HEADING FOR THE SUN | BEING HERE | CREATING AN IMAGE | COVERING PEARL JAM
BECOMING PART OF SOMETHING
In a perfect world, once you assemble your team, everything falls into place. In the real world, three years pass and Harwell still fixes Harleys, Coleman still paints houses, Camp and De Lisle still play their cover band to make the rent.
During that time Smash Mouth worked on material at every dive between here and San Francisco. With Harwell pushing to market something, the band used rent money to record demo tapes for record companies. They'd pack the tape in an envelope and drop it in the mail box.
They never heard back.
Then they decided that if record companies could hear them live it would help. They played in L.A. whenever they could get a gig, driving down in a van belonging to Camp's dad. Ten times they landed spots in L.A. showcases--with talent scouts from record companies in the audience.
Playing showcases offered something more than just $400 and a percentage of the bar. Showcases were about hope. Maybe this time someone would think that the Smash Mouth sound could be the next big thing. Maybe the guys would drive home with a record deal. Shoot, maybe they'd fly--first class.
Camp's diary, 2/19/97: Best Western--Hollywood. Drove down in record time and sound-checked....I'm trying to keep my anxiety in check about the gig cuz so many "important" people are supposed to be there. F--- it! Who f----in gives a hell?! Just play the best ya can. The show must go bad. OK, so maybe we don't know our exact demographic, don't know if I'm a funk, punk, ska, jazz, rock, surf, disco or metal dude anymore. I dig something about all music. There should be no barriers.....Tell you what, I'll write more after we feed ourselves to the dogs. Bye.
2/19/97 (after the show): I F---ING SUCKED!
No contracts, no deals, just another seven-hour drive home on the I-15 with only self-doubts and shattered egos to keep them company.
"I'd be sitting there thinking, 'Why do we keep doing this to ourselves?'" Camp says.
That's a complex question. Of course
there were little payoffs, but the thrill of hearing "Nervous in the Alley"--about
homeless teens on North First Street--played on KOME last year didn't balance
the hundreds of disappointments. And the excitement of knowing you're
playing at the Roxy on the same stage where jim Morrison threw up lasts
only so long.
| Something deeper than a desire for fame
kept them going. They simply couldn't stop until they knew they had
given all they had, a drive Harwell and Camp exists in them because they
both lost their mothers to cancer in 1989.
"Losing my mom makes me want things more," Harwell says, "because I know how quickly they can be taken away. You can't sit and wait because your time might be up." |
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"Just live while you're alive," Camp says. "My mom knew she was dying so she did everything she wanted to do--she went to Australia, then Fiji. She wore herself out and then she checked into a hospital and never checked out."
Camp's diary, 2/24/97 (after a horrible L.A. showcase): I'm contemplating my next move, thinking about doing a side thing by myself. I'm going to get back into what my friends have been telling me to do for years--write my melodic, surfy pop stuff, sing them, teach them to people who don't have an opinion and play in town and around a lot, get a following by word-of-mouth and college radio and not give a f--- about the industry. I'll be happy...my band mates will be pissed. I'm not quitting Smash Mouth, just gathering my sanity back up off the practice room floor, the waiting rooms of record company offices and the sidewalks of Hollywood.
In those times when they felt like quitting,
Coleman held them together--he got them into practice, then kept them moving
and focused with his drumming. All his life Coleman felt abandoned
by his birth mother; he says this kept him from feeling as if he belonged
in the family that adopted him as an infant. Now he had this band
family and he loved the feeling of belonging. He gave up drinking
and pills, which he had abused for years, so he could experience this great
new feeling. He wasn't about to let it go.
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"Music was the only thing I had," Coleman says. "It's not just about being in a band, it's more than that. It's about being a part of something and that's the most important thing to me because I didn't feel like a part of anything growing up. I wanted to be part of a band, and I'll do whatever it takes." |