American diplomat returns to the rock stage after 45 years with his band Kelakos

In the ever-evolving landscape of music, where fame often seems to overshadow artistry, there exist bands like Kelakos, whose journey is a testament to the enduring power of passion and perseverance.

Kelakos, named for their lead singer and guitarist George Michael Kelakos Haberstroh, were three high school friends from Cohasset, Mass. who released their lone album - 1978's "Gone Are the Days" - which garnered positive reviews upon release.

But then Kelakos simply disbanded into the rubble that was late 1970s America and into the 1980s and beyond.

Now, 45 years later, Kelakos went back into the studio to regain the magic, the love of playing together once again that ultimately turned into their new 12-song album "Hurtling Towards Extinction."

Lincoln Bloomfield Jr. , one of the founding members and bass player of Kelakos, shared insights into the band's rich history, their musical philosophy, and the exciting journey that led them back into the spotlight.

When talking about Kelakos' style of music, Bloomfield understands that they weren't looking to make hit records, but to make records that they enjoyed listening to.

It's a little bit different, isn't it? We know we didn't become world famous, and it was more about making records than anything else,” he said. “And that became our passion. Just how can we make the record sound good for ourselves, and if people like it, that's great. It was really making the best record we could make for ourselves.

FROM HARVARD TO ROCK 'N ROLL

From the music stage to Washington D.C. and back again. Bloomfield's journey after college is not the stuff of rock legends, but one of profound soul searching and musical exploration.

A Harvard graduate, Bloomfield took a detour after graduation and formed the band Kelakos, with Haberstroh, rhythm guitarist Mark Sisson, and drummer Carl Canedy, who worked hard to make a name for themselves in the upper East Coast club circuit back in the mid-1970s.

We played so many gigs in the past. We paid a lot of dues,” he said. “We were in Boston, New York, New Jersey, upstate New York, Pennsylvania. And we just played sometimes twice a night. Four sets and four-hour gigs. We really worked hard. And so, it's kind of funny when we came back together with new songs, our drummer, Carl Canedy, for example, laughed and said,’ You know, I know how to finish your sentences musically.’ It was never a question of what I play here, it just kind of happened. We were we were kind of baked into a cake a long time ago as musicians.

Bloomfield said The Beatles obviously had a huge impact on his decision to write songs, but it took a new guy moving from the West Coast to his high school that sealed the deal.

“A guy named Mark Sisson moved from Seattle, when we were in high school, about ninth or 10th grade, and brought a guitar and an amp with him. And suddenly everybody wanted to play music,” he said. “The Beatles were very popular. Jimi Hendrix Are You Experienced and The Doors. There was so much going on. We were just overwhelmed and wanted to be part of it.”

And writing songs became an obsession for Bloomfield and the rest of the guys, as they honed their craft one song at a time, taking time to learn from the best songwriters they heard every day on the radio.

We thought we had something and what it was, I think, was, people were writing songs that you could hear the lyrics and could sing it back to yourself. If you listen to anything from the late 60s, the minute you hear it, you know the words, you know, the melody. That's the kind of music that really stuck with us. And so, we started writing melodies and we tried to build music around it and over the years. You look at Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Todd Rundgren and Tom Petty. All those great songwriters would come up with a melody. They would sing it and then build the whole song around it and put some great guitar in there. And we kind of fell right into that mold.

After logging a ton of miles touring, Bloomfield said they were finally ready to bring their songs into the studio, but it didn't come easy.

The band had moved in 1976 to to Ithaca, N.Y. where they'd stay for the next two years, spending whatever extra money and time they could salvage from their performing schedule at Pyramid Sound Studios crafting 15 songs, 11 of which would make up "Gone Are the Days."

Bloomfield said the album remixing sessions were intense, as he practically lived in the studio for 13 days and nights until they felt they had something to share with the world.

The first single was “There's a Feeling” B/W "Funky Day” released on the band's Primal Records label. Two years later, the band released their debut album. It would go on to make some noise in Ithaca, and the guys were hoping that it would generate enough buzz that they'd get a proper record deal.

But that day never came and the guys went their separate ways.

MR. BLOOMFIELD GOES TO WASHINGTON

Coming from a family born on public service, Bloomfield's path seemed to be set as he headed to graduate school and then the nation's capital.

