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Published on 02/23/1998 All articles from this issue

LAHS graduate gets a job playing in a rock 'n' roll band

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By Linda Taaffe

Town Crier Staff Writer

Alumni profile

Chances are that anyone across the country who has tuned into a modern rock station this past winter has heard Los Altos High graduate Geoff Stanfield playing his bass with the rock quartet Black Lab.

Stanfield has come a long way since performing his first concert at Egan Intermediate School in the mid-1980s when he was a student there. Since releasing the debut album "Your Body Over Me" on Geffen Records last October, Black Lab has been selling out tour stops across the country, including a show at the Edge in Palo Alto last month.

"It's still strange to come out and see a line around the block. It's even more bizarre to hear people singing our songs," said Stanfield during a telephone interview from his Palo Alto home. "This has been a goal since I was a little kid. It's not quite as glamorous and it's a lot of work, but I'm not complaining. I'm living my dream."

Stanfield said his family's move to Los Altos followed by a knee injury helped launch his musical interest 20 years ago. As a surfer from Santa Barbara, Stanfield said he didn't initially fit in at Egan. A long recuperation from knee surgery further isolated him, he said.

"I was out of school, I couldn't walk and I had nothing else to do. I borrowed a guitar from a friend and just sat around and learned how to play," he said.

Stanfield continued to play music after he returned to school, including a stint in the school jazz band and in his own rock bands, until he graduated from Los Altos High in 1987.

Stanfield went to the Berkelee School of Music in Boston for two years before returning to the Bay Area to "get into the local scene," he said. Stanfield played jazz gigs in the area and later joined Pieces of Lisa and Asthma.

"I did anything not to have a real job. I was totally hustling trying to make ends meet," he said.

Stanfield joined Black Lab singer Paul Durham and guitarist Michael Belfer in 1996 and "just hit it off," he said.

Drummer Bryan Head joined the band a year later.

Durham said Stanfield "was the first person who played the way I wanted to sing."

In less than a year, Black Lab had signed with Geffen, a major record label.

When asked if he expected such sudden success, Stanfield said, "It's unusual for four people no one had ever heard of to get signed so quickly, but we're all 'green' and have worked hard. It was just the right time for all of us."

Black Lab is scheduled to return to the Edge March 30. For more information, call 324-EDGE.