Oleander: Why They're Here

By Jess Redmon

Oleander have landed onto the rock circuit in a major way with thebreakthrough single "Why I'm Here" and the stunning follow-up "I WalkAlone" from their debut album "February Son." The Sacramento basedband packs a lot of very viable and smart songwriting into their record andtheir live show is nothing short of breathtaking. Lead singer/guitarist ThomasFlowers recently sat down with Jess Redmon before a show on theircontinuing tour to discuss the band in general, criticism (even from that ofJNBC critic Matt Levine) and basically life in general.

JNBC: "Why I'm Here" is a huge rock hit. What was the process of gettinghere, signing to a major label, etc?

Thomas: Well, we started a band and broke up. Started another band,broke up. Started another band, broke up. Started another band and gotour guitarist, it broke up. Kept the guitarist , started another band, got Fredthe drummer and then it stayed together. Then we kept writing better andbetter songs and we met a handful of people in the industry that weregenuine enough to find some promise in us and cultivate that belief in ourown selves. Along the way we got our CD in the hands of a PD inSacramento named Curtis Johnson who liked a track on the CD so muchthat he asked us he could play it on the radio and we said of course. Afterthat, it was kind of a snowball effect and things moved in our direction.

JNBC: How have the songs progressed?

Thomas: Well it's obviously had a natural progression. When we startedthis band, my songwriting skills were at a much more novice level. Justdifferent tastes and influences all came together to a point today versus thenI think the skill level has taken a major plateau step in the right direction.

JNBC: How did "Why I'm Here" come about?

Thomas: I was pretty much living in a guy's garage and outside askingmyself why I'm here, I realized why I was there. Because of the relationshipsI was having and the deterioration within those relationships via some ofthose choices I made.When I was sitting around with nothing to do, but aguitar and no one to talk to, but that guitar, it was just kind of my responseto that guitar. It's a wonderful song for me to be able to look back on everytime I play it and realize that it's not a place I want to be at ever again

JNBC: What inspires you lyrically, conceptually, sparks you emotionally?

Thomas: Well from a lyrical content perspective. There's two types oflyricists. There's people that are poets that sit down and write exactly,precisely every word that they're intending to sing or say. I'm not one ofthose, I'm generally the kind of person who does a lot of spontaneousreflection during practices and little by little discovers what's trying to get myattention. For a long time it's just been reflections on the inner workings ofmy life, the relationships that I've had, the dysfunction and what not. At thispoint, lyrical content is basically inspired by the life and circumstances thatI've been enjoying and suffering from.

JNBC: How did you guys come up with the title "February Son" for therecord?

Thomas: Well, we were struggling for an album title for months and wereally only had one idea until someone had kicked around the possibility ofthe idea of using an old song from an old band's title and "February Son"was a song that I had written about my little brother who had passed awaythat was born in February. We decided there was a story behind it becauseDoug's song was born in February, my brother who passed away was bornin February and the album was coming out in February. It had a coolness toit because of the depth of the fabric.

JNBC: What are some of your favorite songs on the album and why?

Thomas: I think for me, "Never Again" is the favorite of mine. To my ear,it's a beautifully sounding gem, but if you want to put my existence in a nutshell, it's everything that I am and everywhere that I'm going.

JNBC: Where do you think you guys are going?

Thomas: That's up to you, that's up to the public. I think we were given thisopportunity because there's something really big to come from it and I thinkto an extent it depends on ourselves to keep it together. The level of successis completely dependent on the public's perception and consumption of whatwe're bringing to them. We'd like to be at the top of the world, or at leastproviding for our families. The reality of the situation is that we won't knowand we won't know until we're there.

JNBC: What kind of stuff do you guys listen to?

Thomas: I have to be honest with you, I don't listen to a lot of music. A fewyears ago I had to stop listening to music because it created an atmosphereof disenjoyment for me. Everything I heard I had to analyze and critique it tomy band. Since I've been listening to music a little bit more, and appreciatingit more, the two albums I love the most are Elliott Smith's "Either/Or" album,which is just tailor made for me, and on a more mainstream scene the ThirdEye Blind album is probably my favorite album of the year. I don't reallylisten to much, a lot of sports radio.

JNBC: Do you guys write stuff on the road?

Thomas: No. I have such a back catalog of songs I've written over the lastcouple years, I'm more interested in getting together and producing theresults of some of those things. We're new to the road and we're learninghow to find time to do all kinds of things. Right now we're trying to learnhow to unpack our clothes.

JNBC: How would you describe your live set?

Thomas: One of our strongest points has been that we're a very good liveband. To the general public who come out to shows, I think we're a lotbetter than we give ourselves credit. We know when we're not shining andwe struggle with that sometimes and it all begins and ends with what we doon stage. We definitely translate the songs to a level if you like the songs,you're going to walk away touched.

