anyway. Uh so uh uh Steve here uh has been um uh a musical uh uh front man for bands on the west coast. Uh he lived in Carlsbad, uh California, which is just a little north of San Diego. And Steve uh tell me a little bit about your childhood.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Well, you know, I started out in uh Los Angeles. I was born at the Queen of Angels Hospital in 1944, November 23rd, which I always thought was lucky. 112344. November 23rd, 1944. And that's why you're still alive. And that's why I had a stroke. So yeah, yeah, yeah. He got unlucky all of a sudden for a few days, actually four months, five months. But uh I grew up in Carlsbad, uh, mostly went to high school there, went to junior college there, uh, played ball. I played a lot of uh baseball. I was gonna be a baseball player. I got uh drafted and uh I went and got a physical, and they said we'd like to redo your shoulder. And I said, What are the chances that I'm gonna be a major star that I want to cut open my shoulder? And I discussed it with my parents and we uh we said no. But uh my illustrious past was I was uh most valuable player in Little League, Pony League, Babe Ruth League, varsity four-year letterman, and that was all in baseball. And you were a pitcher? And I wouldn't well I was a pitcher and I was a shortstop. Oh because you keep you don't pitch as much as you'd be a infielder.

SPEAKER_03 3:09

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

And uh I knew at the time uh that when my shoulder went out, uh which is this shoulder, I just had this shoulder done a couple days ago. But at any rate, to make a long story short, that was kind of the end of my um prowess of playing sports. And about nineteen fifty six or seven, I was walking home from Carlsbad uh from high school, and there was a shortcut through uh Mexican town. And I'd always take it because it was and and back then, you know, half of our team was Spanish and uh we didn't have any blacks back then. We did where you were down in San Diego. But at Carlsbad we didn't for years. And so at any rate I uh decided to take a shortcut through what was known as Mexican town, and I heard this music and man it just like a like I was magnetized, it just sucked me in, and it was James Brown singing Please, please, please. And from that minute on I became a black singer. So you sure did, right? Yeah, and um it was really something I was uh in a a variety of bands back then.

SPEAKER_02 4:36

Can can I back you up? Yeah, makes you back up false out here. Yeah. So uh obviously, you know, that's one thing. You you you get fascinated by that music, you get attractive, and suddenly you're like, oh, I love this, yeah, I want to do this. Did you have that voice right away? Were you able to do that stuff?

SPEAKER_00 4:52

You know, I um did that come up. I uh a bunch of my friends were Mexican and they were playing most all of the kind of soul R and B type of music, and so they asked me uh because I used to sit at home in front of my uh um yeah, looking at myself in the mirror, practicing my James Brown moves, you know. Okay, you know, how and squeaming, you know, squirming and singing.

SPEAKER_03 5:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

And my dad would walk by in the background and he goes he hated it, you know. So I'd turn it up louder. No, no, I wouldn't. I'd turn it off and go away. But at any rate, um when I got into high school, uh we s we had uh Carlsbad High School, Carlsbad Lancers. Um we had uh real great uh guy that did all the the sound for anything that we had, and he taught instruments and stuff, so I met a bunch of the kids that were my age that were playing horns, you know, and uh beating on drums and everything, and so we started to play together and we were doing just uh the old R and B stuff back then. Then uh in about 1965 or '64, I s uh went in and uh got involved with the group called The Lyrics, and we were very popular back in our area, and we didn't play much where Bill was over in uh San Diego San Diego, but we played all the time around us and uh got a recording trunk contract with era records, which I brought I brought the record right there. Yeah, pick that up for me. And this was uh a fellow um named Don Ralkey that produced us and all, and it became uh number one seller in the the Southern California, they sold like eighty thousand records or something.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

I didn't realize that they sold that many.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

Oh yeah, and they were on uh uh Showtime all the time on TV. Uh-huh. And uh course you probably watched it back then. They had a lot of the local bands on it, but uh it was a pretty neat hit for them. The only problem was they brought another guy in that was a songwriter uh named Chris Gaylord, and he's the one that wrote both of these songs on here, and I'm in one of them, but I'm only saying little background about four words on harmony with him. And I remember after that, and we were uh contracted, you know, they put us under contract with uh Don Rawlkey was his name, and uh the famous uh the famous producer that did all the crazy sounds with the long hair that is imprisoned that died, uh most famous of all. Uh Wall of Sound guy. Yeah, Wall of Sound.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Yeah, the uh one that married uh married the black uh singer. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

Yeah. Well anyway. That's our that's our brain for you. So anyway, they went in a different direction. Phil Specter. Phil Specter, yeah. And uh so we recorded where he does sound at uh I got I can't remember the name of the studio in in Hollywood. But anyway, I left the band. And uh when I left the band, there was another band that played the kind of stuff that I liked. And um they were called Beat Incorporated, Beat INC Period. And they had they had a uh 520-some pound Hammond B3 organ player named Big Bill Sprouse.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

And that wasn't the Hammond organ that was 520. No, yeah, it was the guy. He he weighed more than the yeah, than the Hammond.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

He was he and he was the happiest uh he his dad was uh head of the uh oceanside police department. Okay. His mom was about that big, his dad was about six, three and just heavy. But Bill had a um a sister that was like him that uh I forget what they call that situation, right? But Big Bill Sprouse. So I uh they asked me if I'd like to play with them because they do more of the stuff that I like to do. So all of a sudden they said, Well, we'll pick you up for practice. So they pull up in their um van and it says Beat Incorporated with Mr. Soul. And that's how I got my name Mr. Soul.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

And and was there another Mr. Soul uh that they already had that on their van?

