The Calling: Could it be any harder ?
By Franklin Cumberpatch
The Calling are barely in their twenties and only on their first record, but the band, who are currently enjoying chart success with Wherever You Will Go, have seen more than their share of woes. Narrowly avoiding becoming the new Hanson, and
enduring a five-year wait to make an album, the Los Angeles quintet survived music label hell to craft the inspirational Camino Palmero from over 100 songs. With Wherever You Will Go striking the right chord at last, singer Alex Band and guitarist Aaron Kamin told VH1 how to sack a 50-year-old drummer, survive playing in raw sewage, and become the next Pearl Jam.
VH1: You guys have an interesting story about how you first met.
Alex Band: About six years ago Aaron was dating my sister. I was 15 and he was almost 20. We both grew up playing music, but never with anybody else. We started writing together and playing on family vacations.
Aaron Kamin: We put together a band with some older musicians, so we called ourselves Generation Gap. Our drummer was in his late 50s. We also had a sax player who was our age. We made a demo at Alexs uncles house. Down the street lived Ron Fair, who at the time was vice president of A&R at RCA Records. Once a week for four months we dropped a demo in his mailbox. I think the one that made it into his hands was the one where we taped the demo tape [right] to his mail.
Alex: He listened to it and wanted to sign us right away. But years passed where we were signed to a major label, unable to make a record. So we wrote a lot. It wasnt until a year and a half ago that we finally made things happen.
VH1: How did Generation Gap become the Calling?
Alex: My voice hadnt changed yet and I sounded like a chick, so Generation Gap was kind of poppy. The first thing RCA said was, Get rid of the older guys. I left it up to Aaron.
Aaron: We had to call the drummer up. We said, Look, its a long road ahead. Were just beginning and have time on our side. You have a mortgage and a family...
Alex: We tried to make it sound like he was going to have to leave behind a family of grandkids to tour the world. But he said, Eff my family. I have a failing marriage. My grandkids hate me and Im coming with you. It was hard to get rid of him.
VH1: Where did the name come from?
Alex: While we were fighting with RCA to make a record, we enlisted friends of ours into the band and had a bunch of different names. Once the album was done, it was time to get the right band and name. Aaron told our A&R guy, Its our calling to do this. No matter what has been thrown our way, were still doing what we want to do. So why not name the band the Calling? Lo and behold it wasnt taken.
VH1: So when you signed your deal, was there pressure to become something you werent?
Alex: Ron Fair saw the potential early, but for a while he took us in the wrong direction. He wanted us to be like Hanson.
Aaron: Weve actually been around since before Hanson. I remember Ron saying, Theres this new band called Hanson. Theyre three brothers and theyre young. You guys are that young. So..."
VH1: While you were waiting to make a record you knocked out over 100 songs?
Aaron: Not by choice!
Alex: During those five years we were signed there were two years where it was like, You guys can make a record but you dont have the material. We locked ourselves in Aarons parents garage with the ProTools and made demo after demo of all these songs to give to the record company. [We kept on asking ourselves] Is this a hit? The answer would be No. In that period, Wherever You Will Go and the rest of the record was written, and passed over. Maybe its because we grew up with RCA, but they werent seeing how good the song was.
VH1: But you guys first performed Wherever You Will Go way back in 2000 in the movie Coyote Ugly.
Alex: That turned things around. Somebody at Disney heard the demo and loved the song, loved the band - which was just me and Aaron and some friends. It wasnt the Calling. They wanted us in that movie. We shot Coyote Ugly and hadnt made the record yet. The movie came out a year later, but we still hadnt made a record!
VH1: Wherever You Will Go took on a different life since September 11. What inspired the song?
Aaron: We were trapped in writing and waiting mode. Then I had a good friend of our family pass away. At the funeral I met a man whose wife had died. I put myself in his shoes for a moment, and thought about losing somebody who you did everything with for last 50 years.
Alex: September 11 was the first day of our tour, which made it all very interesting. But people are listening to the lyrics now and saying, Wow, I can relate to this because of everythings that happened.
VH1: Where did you shoot the Wherever... video?
Alex: The video was shot in the L.A. river, which is actually the L.A. sewer. It was 24 hours of sloshing around in sewage and playing - everyone slipping and falling on their butt. There were holes in the sides of the walls where homeless people would stick their faces out and watch. It was strange, but the sewer basin had a cool vibe.
VH1: What is the vibe of the album?
Aaron: I hope it comes across as transcendent of everything - age, nationality, race, and religion.
Alex: There are a lot of religious elements. Not that were a Christian rock band. Were both pretty much Jewish. But were finding what we believe in and writing about that. Weve had to grow up so quickly. Aaron was pre-med at UCLA at 19. I was in 10th grade. RCA was like, You guys cant be in school. Youre going on tour. So we stopped everything. Everyone around us, our friends and everything, was in the music industry. We grew up fast, learning different things and thats on the record. But overall each song has something people can relate to.
VH1: There seem to be overt sexuality references in Stigmatized.
Alex: Its really about being outcast and not being able to live your life normally because youre different.
Aaron: We were talking about gay marriages with someone who helped write some of the song. One of the reasons why theyre so few and far between, is because theyre looked on as so bizarre. I was also thinking about interracial or interfaith relationships.
Alex: Most of the songs on Camino Palmero revolve around faith, and being outcast for your beliefs.
VH1: Who did you listen to when you were growing up?
Aaron: I was most heavily influenced by the things my dad would recommend. James Taylor and Steely Dan and Fleetwood Mac. My mom liked classical music. Alex: I didnt own a record until I was 13 or 14. Everything I had was stolen from my dads collection. He liked harder stuff, like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and David Bowie. But even when I started playing guitar at eight years old, I played my own songs rather than other peoples.