I am lucky that I was given the opportunity to have a career in public service and foreign policy, both of which run deep in my family. From the outset, my goal was to get in the room and be part of the decisions on war and peace, to do what I could to avoid any possibility of nuclear war—that was a passion inherited from my father," he said. "I worked hard, starting in the Pentagon in the early 1980s when the geopolitical landscape was changing fast.

Bloomfield would be assigned to the Middle East policy office under the Secretary of Defense, where he found himself thrust into the vortex of strategic alliances, conflicts, and crises—Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq—all vying for attention.

"Despite initial dismissals of the importance of Lebanon, I immersed myself in its complexities, only to witness the eruption of conflict and terrorism that gripped the region," he said. "My days were a blur of activity, constantly briefing Secretary (Caspar) Weinberger amid the chaos. Yet, this crucible honed my skills, propelling me through successive roles in government, from Asia policy to the National Security Council and the State Department, always striving to address pressing security concerns."

He would later be appointed by Dan Quayle to the post of Deputy National Security Advisor to the Vice President of the United States, and later as Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs and as a Presidential Special Envoy.

Working in the State Department when 9/11 occurred, I made a promise to our military leaders that, while I couldn’t guarantee they would always get what they wanted, I would make sure the policymakers understood their needs,” he said. “My last position involved negotiating with warlords, dictators, and their military chiefs to keep MANPADS, or shoulder-fired missiles, from reaching the black market or being sold to terrorists. As special envoy under President George W. Bush, I was in a race against Al Qaeda to keep them from acquiring these weapons and bringing down a commercial airliner

MEETING SKUNK

But in 2003, a chance meeting with legendary guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter brought music to the foreground for Bloomfield.

“I didn't expect to get back into music, but some diplomats and officials in Washington said they wanted to form a band," Bloomfield said. "I said no. I’m way too old. I mean, look, I thought 30 years old was an embarrassment when I was playing in my 20s. So imagine being an official in the government. A 50 something. I said no."

In comes Baxter, who not only is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with his time with the Doobie Brothers and played with Steely Dan, but he also worked as a defense consultant and advised U.S. members of Congress on missile defense.

After I said no, the guys said Jeff “Skunk” Baxter is going to be in the band," he said. "I didn't believe that until he walked into a restaurant. And he was consulting for the intelligence community. He’s a really patriotic and smart guy, knows a lot about technology. And he said, ‘Look, if I'm in the band, I'm in.’ I just fell over backwards and said okay. My life just changed. I'm not going to say no to this.

That would lead to some charity concerts on and off for the last 20 years until, at the request of Baxter, Bloomfield learned Pro Tools and set up a proper digital studio in his home. There Bloomfield would spend several years remixing the tracks that Kelakos laid down nearly 40 years earlier.

Those remixes would form into the album "Kelakos Uncorked: Rare Tracks from a Vintage Seventies Band," which garnered solid reviews, but it also gave Bloomfield and the rest of his boyhood chums the inspiration to get back into the studio to see if they could recapture that magic.

Now, we didn’t plan an album,” said Bloomfield. "We said really? Okay, that that feels pretty good. Let's try let's try something and we didn't plan an album. We just did a song called 'Florida Flash Flood' and then we did another song, and then we did another and then it just kept going. And pretty soon we had 12 of them. And we said, Okay, three or four years of putting this together. We're happy with this collection. And I thought that was the end of it. But that's just the beginning. Now you got to put it into an album, you got to do something like this. You know and get the great Belgium graphic designer Eric Philippe to do the graphics. You know, we've got an album here. So it's just been a lot of fun. Having people play our music and tell us what songs they like. That's the greatest gift of all.

"Hurtling Towards Extinction" is filled with a kaleidoscope of musical influences from their formative years mixed with their signature sound to help craft 12-tracks that showcases the band's love of music.

Even though its been 50 years since the days of playing in clubs up and down the Eastern seaboard, Bloomfield, Haberstroh, Canedy and Sisson are bound by the same connective musical threads that inspired them back in high school. To have their music listened to and enjoyed.

"We didn't think there would ever be another album, and then 45 years after the first one, here it is," said Bloomfield. "We're not looking for money or fame or any of that. But we really are looking for people to tell us what song they liked. We want people to play it on their stations. We wan to get airplay and appear on song lists. That's what we're looking for. I just want the songs to be out there. And we want some of them to be remembered for a long time, if possible. We're very proud of the music."

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