For two guys who have already lived out the fantasy of the rock n’ roll dream, you would have thought Steve Brown and PJ Farley would now be content to quietly shuffle through life from the safe haven of a 9-5 office job, occasionally pausing for a dewy-eyed moment to relive the memorable days of arena tours, major-label albums and more groupies than even Mick Jagger could squeeze into his hotel room.
Not so. The pair’s days as part of successful teen pop-metal band Trixter may now be nearly a decade down the highway, but with their highly promising new band 40 Ft Ringo causing a real stir on the independent rock scene, Brown and Farley both have no intention of throwing in the towel for a regular life just yet.

“I love it,” admits Brown “The love of rock n’ roll is what keeps me involved and you have to be as tough as nails to keep going and put up with all the bullshit. I always say that if it was easy, everybody would be doing it, but being a rock star is an addiction. Once you have been there, you will do anything to get there again.”
No doubt the bassist and guitarist/vocalist hope the anticipated rise of 40ft Ringo will mirror the meteoric rise to fame of Trixter, the band they started in Paramus, New Jersey while still at high school. Relentless local gigging, the marketable factor of the band’s youth and most importantly, the song-writing skills of Brown took the quartet to a deal with MCA Records, a hugely successful debut album and nationwide stadium tours with the likes of Kiss, The Scorpions, and Poison.
Trixter ultimately fell victim to the grunge revolution that claimed many hard rock bands when Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden saw spandex being swapped for flannel shirts, but Brown has nothing but fond memories of Trixter’s moment in the sun.
“It was truly a time when all my dreams came true. I have nothing but amazing memories of those times, and Trixter achieved more success than we ever could have dreamed.”
The experience was similar for Farley: “I look back on those times as some of the best years of my life and a time when I was given so much to experience” he says. “I got to live out many of my dreams in Trixter, and that’s helped me create new ones.”
Those new dreams involve the imminent success of 40 Ft Ringo, the band Steve and PJ put together with two long-time buddies Maz (guitar) and Brian (drums) after a number of bands the duo had put together since the demise of Trixter in 1995 had come to nothing. Brown and Farley had a stack of songs written and after deciding on their curiously odd moniker when a friend saw the Beatles Anthology on a 40ft screen in New York, the band quickly developed a reputation by regularly playing gigs at NYC’s famous Arlene’s Grocery venue and wowing fans with rocking songs like “Book of Virtues”, “Inside Your Head”, and “Unbroken”.
40 Ft Ringo share some similarities to Trixter - there are four members and the tried and trusted combination of chunky guitars and melodies are at the forefront – but nowadays Brown impressively handles vocal duties and the band’s sound has a real modern vibe shared by the likes of SR-71, Blink 182, and Lit.
The band’s maxim is to write ‘slamming rock tunes with melodies that stick in your head like crazy glue’, and anyone who has heard the various demos the band has put together or seen their vibrant live shows in the NJ/NYC area, will know that is as accurate a description as you will find of 40 Ft Ringo’s music.
One listen to such ultra-infectious anthems as ‘Big Fat Smile’, ‘Fanatic’, ‘Anyway’, and ‘Jerkoff’ prove Brown has mastered the art of penning the type of contemporary, pop/punk tunes that should come with a health warning, but as Farley insists, there is another side to 40 Ft Ringo that separates them from bands like Sum 41.
“I think we’re different from those bands because of our depth. Not that we’re a really deep band as our influences are the likes of Cheap Trick, Blink 182, and Van Halen, but we have more variety in our range of songs, hence a song like ‘Tough’ or ‘Origami Mommy’.”
Brown agrees, “Yeah, Origami Mommy has a deeper storyline than some of the other tunes. It’s about a girl calling a 911 emergency operator telling her about her drugged out, drunk mother. She calls 911 because she has nowhere left to go. Overall, we just do what we love - it’s fun, heavy melody, hard pop.”
The band may have recently parted company with renowned managers Stewart Young and Merrie Hart of Hard To Handle Management, but after finding success while still teens, the guys are still young enough to be accepted by today’s age-conscious record execs, and say they are confident of hitting the big time again in the very near future.
“These songs are the best stuff PJ and I have ever done, and it’s only getting better with the new stuff we are writing. We are very excited about the way things are going for 40 Ft Ringo.” He adds tantalisingly, “In fact, we are currently being courted by the biggest major label in the world as we speak…cross your fingers for us!”
Working to get signed by a major label is a scenario Steve and PJ are all too familiar with, but the single-minded determination the pair possess in spades means that 40 Ft Ringo won’t give up before their 5 year plan for success is realised.
Farley adds, “We got real lucky at a young age and since then we know what it’s like to pay our dues. Sometimes I get frustrated when it comes to getting a deal, but I believe we are a great band and every day something happens to keep me going and chasing a deal. World domination takes time, but we hope to be out real soon in the big time.”
Hopefully that office job can wait a good few years yet.

Visit the 40ft Ringo Website.