Candlebox: “We didn’t feel pressure to have the success of Nirvana or Pearl Jam, because we knew we wouldn’t achieve it”

“South America and Latin America in general is a very good market for us. . We always appreciated it. We have always had a very good response from the public there,” says Kevin Martin, singer and frontman of Candlebox, the American group which is preparing for a visit to the country with four dates. In their next performance, the quintet will be part of the Milenia Festival (Saturday October 14 at Espacio Riesco), where they will share the stage with Evanescence, Alien Ant Farm, among others. Then they will perform at Club Amanda (Friday October 27), continue at Club Chocolate (Saturday October 28) and finish on Sunday 29 at the REC festival in Concepción.

Martin does not hide his enthusiasm for the reunion with the country. Even though it seems trite, it ensures that Latin audiences are different. “Latin America’s passion for music, whether rock and roll, pop or otherwise, is unmatched.” . I haven’t seen anything like this in the rest of the world. When we were at Lollapalooza and I was watching other bands, the way the crowd reacted to each of the artists was spectacular. As an artist, I think music is your creative outlet, but when it’s with an audience that loves what you do and goes crazy when you play those songs, there’s nothing like that feeling. I can not explain it. It is the most enriching and beautiful emotional experience there is.

The shows will be marked by the celebration of 30 years of the first fundamental eponymous album who, in the midst of an alternative rock boom, managed to position singles like change, You And Far behind. A propitious starting point which has marked its history. “We’re focusing on the 30th anniversary of the first album, so a lot of these songs will be in the setlist. There will also be many other songs. This is going to be very funny. It’s going to be a lot of fun,” says Martin.

This tour of the country is also a farewell. The band released the album in August The long goodbye , with which they close their career spanning three decades and eight studio albums. A decision Martin considered during the long pandemic pause.

“During the 20 months I spent at home with my wife and son, I realized how much I had missed and how much I wished I could go back.” I’m going to relive those moments I missed. It was very difficult for me. Being a musician is an incredibly selfish job if you have a family. I felt like I didn’t like this music anymore. I don’t want to be an artist who calls things out on the phone. I don’t want to be an artist who puts on a show just to get paid. I didn’t get into music for that. That’s not why I started the group. I told myself that if I ever felt like I was at that point in my career, I would stop doing what I was doing. I had a feeling that was what was going to happen.

So, Martin discussed the situation with his colleagues, Brian Quinn, Island Styles, Adam Kury and BJ Kerwin. “I told the guys in the band that I wanted to make one more album. . I want to do it with the four of you, I want this to be the last album I make as a band and as an artist. Thank goodness they were willing to do it with me. I think we made a very, very special album. I think if people give him a chance and really listen to him, they’ll hear all these stories. “It’s 30 years of my life as a musician. »

Write and save the album The long goodbye It took a relatively short time. According to Martin, it lasted a total of two months and a fraction, divided into two writing sessions: one in September 2022, in Baltimore, and another in April of this year, in Los Angeles, California. “He was very prolific,” he said. I don’t think it had anything to do with us allowing ourselves to make the music we wanted to make. We didn’t care if there would be a hit, if there would be a song suitable for the record company or for the radio. . These are the songs that inspired us. It’s the music that inspired us. It’s the music that influenced us. “We want the world to know where we are right now. »

At this stage of your career, is it important to achieve a hit? Isn’t this something important to you?

No, I think Candlebox, since the first album, we never cared what anyone else thought. We always made the music we wanted to make. It’s never been the case: Will our audience like this? This is what we do, this is the music we produce. If you like the band, that’s great. If you like the song, it’s fantastic. Otherwise, don’t listen to it. We never tried to please anyone, we never thought, “There’s no single on this album.” » It turns out that we wrote them, but it was never in our thoughts, for me it is not important. What matters to me is playing, saying and producing what is 100% mine. I think in the world we live in today, musically, we’ve seen that that doesn’t matter anymore. This kind of danger has disappeared. Music has become very safe. Rock and roll has become incredibly safe and there’s a downside to that because there are a lot of bands that sound exactly the same and people have gotten used to that.

Do all rock bands sound the same today?

