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There are few select rock bands that you tend to hold close to your heart – usually such names as Led Zeppelin, Kiss, Sex Pistols, and Nirvana come to mind for many. But for me, such a band is unquestionably Blind Melon. Both albums they released during their brief career (1992’s self-titled release & 95’s ‘Soup’) and their ’96 outtakes collection, ‘Nico,’ return time and time again to my CD player – it remains incomprehensible why they are only known for “No Rain” by many, there was so much more to discover by this great band. There’s not a Blind Melon song that doesn’t automatically bring to mind great memories – and few rock concerts ever top any of the 5 Melon shows I was lucky to attend. When Shannon Hoon died in October ’95, it seemed like alt-music took a nosedive for me, suddenly there were few ‘special’ new bands, and everyone was copying each other.
But hopefully, the tide is about to change again. Two ex-Melon members,
guitarist Christopher Thorn and bassist Brad Smith, have returned with
a great new band, Unified Theory (also featuring ex-Pearl Jam drummer Dave
Krusen and singer/guitarist Chris Shinn), which places emphasis on melody
and songcraft rather than 1-dimensional, testosterone-heavy aggro-rap metal.
Their exceptional self-titled debut has been issued on 3:33 (a subsidiary
of Universal), mixing Blind Melon’s wholesome retro sound with a nod to
more modern rock (a la Jeff Buckley, Radiohead). The amiable and
friendly Smith called in recently to chat about Unified Theory’s debut,
and wasn’t reluctant to shed some light on Blind Melon’s legacy.
Why not spin something that’s a much needed break from the norm and fits
into just about any alt-rock radio format – try a little Unified Theory.
Please give us a brief history of Unified Theory up to now.
I had just finished making my solo record, called ‘Mercy.’ Christopher
came down to Los Angeles and was looking for another singer, or somebody
to work with. And through a mutual friend, a lady named Leslie Lewis,
found Chris Shinn – he was in a band called Celia Green. They went
out and had dinner one night, and he said, ‘Hey, why don’t we fly back
up to Seattle and write some songs.’ So he flew back up, we sat around
and wrote 2 songs and recorded them in 24 hours, “Cessna” and “Passive.”
It was like one of those things that I hadn’t felt in a long time since
Blind Melon, where the chemistry just clicked.
So after that 24 hours, I put my solo project on the backburner, and Chris
Shinn put his solo project on the backburner, and we just went forward
with Unified Theory. It felt right, y’know? There was a lot
of intuition that plays into this stuff - technically, Blind Melon’s 4
remaining members of Blind Melon could have written more like, textural-sounding
arrangements and things like that. There was a definite chemistry
in Blind Melon, but without Shannon, you don’t have Blind Melon.
It was the first time I felt something new that felt right. Like,
‘Oh, this is a different chemistry.” ‘Cause Chris brought in a whole
new perspective to music, and put it on top of me Christopher’s foundation
in a way. Something very intuitive about it, like, “Screw it man,
let’s do this and see what happens.” And it just grew and grew, we
got a great response and just kept us moving forward.
Blind Melon was supposed to regroup with a different singer and new name, what happened to the original plan?
Yeah, and you know what was weird was that I think that we did that because we have an accountant and people around us that wanted to keep us secure because we’d been through so much after Shannon died. It was like we had the world at our feet, and now we’re just scratching for a career – what the fuck do we do now? And I think that a lot of people really care about Blind Melon. Blind Melon had a really tight knit family, people that were really authentically close to the music and the band, and they wanted to take care of us. They said, “You guys just need to find somebody and move on.” And I think mainly me and a few others felt that we got kind of talked into it, like “Yeah, is this really what we’re supposed to do?” ‘Cause, we’re all new to this, like, what does a band do when the singer dies?
You look around at AC/DC or Van Halen and it just never works out, it’s
always just a shadow of its former self. And I think that’s never
truer than with Blind Melon. If we would have continued with another
singer, they would have been standing in Shannon’s shadow, because Shannon
was such an amazing folk artist. He was more than the guy who sang
“No Rain,” he had a total aura about him. He was a folk hero in my
eyes. We sold 4 million records on our first record (Blind Melon’s
classic 1992 self-titled release), but there was maybe 500,000 people who
really understood Shannon. You couldn’t expect any singer to walk
into that situation and say, “Oh, this is a new thing. We’re gong
to change the name.” It’s just not going to happen that way.
So we had
a few attempts, we tried this guy named Davey Hilder out, and we tried
out this guy named Tyler from Green Apple Quick Step, and a guy named Rene
Lopez who Rogers (Stevens, ex-Melon guitarist) is working with now.
And although it was really good, I felt we could have made a record and
gotten signed, you felt like you were kind of corrupting something that
was beautiful in a tragic way. It was such an immediate and tragic
resolve, you just kind of cover it up by carrying on. It’s like putting
a Band-Aid over a gash wound. It’s just not going to work, you got
to start over. And Rogers continued working with Rene because they
live in New York, they got a great band called Extra Virgin, I heard a
few songs off their record and it’s really good.
