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- Titre : Non-stop
- Album : Every Solution Has Its Problems
- Année : 2004
Paroles :
START TROUBLE
Luke Walker - lead vocals, bass
Terry Case - guitar, background vocals
Allan 'Fin' Leavell - guitar/background vocals
Mike Crews - drums
Terry Case - guitar, background vocals
Allan 'Fin' Leavell - guitar/background vocals
Mike Crews - drums
"Music has always been my creative outlet, and I've always wanted to produce, but until we got signed I never really wanted to be an 'entertainer,'" says START TROUBLE frontman/bassist Luke Walker. "Even now, when it comes to 'making it,' I still have the attitude of if it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen. Basically, we're having as much fun as we can, and hopefully that's all this will ever be - just fun."
Yes, make no mistake: START TROUBLE may have a somewhat pessimistic name and album title (Every Solution Has Its Problem), but these boys just wanna have fun. Living together, in a house they jokingly claim is haunted, this Jacksonville, Florida four-piece cranks out hormonally charged punk-pop party songs about everything from getting plastered to, well, getting laid - and Luke, who writes the majority of the band's songs, has no difficulty admitting, "Yeah, we love to drink and smoke and cuss. We're always down for partying."
Although such a blithe attitude might be the downfall for a less talented or fortunate band, not taking themselves too seriously or trying too hard has proven to be a brilliant strategy for START TROUBLE: Not only did they get signed after being together less than six months, but their lucky break came in the form of a tossed-off demo tape that was never supposed to be heard in the first place.
Luke and his fellow founding Start Trouble member, guitarist Terry Case, had played in various bands together since high school, but their latest group, Ten High, had barely begun gigging around Jacksonville when Matt Pinfield of MTV's 120 Minutes fame, who had just started an A&R job at Columbia Records, heard a four-track demo of one of Luke's solo songs, "Chemical," on a local radio show called Native Noise. Luke didn't even like the song at the time and had in fact accidentally given the wrong tape to the show's DJ ("It was one of those songs I just wrote and threw in the songbin," he shrugs), but the DJ was nevertheless impressed - as was Pinfield, who contacted the band (later rechristened START TROUBLE once it was discovered that the moniker Ten High was already taken) and offered them a Columbia contract, just one day after they'd almost signed with an indie label.
When it came to record their debut album (the first single of which will be, ironically, a new, re-recorded version of "Chemical"), START TROUBLE maintained their low-key approach. For instance, when choosing producers, they went with John Travis not so much because of his production credits (which, incidentally, include Social Distortion, Sugar Ray, Kid Rock, Save Ferris, Monster Magnet, and Buckcherry) but simply because "we hit it off right away," Luke recalls. "When I first flew out to meet John, we went out to dinner and he spilled a whole bottle of wine on me. The waitress saw my stained shirt and joked, 'Hey, that's a good look for you,' so I said to John, 'Cool! Then I guess you're the guy.'" START TROUBLE and their new producer then convened at L.A.'s intimate Sonora Sound studios to capture the group's relaxed vibe on tape. "I'm really happy with the way our album came out, because it doesn't sound like what's going on out there right now," boasts Luke. "A lot of bands are using a lot of digital equipment to record, but we did everything really ghetto-style, in an old studio with old equipment from the '60s, and it came out real raw-sounding."
Raw is right: Topics broached in START TROUBLE songs range from genitals to chemicals, from booty calls to sugar walls, from bourbon sours to backseat blowjobs. Regarding his sexed-up lyrics, Luke laughs sheepishly, "I'm a Scorpio, so I'm pretty sexual in nature. Plus, I'm a guy. And some of the songs, like 'Non Stop,' I wrote probably three years ago - and I was really horny then."
But that doesn't mean START TROUBLE doesn't have a serious side. Some of their songs in fact deal with much gloomier subject matter, like infidelity ("One Man Down," "Wicked Eyes," "Retaliate"), stalking ("Psychotic For You"), addiction ("Get Over It"), and dead-end futures ("Throw The Covers Over Me," "Graduation"). "I'm always asking those questions, like 'What is the purpose of all this?' and 'What am I doing here?' - I can get philosophical, and it comes through in some of the songs," Luke explains. A particularly philosophical example is "Please Leave," a suicide song co-written by Luke and Terry, sung from the point of view of a depressed teenager. "The lyrics just kind of came out because around that time all the Columbine crap was happening and I was always hearing about kids killing themselves. There are a lot of kids who are real confused out there," Luke muses. Though intended to be empathetic and therapeutic, "Please Leave" - like infamous past suicide songs by Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest - was unfortunately denounced by a few misinformed listeners. "I got emails from a couple moms who didn't approve of the song," Luke recollects incredulously, "but I don't think they got where I was coming from. I wrote them back and said, 'This song is totally the opposite of what you're saying. It isn't encouraging anyone to kill themselves!'"
Luke doesn't just write about serious issues - he's also serious musician, who first started playing piano at age 4, sang in a church choir throughout his childhood, and even went to college on a music scholarship. Confessing, "All I do is sit around and write songs," the prolific 25-year-old dabbles in various musical genres, like techno (when not playing with START TROUBLE he keeps busy with a house music project called Bed Destroyers) and especially hip-hop (Luke was thrilled when START TROUBLE recently got the chance to open up for a Ludacris gig).
