Twin/Tone Records

Jeff Waryan / Figures

Jeff Waryan's guitar roots go way back. A toy Roy Rogers guitar at age five. Imitation electrics fashioned from plywood and rubber bands after the Beatles played Ed Sullivan. Lip syncing to "I WannaHold YourHand" in his Golden Valley, Minn., backyard. Jeff was always John. The neighbors threw money. Got his first real guitar for Christmas, 1965, a Montgomery Ward Emenee "Tiger," bowling ballbrown, battery operated. He was eight. Spent all his time in the basement, hour-upon-hour learning chords and recording feedback on a Dictaphone. The family noticed he was paler than the other kids. Sticky summer nights in left field swatting mosquitos and thinking of Jimi Hendrix solos. Jeff leads Figures.

Wrote his first song in sixth grade and joined his first real band two years later as a replacement for Bruce Allen, eventual lead guitarist for the Suburbs. Seth was the name. The band included Steve Almaas, of The Suicide Commandos (and leader of Beat Rodeo today), and Jay Peck, now also of Figures. The west Minneapolis suburbs would prove to be fertile ground, but Seth played mostly covers, Deep Purple, Shuggie Otis, Allman Brothers, Howlin' Wolf. The band brokeup when Jeff was in 11th grade. He became involved in theater, learned to play the congas, persevered with his Gibson Les Paul in the basement.

In 1979, Jeff joined Fingerprints, one of the original three Twin/Tone acts, playing on two 45s, and contributing three of his own songs to a Fingerprints album that was never released because of the band's breakup. He then joined (ex-Suicide Commando Chris Osgood's 55401 and eventually found himself in Curtiss A's band, playing lead on Curt's "DamageIs Done"LP. During this time he began to put together his own band and record the first Figures record, released in 1983 under his name.

Drummer Jay Peck, who had moved to NewYork to join Steve Almaas' Crackers, a band that also included Mitch Easter and became the first to record at Mitch's Drive-In Studio, returned to the Twin Cities to join Jeff's band. After the breakup of Crackers, he had played with transplanted - Minneapolitans The Wallets, Major Thinkers, and artist Robert Longo's Bang Electric Speak. In the winter of 1984-1985 he did some moonlighting with Let's Active, touring the U.S. as Sara Romweber's replacement.

Guitarist Steve Brantseg joined Figures in 1984, replacing Waryan's original guitar foil Tom Mason. A native of Sisseton, S.D. (Pop. 2,789), Brantseg's first guitar was also a Ward's "Tiger" (he slept with his), but the managed to pay eoough attention on the baseball field to become the starting center fielder on South Dakota's state high school baseball championship runners-up in 1975. He left South Dakota for Moorhead, Minn., and college in 1977, joined eventual Twin/Tone act the Phones, and moved to Minneapolis with the band in 1980.

Bassist Scott Hull is newest and youngest. He replaced ex-Fingerprint, ex-Osgood cohort (L73), Steve Fjelstad in September. Fjelstad, best known as engineer for manyTwin Cities releases, was forced to leave because of his ever-increasing studio commitments. He plays on all three Figures records. Scott, just a babe when Jeff first saw Hendrix on film from Woodstock, also grew up in Sisseton and became pals with Brantseg's younger brother Pat. He learned to play bass to Figures' second album and moved to Minneapolis in 1985 to attend the Minneapolis College of Art & Design.

-1986 Twin/Tone bio