St. Louis horn-injected hard rock band The Urge displays an intense dedication that keeps them constantly gaining momentum and easily packing any venue in the Midwest. The Urge released its third major label release, “Too Much Stereo,” this summer, and the title track has rocked Iowa radio stations, achieving up to 52 spins a week at stations such as Ames’ KCCQ. KCCQ program director Bobby Hacker says the song is still at 52 spins this week and should be at about 50 or 51 next week. “They’re a band with a strong local following,” Hacker says. “And the fact that the song has been getting a lot of requests for it. And personally, I just think it’s a killer song.” The band’s strong local following comes from their Midwestern roots. They stayed in their hometown and built success in an industry that is highly focused on the East and West coasts. Vocalist Steve Ewing and bassist Karl Grable sat down for an interview after an August 1 show at Chicago’s House of Blues. “Touring makes any band,” Grable says. “If you love what you’re doing, you should stay on the road. It doesn’t matter where you’re from. The problem with the Midwest is people don’t know what to do and how to do it. People on the coasts have seen how it happens, it takes us a few other steps.” One thing The Urge decided to do differently from past albums when recording “Too Much Stereo” was to approach the recording in a more mature manner and make the best record possible. “We had a bunch of stuff,” Ewing explains. “We started writing this record as soon as we got off the road a couple of years ago. ” We probably had 25 songs that we were working on, probably more than that. By the time we got into the studio, we had about 18 and recorded 17 of them.” But “Too Much Stereo” only contains 11 tracks. “We did that because we were like, `We want to take 11 of the best songs we got and we don’t want to put any songs that may not be something that we like,'” Ewing adds. “So we took the 11 songs that everybody liked. I guess you have everyone’s representation on the record.” Another aspect The Urge wanted to change when writing “Too Much Stereo” was to not write any of the album while they were on the road. “The road didn’t have anything to do with this record,” Ewing explains. “On the other ones, we came in with the road mentality. We tried to record like we were on stage. On this one, we laid back a little bit and focused on making a record. We tried to squeeze the most out of ourselves as we could.” Advice from producer Clif Magness helped The Urge in changing their sound. “Clif was saying you basically have a road voice and a studio voice and you kind of have to relearn how to play and how to get all the candy to come out,” Ewing says. The Urge is also changing as its genre shifts, helping keep a fresh sound. “You don’t have to rap over rock now,” Ewing says. “A lot of it is big now, but it’s a wave and something else is going to pop up. For us, our plan of action is stay on the road and work the trenches, make them see the light that way.” The Urge lessened the amount of horns used on the record. While their early albums used horns as centerpieces, “Too Much Stereo” uses the horn section to harmonize and spice up the songs. “The only thing I can say about this record is that we were burnt on horns,” Grable explains. “Ska was ruined. Believe me, everyone in the band is a huge ska fan, but when you see people butcher it over and over, it’s like, `God, you people are killing it.’ So we were like, `Fuck it. We’re not going to be a part of that. You guys can have it and kill it, we’re going on and trying something else.” With all the changes The Urge made for their third album, Ewing couldn’t be more proud of the results. “We approached writing with guitars and vocals, like old school rock ‘n’ roll,” Ewing says. “Our album is totally new school. We’ve taken rock and rhythm and melody and combined them to create the newest sound there is. There’s nothing newer than The Urge,” he says. As far as a new single from “Too Much Stereo” hitting the airwaves any time soon, Hacker says that it will probably be a while. “Actually, we jumped on [`Too Much Stereo’] about six weeks before the official add date,” Hacker says. “The official add date was like the middle of July. So it’s gonna be a while before the record company comes out with another single.”