It was thirty years ago that Hepcat Dilemma took their first steps. The previous months had seen the seeds sewn but so far there had been no musical harvest. Finally, in April 1992 the initial rehearsals took place that would in just a few months lead to the beginning of Hepcat Dilemma.
It was all to rise from the ashes of the legendary Pittsburgh band Special Ed. The art-punk trio had spent nearly a decade creating some of the most original music to come out of the Steel City. But after 5 albums they found themselves once again without a drummer and with a rock opera, “His Touch” which would sadly remain unrecorded.
Special Ed bassist, Bob Loiselle was restless and with Sped’s future uncertain he looked to form a new group. The first attempt was to gather a motley collection of friends to form the six-piece Rich’s Army with Bob on keyboards and Sped lighting director Chuck McPherson on bass. This lasted two rehearsals as Bob pulled the plug. “My friend Don was going to sing and write the lyrics,” he recalled a couple years later. “Don was a great guy but I thought his lyrics were just embarrassing. I couldn’t believe how much I hated them!”
So when it was time for another attempt this unruly menagerie was trimmed down considerably and
just Bob and Chuck remained. “At first we weren’t sure what we were going to do. The only thing we knew for sure was that I would try to write the lyrics,” remembered Bob with a laugh. “I asked Chuck if he wanted to play guitar or bass. He took bass so I became the guitar player. I didn’t even own an electric guitar so I used Chuck’s.”
In April 1992 the duo began to write songs and rehearse. The first song was a forgettable number called “Confluence” but the second song written was “Drought” which became the first classic Hepcat Dilemma song and stayed in the set for years. Chuck wrote a song which became “Hideous Head”, their tongue in cheek tribute to Ted Kennedy and they were on a roll. The songs came quickly and they found they were becoming a band. But a band that needed a drummer.
Chuck brought in his friend Brett Amond and the embryonic Hepcat Dilemma was in place. Aside from a brief appearance on an Open Stage the original line-up never played a show but Bob is adamant there would be no Hepcat Dilemma without Brett. “Brett was vital to the band’s development. He hadn’t become an accomplished drummer yet but we were finding our feet on our instruments as well. We grew together….and had a great time!”
The original line-up stayed together for a year. They named the band and recorded “Frame Off Mind” which Bob describes as being “something between an album and a demo” which has never been
released. But most importantly the original three established the band as something that was worth doing. After a year Brett had to leave for personal reasons and the band found Byron Glatz to replace him and Hepcat Dilemma finally got out of the starting gate.
But it all started on chilly April nights in Bob’s basement thirty years ago.