{"id":22851,"date":"2022-05-03T05:30:56","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T09:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=22851"},"modified":"2022-05-04T07:57:15","modified_gmt":"2022-05-04T11:57:15","slug":"candleboxs-simple-lessons-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/05\/03\/candleboxs-simple-lessons-part-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Candlebox’s Simple Lessons, Part One"},"content":{"rendered":"

’90s hitmakers learn from experience and build on successes<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the life of a rock band, ups and downs are inevitable. High expectations are often placed on a band when it scores a monster hit with its debut. And if subsequent albums don\u2019t measure up, both the business and the listening public can lose interest. Often, that spells the end for a group. But Candlebox endured those peaks and valleys, took some time off to grow up and improve, and returned stronger than ever. With a healthy second wind, the Seattle group has been on a creative winning streak that\u2019s entering its 15th<\/sup> year. Candlebox is currently touring in support of Wolves<\/i>, its sixth album of new material.<\/p>\n

Candlebox came out of the Pacific Northwest in the early 1990s, a time when grunge rock was in its ascendancy. Bands like Green River and Alice in Chains were beginning to gain a foothold outside the region, and Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden and others wouldn\u2019t be far behind. But Candlebox would stand somewhat apart from their Northwest compatriots; their sound wasn\u2019t as deeply rooted in the then-trendy grunge style.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe were younger than the guys in Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam and Soundgarden,\u201d says Candlebox lead singer and founding member Kevin Martin. \u201cWe didn’t grow up in that [musical] community.\u201d He says that from the band\u2019s start, Candlebox drew more influence from blues-based rock \u2018n\u2019 roll of groups like The Who, Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin.<\/p>\n

But Martin and his bandmates weren\u2019t isolated from alternative rock. He recalls his older sister turning him on to bands like The Clash and Blondie when he was all of six years old. \u201cI grew up in San Antonio,\u201d he says. \u201cThere was a great punk movement going on there from 1978 all the way to about \u201886.\u201d When his family moved to Seattle in the mid \u201880s, Martin brought that background with him.<\/p>\n

And he was surprised by what he found. He says that the Seattle scene of that time \u201cwas so different. It was more inspired by the tuned-down, Black Sabbath dark side of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll.\u201d When he and three other musicians formed Candlebox in 1990, they followed a path that was informed by punk but with a firm foundation in the melodic side of things. \u201cWe didn\u2019t really connect with Seattle early on,\u201d he admits.<\/p>\n

Candlebox self-financed the recording of an EP, The Red Demo Tape<\/i>. \u201cIt cost us five grand,\u201d Martin recalls. And be believes that the comparatively raw recording is a true document of the band\u2019s sound at that point. \u201cWe were firing on all cylinders then,\u201d he says. In the space of a 12-hour \u201clock-in\u201d session, the band cut eight songs, including vocal overdubs and mixing. \u201cTwo of the songs didn\u2019t even have finished lyrics,\u201d he notes. He completed the lyrics during that session.<\/p>\n

Things took off quickly for Candlebox when the band was signed by Maverick Records, a brand-new label co-founded by Madonna. \u201cWe were the first band they signed,\u201d Martin says. It was a successful alliance. \u201cThey got lucky with us, and we with them,\u201d Martin observes. The runaway success of Candlebox\u2019s self-titled debut album in 1993 paved the way for Maverick to sign other up-and-coming artists like Alanis Morissette and The Deftones.<\/p>\n

And Maverick took a hands-off approach to the music, allowing Candlebox to make music the way they wanted to. The 4X Platinum-selling album spawned two hit singles, \u201cYou\u201d and \u201cFar Behind.\u201d Music videos for those tracks plus \u201cChange\u201d were popular on MTV as well. Martin says that he was thrilled at the band\u2019s success, but admits that he saw it coming. \u201cWe knew that if the songs were given the chance and there was an opportunity for people to hear them, they would take us where we wanted to go: to have a career and be a touring band.\u201d<\/p>\n

Click here to continue<\/a>…<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

’90s hitmakers learn from experience and build on successes In the life of a rock band, ups and downs are inevitable. High expectations are often placed on a band when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22855,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,62],"tags":[4815,4816],"class_list":["post-22851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-rawk","tag-candlebox","tag-kevin-martin","cat-41-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22851"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22891,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22851\/revisions\/22891"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}