That’s another reason why I’m done with it, because where is the magic of the Rolling Stones in today’s music? A band like Greta Van Fleet, I’m sure there’s a lot of people who love them, and they’ve been very successful, but they’re completely derivative of Led Zeppelin. Every song sounds like a Led Zeppelin song. Now, that’s fine if that’s what you want to do, but that’s not being honest with yourself as an artist. It’s a shame that I say that about them because they are obviously doing very well. But they’re doing just fine thanks to someone else’s writing and musical talent. There’s a public that doesn’t know who Led Zeppelin is, which seems strange to me. The best rock and roll band of all time, but where is the danger in Led Zeppelin these days? I say there are bands now making this music, Bad News from the UK, James and the Cold Gun from the UK, Tiger Cubb from the UK. There are bands that do that, but they’ll never be successful on the radio because they’re too dangerous. This is the downside of what happened. If you keep making vanilla ice cream, everyone will want vanilla ice cream, and that’s what we’re looking for.

Even today releasing an album is already a rarity, everyone releases singles, something we see a lot in rap and reggaeton…

I think today it’s very, very easy to continue releasing singles. Why would you want to produce an album? Because no one will buy an album, but people will download the singles. That was one of the discussions I had with the record company we made this album with. I said, “Why are you trying to put out an album?” Why don’t you release one single after another, and then have music for a year? But there are people who don’t believe in this business. There are a lot of independent artists in the rap scene, and that’s what they have to do to be heard. They are thinking of singles to play on the radio. I don’t listen to rap on the radio, so I don’t know, and I don’t listen to contemporary rap. I listen to Tupac, Biggie and Kendrick Lamar, the most contemporary ones I listen to. It drives my son crazy because I don’t listen to the bullshit he listens to. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for it. I think anyone who produces music, as long as they do it with 100% of their heart, in the way they want to produce it, should listen to it. If it’s a single, let it be a single. If it’s not a single improvisation, but a seven-minute improvisation, let it be a seven-minute improvisation. There’s room for that too.

Let’s talk a little about your 30-year career, what has been the best and worst?

The best thing that happened to us was Maverick signing us. The worst thing that happened to us was that Maverick signed us hahaha (laughs). I don’t want to criticize Maverick Records, because they were incredible. Guy O’Syrie was a fantastic guy from ANR, Madonna was a great label owner and Freddie was a brilliant record company president. But as soon as you become a business owner, your career stagnates. Although the first album was very successful, the label gave no indication of a follow-up. On disk Happiness pills, the record company didn’t direct us. They left us to our own devices. That’s why you have a record like Lucy, which is incredibly raw and so far removed from the first album that it’s not even funny. Then you have a disk like Happiness pills, which in my opinion is a group that falters in its composition, falters in its friendships, falters in its creativity. And that’s due to a lack of leadership from a record label that you’re signed to that you’re hoping to give you enough information and direction and attention to try and make yourself hugely successful.

By the time they released their first album, there was interest in alternative rock. It was a time when Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden were there, did you feel any pressure to achieve the same success as them?

I don’t think we felt any pressure. I think we were just hoping that someone would listen to our music. God, it was like being a rookie quarterback on an NFL team that won five Super Bowls and not knowing anyone on the front line to throw the ball to. We were a group of kids who were like, “God, please, someone pay attention to the album we’re recording.” “I think the pressure came when we were trying to make the next album, Lucy. That’s when you start to wonder: Did I produce the right record? Did I create the right songs? Will I lose my audience’s interest? Will my audience lose interest in me? This is where the pressure starts. But as I mentioned before, we never worried about writing records for anyone other than ourselves. And we never thought, “Hey, is so-and-so in Ohio going to like this song?” It didn’t cross our minds. And will Maverick Records support this album? We knew they had to do it because they had invested so much in us. I don’t think we felt any pressure to succeed against Pearl Jam or Soundgarden or any of them because we knew we couldn’t. Candlebox couldn’t be bigger than Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Nirvana or Alice in Chains. It was practically impossible.

Tickets to see Candlebox at Milenia Festival, Club Chocolate and Club Amanda are available via Punto Ticket .