Label Luxx

Frontwoman Katrina Chester wants to talk biz

by Don Fluckinger

Hydroponic (Sweet and Deep), the title of the newest album from brooding, hard-edge New York rock quartet Luxx, means "able to grow in water, away from soil." The tag fits well on two levels. One, it speaks to lead singer Katrina Chester's habit of dumping water on her head when she feels dehydrated. But it's also an apt metaphor for Luxx's departure from the traditionally fertile ground of independent label-dom.

After an acrimonious split with Push Records (which released the band's self-titled debut), Luxx formed the Sweet and Deep label and released the harder-edge, ultra-modern Hydroponic. Chester's raspy singing covers a range of emotions, from seductive temptress on straightforward rocker "Play with Me" to raging ex-girlfriend with the funk-metal blast of "f.f." Hydroponic also features a surprising cover of Mott the Hoople's "All the Young Dudes."

With the disc's release the band took on their own promotional work. Apparently, they know what they're doing. Luxx are currently in negotiations with three different labels. And, according to Chester, Luxx's suitors are a lot bigger than Push Records are.

Meanwhile, Luxx are taking care of their own. While talking to the Phoenix from a Cleveland hotel room, Chester wanted to talk business while she and the rest of the band were slapping together media packages. Luxx boast a "street team," she explains, made up of a group of fans in each city that spreads the word for upcoming gigs and that begs local record stores to carry the group's recordings. Many bands have street teams, but, Chester says, she treats hers like an exclusive club. She limits each group to 16 people, because, she says, after that she loses track of faces and names.

"[In] each city, [we] pick a rep, and that rep has control of the team," she says. Her minions have managed to get Luxx tunes added to seven radio-station play lists in the past year. "We have a relationship with these people . . . they're like our little family. I want to know who they are. I don't ever want to not know someone's name."

Which is exactly what was happening before Luxx abandoned the typical rock-band cycle of cross-country tour, record new CD, and tour once again. "People were forgetting who we were," Chester says. Now the band stick to the Eastern seaboard and the Midwest. The strategy is working out. When they return to a club every few months, she finds more and more people show up.

Where did this music-industry savvy come from? You'd expect that some grew out of the bad mojo from Luxx's aborted deal with Push. But Chester's lineage provides another clue. Her father, the late Gary Chester, was a well-known session drummer who played on classics like the Drifters' "Under the Boardwalk," Ben E. King's "Stand By Me," Leslie Gore's "It's My Party," and Van Morrison's "Brown-Eyed Girl." Dad's pedigree made for an interesting home life. Drummer Max Weinberg of the E Street Band (who now bangs the skins for talk-show host Conan O'Brien's house band) was a frequent visitor, as was deceased folk legend Jim Croce, who would listen to records and play backgammon with Chester as a young girl. "It was a great upbringing," she says. "I met hundreds of musicians; I got inspired every day. I knew I wanted to be a rock-and-roll singer."

Her first turn in the spotlight came at the age of five, when she starred in a bagel commercial. And Chester continues to freelance. Recently, she contributed a track to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra's gold-certified Christmas album and sang back-up for a song on Godsmack's next record. Luxx's other members work steadily as session musicians, and guitarist Ian Hatton used to jam with Jason Bonham and Paul Rodgers.

But soon, Luxx may not have time for side projects. If Chester can help it, though, some things won't change, should the band sign with a major. "Whatever label we pick to sign with, I'm going to want to go in there, and I'm gonna want to work radio and retail," she says. "I'm not gonna be pushy; but I'm gonna offer my help. I don't just want to be the artist. It's my career, it's my life."