By Steve Perrett

Circle of Friends

1/ Introduce the band Circle of Friends are.. Dave Munger: lead guitar, Harold Keller: Bass, Ricky Moore: Vocals, acoustic guitar, drums. (Bill Crinigan: guitars and Ron Nichols: drums, vocals) recently left the band after a 2 year stint. Of course, the Friends, are numerous. I'll get to them coming up soon.

2/ How long has the band been together? How did you meet?

The Circle of Friends started in the spring of 2000. The 3 founding members (Dave, Harold, Ricky) played together as teenagers.... 30 years ago! Dave and Harold became domesticated, and laid down their instruments for over 20 years. Ricky, who continued playing music on the professional circuit, decided it was time to revisit his roots. Moved back to Iowa, looked up his old friends, and convinced them to pick up their instruments again. They recorded 1 CD under the name Magog (Their band in the early 70's) With this project complete, they wanted more.... hence....... The Circle of Friends

3/ Who writes the songs? ... or is it all band members?

Our song writing is maybe somewhat unique to most bands. Whoever brings in a song.. has complete control over how they want it to sound. Do not confuse this with a dictatorship in song writing, we allow plenty of creative freedom. We discovered, that rather than letting ego's destroy the friendships.. or for even that matter, the song. It became apparent in the beginning, to only have one controlling voice. To date: we have never argued over a song.

4/ Do you start with a finished product in mind or just let it morph as you go?

As stated in the above paragraph. The songwriter brings in the ideas for all the instruments to be played on their song. It is first played the way the songwriter envisions it. It is then open to interpretation. We jam to the song to give the songwriter another perspective. He will either keep the ideas, or stay with his original intent. We decided the theme for our music should be positive in nature. This can be achieved through many means. Satire, sometimes is one of the devices used to capture the heart of the song.

5/ Do you prefer to play live? or do you prefer recording?

Ricky: LIVE,LIVE,LIVE!!!!!!!!

Dave and Harold..studio.

Although both entertain the live setting, they are not as intent on it as Ricky.

6/ Do you record in a studio? Or do you use a home based setup?

We have our own studio. (Dragon Studios) It is not a professional studio by any means. Pre-production studio would be a better term for it. It is a wonderful place. Many rooms, with 10,000 square feet of space.

We have a live room (As big as a small bar) and Studio A, that we record in. Currently, we are recording in the "Live room" Our biggest downfall is... none of us are good engineers. But with all the assistance we get from reading the Songstuff forums, and the numerous articles, we have made huge improvements. I believe when listening to the Circles newer material, it is very evident, that we are improving.

7/ Where does your inspiration come from?

We would have to say, The Love of Music.... Then it would have to be the wonderful response we have received from all the friends and fans of our music. We never in a million years would have dreamed we would have been honored, with this much praise. We view our talent as being mediocre. But the messages we receive, tell another tale. I suppose... the whole listening audience, could all be liars!! hahahaha.

Independent musicians are another form of inspiration. They inspire us to write better, play better.. and of course, pump us up, when we are down. I certainly can't neglect, Rod Prince of Bubble Puppy fame. Every message we get from him, inspires us to keep playing.