Little steps can attain big goals.
At least in Gravity Kills' case, every small movement is motion in the right direction."We really started out seeing if we could write a song that was good enough to get on a local compilation CD," said GK guitarist Matt Dudenhoeffer during a phone call from his apartment in St. Louis, Mo. "It was that one song that got us where we are now."
That one song, which is the title cut for the band's big-label debut, "Guilty," was upped from "Buzz Bin" status to heavy rotation on MTV.
"I just found out today," said a hyped-up Dudenhoeffer. "I never had any idea we'd get to this!"
Gravity Kills - featuring Dudenhoeffer, bassist Kurt Kerns, electronics/keyboardist Douglas Firley and vocalist Jeff Scheel - will play DV8, 115 S. West Temple, Tuesday, April 30. Doors open at 7 p.m.
Throughout the band's formative years, the four lived within walking distance of each other.
"I was about 5 or 6 years old when I first really started to listen to music," Dudenhoeffer remembered. "Everyone bought 45s (singles) back then and the occasional album. I guess I was about 7 when I'd go to a neighbor's house and act like we were playing in a band. We'd have an old keyboard that wasn't plugged in, a trash-can drum set and an inverted tennis racket for a guitar.
"After I got a little older, I realized this make-believe wasn't going to work, and I got my first acoustic guitar by the time I was in sixth grade."
Dudenhoeffer played the basic beginner's finger picking but soon got sick of it and dropped the guitar from his priority.
"Then I remember Kurt starting some bands in seventh grade," Dudenhoeffer said. "It was cool, and I decided to start the electric guitar. I went in and played for him and he asked me to join."
At the same time, Firley was learning to fiddle around on the keyboards. The three always looked to Scheel - who is Kerns' cousin - as their mentor because he was many steps ahead of them in music.
"Jeff taught Kurt how to play the drums and bass," Duden-hoef-fer said. "But Jeff moved to Dallas and we were stuck in Missouri. So there wasn't any way - at least we thought - to get him back."
By this time Dudenhoeffer, Kir-ley and Kerns had moved to St. Louis. Shortly thereafter, a local radio station KPNT (the POINT) announced it was putting together "Point Essential Vol. 1" as a radio-station promotion.
"We were writing music for fun when we heard about the CD," remembered Dudenhoeffer. "We wrote what was 90 percent of `Guilty' and laid down the tracks. But we didn't have a singer. The demo was due Friday night and by Wednesday, we had asked a bunch of people to sing but they all had conflicts.
"Jokingly I turned to Kurt and asked if we should call Jeff," Dudenhoeffer continued. "I said I'd pay for half the plane ticket if he said yes. Of course, he did and we handed the tape to the radio station a half an hour before deadline."
That started the musical snowball that hasn't let up. The band rerecorded "Guilty" and put together a whole album of new tunes. The producers at TVT Records signed the band and agreed to the album. And like a bad case of deja vu, the company wanted 11 songs instead of just 10, as the band had hoped.
"It took us two days to write `Here,' " said Dudenhoeffer. "It's actually a song documenting our being locked up in the recording studio for four weeks. We pulled it out of our heads and made it work."
The creative process came easily to the four musicians because of the close bond they share.
Since then, Gravity Kills has been featured on the "Mortal Kombat" motion picture sound-track as well as the movie music for the Brad Pitt/Morgan Freeman flick "Seven."
"The one thing that stands out about us is there's no egos," said Dudenhoeffer. "We've known each other all our lives and it's become the perfect lineup. It's so cool being together as band mates and best friends. It makes it easier to be on the road."