Today we’d like to introduce you to Tricky Dick & The Cover-Ups.
Hi Tricky Dick, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Tricky Dick & the Cover-Ups is:
Tony Howard: Lead Vocals & Bass Guitar
Jeph Harmozis: Lead Vocals, Keyboard, & Guitar
Doug Schulze: Lead Guitar
Matt Johnson: Drums & Vocals
Tricky Dick & the Cover-Ups (commonly referred to as simply “Tricky Dick”) is a band with roots in Lakewood, Willowick, Middleburgh Heights, and Fort Loramie, OH. Currently our 4 band members reside in Lakewood, Fairview Park, and North Olmsted – but our practice spot and homebase is in Lakewood.
We initially formed in 2008 when 2 high school friends (including current member Matt Johnson) bumped into each other at a tribute show for the band Genesis. The two then utilized (now ancient) internet classified ads to recruit guitarist Doug Schulze, and their friend Tony Howard was added to the lineup shortly thereafter. After a couple lineup changes, Jeph Harmozis was brought into the fold, and that has been the steady lineup since 2013.
In the early days, our ambitions were fairly modest. We set out to have a good time playing at dive bars, hang out with our friends, and pretty much make enough money to pay our tabs at the end of the night. After a couple of years our focus shifted toward delivering something more unique and fun (and hopefully more lucrative). We invested in sophisticated lighting and put an emphasis on contemporary dance music mashed up with timeless classic songs and sing-alongs.
The format change from “dime a dozen” bar rock band to a more flashy pop music oriented act proved to be a success, and we have been fortunate enough to perform an average of about 100 shows per year for well over a decade to all sorts of crowds and environments. We’ve played everywhere from hole-in-the-wall bars, hot spot nightclubs, several hundred weddings and private events, and large corporate events including opening day for the Cleveland Guardians and Fan Fest events during Cavs playoff games. We’ve traveled from Northeast Ohio to Put-In-Bay, Toledo, Youngstown, Erie & Pittsburgh PA, Delaware, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and even Key West.
These days we are balancing the fun (but challenging) task of performing late nights on the weekends and keeping up with our growing families! We continue to put providing the highest quality performance possible as our main goal every time we hit the stage.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The majority of our experience performing as Tricky Dick has been an absolute blast, but the reality is that a band is a very intimate and sometimes delicate group relationship where opinions can be strong and there can certainly be the potential for conflict regarding artistic decisions, scheduling decisions, logistical challenges, and of course financial issues that need to be agreed upon. We are four unique personalities working together very closely, so there has to be a level of respect and professionalism even in the crazy environments and situations we sometimes find ourselves. As we have gotten older it has been easier to appreciate our differences and find constructive ways to resolve conflict and find solutions, and still make the whole experience fun for us and the audience.
We’ve “paid our dues” over the years and learned vital lessons the hard way in some cases. For instance we’ve gotten rained on at outdoor events that we didn’t think to require overhead coverage ahead of time. We’ve found ourselves setting up our gear frantically up to the very last minute due to load-in situations that were much more difficult than anticipated. In our heavier travel years we would prioritize maxing out our schedule regardless of the inconvenient routing and “van fatigue”. We would perform in the Jersey Shore one night, drive to PA for a casino show, hit The Roundhouse at Put-In-Bay for 3 days AND nights of performances, then do a wedding gig to cap it off. Our schedule isn’t nearly as hectic these days, but we sure learned a ton about interpersonal relationships and stamina!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We are a Top 40/dance/rock cover band that gets to entertain rooms full of smiling people, so we always joke that the “work” comes more during the set-up and tear down of our stage. We provide a full audio and lighting package, so a typical setup and tear down is around 90 minutes each time – and we do all the “roadie” work ourselves with the help of our talented roster of sound engineers.
We pride ourselves on always providing a unique show that is customized to the venue and audience we are performing for. Our setlist at a nightclub full of young partygoers will differ drastically from our setlist at a wedding with a more diverse demographic. We aim to minimize “dead air” and keep the momentum going with back-to-back-to-back songs that typically run in non-stop blocks, kind of like a DJ would approach a performance. We also shorten or “truncate” the majority of our songs so that we can squeeze in more music per performance, often playing around 80-90 tunes in a 3 to 4 hour concert. We challenge ourselves to keep up with the newest hits and “strike while the iron is hot”, as well as continually bringing in throwbacks and classics from the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, 2000’s, and 2010’s. We also play a tremendous variety of genres and styles – anything from dance/pop to rock/punk to hip-hop/rap to country and beyond, and we are often tasked to learn specialty pieces for our wedding couples that occasionally take us out of our comfort zones. Our goal is to never become stale or predictable and to motivate our fans to join us week after week to find out what surprises we have in store!
What do you like and dislike about the city?
We play shows all around the Cleveland area, so it is always fun to see how much cool stuff and genuinely wonderful people our city has to offer. There is such a vibrant entertainment scene from incredible restaurants, fabulous music and theatre venues, limitless family-friendly attractions and of course our wonderful Cleveland Metroparks. And we simply have the most down-to-earth, helpful, kind, and hard-working people anywhere in the USA! We are so fortunate to have the opportunity to live, work, and thrive in Northeast Ohio and provide a fun night out for the folks in our amazing community.
The weather can be pretty harsh, and our sports teams can’t ever seem to get it together (with an exception for the Cavs), but the amazing places to visit and the awesome people to meet more than make up for all that!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://trickydickcoverband.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/trickydickcover
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/trickydickcoverband/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TrickyDickandTheCoverUps
- Other: https://linktr.ee/trickydickcoverband?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=1a6e586a-dd87-4c77-8c93-7dc734fadba8