SPEAKER_00 10:17

No, they put it on there.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

They knew that they were gonna call you Mr. Soul?

SPEAKER_00 10:22

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

They named me. You must have uh impressed them right out of there.

SPEAKER_00 10:27

Well I said, yeah, I'll play with you, and uh and we were doing actually we were doing a tour of uh the uh oceanside uh all all of the uh uh the war the war guys from Pendleton. Oh yeah, Marines, yeah, just and there were a few uh others besides Marines and uh but anyway we played all the black music that we knew and soul music for these Marines at different uh stations. Yeah and so uh that introduced me to a fellow uh that owned the Oceanside Music Supply, who was the father of uh what's her name of um the famous um gosh, I I had a stroke five years ago. You're doing amazing okay, yeah. Um oh god, what uh uh well anyway, he owned the Oceanside Music Supply. Okay, and uh his daughter was just playing, oh, in the Mandrell family band, Barbara Mandrell.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

Yeah, Barbara Mandrell and a famous country singer in the whole family. They had a uh a national TV show.

SPEAKER_02 11:51

It's kind of like the Jacksons, but uh five, but yeah, country.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

Yeah, and what was the name of the uh the Mandrells the Mandrells and our and our drummer used to sub for their drummer because he was in the service, he later married Barbara Mandrell. Well, Erby Mandrell was the dad, and he owned the oceanside music supply, and that's where all of everybody we knew that played music but their stuff, including us. And so he really liked our band. I don't think he ever heard it, but we spent money in there, I guess, and he felt like so. At one of the gigs, he brought Barbara. Well, to make a long story short, uh short, uh, Barbara and I dated for about six, seven months. Never anything over what you know, I didn't want to get beat up by her dad or anything. So we were very, but we just had uh a great time together, and then they moved to Nashville I guess it was Nashville, somebody. But Erby Mandrell um owned the store that we bought most of our stuff in, and then he promoted where we played uh during the uh uh the war, you know. And then uh to to move up a little bit, I had moved uh into uh um being a sales rep for a company that was with the US uh uh snowboard team. And so I was selling snowboards and I was their rep and we sponsored a year of their when they were in the Olympics. Um and that was company was called Bula, B U L A. So at any rate, Erby was at a uh premiere deal that was gonna be televised that they do every year for Western music, and Barbara was gonna be one of the main players. So I drove over, which wasn't far away because I forget what city it was in, um, but it was right around uh uh LA. Okay. And uh I said, I went to the door and they said, Oh, this is private, they're in rehearsal for the deal. And I said, Is there any way I could get a message to Barbara Mandrell? And he goes, uh, she's on right now, uh, so there's no way, and and we can't let you in anyway. And uh I said, Oh, I said, uh, is Erby there? Well, Erby was her dad. He said, Yeah, he is, I'll go get him. So I wait for about 20 minutes and out walks Erby. So he says, Hey Steve, how are you doing? I saw I just came here to give your daughter a hug. He says she can't come out now, but he was kind enough to spend 10, 15 minutes with me, and so that made me feel good anyway. And uh one thing that I have continued to have and be proud of, which will sound kind of stupid to anybody else, is my longest kiss in the world. Okay, was it with her? No, her dad.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

That is good, that's good. Yeah, a little humor. Still got it.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

Yeah, yeah. I didn't see it. Yeah. So uh, and that's that's just uh that that's a highlight. And I always wanted before one of us croak to say hi, dear, because uh she went to school with my uh with our drummer in beat incorporated and also our big keyboard player, big Bill Sprouse. A group called The Road Home. Go online and you'll see Big Bill Sprouse and the opening picture of him in a car, I took with his hand out the window. And uh so anyway. Are you are you in touch with any of those people at all? Well, he died when he was like 25 years old. 500 pounds. 500 and some pounds.

SPEAKER_02 16:13

I I thought you never know.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

Yeah, yeah, and um the only and I think and I know Barbara's still alive, and I always would hope that I'd be somewhere to say, hey Barbara, just want to say hi to you for being the guys, you know, in the band and all that jazz. And that'll never happen. You never know, man. You never know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And um life is fantastic. So I moved to Durango and uh uh opened a couple of businesses there. I was in the t-shirt business, and I had uh uh five stores called the shirt machine in different cities, you know.

SPEAKER_02 16:50

Durango, Farmington. You own a company with five stores in different cities, yeah. T-shirts were really big back in the 80s. How did you style that even?

