TEXANS LIKE TO RAISE A RUCKUS
By Chris Nixon
San Diego Union-Tribune
Jan. 6, 2005
It’s 9:30 a.m., and Bowling For Soup lead singer Jaret Reddick is hung over: “Last night was (bassist) Eric’s 30th birthday. So he and I did an acoustic show at a bar in Fort Worth. We managed to drink ourselves into a stupor for his 30th birthday. Boy, am I paying the price today.”
After relaxing with family and friends over the holidays, the four Texans embark on a new tour in the first few months of 2005 in support of “A Hangover You Don’t Deserve.” Reddick sheepishly admits: “I deserved this one.”
Hailing from the mid-sized city of Wichita Falls, Texas, the congenial Reddick and his band mates effortlessly merge easy-going pop punk and catchy, hilarious lyrics into infectious singles. “Hangover” represents the group’s seventh full-length disc and its third with major label Jive Records. So how did four punkish party kids from Texas end up on the same label as Britney Spears and ‘NSync?
“It one of these things: this label comes to these guys that are all broke,” says Reddick, sounding chipper despite his admittedly dilapidated physical state. “A couple of us are homeless and one of us is living with his parents. And they were like: ‘Look. Here’s the deal. We want to have a rock band on our label and we have the marketing power to make bands happen such as ‘NSync and R. Kelly and Britney Spears.’ To us, it was a no-brainer: ‘Does this mean we actually get to have apartments? O.K. Is there ink in this pen, or should we sign our names in blood?’ So it really made sense for us at the time.”
At first, it seemed the label didn’t know how to handle Bowling For Soup. The band’s first Jive release – 2000’s “Let’s Do It For Johnny” – met with disappointing sales and media response. The confusion lay with both sides: Reddick didn’t know what sort of songs a pop label wanted and the label seemed perplexed about the correct way to promote the band’s brand of rambunctious pop punk.
“I think about a year into the deal, both Jive Records and Bowling For Soup were looking at each other like: ‘What have we done to each other?’ says Reddick. “So the first record tanked. I wrote some songs. We sent them the demos and they fell in love with them. So when ‘Drunk Enough to Dance’ came out, obviously things got way better relationship-wise between us and the label.”
The 2002 release “Drunk Enough to Dance” produced the breakout hit “Girls All the Bad Guys Want.” The single led Bowling For Soup from Texas to the Grammy Awards’ red carpet, earning the boys a nomination for Best Performance Pop By a Duo or Group with Vocal. U2’s “Stuck In a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of” won the honor, but the quartet gained credibility, notoriety and hometown cred.
“Honestly, growing up in Wichita Falls, Texas, I don’t think they even get the Grammys on T.V.; you want to talk about worlds away,” says the humble Reddick. “The cool thing is that we got nominated for the Grammy Award, and that city was actually really proud of us. I thought they were going to give us the freakin’ key to the city. That just not something that happens to a bunch of fat kids from Wichita Falls, Texas who move off to deliver rock ‘n’ roll to the world. It just doesn’t happen.”
Reddick – who writes all of the band’s songs and lyrics – decided to collaborate with members of Fastball, Nerf Herder and the Nixons in Bowling For Soup’s 2004 follow-up “A Hangover You Don’t Deserve.” The album’s clever first single “1985” deals with a soccer mom’s obsession with her neon youth, posing immortal questions like “When did Motley Crew become classic rock” and “When did Ozzy become an actor?”
“We were all teenagers in 1985,” reflects Reddick. “We are all satelliting 30 years old right now. We’re not really making fun (of our generation), more paying tribute to. It was definitely a decade that shaped us and made us who we are. I think that’s true for most people who grow up in a certain time. When you’re 12 and you see the Motley Crue “Looks That Kill’ video on T.V., it will have an impact.”
While the members of Bowling For Soup ease into their early 30s, don’t expect Reddick’s maturity to start seeping into his music like Poway’s blink-182.
“There’s a big difference between us and (blink-182),” says Reddick, who plays SOMA with Bowling For Soup on Sunday. “They are great musicians and they make great records and I think they’re great businessmen. Those guys have grown up. They have taken that growing up into their music and they’ve done it really, really well. I’ve grown up: I have a wife and a kid and a mortgage and two car payments. When I’m home, it’s very serious. But me as a person, I like to laugh. I like to make people laugh. I think that music is an escape from those things in life that bring us down, especially if you’re listening to my music. I do talk about serious stuff, but I always try to put some sort of humorous twist on it. So at the end of the day, there’s a little light that shines and makes us all feel better. It’s almost like Robitussin: It just makes you feel better.”
Chris Nixon is a San Diego music writer.
