Becoming a Priority

The Rise and Fall of The Verve Pipe Part Four

The first A&R men to visit the band were less than enthusiastic. In fact, they seemed more intent on name dropping to impress the midwestern boys who had never seen NYC south of 42nd street. Capital Records, RCA Records, and Atlantic Records all sent reps to Michigan to see a show. I don’t remember one bad show in the bunch, and still, each of them passed. As the buzz about the band grew a little louder in 1993 and 1994, a few of them returned, this time with different reps.


Brian Malouf from RCA showed up at Club Soda, in Kalamazoo, MI. He was the second rep from RCA that came to see us. Club Soda was a dive bar, great for cheap drinks and a variety of music every night. We had established one hell of a following in Kalamazoo, having already played the State Theater a few times. We booked this night in a addition to a sold out night at the theater.

I could have cared less about Brian Malouf. He was just another rep that was coming out to name drop, then pass on us. I was more determined to continue selling albums on our own. We were running a very successful business, and I didn’t feel like we needed a record label to tell us what to record, and how to record it.

So Brian came out and introduced himself before the show. He was dressed immaculately, casual and cool. He held his cards close to his chest, I thought. He wasn’t dropping names. He just wanted to say hello, and we figured that he would slip out after the show (or during), and we would never see him again.

After a rollicking set, we went backstage to find him there, waiting. He immediately went over the “setlist” he had made. Not knowing the names of the songs, he guessed the correct titles, and scratched them onto a napkin.

“Penny Is Poison is a great song, but I think you need a bridge for that. I didn’t care for the middle section of Drive You Wild (Mild), but I thought that it was hooky none-the-less.” He continued with his notes. I was more interested in meeting some girls before they were all kicked out of the club. I left Brian with Donny and the rest of the boys, got a drink and mingled.

Donny gave Brian our latest cassette, a demo of 4 songs that we had recorded up in Milwaukee.

Three days later, Brian Malouf called me, and said that there was something magic in the song Photograph. “There’s something there. I don’t know what it is yet, but it’s worth looking into.” And that was about it. That would turn out to be the beginning of a relationship with RCA. Brian came out to see the band one more time with his boss, and the deal seemed done.

Once Atlantic Records got wind that Brian was interested, they became interested. Atlantic had just started up an alternative label called Lava Records, and were interested in having us joining the ranks of numerous unknown bands, including Matchbox Twenty. The president himself got my home number and called to warn me not to sign with RCA. “They don’t have any acts to speak of. ZZ Top. That’s it. You’ll be making a mistake. We’ll make you a priority.” I wasn’t that interested on Atlantic. They had come to see us twice and passed both times. However, Atlantic getting involved now was the best thing that could happen. There is fierce competition in the record business, and once Brian Malouf caught wind of Atlantic sniffing around, there was an urgency to get us signed. Knowing this, our price went up. We were now involved in a bidding war. It was a win-win situation for our band.

We signed the deal in early 1995. It was very lucrative. We all quit our day jobs. We had no idea what to expect. We had no idea what it meant to be a priority. We feared that RCA had no one else on their label, other than a no-named act called Dave Matthews, popular with the jam band crowd. Those people weren’t our people. We were a rock band. How could we succeed on a label who’s only other rock act was ZZ Top? As it turned out, being one of the first alternative bands to sign with RCA was the best thing that could ever happen to us. We were it. The one and only. We were going to be given top priority. We were going to record with the “great” Jerry Harrison, of The Talking Heads. We were going to record the album in San Francisco. The album would have 5 singles on it. All I had to do was relax, and let things happen. The machine was in place.

Skylarking

The Rise and Fall of The Verve Pipe Part Three

The success of the follow-up to The Verve Pipe’s I’ve Suffered A head Injury depended upon the music, as it should. “The Freshmen” (acoustic version) was a cult fan favorite, and something on the new album would have to touch people in a similar way.

I was listening to a lot of XTC back then. I was playing catch up to the rest of the band, who were absolute freaks about them. Everyone felt like XTC was the Beatles, if they had stayed together. “Dear God” was the first song that I had heard by them:

Dear God, Hope you got the letter, and I pray you can make it better down here.
I don’t mean a big reduction in the price of beer, but all the people that you made in your image,
See them starving on their feet, ’cause they don’t get enough to eat
From God

Dear God, sorry to disturb you, but I feel that I should be heard loud and clear.
We all need a big reduction in amount of tears, And all the people that you made in your image,
See them fighting in the street, ’cause they can’t make opinions meet,
About God,
I can’t believe in you

Did you make disease, and the diamond blue?
Did you make mankind after we made you?
And the devil too!

Dear God, don’t know if you noticed, but your name is on a lot of quotes in this book.
Us crazy humans wrote it, you should take a look, and all the people that you made in your image,
Still believing that junk is true. Well I know it ain’t and so do you,
Dear God

I won’t believe in heaven and hell. No saints, no sinners,
No Devil as well. No pearly gates, no thorny crown.
You’re always letting us humans down.
The wars you bring, the babes you drown. Those lost at sea and never found,
And it’s the same the whole world ’round. The hurt I see helps to compound,
that the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, Is just somebody’s unholy hoax,
And if you’re up there you’ll perceive, That my heart’s here upon my sleeve.
If there’s one thing I don’t believe in…It’s you,
Dear God.

- By Andy Partridge, From the XTC album Skylarking

That was it for me - I was hooked. I was thrilled to know that there was an entire back catalog of XTC songs to discover. I spent 1992 and 1993 listening to these albums obsessively. Skylarking was the album that had the most impact, I think. the segues from song to song, biting lyrics and harmonies had the most influence on what would be The Verve Pipe’s follow-up album, Pop Smear.

Brian Stout had to be let go, mostly for lack of work ethic. We had to work hard to get to the next level, and we needed all hands on deck to do so. Brian was a great guitarist, a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants soloist, but not very productive on the business side. He would say things like, “Me listening to CDs to learn more about music is just as important as you guys hanging up fliers for the shows.”

Enter A.J. Dunning, who’s work ethic may not have been that much stronger than Brian’s. His playing, however, was far superior. We felt it the first time that we rehearsed with him. He contributed great moments on Pop Smear, and live, people were amazed at his soloing ability, and the fact that he would smoke cigarettes on stage while playing, taking a drag between beats. It was all coming together. Great harmonies, great musicianship and top-notch writing.

At the album release party for Pop Smear, we made an ambitious move, and booked the State Theater in Kalamazoo, MI. 1500 seats would prove to be too many to fill, but even at 600 or 700 people, it looked full, and we sold an unbelievable 500 CDs. It was a terrific show, one of our best. We had a small string section and horns. We played for 2 hours, and gave everyone something to remember that night. We closed it with a crowd sing along to “The Freshmen.” This was our moment, I felt. The moment where we left the local scene behind, and were about to do great things. Finding a record label to take us to the next level was the next step. Frustratingly, It proved to be much harder than any of us had anticipated.

To Check out XTC: Dear God Video