JNBC: When you're on stage singing songs from when you were reallydepressed or really down low, do you feel that coming back?

Thomas: Absolutely, every time I sing those songs I relive my past, but Irelive it in a different portion of my person. When I'm on stage, there's noother place. It's like an undefined high, there's nothing in the world like beingin front of 1 person or 22,000 people and sharing with them. When I'm onstage, I'm in a state of joy and I'm trying to bridge a gap between me andthe audience and entertain them. I feel the impact of it, but mostly I feelsomething completely different. It's hard to describe.

JNBC: For all the kids who hear Oleander on the radio, what would youlike them to know?

Thomas: Life is difficult enough to get through as it is, but sometimes peopleoffer the opportunity for people to understand that they don't have to docertain things in their lives. They don't have to touch a pot of boiling water toknow they're going to get their hands burn. If I could help anybody to getthrough a day a little bit easier because they feel like they have somebodythat understands what they're going to, that would be the kind of situationthat I would love for us to be able to present. We're not Motley Crue, we'reOleander and we might be very different and yet very not different from thetypical musicians that blow through your town or blow over your airwaves.There's a genuineness to us that I think if you take the time to get to knowus, you'll dig and you'll be a friend. It may not be very rock n' roll to not bethe Motley Crue of the industry, but for us there's no other way. I could sithere and bull shit the hell out of you and say that for us it's all about fuckingoff, drugs, rock n' roll and that shit, but it's not for us anymore. We're notabout to crusade, but I do think there's a very rock n' roll aspect to breakingaway of the pack and saying that ain't me. I think that's another importantthing that we know about ourselves that a lot of people might not. Image isthe most important thing to marketing people, but who you are when you gohome and get into bed is an image that far transcends what people want tomanipulate for public consumption. Being cool starts with you and it endswith you.

Godsmack: The Next...WhateverBy Jess Redmon

Godsmack has literally slapped the rock world across the face with theirsmash hit single, "Whatever." That tightly wound rock number is just thebeginning of what the world will hear from Godsmack on their self-titleddebut album. JNBC recently sat down lead singer Sully and the rest of thecrew to find out who exactly Godsmack is and to introduce you to one ofthe bands who will be making a profound impact in 1999 and beyond.

JNBC: What is "Whatever" about?

Sully: It's really not anything fancy. Most of the record was written at a timewhen I was going through a really fucked up relationship, so like I had somereally bad lows going on in my life, a lot of the record was written duringthat time. "Whatever" was written after the record was written. If you findthe independent CD, you'll see that it's the same CD that we weredistributing on our own without "Whatever" on it, different art work. Sowhen the label picked us up, we just kind of remastered it, threw some newart work on it and put "Whatever" on it because we had recorded that lateron for a compilation record. The compilation record was like older bands,older songs, it was like a dated thing, so we felt really strong about this newfresh song we had. We didn't put it on the compilation, but when we getsigned, the label liked the song so much because it was the song that wasworking on the radio for us and selling the records, we decided to add it tothe record. It was really meant to be written for the next record, but as itturns out we used it for this record. To wrap it up, it was like me kind ofsaying at the end of like feeling like shit about this thing that I went through.Basically just saying I'm all set now, doing better than I was when I was withyou anyway, so fuck off.

JNBC: Where did the name Godsmack come from?

Sully: The name came from us being at rehearsal one day and the drummerwe had before came into rehearsal with a big cold sore on his lips and wehad to do photos that day. I was breaking his balls, saying "you shouldn't besucking guy's dick, kissing guys." I was like breaking hits nuts about it andthe thing was he never retaliated, he just kind of dealt with it. But anyways,the next day I came to rehearsal and I had a cold sore on my lip, the samespot, the same size and Tony was like, "see god smacked you for breakingJoe's balls." We were aware that it was an Alice In Chains song, but we feltit came up so uniquely, we were like we'll just deal with it. It's like instantkarma, what comes around goes around. Like if I was to make fun ofsomeone for their hair falling out and the next day my hair started to fallingout, that's a godsmack.

JNBC: Where did some of the soundclips come from like in "Moon Baby"?

Sully: I don't know what you've heard, there's been a lot pulled off it sincethen because of a lot of possible lawsuits and shit like that. The very introwas like a mixture of a bunch of different things I'd seen on tv,documentaries and stuff like that about the moon. One of them was from ashow called "Forces Beyond" with Nick Mancuso, or something like that.Towards the end, if you have the CD with samples at the end, that's GaryOldman from a movie called "Murder In The First." It turned out wecouldn't get Gary Oldman's permission, so we eventually had to pull it off.So, if you go buy a record right now that just came from the label thosesamples won't be at the end anymore, it sucks.

JNBC: What are you guys looking at possible singles?

Sully: "Keep Away" or "Moon Baby," one of those two is going to be next,hopefully both of them. "Voodoo" will be a single eventually, but we have toestablish to the public that we're a hard rock band first, we don't want tothrow out the wrong impression too early and attract the wrong crowd.We're hoping that will be an ace in the hole for us too.

