THE
Weathering the Changing Face of Rock Music
by Mike Mettler(Page 2)
AJ: I had always wanted to be a singer ever since I could remember. I wasn't really writing lyrics at that point; I wrote poetry. Anyway, I sucked at the audition, and they said no way, and the drummer tried to get my number...
MG: We had a singer who just wasn't right, but we didn't have much of a choice at the time. Like Thom said, the drummer we had exploded, and we were like, "This sucks." So I made Alison come and audition, because I knew she could do it.
AJ: Ironically, this was around the time that I said to myself, "I'm going to sing before I die, and it's going to happen within the next month." And then Michael called me at work and said, "Look, you've got two weeks to figure out if you've got the balls enough to come in here and try something or not." And I said, "Now or never."
MG: She came in, and it worked. We started writing stuff right away. And we tried out five drummers; I mean, I scoured the earth trying to find one--
TK: We even brought in a drum machine.
MG: We were trying to program things, and it was a nightmare. Thom eventually got Rob's number and he came in. And while I heard him warming up, I knew at that moment, that's the guy. It felt right. I knew I wanted to play with him and I knew he was right for us. I remember walking out into the hallway of our rehearsal space...
ROB FITZPATRICK: No, you had Alison before you had me.
TK: That's right.
AJ: You had a couple of singers in the band already.
TK: We had a couple of steady ones... there was one guy, once we had chosen the name The Flurries, who wanted out.
AJ: Although it [the name] was quite appropriate for him, I'd say.
UD: What were you looking for when your auditioned singers?
TK: Somebody with power and conviction. We weren't going to be feeding them lyrics, so somebody could come in with their own music or lyrics already written. They could throw whatever they wanted in there, as long as the thing gelled.
AJ: When I came in, I was petrified. I didn't know Tom, and there was another drummer there, not Rob.
AJ: Right. We had met there in '86. At the audition, I sang "Sweet Emotion," and that was all I could croak out. I had never even sung before.
UD: So why did you go to the audition?
AJ: I had always wanted to be a singer ever since I could remember. I wasn't really writing lyrics at that point; I wrote poetry. Anyway, I sucked at the audition, and they said no way, and the drummer tried to get my number...
MG: We had a singer who just wasn't right, but we didn't have much of a choice at the time. Like Thom said, the drummer we had exploded, and we were like, "This sucks." So I made Alison come and audition, because I knew she could do it.
AJ: Ironically, this was around the time that I said to myself, "I'm going to sing before I die, and it's going to happen within the next month." And then Michael called me at work and said, "Look, you've got two weeks to figure out if you've got the balls enough to come in here and try something or not." And I said, "Now or never."
MG: She came in, and it worked. We started writing stuff right away. And we tried out five drummers; I mean, I scoured the earth trying to find one--
TK: We even brought in a drum machine.
MG: We were trying to program things, and it was a nightmare. Thom eventually got Rob's number and he came in. And while I heard him warming up, I knew at that moment, that's the guy. It felt right. I knew I wanted to play with him and I knew he was right for us. I remember walking out into the hallway of our rehearsal space...
AJ: I followed him out there and his jaw was down at his knees...
MG: I was like, "That's the guy. He's got to play with us."
UD: Rob, how did you feel about it?
RF: Right off the bat I knew what I was getting into, having played with Thom previously. And I knew once I started jamming with Michael that it was great. It took me out of the musical slump I was in--going in and out of bands, not finding the right people myself--and I was like, "Thank God." Then I heard Alison do a couple of tunes and I realized that this was definitely going to be something really good. And so here we are.
UD: What was the time frame for this revelation?
RF: This lineup will have been together two years this December.
