10/24/2008
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Rockin' About Fish Tales
The Macomb Daily
Sunday, Oct. 26th, 2008
Article by Tom Watts
Kid Rock sings about taking walleye from the dock, but Sterling Heights musician Brian Schram croons about muskie, smallmouth bass, northern pike, king salmon and being skunked.
“I’ve done the straight up thing for rock, and been hooked on fishing since I was 12, but never really thought to mix the two,” said Brian Schram, front man for the band Shram.
“When I met Pete Maina he inspired me to do both. He loved the whole rock ‘n roll thing. I thought, ‘He’s right. This is who I am. Why not?’ Tell people who you are, and be real. People don’t want fake. And this fishing and music thing is real, as real as you can get.”
With his first album “Disturbing the Peace” under his belt, Shram is releasing a side project album next month called, “Rockin’ Fish Tales.”
“You get a heavy dose of Shram rock ’n roll, but the songs are all about fishing,” said Schram, who once played for Uncle Kracker. “For ‘Rockin’ Fish Tales,’ I play all the instruments and wrote a song for every fish I catch: muskie, pike, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, king salmon,” he said. “I’ve got some good variety. I even have a song about being skunked.”
Schram, 26, grew up in Mancelona, and now makes his home in Macomb County . He would go trout stream fishing as a kid with his father, Steve, and a mutual admiration for all things fishing was formed.
“I expect the record to draw interest,” said Schram, who is soon releasing his second all-out rock album called “Shut Up and Press Play.” Maybe it’ll get people to go out and fish. I can tell you fishing is not for geeks. Fishing is actually very cool,” he said.
Schram said he discovered his genuine interest for large freshwater fish when he was watching an outdoors cable television program from Minnesota on muskie fisherman Pete Maina.
“Last year I was watching Pet Maina catch these big giant fish on a show called ‘The Next Bite,’” Schram recalled. “He had this long hair and I knew he was a rocker.”
Schram e-mailed Maina after watching him on cable, and 20 minutes later he received a message.
“He got back with me right away and we were chatting, and he picked up on the realness right away,” Schram said. “It’s not like I ever looked at a fishing angle to push my band, my music. But he picked up on it.”
The rest, as they say, is history.
“I went out fishing with Pete in Minnesota last summer and he asked me to be a guest on the ‘John Gillespie Waters and Woods’ show out of Milwaukee ,” Schram said. “We had a successful show. Shortly after, I hooked up with John again and wrote him a theme song for the show – something cool and crazy. It’s now his theme song. It’s called, ‘Hey, John Gillespie.’”
Schram said Maina has since “taken me under his wing as his little prodigy.”
“I have learned so much about muskie fishing,” Schram said. “I went from spending days catching nothing to catching 30-40 muskie.”
But here’s the real catch: Schram only casts for muskie; no trolling. “I’m strictly a caster,” said Schram, who hooked into a 40-pound, 54 inch monster muskie last summer.
I got this crazy thing going where we wear pink hats with our logos on it whenever we fish,” Schram said with a laugh. “I figure people know me as the ‘pink hat guy.’ You know, that rocking pink hat guy.”
Besides his fishing with talking heads in Minnesota and Wisconsin , Schram just participated in a video shoot with Mark Zona on “The Greatet Fishing Show in the World,” which will air in January on ESPN.
“Zona was very cool,” Schram said. “I did my casting thing with him, and the thing I love about it is it’s a different thing than trolling. I mean, trolling charters, they work their butts off, constantly changing lures. With casting you have certain target areas and try to find the most fish.”
Schram said a muskie will follow a lure for a time. Thin hit it. “You see them coming a long ways away,” he said. “If you stick your rod in water and do a figure eight, they will follow and hit it. That’s what’s so exciting about casting.
“When you’re casting you see some real crazy stuff. You see a muskie below the boat just lollygagging and not taking anything. It triggers that fish with the figure eight.”
Schram used Pet Maina Bass Pro Shops 9 ½ foot rod and reels to go with his bait. “I use blades, crank baits, plastics, jerk baits, bucktails, bulldogs, spinner baits, anything with a blade on it,” he said. “I’ve got it covered.”
Schram’s band, meanwhile, consists of Dave Dion of Macomb County on bass, and drummer Jason Hartless of Warren . “The music is nothing fancy, just guitar-driven rock and roll with guitar solos,” Schram said.
“There are good hooks, a great sense of melody. It’s in your face rock ‘n roll. It’s what’s missing these days; bands don’t get in your face and just let you have it. Our live performance draws people who want that.”
On the heals of a Lions opening day performance at The Fillmore in Detroit, Shram is currently on the road for an East Coast run before returning to Michigan.
The two things why I love my life right now are the two things I do the most: music and fishing,” Schram said. “I do them equally. I see me learning more about muskie. I see myself as the next Ted Nugent of fishing. Ted’s known as a world-class hunter. I want to be that fishing. I think it’s a cool way to go. I’ve actually started casting T-shirts out into the crowd with my muskie rod. People love it.”
Respected colleague Mike Boggio of Royal Oak said the connection between fish and guitar helps Schram form a unique identity.
“There’s no one like Brian Schram,” said Boggio, president of Integrated Construction and Design. “He’s truly a fisherman. But his band has a raw sound that is a bit of a throwback with crushing guitars and punchy rock, pop vocal hooks hat define the true nature of rock ‘n’ roll leaving fans breathless and in awe.”
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