Interview: stop.drop.rewind
By Rob Smittix
Kris Lohn – Vocals, Bass
DJ Crenson Guitar, Vocals
Andy Sutton – Drums
Photo By: Josh Hernandez
RRX: So we got Kris with a K (Vocals, Bass), even though it’s supposed to be CH, we all know that.
KL: It’s like a gang thing, dude. We actually have beef with the CH Chris’s, I can’t believe you talked about them around me.
RRX: (Laughs) We got DJ (Guitar, Vocals), are you an actual DJ?
DC: No, but I have had that problem before. I’ve done a few wedding band and corporate… like one night band gigs where, I’ve been the male vocalist and I’ve had people in the band who just see DJ and assume that I am a DJ and not a person whose name is Daryl Joseph.
RRX: Hey, we’ll count it. And we’ve got Andy (Drums), who most likely wrote his name on the shoes of his action figures, I would imagine.
AS: Yes, I did.
RRX: I knew it. So how’s tour life?
KL: We are at home for a little bit here and we’re getting excited to be out again on the road. We’ve had some really nice runs this year though.
DC: Yeah, we got a lot of momentum that I think we’re gonna ride into the East Coast states that we’re starting in a couple weeks. Like for you in Albany. I think the show that we’re running right now is really hot. We are still really excited about it and I hope that people are equally excited about it. So far we’ve had a really nice response.
RRX: Absolutely, I mean… your music is fun and I how could you not have fun? I pretty much got the assumption from checking you guys out, that you’re all quite characters in one way or another.
KL: You may have noticed that already a little bit, but yes.
DC: All we can be is ourselves and I’ve never looked more foolish than I do the times when I try to be anything else.
RRX: So at a 2026 stop.drop.rewind show, I know we’re to expect facial expressions, of course, but what else are we to expect?
KL: We’re playing a bunch of stuff off of our most recent record. Every band probably says this… I’ve been telling people, not hyperbolically, that I think this is our best. So even if there’s other shows that people may have enjoyed more or something like that, on our end we’re able to execute it most consistently at a high level and also get the most effects that we wanna get from the audience and from ourselves out of any show we’ve ever ran. We’re constantly tweaking how we want the show to work and what we want people’s responses to be and basically we wanna hit all that stuff. I know you guys feel good about it. I feel good about it too.
DC: I think people can obviously expect an exciting show. That’s sort of where Kris was going because we’re still very excited about it and I think that comes through on stage. You mentioned facial expressions, that’s part of it for sure. There’s gonna be some improvisation. It’s gonna seem sometimes like everything is about to fall apart. It doesn’t. We know exactly where everything’s supposed to go, you can trust us. If you wanna dance, if you wanna jump around, we got you. You wanna sit in the back with your arms folded and feel your feelings, we got you. You wanna just watch a guy do stuff to a bass that you haven’t seen done to a bass in person in quite a while, got you there too.
We are playing some stuff that when we wrote it, we were not sure how much we would ever play it live and now we’re doing it every day. We’re proud of doing that. Some songs off the most recent record… and I’ve spoken about this online, videos and things but, like the song “Luminescent,” that had a nice kind of viral moment for us. I thought it was just like my pet project because I usually get one for every record where it’s just… I write pretty much everything on it and then it’s like a weird song and nobody really cares about it. But I achieved something songwriting wise that I think is really really cool. We worked on that song for well over a year and I still thought nobody’s ever gonna listen to it but that I would be proud of it when I die or something. And then it was one of our most popular songs off that record, which was a very nice surprise. Except then we had to learn how to actually play it live, like in a good way, not in the studio.
RRX: The Beatles weren’t even able to recreate what they did live, almost ever.
KL: Right. Yeah, we’re basically better than The Beatles, you can run that as the teaser for this segment. stop.drop.rewind coming to Albany Empire Underground, better than The Beatles.
RRX: That is definitely gonna be the headline, yes.
KL: One of the things that I like about what we do is, trying to arrange… because we still write for a larger ensemble whether it’s 4 to 2 guitars, bass, drums, or I’ll play keys, or a bunch of vocals, and we even had some stacks and things on the last record as well. Getting it to sound good as a power trio is a challenge that we enjoy. And still making it sound good and not empty. Some of that Beatles’ stuff is so layered that I don’t know how you would ever do that (live), but we’re trying to walk the line between the stuff that sounds good in the studio and then making different decisions to make it sound good live.
RRX: From everything I’ve heard, it sounds really crisp. I also really dig the fact that one song really doesn’t sound like another, which a lot of bands have issues with that, you know? It’s just their signature sound but you guys seem to be able to tweak it and pretty much everything has its own kind of liveliness.