Unified Theory's sound has a cool 'modern' edge to it, did this come about naturally? Did Chris S. bring this to the table?
There’s some new elements there, and to be honest with you, most of that
is Chris. When Christopher and I write, I don’t think our writing
styles have changed that drastically – we’re still the same people.
You can’t just wake up one day and say, “I’m going to change my style today
because we’re not called Blind Melon anymore.” I still write songs
and I probably follow the same patterns and have my own little intervals
that I follow and stuff, but Chris is coming from a different world.
He’s coming more from the Jeff Buckley world and Radiohead – more of the
modern element. And I thought that was just an amazing, beautiful
mixture. In a weird way, I felt that the Blind Melon writing, some
of the foundation of the songs, Chris is just adding the stuff that gives
it a certain amount of freshness. So we can’t be accused of Blind
Melon, mach II.
I really do truly miss Blind Melon, but then again, I’m glad Unified Theory turned out so great.
Well I appreciate that, I miss it too. I look back on those days
and I have a lot of fondness and it makes me miss Shannon worse.
That story just gets sadder to me instead of easier.
I know exactly what you mean – y’know, I can hear any Blind Melon song and I’m automatically brought back to a specific time of my life.
I know what you mean. Music has an uncanny ability to mark periods
of your life like a milestone or a photo album. You hear 3 notes
of your favorite album from 10 years ago and you’re right there in your
1980 Honda Civic Wagon! It takes you back immediately. That’s
the beautiful thing about music.
The following question was bound to happen - how does Chris compare to Shannon?
That’s a good question, um, you know what’s weird, they both have ‘star power,’ whatever that is, but in a different way…
Charisma?
Yeah, Chris has amazing charisma. Chris Shinn is the type of guy…he’ll
walk into a bar and he’ll walk out and be arm and arm with everybody in
the bar, buyin’ everybody drinks, he’s everybody’s best friend, but it’s
a bar you’ve been going to for 10 years and nobody knows you! He’s
like that ‘guy.’ So if there was any comparison or likeness I would
say that was it. I think stylistically, they’re coming from 2 different
planets, Chris Shinn is way more controlled – he has an amazing sense of
melody, so did Shannon, but he has more of a pure tone.
Shannon was like ‘the folk hero,’ he learned in a garage and he sang strictly
from his heart. Shannon was a soul singer in so many ways, not soul
in the way of R n’ B - he came from the gut. And Chris has a little
more control, we have really…I don’t want to say calculated because we
write on jams and stuff like that, but he has a very precise vocal style,
you can say. Whereas if Shannon walked on stage, you don’t know what’s
going to happen. Chris Shinn is definitely his own person, and when
people come out to see our band, they’ll realize that. I’ve had so
many people come up to me and say, “I came out to the show ‘cause I was
a Blind Melon fan and wanted to see what 2 of the guys were still doing,”
and they walk away singing Unified Theory songs. That’s part of the
reason to keep going if you’re in my shoes.
What's the songwriting process like for Unified Theory? Is it collaborative, or does the band jam on ideas together?
Um, Chris Shinn has brought in songs, I’ve brought in songs. Chris brought in 1 song from his solo record called “Not Dead,” and I brought in 1 of my songs from ‘Mercy’ called “California,” and we got the band to record ‘em. Now a few of the songs got written like that – people bringing in complete songs. Christopher is really good at writing complete musical arrangements, like he’ll come in and say, “I’ve got this thing.” When Christopher writes it’s crazy, he writes like 8 minutes worth of music for 1 song, and we’re like, “Christopher, man, we’ve got to chop some stuff out.” He’s such a great prolific writer as far as chord structures and he’s been writing a lot on piano and stuff like that. But we bring in stuff, and this band is really good about compromise, where, we have 8 minutes worth of music for this 1 song, we want to tight it up and make it a 3 or 4 minute song with poignant and concise lyrics.
So we’re really good about chopping each others stuff up and the main writer
of that song accepting it, like “OK, I’ve got to trust these guys and it’s
going to be for the betterment of the song.” ‘Cause it’s a hard thing.
I bring in a song and I think it’s done, and they’re like, “Oh, we’ve got
to change the lyrics,” and I’m like “OH DON’T DO THAT, PLEASE!” In
a lot of cases that was what happened, people bring in songs and the band
re-works them. A few of the songs came off of a jam, like “Cessna”
was a jam, “Keep On” was an arrangement by Christopher that Chris Shinn
wrote all the lyrics to and I helped him out with the chorus, it just came
from everywhere. But some of it did come from jamming – we’ll play
like 10 minutes worth of music, record it on DAT, go home, and go, “Y’know
that 1 riff at about 3 minutes? We need to expand on that.”
What are Unified Theory's touring plans?
We are going to start touring like around June 20th, and we’re going to
tour up to New York. We’re going to play the Mercury Lounge on the
29th, and then we play the Wetlands a couple of days after that.
