The Cloves are swarming into local music scene

Puyallup Herald (6/30/05) Article by Heather Meier

 

First a CD, now Sumner band would like to have a street name.

 

Kevin Poleskie and Michael Hochstatter wouldn't mind having a Sumner road named after their band.

"I guess that's our goal-a street name," Poleskie said with a smile.

The two have known each other since they were 6 year olds, growing up in the same Sumner neighborhood, attending grade school and high school together and, years later, forming The Cloves.

They didn't start out with the same passion for music. Poleskie grew up playing in band while Hochstatter didn't become interested in music until he heard The Beatles for the first time-a sound that still inspires their work.

Suddenly the Sumner School students couldn't stop themselves from creating music and writing lyrics whenever they saw each other.

"My mom got my first guitar at the Salvation Army," Hochstatter said.

Poleskie went to a pawn shop in Puyallup to pick up a bass.

By the time they graduated from Sumner High School, the two had a large selection of songs. Poleskie went off to Western Washington University, where he graduated with a degree in history, while Hochstatter stayed in Sumner.

Because he has chronic fatigue syndrome, which he got while in his junior year of high school, he wasn't able to do much that's too active, giving him a lot of time to concentrate on writing songs.

"It helped me creatively, like, to write songs," he said explaining some of his songs would focus on what life would be like with the disorder.

Once a month his best friend would come home from college and the two of them would work on their music.

They continued to tinker with their music in their early 20's, but a year ago decided they wanted to do something with all of the songs they've written.

They put adds in The Stranger, an alternative magazine based in Seattle, searching for a drummer and lead guitarist.

"We were looking for good guys really more than great musicians," Hochstatter said.

They found Chris Walbridge and Jason Maybell, who both live in Seattle. Maybell, the band founders said, confessed he wouldn't have auditioned for the band if he'd known how far away Seattle is from Sumner.

"It came smoothly because they fit our personalities," Poleskie said.

In less than a year the group seems to have taken the South Sound area by storm, playing in venues like Seattle's Showbox and being chosen as 103.7 The Mountain's Local Access band of the month.

In April they released their first CD, "Waiting for the World to Be," with six songs they had written. The CD debut party drew almost 300 people to Seattle's Triple Door in April.

Live performances, though, are something the band has had to be careful about because of Hochstatter's chronic fatigue syndrome. Sets usually last only 45 minutes and they can't perform too many times in one week, which makes the option of possibly touring in the future difficult, Hochstatter said.

"We couldn't play live originally because I was too sick," he explained.

Despite their success in the local music scene, the group has remained rooted in Sumner, practicing in Hochstatter's grandmother's home.

Really, they hope to always be a part of Sumner in one way or another.

"They could put a Cloves Avenue somewhere," Hochstatter said