DC: I appreciate that. We do try to have something that anyone can latch onto. Something that no matter what your musical background or your taste is, we’ll grab your ear while retaining sort of a sense of what our band identity is. A song of ours should catch your ear regardless of your musical background but you should also instantly be able to tell it’s us and that’s at least my goal for our songwriting.
RRX: I respect that, absolutely. How long have you guys been doing this thing?
KL: DJ and I have been playing music together since 2000. We’ve been doing, stop.drop.rewind since late 2008. So, this is our 18th year doing stop.drop.rewind. And then, we linked up with Andy. He’s been with us since 2015. We’ve been the core lineup. We’ve had a couple of guitar players on and off since 2015 but we kind of committed to being in the power trio and just the three of us now. Andy can tell you more about his background before that, obviously.
RRX: Yes, please go ahead.
AS: Yeah, so my background… I’ve essentially been playing drums since I was 12 years old and I’m 36 now, 24 years, which is a long time. I went to school for music, didn’t finish because I owe them money. I went on and just started my career and I’ve been playing full time now for about 15 years, I think. I’ve been playing a lot in the blues scene in Chicago and I really wanted to do an original project. Something that I could really have a lot of input into since I felt like I had seen a lot of what the blues artists had done that really was helping them and what was not. I wanted to kind of bring that to make those decisions as well. Because all blues is usually original music anyway. Blues is an interesting intersection of original music and jobbing music at this point. Especially in Chicago. I had originally played one night with them back in 2011, when I first got out of school.They were still looking for somebody in 2015, so it just ended up working out.
KL: We’re nice, by the way. We did have another drummer in there, who then decided to pursue his own projects. We’re still very good friends with him, by the way.
DC: We were not drummerless for 5 years.
KL: It makes it sound like no one wanted to work with us for 5 years but then we got Andy again.
DC: He did set us free from the drummer desert.
AS: Don’t worry, it wasn’t 5 years, it was 4 years.
KL: Oh sorry, 4 years, not 5 years.
RRX: Andy said he went to school for music. Did you all go to school for music?
KL: In varying capacities, but yes we did.
RRX: Being in a band myself and having a bunch of members, most of us did not (go to school for music), but the several that have… one thing I noticed that was different between them and us was mainly that we called it practice and they called it rehearsal.
(All Laugh)
DC: I do do that, mostly it is just to lend some gravity to what I’m doing. So, if I were at a day job and they were like, can you stay? Me saying no, I have rehearsal has a bit of gravity to it. But me being like I can’t, I have band practice makes me sound like… can my girlfriends come?
RRX: (Laughs) Yeah, hit the nail on the head.
KL: It’s like Partner versus girlfriend or boyfriend.
AS: I also do that with the word show. I don’t always like the word show, but it’s like saying it’s a gig or an event, you know? Show vs concert is like… when your Mom’s like, oh, are you playing any concert soon?
KL: It’s funny how language works like that. Not dunking on anybody else’s way they do stuff, I prepare an itinerary for rehearsal, for band practice. We don’t drink beers and/or partake in other things that may not be legal in our state but might be legal in your state, for instance, then just hang out in the garage and play the songs from top to bottom. A lot of other groups that I’ve experienced, they drink some beers and hang out, which is exceedingly fun. I’m gonna put like a huge asterisk, but that’s not rehearsal.
RRX: I don’t think I’ve ever been to a rehearsal then.
KL: Again, before anybody comes at me on the internet, that is extremely fun. I also like to do that with my buddies.
DC: Yeah, I do band practice and rehearsals for different things.
RRX: But you get down to business and you’re business minded, you’re focused, is what I’m getting.
KL: Correct.
RRX: Excellent. We very much look forward to having you come through Albany, as you know, is the center of the universe. Empire Underground is a fantastic venue. Anything else that you wanna say to the people?
KL: stop.drop.rewind is available anywhere you find music, including socials and all your streaming services. Of course the best way to support any band in 2026 is purchasing things directly from the artists, so you can always go to our website stopdroprewind.com and pick up our records, either there or bandcamp.
DC: You can now get our whole catalogue with the click of a button,
KL: And of course, we’d love to see you at the show, we’ll have t-shirts, CDs, hats, stickers and all that stuff to support the band directly there. But anywhere you listen is amazing for us and if you take the time to do that, we really, really appreciate it
Stop.Drop.Rewind
Wed • Sep 30, 2026 • 6:30 PM
Empire Underground, Albany, NY
