Continued from page 22
Continues Hofherr: "I know that
sounds funny, but I can tell you I swear on
my hand to God we've had people come
over from Germany, Sweden, Australia,
Florida, Texas, California, Arizona,
Pennsylvania and so many other countries
and cities. They come because they became
fans on the internet and they ask if we'll be
coming there and I say 'we don't want to
tour. I don't want to leave my sons' so they
come here. I tell them 'come to Chicago. It's
a great place to visit and this is a great
weekend to come.' And sometimes I say,
'hey, want to grab dinner afterwards?' I
appreciate that they gave a crap to come
just want to work. Nothing is more fulfilling in life than setting a goal and achieving
it."
As a fluke power outage shuts down
the bar where Hofherr's holding court
slightly earlier than expected (though he
still gets a few "hellos" as patrons exit by
generator light), it's only fitting to revisit
the question of just how a band with no
major label, limited touring experience and
minimal radio exposure outside Illinois
could've possibly thrived for 30 years,
especially considering countless acts with
all those aspects in place haven't lasted half
as long?
7th Heaven circa 1997
see my band!"
In hindsight, it's all pretty remarkable
to consider 7th Heaven amassed such a
sizeable following locally, nationally (and
even internationally) without ever signing
a single record deal throughout its entire
career, a voluntarily choice that astonishingly transitioned from the cassette trend
of the '80s, the CD boom of the/'90s
through the download / steaming era of
today. Granted, that independence
allowed the group to do absolutely whatever it wanted over the years (like release
the almost absurdly ambitious 700 song
Jukebox box set), but also stemmed from
sheer indifference when it comes to the
typical music industry measuring sticks.
"I don't care if we're number one, two,
three, ten or twenty in the landscape of
some thing," Hofherr asserts. "It's nice to
be number one at something, but it doesn't
define success. Success is that you executed what you set out to do, not some barometer chart based upon somebody else's conclusions of what success is…I am not motivated by money and I'm not motivated by
fame or popularity or any of that. I truly
24 illinoisentertainer.com
october
2015
"I think we found a great core group of
people in our organization – past and present- who care about what we do," he
hypothesizes. "We have pride in playing,
we have a great time, we created a great
ecosystem, we see the happiness they
bring us and we try to bring that happiness
back to the audience through our performances. It's a really healthy high to have in
life and we're a very positive light in a dark
world. Unfortunately we live in a world
where there's so much hatred and anger
and fighting and wars and depression, but
we want to make people realize it's just a
perspective and life can be as fun as you
want it to be. We're not out trying to be the
best band in the world or size up against
anyone else. We truly just enjoy playing
and performing and that's what we're trying to do. We could be your flavor of the
week or not. You can like us or not, but
we're just having fun. And hopefully
nobody can fault us for just having a good
time!"
Appearing 10/9 at Hollywood Casino,
Joliet; 11/6 at Austin's Fuel Room,
Libertyville.