Aria Artist Interviews
David Henninger: Spater's vicious guitarist/vocalist!
Within 24-hours of us launching our AriaUSA MySpace site we received a great email from David Henninger, the guitarist and vocalist for the hard rock/metal band Spater. His email contained so much enthusiasm for Aria guitars that we had to get to know him. Not only is David a very accomplished guitarist, singer and songwriter, but he is also the founder of the Finger Lakes Metal Fest – an incredible popular annual metal festival held in New York every year.
Dave and I met in cyber space and talked about Spater, the Finger Lakes Metal Fest and his love of Aria guitars.
Q. When did you start holding the Finger Lakes Metal Fest?
A. The first Finger Lakes Metal Fest was held on November 25, 2006.
Q. What made you want to create a metal festival?
A. There are several elements that led to the decision to attempt to put on a metal fest in this area.
Up until a few years ago, there really wasn’t much support for metal bands in bars and clubs in the rural towns between Rochester and Syracuse, New York, but there was definitely plenty of bands and fans of metal music in the area. So many bands would have to travel to the cities in order to play which translated in their fans and friends having to travel to see them play as well.
Having been in the metal band “Spater” since 1992, we are one of the longest running local metal acts in the region. Since we were one of a very few metal bands that could get gigs in these small towns, many of the local, new bands would seek us out and ask to open for us when we played in their towns. We would also play several annual music festivals in the area each year and we were usually the only metal band invited to these events.
So I got the idea to put on a music event that featured only metal bands in hopes that it would help the local metal scene. One that would bring awareness of all the great metal bands from around the region and bring the metal to the fans who otherwise had to travel 40 to 50 miles to see bands that were often from their own neighborhoods. I thought it might help the local bars and clubs to see that they could safely book metal bands without fear of losing money and to get the idea out of some of the club-owners minds that metal bands meant trouble.
So the idea of Finger Lakes Metal Fest was born.
Q. That is a huge line-up! The logistics of putting on a festival this big are massive. Do you have a big crew to help with the set-up and operations?
A. Yeah it’s a pretty big line-up, but not as big as some. Thankfully it’s broken into two days with half of the bands each day.
We have learned a lot from previous years, its really a matter of organization and getting as much done ahead of time as possible. Set up takes some time and there definitely has to be some real dedication in making things happen and run smoothly. The crew is not actually all that big. Including myself and my band members, there will be a crew of about 15 people. My band and a few roadies are actually the set up crew and we have 17 years of experience setting up and tearing down for our own shows, so its not all that different, there’s just more equipment and a lot more people involved with all the other bands, and of course there’s a lot more time involved than a typical gig.
Q. One of the bands that is performing is Spater, which is your band. Give us some background on Spater. When was it formed? Who is in it?
A. Well there’s a long story but I’ll give you the super condensed version (There’s more info in our bio on our website and myspace page). Spater was formed in April of 1992 with Kevin Daeffler, Terry Iocco and myself. Over the first 6 
years we went through quite a few guitarists until we eventually ended up with Kelly Rittenhouse in 1998. Sadly, Kelly was killed in an automobile accident in 2002. That was a very difficult thing to go through, but we kept things moving and eventually added Tim Rivenburgh to make the line-up we have today. We all have a history together going back as far as junior high where we all went to the same school.
Over the course of 17 years, we played pretty much, every place that would have bands between Rochester and Syracuse, New York in hopes of eventually taking off into the great rockstar-horizon. Although that hasn’t actually happened (yet, lol) we still have a lot of fun with what we do and we just keep at it. We have pretty much made our mark on the region and continue with FLMF (Finger Lakes Metal Fest). Maybe one day we’ll be local legends? One can hope…
Q. How long have you been playing guitar and why did you start playing?
A. I have been playing guitar for 26 years. I had always wanted to play guitar for as long as I can remember. Growing up in a family with 11 children, we were poor and did not get a lot of thing we wanted or asked for, so I had to wait until I was old enough to get a job in order to buy one myself. But I would have to say listening to AC/DC as a young teenager really inspired me to make sure I got a guitar so I could learn to play like that.
Q. What was your first guitar?
A. A Squire Bullet.
Q. There is nothing like your first guitar! Do you still have it?
A. No, I broke that guitar the year I got it. I have no recollection of what ever happened to it after that.
Q. Breaking guitars? Very rockstar! You are known in the guitar community for having a great collection of Aria guitars. What was your first Aria guitar?
A. My very first Aria guitar was an Aria Pro II RS Straycat. Still have it.
Q. What drew you to that guitar?
A. Two things really, it was a great looking guitar, and the price tag was one I could afford at the time. ($200 back in 1984)
Q. Speaking for all of the other A-Team members, can you list all of your Aria guitars?
A. Currently I have an "Aria Pro II RS Straycat", two PE-SPL guitars, an "HM III" and a "MAC 57".
Q. Let’s go deeper into some of Spater’s songs. “Sucker Punch” is an all out, balls-to-the-wall, rocker. Who wrote that and which Aria did you use when you recorded that track?
A. All Spater songs are collaborations of the entire group. But “Sucker Punch” was initially Terry’s idea. Tim and I both used our HM III guitars for recording that song.
Q. How do you and Tim divide up the solos within Spater?
A. There are different factors involved with that. Sometimes it’s a case of who has the stronger rhythm part, sometimes someone will simply say they want me or Tim to do one and sometimes it goes to whoever is the most inspired at the time. Sometimes we arrange songs in such a manner that we can each have our own solo. We don’t compete and we have great respect for each other so there’s never an issue with that, it’s just a matter of how a tune works out.
Q. Since many people will be getting their introduction to Spater from this interview which song or songs do you think have the best representation of your solo style?
A. That’s a tough question, but looking at what’s available on our myspace page and website, I think a couple decent examples of my solo style would be in the songs “Delirium“ on our myspace page (the first solo is me) and “Attitude“ which is on our website.
Q. I have to ask about “The Brady Bunch” theme song that you have on your MySpace page. That is a killer track! What is the story behind that song?
A. That is actually a cover song. It was originally recorded by a band called Static Cling around 1987. I bought the 45 after seeing it in a local music store. When Spater was formed I played it for the guys and they immediately started learning it so we added it to our set list. Years later, I happened to meet Static Cling and I told them it was one of the first songs we learned as a band. The leader of Static Cling, Kim Draheim, said we could use it on our album as long as he could do a guest track on it. So we recorded it and he came in and laid down the solo, added a Theremin track and backing vocals. It’s a great song and our most requested tune.
Q. How can people get a hold of your recordings?
A. There’s a link on our main website (www.spaterrock.com) where our CDs can be purchased online. Also aside from coming to one of our shows, our CDs can be purchased locally at AREA Records & Music in Geneva NY.
Q. Is there anything in particular that you would like to share with your Aria brothers and sisters?
A. These are great guitars! Tell your friends about them! There as good as any others out there, and even better because they are more affordable. I’ve been playing them since 1984, and haven’t had a single bad experience with them, in fact the first one I bought in 1984 is still kicking ass. Show ‘em if ya got ‘em.