JNBC: In producing the record yourself, did it make you feel like you gotthe sound you wanted?

Sully: Yeah, I guess for the most part, I was happy with it, I'm still happywith it. I worked with a guy named Andrew Murdoch and he was just reallygood at twisting the knobs and getting the right sounds out. For a recordthat we recorded for $2600 I can't complain, I think it sounds pretty damngood. I would like to work with some producers in the future and I wouldlike to experiment, go for some bigger, thicker sound and stuff like that. Forwhat we did on our own, I think it came out really good.

JNBC: Favorite songs on the album?

Sully: My favorite song is...I'm partial to "Situation" and "Voodoo."

JNBC: Is it because they mean something to you?

Sully: Not really. I just love the vibe of "Voodoo" and in "Situation" its gotlike a little bit of everything about what Godsmack's about. It has its trippyparts, it has its grunge part, it has its mental part. It's just like a little bit ofeverything I like about Godsmack in that one song.

JNBC: What are you guys listening to?

Sully: I'm digging a band called Dead Can Dance, I've been listening tothem for a while. I like them a lot, different, mellows me out, goodmeditation music, that kind of stuff. We all kind of listen to the same stuff,Tool, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Alice In Chains, Zeppelin. We all have likepersonal favorites, but in general, for current modern music, we all dig thesame shit.

JNBC: What would you guys think about joining Family Values next year?

Sully: Of course I would do it. To us that's just a treat. Eventually headliningour own gigs is what we should be doing, because it's always morecomfortable when it's your own show. You get to take your time withsoundcheck, set up your own stage and it's your thing. But, it's also a treatwhen you get to tour with a band you really like. We went out withSevendust for a while because we all really like Sevendust and that was sofun because we all love Sevendust. It would be the same thing if we wentout with Korn, Limp Bizkit, Tool or whoever, to me it wouldn't be so muchlike we're rock stars because we're playing arenas, more like we're havingfun playing with a band we like that we listen to all the time anyway.

JNBC: How was the "Whatever" video?

Sully: To be honest with you, it wasn't meant to be a shoot. We really didn'tpay much attention to it. It was supposed to be marketed for promotion inEurope, we really weren't aware that it was going to be our first video. Wejust played our show, they caught what they caught on tape and put ittogether, wasn't like a big stressful situation. There's a lot of stations all overit, but it's not all over MTV yet. There's like 30, 40 stations across thecountry playing it. It's a good video, but not a really visual video, a lot ofquick edits. If we start selling enough records, they'll start playing it.

JNBC: What's the story behind "Voodoo"?

Sully: It was just inspired by that movie "Serpent and the Rainbow." Youshould rent it, it's a good movie. It's about a guy who gets caught up on thisisland with all this voodoo and weird shit going on and he has theopportunity to leave, but yet he keeps coming back. It's really freaky, it's agood movie though. All kinds of weird shit happens to him. I just thought itwas a cool movie, really wild that he had the opportunity to leave, but hewould come back and end up in a whole bunch more shit. It was just kindof inspired by that, you'll understand that song a lot better if you see themovie.

JNBC: What's your voodoo?

Sully: Girls and this fucking cold I can't get rid of.

JNBC: What is your tattoo?

Sully: It's a star, a symbol. My religion is Wicka - earth, air, fire, water.

JNBC: How do you explain Wicka?

Sully: It's just a religion, an old ancient religion that was around way beforeChristianity. It's just basically the practice of the earth, the believe in theuniverse, karma, natural healing products like herbs, plants and roots andstuff like that. It's what witches did. It's just something I stumbled on readingbooks from an ex-girlfriend of mine and it kind of fit the picture in my life. Ifollowed it, took some courses. It's just something I've always believed it.

JNBC: How has it changed your life, perspective?

Sully: It changed mine a lot because when I really started getting into it, itwas when I was doing a lot of writing with the record and stuff. I was in areally weird depression and it kind of picked me up out of a low in my life. Itwas the right time for me to discover it. It made me feel better aboutbelieving in God, where Christianity was a lot of guilt involved. It's almostlike they scare you to believing into god because if you don't you're going togo to hell, I think that's a good way for people to look at it. It fit the picturefor me.

JNBC: I think Alanis Morissette is into that...

Sully: Good, maybe I can get into bed with her...hehe

JNBC: When you're on stage singing the songs, feeling it again, does it comeback?

Sully: Yeah, sometimes. It's weird, I go in and out of things like that.Sometimes I'm really into it and other times I just go through the motions. Alot of it depends on what I'm getting from other people. When I see peoplereally getting into what they've heard and what they've felt out for the recordand they're there for us singing the words, I know it's meaning something tothem.

JNBC: Final words...

Sully: Buy the record, check out the show.

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