They're all early. Amazing because it's only 10 a.m., a god awful hour for a rock band to be doing anything but sleeping off last night's gig.
But these guys are in their 20s, too young to know any better, and even half awake they're way cool. They've ordered coffee at the Paradise Café, one of the places they have been known to hang out in Astoria, where two of them live. But they don't need a java jolt to shake, rattle and roll them awake.
That's because they're all pumped about their latest project -- a cd that is being released on their independent label, Brooklyn Heights-based Widow's Peak Records, and that is being produced by none other than their hero, legendary rock star Peter Frampton, for whom they were the opening band during his recent nationwide tour.
Meet, at this dissonant hour, the one and only Eric Stuart Band: Eric Stuart (songwriter extraordinaire, lead vocals, acoustic guitar), Bryan Gardenour (drums and percussion), Ben Mauro (guitar), and Mason Swearingen (bass and backup vocals).
They're not quite John, Paul, George and Ringo -- yet. But hey, they've been getting such rave reviews that with a little help from friends like Frampton they might just have a good shot at being household names soon.
The band's career is heating up already. It's single "One Good Reason," which debuted on the Internet, has been downloaded about 18,000 times and is getting airplay at 12 radio stations across the country, including Long Island's WBAB/102.3 FM; its new website, http://www.ericstuart.com, has received more than 130,000 hits; and the group has been making personal appearances at Virgin Megastores and Tower Records, which carry its first cd, also produced by Frampton.
And Stuart himself, the voice not only of the records but also of James and Brock on the animated cartoon TV series "Pokémon" and the spin-off movie that is due out around Thanksgiving, is so busy that he couldn't even make the interview at the café and had to be interviewed by phone between gigs the next day.
Stuart, of Brooklyn Heights, doesn't have quite as many stars in his eyes as the rest of the guys, but he does have high hopes that the work with Frampton will be a "stepping stone" in his career.
"I don't have to be a megastar," he says. "I want to be able to say that as a musician, I'm making a living playing what I want to play."
OK, no back to the Paradise Café, where we can ask all the really important questions.
Speaking of fame boys, did any of your female fans follow you here? (They're not stars yet and Stuartmania hasn't hit, so they get all embarrassed and laugh that one off.)
"I try to keep a low profile," deadpans Gardenour, of Astoria. "I was lucky to make it out here without a disguise."
"They won't leave me alone," Swearingen of Astoria, replies jokingly.
"I'm swatting them like flies," Gardenour adds and grins.
But when asked about their music, they get dead serious. Classic rock is making a comeback, and the band's rock -- rock that rocks with a younger roll -- is making everyone come back for more.
"People look at our material as being refreshing," Gardenour says. "Our stuff is a little unique. It is good music, good songwriting, solid songwriting. More than anything, we sound like classic rock but with an updated sound."
"But it's still rock and roll," Mauro of Jersey City, NJ chimes in.
The boys in the band say that touring with Frampton has been the highlight of their careers.
"It made me nervous," admits Mauro, "but it pushed me too."
Swearingen says the experience, while a "little intimidating," prepared them for the work on the cd, which will be recorded next month and will be released in the spring. "The summer of touring with Frampton was a big boost, I think we're right there," on the verge of stardom.
Mauro says the Frampton connection will make the band bigger than big. "Frampton is taking us under his wing as a band. There are a million bands, and for someone of this stature to do this, it is a huge thing."
Even before the Frampton tour, the band was attracting a lot of attention. After all, Stuart had opened for Ringo Starr and his All-Star Band and for Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jethro Tull, Julian Cope, Hall and Oates and Chicago. (Ringo has commented that Stuart has a good powerful voice; he's great," and Frampton has remarked that he's "a terrific writer and singer.")
"You never think that as a struggling musician that you'll have a chance to meet these legends, much less play with them," says Stuart in awe. "These are people I borrowed from musically. When people who are legends give you compliments, it means a lot."
In May, when the Eric Stuart Band played at the Seventh Annual Classic American Guitar Show at Five Towns College in Dix Hills, the fans lined up to buy their cd.
"They garnered one of the more enthusiastic receptions," says Larry Acunto, editor of 20th Century Guitar magazine, sponsor of the show. "We asked them to come back for the November show because they were so good."
As far as stardom is concerned, the boys are taking it seriously but not seriously enough to let it go to their heads. Fame, if it does come, they say, will make it possible for them to do what they do best: make their own kind of music.
"We're looking forward to being internationally accepted," says Gardenour. "We can realistically see that happening. We've been working all our lives in music, and it definitely is not an overnight thing."
As Mason reminds, "It's four guys who are very serious about what they are doing."

By: Nancy Ruhling