Nothing’s been confirmed
as of yet – we’re going to start touring in the middle of June on the east
coast, come back in July and start touring up the west coast, across Canada,
then drop down into the Midwest. We’re going to tour the States basically
starting in the middle of June. We’re going to be on the road continuously.
We’ve done 1 west coast show here and did really well, we sold like 800
records with just nobody knowing anything. We released the record
under the name ‘Luma,’ did 1 run down the west coast and got such an amazing
response – that’s basically what got us signed. ‘Cause people were
like, well this band is going it on their own and making it work.
How did the band get signed to 3:33?
There’s a guy, the owner of a place called the ‘Sit & Spin’ in Seattle,
had Eris from 3:33 come up and said, “Check out this new band, they’re
called Luma.” I think we were Luma or Cessna back then, I can’t remember.
We’ve been through 4 band names. She came up and loved the band and
the whole company came up like a week later, we did a tour down the west
coast – played the Viper Room in L.A., the Spaceland, and the Dragonfly,
and we were signed a month later. It first happened slow because
the industry was consolidating and all these bands were getting dropped
and stuff. So you couldn’t just submit a demo and people go, “Oh
we want to sign you, we love you.” Interscope absorbed Geffen and
170 bands got dropped in 1 week, and you’re like, “Holy shit, those poor
bastards.” So you weren’t too aggressive with it, you stayed focused
on the music, and you know that if you write good stuff people will come
around. But once the ball got rolling we were signed relatively quickly.
What are the projected singles/videos?
“California” is going to be the first single, the second single people
are projecting could be “Bloodlet,” “AM Radio,” or “Wither.” It depends,
I mean personally my favorite song on the record is “Keep On.” In
a weird way, sometimes you get passed the shiny single – “No Rain” for
instance in Blind Melon was really easy to get right off the bat, but there’s
so many layers that were more beautiful in Blind Melon than that song.
I feel like in a lot of ways, Unified Theory’s going to have that.
Like we’re going to have the immediate songs – “California,” “Bloodlet”
– but if you dig a little deeper there’s something really beautiful about
the lyrics in “Keep On,” where it’s not going to get on the radio, but
it’s a more beautiful song in my opinion.
I agree, the more you listen to ‘Unified Theory,’ the more you latch on to the songs.
Totally, we kind of front-loaded the record like that – we put all the
songs that were like more immediate up top, then put all the cooler songs
in the back, like “Full Flavor,” “Not Dead,” and “Keep On.” Let people
turn the CD over and listen to the b-sides.
Tell us about your upcoming solo album, I remember it was supposed to come out a year or 2 ago.
Well I have a couple of internet companies and distribution companies that want to put out my record – that’s my next phone call after I get off the phone with you, I’m calling 3:33 to figure it out. ‘Cause they got 30 days first ‘right or refusal’ on my record since I signed to them under Unified Theory. So there’s a little political dance I have to do to figure out how and when I can release it. I want to put it out soon, I’m gonna put it out around or a little bit after Unified Theory comes out. It’s going to be low-key, I’m obviously not going to be able to tour it because of Unified Theory.
I started writing the songs about 6 months after Shannon died, it definitely
marks a really dark period in my life where you hit your rock bottom and
when you start coming back and go, “Y’know, everything’s going to be OK.
Nobody’s going to stop living, the planet’s not going to stop turning,
you gotta get up off your ass and keep going.” There’s a lot of methods
like that in that record, but it’s not a doom and gloom record, don’t get
me wrong. I think that a lot of Blind Melon fans will really get
the record. It’s going to come out under the name ‘Abandoned Jalopy,’
which is kind of fitting for what that record is. ‘Mercy’ (the project’s
original name) was taken unfortunately, I’m going to have to re-name it
Abandoned Jalopy – somebody down in Florida has Mercy copywritten.
What are some albums/bands has the band been listening to lately?
Let’s see. Right now in my CD player, I’m kind of digesting it and
I like it better than their first record, is the Queens of the Stone Age
record (‘Queens of the Stone Age II’). The last record that floored
me though was the Flaming Lips’ ‘The Soft Bulletin,’ that just blew my
fucking mind. Because I’m a huge fan of Flaming Lips, y’know, I have
‘Clouds Taste Metalic’ and all that stuff, it’s just such an amazing progression
for them. You put it on, it’s something new and refreshing – it’s
still the Flaming Lips…I can’t understand why they’re not just huge.
The Built To Spill record (‘Live’), I love ‘em. What else…this is
weird, because this is so not me, but there’s this programmer from DC called
‘BT,’ it’s not dance at all it’s more like just crazy programming stuff
on pro tools and the dude is nuts. It’s like watching ‘The Matrix’
with no picture, it’s so digital and modern sounding. There’s a certain
part of me that likes that, like technically, how the fuck did he pull
that off? Really good though. The Bjork records, all those
floor me, but lately I’d have to say the Flaming Lips, that record’s a
year old. The Travis record (‘The Man Who’) is great, they’re a solid
band, you’ve got to give it to them. I mean it’s like, yeah they
have that ‘familiarity’ to them, but they write good songs and they’re
solid.