SPEAKER_00 17:02

I came I came to Durango with hardly anything at all. We bought a house, my wife's mother loaned us three thousand dollars, and I opened um the shirt machine, which was imprinted sportswear. So it wasn't silk screening, right, but it was real fast. I had probably 1,500 different things. They were taped all to the walls, you know, and you'd pick it and then I'd do the same thing on that. And so uh I got real kind of It went well. Yeah, we went well. And we sold a bunch of the stores and bought some land, and we had three houses up there, and you know, I had a one of these four-wheel drive cars that should have been on television that I that broke down every other day, but it sure went good when it did. Did you need a ladder to get into the Yeah, it was pretty high. You either jump in, but then you wind up head first in the other seat. So that didn't you have to drive with your feet if you could drive at all. So um at any rate, I started doing um uh uh karaoke. And I I named my company The Legends of Karaoke. Well, at that just before I started that business, I got hired uh to do the sound and all the uh the music at the casino in Farmington. So I was I had a contract there for a year. A friend of mine, Jim Noble, uh got me the deal. He was a fishing buddy of mine and one of the best trophics that big trophies from the 60s, 70s, 80s, and he's still around. I just talked to him the other day. But uh at any rate, I was doing uh uh the karaoke stuff, and of course that got karaoke was real big back then because you could come in and sing with the best song, you know, songs. I had great sound system. Well, uh the fellow that opened uh Scootin' Blues uh heard about me and he came in, and to make a long story short, I am now the entertainment director for Scootin' Blues. Yeah. And Tony Milan became a friend of mine. I just talked to Tony a couple weeks ago. He comes up once in a while. Bill knew him, Bill played at his clubs. Um and uh so I got to do sound for uh about six and a half years. I started in '90 and it went, he closed down, I think, in uh 2009 or something.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

And this was like the big club in Durango. Yeah, two stories. Yeah, I was open to ask because that's the one.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

Yeah, Bill played there. Uh Bill probably played there a dozen times.

SPEAKER_01 20:04

Scootin' Scoot. It was uh a biker theme. Yeah. He had old Indian uh oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:13

It went actually, it went into uh the company that I worked for prior to that, Bula. They bought the build or no, they didn't buy the building because the guy wouldn't sell it. They leased the building, they were doing Bula. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They were selling they were selling seconds. You know, they were selling so much that they had a ton of stuff that had a little deal they didn't want to put out at the end. Oh, I see what you're doing.

SPEAKER_02 20:42

There was little things that you had to discount on it.

SPEAKER_00 20:44

So that was when I was with Bula Headware for about uh ten years, and then when I went with Tony with um uh all all the music stuff, uh I was the entertainment director. Well, I only I was just a singing guy, really didn't know anything, so he uh got me for I think two weeks with the guy now that is with the famous uh Western band that plays every year. Oh uh the Bardi Chuck. Bardy Chuckwagon.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

Yeah, and I can't remember in Durango, a little north of Durango, and real popular uh uh place where they get they'll serve you barbecue, and they have a really good band that entertained the place uh Bardian.

SPEAKER_00 21:34

Barbie Chuck Wagon. Yeah, it it'll start up here in in probably a minute.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

They've been doing it for 30, 40 years.

SPEAKER_02 21:42

Yeah, all these places have and have been a six year well. I don't go to Durango on bad.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

But now you've got a car that may make it to Durango. I know, I know.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

Well, will it make it back? Ah, that's that's the thing. So, anyway, I uh got into this deal with uh Scootin' Blue. Uh, who were the bands that you played with over there?

SPEAKER_01 22:04

Well, it was uh Jeff Strahan. Jeff Strahan, who passed away. Yeah, we lost Jeff Strahan, and uh he wrote a lot of original music. He's the one who wrote Viva Mexico about the lowrider stuff. But he wrote some really good songs too. That was a funny little song that we liked.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

Give him a couple of the lyrics.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

Uh you don't have to sing it, but you know, there's no it's basically uh coming into a gas station with your lowrider and saying, fill it up with normal and check the wind in my tires. And then it goes.

SPEAKER_02 22:40

That the way that that the guy must have said it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:43

Well then the thing is, nobody nowadays has ever heard it. So if Bill's ever somewhere, I think if they have time, the last thing that he does is he sings the low rider song.

SPEAKER_02 22:57

I I love it. I always tell him he's gotta do it. Oh yeah, you know, if he does something because it's it's uh it's got this uh I mean I know it's not your old song, your song, but it has a it's such a a cool vibe, even because it's it's a polka in a way.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

Yeah, it is and it's a happy song. I know, it's super and it brings in an influence of the uh Mexican or Spanish, whatever you I call it Mexican because I'm Mexican from Spain and from Mexico.

SPEAKER_01 23:25

And and lowriders are are so cool. If I had uh two more additional cars, a lowrider would be one of them. I mean, it's just a pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 23:35

Well, you do have one out there. It has no tires on it either. Oh yeah. That's gonna be my cover craft.