| Hotstar of the Week: The Verve Pipe from Pollstar Magazine August 25, 1996 The members of the Michigan-based alternapop band The Verve Pipe have earned their medals as road warriors following four years of constant touring. This year, the band is on the road suporting its major label debut, Villains, on RCA Records at a pace that rivals many. Couple that with the fact that the band's two highly praised independent records have collectively sold more than 40,000 units, and one can almost see The Verve Pipe rise up from the solid foundation the band members worked so hard to build. The band's members - Brian Vander Ark (lead vocals/guitar), A.J. Dunning (guitar/vocals), Doug Corella (keyboards/percussion), Brad Vander Ark (bass/vocals) and Donny Brown (drums), came together out of two bands that had developed a relatively strong regional touring base. When the two separate groups formed The Verve Pipe, the best fot he bookings were preserved. "What we would do, instead of calling ourselves The Verve Pipe, we'd call ourselves [one of] the other bands and go there and play Verve Pipe material," Brown told Pollstar. "We did that for about the first month because we needed to generate some revenue. I know it's kind of a shyster thing to do, but that's what we did in order to sustain ourselves on the road." The band grew to the point where it could go up to six weeks without heading back to the well-paying comfort of homestate college town gigs. One member from each of the original bands, Brian Vander Ark from 'Johnny with an Eye' and Brown from 'Water 4 the Pool,' had a strong hand in the business, which they continued to exert when The Verve Pipe was formed. Brown said, in hindsight, both he and Vander Ark seemed to have a quest to do it the hard way. "At one time, we sent out like 100 of our CDs, not realizing that this isn't how you do it. It's better to make connections and thank God for people like Doug Buttleman." The Verve Pipe met manager Doug Buttleman (who is assisted on some projects by The Fitzgerald/Harley Company) after being entered into the Yamaha/Ticketmaster new band competition three years ago. The band's material was submitted without its knowledge but when it was accepted, the members figured,"Hey, it's a gig in Chicago. We'll go." The Verve Pipe won that regional competition and went on to win the national competition in '93. Brown said despite the fact that the band hooked up with Buttleman - who became a crucial piece of the puzzle - the contest was not really a highlight. "I play that down, not because it left a bitter taste in my mouth, [but] I know... that it turned into its own monster. It turned into more of a competitive thing between musicians instead of this natural growth of bringing music to people," he said. "It was good for us. [But] as a whole, I'm turned off by the notion of... a band verses another band. I think in its initial concept, it could be a very beautiful thing, but, you know, just like anything else, when it comes to money, it becomes a business and gets away from the music. And they want to win!" Even if a band doesn't enter a contest, the competition for dollars is always there, especially during the overloaded summer touring season. "There's a ton [of bands]," Brown said. "I just was thinking about this in such grandiose terms yesterday." He said The Verve Pipe has repeatedly stopped in cities where other alternative bands had just played the night before. "And everybody wants $15, at least, for a ticket. And these kids, they're only hearing one song from all these bands. It doesn't seem like a [real] rock 'n' roll band... There used to be Zeppelin, the Who and the Stones and the Beatles and bands like that. And it was like 'Oh my God. They're touring.'" Brown said one reason for the glut is that many bands are being hyped to a position they have yet to attain. "I hope it's not at the cost of a real career in the industry because there are a lot of bands that are casualties... and there are a lot of bands out there... that deserve a better chance." The Verve Pipe is not a hit-and-hype driven band so concertgoers are often surprised when they leave a show thinking it was one of the best they have seen in a long time. "So many times, I'm let down nowadays when ... I see these bands do things by rote or they just slap through the shit. I don't think our band adheres to either of those aesthetics. Maybe that's why it turns out [well] live," Brown said. So, is there anything promoters can do to foster change? "Is it in the nature of the business for these people to look at it in less than a dollar and cents manner?" Brown asked, knowing the answer. "I have to let them do what they do to put food on their table for their children... It's always been a struggle to have soemthing that is creative medium that people depend on for money... That's why the machine is built the way it is... I think the reason we get along so well with Doug Buttlemen is Doug Buttlemen knows how to be part of the machine but isn't." The Verve Pipe met its agent, Fred Bohlander of Monterey Peninsula Artists, through Buttlemen. "Doug has been an incredible manager in respect to helping us hook up with those kinds of things," Brown said. "We couldn't have a better booking agency than Monterey and a better man than Fred. Fred understands where we're at. Fred understands where we want to go and the road that we're choosing to get there. This band is very leery of putting itself in a position where it says, 'This is who we are. Take it or leave it.' And I think a lot of bands are doing that nowadays and just shooting themselves in the foot. We'd rather keep the work ethic and keep moving forward with this grand scheme." Moving forward, The Verve Pipe is supporting Seven Mary Three, followed by a jaunt to Europe. The band then realizes a dream as it hooks up with KISS before clubbing it through the States until the end of the year. |