VH1: Where would you like to see the Calling go in the future?
Alex: Pearl Jam is in the most ideal state ever. They do things the way they want to do it. They work hard on their product. They dont wait forever to put out another record. They have the same success on every record, and a great group of fans. Id love to see that.
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Intervew from a Danish newspaper:
Q: How does it feel to be famous this fast?
AB: I think our succes came slowly. We worked for over 6 years on our debutalbum, so it has been a slow process
AK: Itīs really cool that it is going well for us.
Q: Where do you get your inspiration?
AB: Itīs everywhere. From our friends, family and everday life.
Q: Do you pluck your eyebrows?
AB: Ha ha, no I donīt. I was born like this.
Q: Are you a real blond?
AB: I have medium-blond hair, so I dye it a little.
Q: Are you vain?
AB: No, not at all. Why do you ask that? I donīt understand.
Q: Do you like danish bacon?
AB: I have to have bacon every day and danish bacon is really good. So is your Danish pastry.
AK: I donīt like pigs.
Q: What do you think about Denmark?
AB: We were here on a promotion tour two months ago, where we got to see a litle bit of Copenhagen. We played on Café park. That was really nice. We saw Amalienborg and we spend a lot of time with lots of sweet danish girls
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Portfolio
Name: Alex Band
Birthday:June 8th, 1981
Birthplace:Los Angeles
Height:: 1.77 m
Haircolor: blonde
Eyecolor: green
Hobbies: Music, filming videos, driving
For girls he is a heartbreaker, for rockfans the "son of Kurt Cobain". Alex Band, the charismatic leadsinger of The Calling, is surrounded by a drak aura which is deeply influenced by his heavy fate.
"I am searching for my German mum!"
He jumps and whirls around on stage, shakes his blonde hair wildly and sings his soul out of his body with his dark voice. Alex Band (21) pulls the fans in his spell with his personality, although he does not smile even once! Not only on stage, privat a strange (peculiar?) dark aura surrounds his, too: A human suffering a lot! An angel that is not able to smile! A charesmatic guy that reminds of the passed away Nirvana-singer Kurt Cobain. "I never managed that Mum left us", he says in the interview. Thirteen years ago, his mother Meda left the family (Alex was eight years old) and moved to Germany. Since then, they never had contact again ...
You wrote almost all the songs for the first album, Camino Palmero, on your own. The songs are dark and melancholic ones about unreturned love, about pain and about seperations. Are you always that depressiv privately?
Alex: These are songs about my real feelings - I had to go through many ups and downs! There were many sepertaions in my life, that is why the lyrics have something autobiographic. That is just the way I write like, the way I sing and live like, too. That may sound depressiv for many, but these are my feelings.
What is your hit Wherever You Will Go about?
Alex: All my songs have something to do with the split from my mother - the sadest moment in my life ever. I was 8, back then, when she left us. My parents were already divorced but still she had always been there for us and lived close to us. But in 1989 she decided to leave Los Angeles forever and to emigrate to Germany.
You did not have the choice to go with her?
Alex: I did. My sister Taryn and I could have gone with her. Everything was planned already - we should have gone to the international school in Düsseldorf. But what should I have done in Germany? America is my home. I could not leave my friends and my father. I was in a damned fix: If I went with my mother, I would leave my father - if I stayed with him, I would miss my mother! I was crying when I made my decision to stay with my dad in L.A.
The day when mum left influenced me a lot: Even today I am still afraid of being left! I needed years to handle it.
You did not see your mother again since then?
Alex: No, never! After she was gone we did not hear of each other again. But it was good - so the wound would not have been teared up over and over again. I have often thought about my mum, but unlike my sister Taryn, I never had the courage to call her.
How often did you regret your decision of staying in L.A.?
Alex: Actually never! It was extremely funny at home. Because my dad is director and producer. He makes b-movies, so these cheap horror- and splattermovies ... I was even part in four of them. Once I played a real bad guy who tyranned his highschool. Moreover: If I had gone to Germany back then, I would never have met Aaron Kamin and The Calling would never have been founded.
How did you come to music?
Alex: First I did not have any real contact with music. My dad resuaded me to learn an instrument. Only for him I started playing saxophone as a child. Although it still sounds horrible if I try to play it, it started my desire for music. I realized that I could handle and express my feelings much better through music. So I taught myself the guitar and the piano and right after highschool I founded the band Generation Gap where The Calling came out of 1 1/2 years ago.
From the original cast only you and Aaron are left - why?
Alex: Generation Gap was there for Aaron and me to collect expreiences. It was for sure that only we both took it real seriously.
Is it true that your girlfriend Jennifer is on tour with you?
Alex: I wish it was! I miss Jenny very much when we are on tour. Jennifer and I are a couple for over 20 months. She lives in the Hollywood Hills, is actress and was already part of a few movies. At least Jennifer can look after my two cats, Six and Parige, when I am on the road.
When will you be on tour in Germany?
Alex: A hall-tour in fall is planned for sure. But probably we will already come over in summer and rock at some festivals.
That would be the best chance to meet your mother ...
Alex: I will definitely do that! Now that I am sitting here in Cologne, I feel damned close to my mother. Her name is Meda and she lives in Munich - which is about 55o km away from Cologne. I have never been so close to her since she left us! She is married again and has three children: The twins Darius and Raphiel are ten, the little Constantine is seven years old. So I have three german siblings. Somehow that's crazy, isn't it?
What will you say to your mother first?
Alex: Hi Mum - Here I am! Look what became out of your son: a rockstar! I love you!
(and the first time there is a little smile on his face ...)
