Interview5

HARMONY FOR THE VERVE PIPE
by Marci Persky Kalamazoo Gazette
FRIDAY July 23-30 1999

More than three years after the release of their platinum-selling major label debut, members of The Verve Pipe aren't freshmen anymore.
     In fact, compared to the current kings and queens of pop music - 'N Sync, Brandy, Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys - Brian and Brad Vander Ark, AJ Dunning, Doug Corella and Donny Brown are more like the seniors on the block.
    On the brink of releasing its second album on RCA at the end of this month, the homegrown band is hoping its audience has matured right along with it. In fact, the guys are banking on it as they get ready to rebuild.
     "We're at the bottom rung again, working our way up to the second level," Vander Ark said. "Now I understand we're going to have to start over with every record for the rest of our lives."
     On a hotel pay phone in St. Louis, Vander Ark remembered how naive he was back in 1993, when FRIDAY readers voted his band The Best Pop/Rock Group in Kalamazoo.
     "We thought we were on top of the world and we had no clue what it was like out here," he recalled. "I thought you wrote a great song and they would play it on the radio."
     It didn't take long, however, for him to learn "that's not true at all."
     The Verve Pipe took the slow road to stardom, turning down several major label offers and opting to do everything its own way - releasing albums on its own label, LMNO Pop, entering various national competitions and building a grassroots fan base by touring.
     The band finally signed with RCA in 1995 and one year later "Villains" made its national debut.
     The "The Freshmen" was released as a single in 1997, The Verve Pipe was hailed as an overnight sensation.
     It was hard to turn on the radio anywhere in the country and not hear "The Freshmen." Paradies cropped up all over, and the band became a regular brunt of jokes and slams in Spin magazine.
     "This band during that period came close to breaking up," Vander Ark said. "There were problems over what the identity of the band was going to be. Did we have to pander to the 12-to-15-year-olds who bought 'Villains' because of 'The Freshmen?"
     "We finally decided we are not pandering to kids if we write the songs we want to write. They have to grow with you."
     Things were so rough around the end of the "Villains" tour Vander Ark thought about leaving the band.
     "Toward the end of the last tour, we were ready to strangle each other," he said. "I felt I was fed up and I was going to go off on my own. But the fact that the relationship is a little volatile is good."
     Nowadays, Vander Ark says, the relationship between the band members is one of healthy competition rather than the clash of egos it once threatened to be.
     He said he had to learn to give and take, especially when it came to drummer Donny Brown, a talented singer and songwriter in his own right. Before Verve Pipe, Brown wasa the leader of a popular East Lansing band, Water4thePool. When Water and Vander Ark's Johnny With an Eye merged in 1992, a certain amount of friction between the two leaders was inevitable.
     "We both wrote songs, and there was a struggle over what were the best songs," Vander Ark said. "In the end, it's subjective. I would argue 'I am the funnel because I'm the singer."
     But once he was able to stand back, Vander Ark said, he developed a new-found appreciation for the talents of his longtime friend and drummer.
     "Donny wrote three brilliant songs on this record, and I love the fact he took some of the pressure off of me. AJ added a song this time, too."
      The album was produced by Michael Beinhorn (Marilyn Manson, Hole, Soundgarden), to whom Vander Ark affectionately referred to as "an American treasure."
     But, Vander Ark conceded, although Beinhorn was brilliant in the studio, he was more than a little eccentric.
     "We had a hard relationship (with Beinhorn and RCA during the making of the second album)," Vander Ark said. "But because of that, the band's never been closer."
     "Now we can talk to each other about anything and nobody feels like they are walking on thin ice like a few years ago," he said.
     "Last night at Summerfest (in Milwaukee), AJ sat me down after the show and said, 'There was a lot of "I and me" when you were talking on the mic,' and I was like, you're right. I should have been saying 'WE love you. WE thank you.' There are just little things like that. We can talk to each other."
     For his part, Brown said, getting back out on the road has meant everything.
     "For the longest time, I've just wanted to have a gig," he said. "I grew up playing. You know, you go, you set up your drums and you play. But when you take so long to make an album and you're off the road for a while, it just feel foreign.
     "When we started our rehearsals for this tou, by the end of the week everybody in the band's mood had changed. We felt great because we were playing our instruments as a band again."
     The first single off the new album, "Hero," is already getting radio exposure, and as the release date for the album nears, the band is getting ready for the RCA publicity machine to crank into gear.
The label has made no secret of its plans to bring Brian Vander Ark to the forefront, following a similar marketing plan that has made Sugar Ray a household name.
     "I think RCA wants to put me out front so people will identify, 'Oh - he's in The Verve Pipe,' " Vander Ark said. "If they want me to do that, I will accept it and step out in front. But they have to realize after the first single, everyone in the band is going to step up with me."
     Vander ark said that, outside of the band's home state, it seems as if everyone has forgotten who makes up The Verve Pipe.
     "Michigan wouldn't understand because everywhere I go, people know who I am," he said. "But outside of Michigan, that's just not true."
     Although he' approaching the publicity plan with more than a little trepidation, Vander Ark said, his mates have been more supportive than he ever could have imagined.
     "Everybody knows it's a short-term goal...and it makes me love them even more."
     After all is said and done, Vander Ark predicts a bright future for The Verve Pipe - professionally and personally. Ask him to get serious for a minute, however, and he can't resist throwing in a joke.
     "First and foremost we are friends and we've been friends a long time," he said. "Donny and I have had the most volatile relationship, and honestly I love all these guys like brothers - except Brad.
     "There are no other musicians in the world I would rather play with, and that's the God's honest truth."