But then they came for DJs Andy Coco and Drea Stein.
“It was like a gut punch because those are my two closest allies at the station,” he says, explaining how the two had played the Mighty Pines’ music, invited the band to the studio and even filmed them there. “It was pulling my heartstrings.”
There’s an obvious reason why pissing off musicians has traditionally been bad PR: All your misdeeds will likely get blasted out in a beautifully rendered piece of music. And, if your actions anger some of your city’s most lauded musicians, so much greater the reach and so much the worse for you.
That’s a long way of saying that Erker responded to the news about Stein and Coco by writing a protest song. He was set to release “Hey KDHX!” on a Friday, and then the next big thing happened: KDHX fired 10 more DJs.
“‘Oh God, do I need to rewrite the chorus?’” Erker thought, before realizing it was good as is. “I just left it as a dedication to all the DJs.”
Erker released a solo version (and it got its world premiere that day as the last song on Ital-K’s final KDHX show, as the DJ resigned on air), and it’s now available on Spotify. But he dreamt of also recording a version with a host of top-notch St. Louis musicians.
Some of those he reached out to had expressed some hesitancy at getting involved. But that Friday afternoon massacre changed their tunes.
“We wanted to show a sign of unity amongst the St. Louis musicians as to where we stand with the situation,” Erker says. “[We] wanted to let the music do the talking for us.
“The DJs have treated us musicians so well over the years. It's basically the only station in town that routinely plays all of our music. And to see them just get fired left and right, it doesn't seem right. So I wrote the song, but all these people came together because we're all on the same page.”
That version of “Hey KDHX!” was released early this morning. After it’s up for a few days, Erker is also going to release a music video, in which local fans will recognize quite a few faces.
The song features Erker’s Mighty Pines bandmates Neil Salsich, John Hussung and Mike Murano. Other St. Louis music heavy hitters include Al Holliday, Funky Butt Brass Band’s Aaron Chandler and Adam Hucke, Unity Quartet’s Ben Reece and vocalist Emily Wallace. Sean Canan of the Voodoo Players produced it.
“It was just really cool to just see everybody come together,” Erker says, noting that everyone donated their time or gave their services at a discounted rate, including the videographer and Wallace, who made the track's artwork.
“The video looks amazing,” he adds. “The whole track, again, I can't wait for it to come out because it turned out really, really good. I’m really, really proud of it.”
The video has a simple setup with all of the aforementioned stars playing “Hey KDHX!” in a basement studio (which is actually Blue Lotus Studios, a professional studio located in Paul Niehaus IV’s south city basement). The camera pans to each in turn, interspersed with drone-capture videos of KDHX’s Grand Center station.
The song itself opens with jangling guitars and a sound that fans of Mighty Pines’ roots-rocks jams will be drawn to. Despite the topic, it has an almost jaunty feel, which Erker seems to allude to when he calls it “hopeful.”
He says that it’s a “lyrics-forward kind of song,” and it indeed has the specificity of a Randy Newman hit. There are three verses interspersed by a chorus calling for KDHX to “bring back Andy Coco, bring back Drea” and ending with “I love the station with all of my heart, but it’s falling apart, and it breaks my heart. It breaks my heart.”
The verses talk about how great KDHX was as a station (“good people volunteering/for the betterment of the/St. Louis Community”) and what’s happening now (“things have started to decay,” “you’re pushing everyone away,” “please don’t throw it all away” coupled with a repeating “there’s got to be a better way”) and some judgment (“What you’re doing, it just ain’t right,” “All those volunteers have so much to bring/they’ve given their lives. They’ve given everything.”)
It was Erker’s first time writing a protest song. But it’s also more than a protest song.
“It's also a love song to the station,” he says. “But I very intentionally did not villainize anybody.”
Erker consulted with both Coco and Stein before he wrote anything. Stein even stopped by the studio during the video shoot with snacks for the band and to talk about what was going on. How she was helping lead the DJs in their fight and about her pending lawsuit against the station. How the song had affected her.
“When she finally saw me, she gave me the biggest, warmest embrace that she's ever given me and it was just so heartfelt,” he recalls. “It was really, really sweet and emotional.”
Listen to “Hey KDHX!” on Spotify and watch YouTube for the video to drop in the next few days. You can also catch the song’s live premiere during the Mighty Pines' set at Pines Fest at the Big Top (3401 Washington Avenue) on Saturday, October 14.
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