Mark Rogers
Photos by Tiffany Caldwell Photography
If you’ve visited the Delaware beaches since the early ‘90s, there’s a good chance you’ve been to a Love Seed Mama Jump show. The Dewey Beach-based band has become a household name for beach goers despite — or maybe because of — the fact that its name doesn’t necessarily roll off one’s tongue.
Perhaps that’s why most locals commonly refer to the band as simply Love Seed.
“We would have picked a better name if we had known we were going to be around for so long,” says bass player and co-founding member Pete Wiedmann, half-jokingly. When Love Seed formed, it did so “sort of informally,” Wiedmann admits, explaining that the band members “thought we were only going to be together for like a summer.”
Wiedmann says theories and legends about the origins of the band’s name are “probably a lot more interesting than the actual story about it.”
“Will thought of it while he was sitting on a lifeguard stand,” Wiedmann reveals, referencing guitarist and fellow band co-founder Will Stack. “We just needed a name to put on a marquee because we didn’t want to be just like ‘Will, Rick, Pete, and Brian.’”
It was “just kind of a jokey name,” he says, explaining that the rest of the band’s reaction was simply, “yeah, sure, whatever.”
Despite the lack of long-term planning at the start of it all, Love Seed is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, demonstrating a longevity that eludes most bands.
“It has oddly worked out for us,” the bass player quips.
Another thing that’s worked out well for Wiedmann is raising two sons, Liam and Conor, both of whom are musicians. In fact, Liam is now playing guitar with his father in Love Seed, having joined the band just over a year ago when it was looking for a guitarist.
“Luckily for me, I grew a guitar player,” Wiedmann says, adding that the 23-year-old guitarist has helped give the band “a shot in the arm” going into this anniversary year. And while Wiedmann says he has no plans to retire from the band anytime soon, he nods toward Conor and admits to “gearing him up to replace me eventually.”
Although Conor is not presently a member of Love Seed, the 20-year-old bass player sometimes sits in. Meanwhile, he keeps busy majoring in music at the University of Delaware and playing upright bass in the university’s jazz ensemble. Conor also serves as music director for the children’s program at the Milton Theatre.
There’s a fitting kind of magic when all three Wiedmanns get a chance to play on the same stage — particularly for a Love Seed show.
“Both of these kids wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the band,” Wiedmann says, elaborating that he met their mother at a Love Seed show.
Punk Rock Roots
When Love Seed Mama Jump first played, the line-up was Wiedmann on bass and vocals, Rick Arzt on vocals, Stack on rhythm guitar, Brian Gore on lead guitar, Paul Voshell on drums, and David James on percussion.
Before that, Wiedmann and Stack got their start in the late ‘80s playing original music in Newark punk band FVK/emg, which gained “some local notoriety” because of its fans’ practice of spray-painting “FVK” all across the state. This led to a small USA Today article, which Wiedmann says the band “proudly put in our press kit.”
FVK evolved into Carnal Ghia. The post-hardcore band recorded an EP with legendary producer Steve Albini, who worked with bands like Nirvana, The Pixies and The Jesus Lizard. Although the EP was never released, Carnal Ghia’s song “Raymond Listen” can be found on YouTube.
Around this time, Stack and Arzt were in an acoustic band in which they played “unorthodox” covers of songs by alternative bands like New Order and the Smiths. Thus, when Love Seed formed, its members were accustomed to playing both covers and originals.
The band had a rule: “If you do covers, you have to do your own spin on them,” Wiedmann says.
Many classic rock songs got the Love Seed treatment; but the band also played covers from more esoteric bands (Camper van Beethoven, anyone?). Despite the obscurity of some of their song choices, the fans loved the shows.
Drunk at the Stone Balloon
As the band grew in popularity, it decided to “work in a couple originals.” Wiedmann says that Love Seed slipped its songs “She Likes the Dead” and “Free” into the mix, without mentioning that they were originals. These songs quickly became fan favorites and staples in the band’s live shows.
“There’s a rush about taking a song from its acoustic, stripped-down beginning [to] a fully fleshed out song and then getting a positive response from the audience when you play it for them,” Wiedmann says, acknowledging that he sometimes misses playing Love Seed’s originals.
Wiedmann is particularly fond of the band’s first album, Drunk at the Stone Balloon, which was recorded live at the former Newark music venue and released in 1994.
“It absolutely captures the electricity and energy of the band and the audience in the early days,” Wiedmann says, calling it “a great time capsule of that period.”
The band got a chance to revisit the electricity and energy of that era at a sold-out April 2025 “Drunk at the Stone Balloon” showcase at The Queen in Wilmington.
“That was a great feeling playing those old songs for people who were totally psyched to hear them,” Wiedmann says. “It was also Liam’s first show as an official member of the band, so I find that to be a little fitting.”
The Next Generation
Liam came by his love of music naturally.
“[I remember] always having guitars around the house,” Liam says, recounting that he began to take music seriously after hearing a family friend play one of those guitars. He jokes that “it’s been downhill ever since.”
In addition to Love Seed, Liam also has his own cover band, the Liam Wiedmann Group, which, appropriately enough, is booked to play Wednesday nights at the Rudder this summer. He and his father also play with Brad Newsom and the Jagermintz the last Friday of every month at Coastal Taproom in Rehoboth.
If that’s not enough, Liam also fronts an original psychedelic funk band called Trouble at the Doormat, which sometimes features his brother, Conor.
Besides his “celebrity appearances” in Love Seed, Conor sometimes fills in with his father’s other band, Lyric Drive. Conor reveals that the bass was not always his instrument of choice. His father made him take piano lessons for a year, after which Conor would be permitted to play the drums. The younger Wiedmann matter-of-factly states “and now I’m a bass player.”
Last but not least, all three Wiedmanns have played with Electric Smoke, a band fronted by Pete’s brother Luke.
Wiedmann is clearly proud of his boys and their musical prowess, noting that both of them write and perform. He says it’s cool to see his sons growing as musicians, claiming their respective talents exceed his own. Returning the compliment, Liam calls his father “definitely the most energetic and full-sounding bassist I’ve ever played with.”
All the family connections prompt Wiedmann to describe Love Seed as “a legacy band.” He notes that Voshell’s father, Honey Voshell (a member of the 1950s rock and roll band The Honeycombs) has made guest appearances with Love Seed. Voshell’s son, Jackson, has done the same, following in his father’s footsteps as a drummer.
The Long Road
With the 35th anniversary fast approaching, Wiedmann considers himself “truly blessed” that Love Seed has been playing “for as long as we have [and that] people still enjoy seeing the band.”
“In all seriousness, we didn’t know where this thing was going and I don’t think any of us figured it would last this long,” Wiedmann explains. “The band has always had a life of its own and we’re just following wherever it leads us because it has led us down a lot of extraordinary paths.”
What’s been the secret to Love Seed’s longevity?
“Driving in separate cars to the gigs,” Wiedmann half jokes, adding that doing so does give band members “time to decompress and not be so reactionary [to any] drama that may have happened during the show.”
Wiedmann also credits the band’s first manager, Elvin Steinberg, with keeping the band going in the early days. And kudos are due for past Love Seed members, including Cliff Hillis, Mike Curry, and Montana Wildaxe’s Tim Kelly.
He also gives props to the Rusty Rudder:
“[It’s been] the keystone to our history and longevity.” Wiedmann says. “There’s just something special about coming to see us on the Rudder deck in the summer.”
– Love Seed’s 35th Anniversary Show will be Saturday, July 25, at The Rusty Rudder. The band plays there on the deck most Thursday nights during the Summer, and will also perform Saturday, August 1 at The Bottle & Cork and Saturday, August 15 at The Rudder.