The hip-hop influence is evident on Every Solution Has Its Problem (which Luke describes as "punk-pop with an alternative-rap twist"), not just in some of its randy lyrics but also in the pumping, percussive beats of tunes like "Non Stop," "Retaliate," "Throw The Covers Over Me," and the beatbox-driven, hilarious, self-explanatory bonus track, "Let's Get Fucked Up." And onstage, it's these numbers that get the band in a particularly party-hardy mood. "I really get into it when I sing, on the hip-hop songs especially," says Luke. "I make a lot of faces; I might even do some gyrating! I get to grab the mic and jump around and just act dumb. It's pretty fun."
Ah, yes, ultimately it's all about fun for START TROUBLE - a surprisingly refreshing and welcome attitude amid the current growing glut of angst-ridden, sad-sack rock bands that don't seem to realize that rock 'n' roll is supposed to be nothing but a good time. That's a big problem, but luckily, START TROUBLE has the solution.
START TROUBLE debut release Every Solution Has a Problem will hit the street on March 23, 2004.
Yes, make no mistake: START TROUBLE may have a somewhat pessimistic name and album title (Every Solution Has Its Problem), but these boys just wanna have fun. Living together, in a house they jokingly claim is haunted, this Jacksonville, Florida four-piece cranks out hormonally charged punk-pop party songs about everything from getting plastered to, well, getting laid - and Luke, who writes the majority of the band's songs, has no difficulty admitting, "Yeah, we love to drink and smoke and cuss. We're always down for partying."
Although such a blithe attitude might be the downfall for a less talented or fortunate band, not taking themselves too seriously or trying too hard has proven to be a brilliant strategy for START TROUBLE: Not only did they get signed after being together less than six months, but their lucky break came in the form of a tossed-off demo tape that was never supposed to be heard in the first place.
Luke and his fellow founding Start Trouble member, guitarist Terry Case, had played in various bands together since high school, but their latest group, Ten High, had barely begun gigging around Jacksonville when Matt Pinfield of MTV's 120 Minutes fame, who had just started an A&R job at Columbia Records, heard a four-track demo of one of Luke's solo songs, "Chemical," on a local radio show called Native Noise. Luke didn't even like the song at the time and had in fact accidentally given the wrong tape to the show's DJ ("It was one of those songs I just wrote and threw in the songbin," he shrugs), but the DJ was nevertheless impressed - as was Pinfield, who contacted the band (later rechristened START TROUBLE once it was discovered that the moniker Ten High was already taken) and offered them a Columbia contract, just one day after they'd almost signed with an indie label.
When it came to record their debut album (the first single of which will be, ironically, a new, re-recorded version of "Chemical"), START TROUBLE maintained their low-key approach. For instance, when choosing producers, they went with John Travis not so much because of his production credits (which, incidentally, include Social Distortion, Sugar Ray, Kid Rock, Save Ferris, Monster Magnet, and Buckcherry) but simply because "we hit it off right away," Luke recalls. "When I first flew out to meet John, we went out to dinner and he spilled a whole bottle of wine on me. The waitress saw my stained shirt and joked, 'Hey, that's a good look for you,' so I said to John, 'Cool! Then I guess you're the guy.'" START TROUBLE and their new producer then convened at L.A.'s intimate Sonora Sound studios to capture the group's relaxed vibe on tape. "I'm really happy with the way our album came out, because it doesn't sound like what's going on out there right now," boasts Luke. "A lot of bands are using a lot of digital equipment to record, but we did everything really ghetto-style, in an old studio with old equipment from the '60s, and it came out real raw-sounding."
Raw is right: Topics broached in START TROUBLE songs range from genitals to chemicals, from booty calls to sugar walls, from bourbon sours to backseat blowjobs. Regarding his sexed-up lyrics, Luke laughs sheepishly, "I'm a Scorpio, so I'm pretty sexual in nature. Plus, I'm a guy. And some of the songs, like 'Non Stop,' I wrote probably three years ago - and I was really horny then."
But that doesn't mean START TROUBLE doesn't have a serious side. Some of their songs in fact deal with much gloomier subject matter, like infidelity ("One Man Down," "Wicked Eyes," "Retaliate"), stalking ("Psychotic For You"), addiction ("Get Over It"), and dead-end futures ("Throw The Covers Over Me," "Graduation"). "I'm always asking those questions, like 'What is the purpose of all this?' and 'What am I doing here?' - I can get philosophical, and it comes through in some of the songs," Luke explains. A particularly philosophical example is "Please Leave," a suicide song co-written by Luke and Terry, sung from the point of view of a depressed teenager. "The lyrics just kind of came out because around that time all the Columbine crap was happening and I was always hearing about kids killing themselves. There are a lot of kids who are real confused out there," Luke muses. Though intended to be empathetic and therapeutic, "Please Leave" - like infamous past suicide songs by Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest - was unfortunately denounced by a few misinformed listeners. "I got emails from a couple moms who didn't approve of the song," Luke recollects incredulously, "but I don't think they got where I was coming from. I wrote them back and said, 'This song is totally the opposite of what you're saying. It isn't encouraging anyone to kill themselves!'"
Luke doesn't just write about serious issues - he's also serious musician, who first started playing piano at age 4, sang in a church choir throughout his childhood, and even went to college on a music scholarship. Confessing, "All I do is sit around and write songs," the prolific 25-year-old dabbles in various musical genres, like techno (when not playing with START TROUBLE he keeps busy with a house music project called Bed Destroyers) and especially hip-hop (Luke was thrilled when START TROUBLE recently got the chance to open up for a Ludacris gig).
The hip-hop influence is evident on Every Solution Has Its Problem (which Luke describes as "punk-pop with an alternative-rap twist"), not just in some of its randy lyrics but also in the pumping, percussive beats of tunes like "Non Stop," "Retaliate," "Throw The Covers Over Me," and the beatbox-driven, hilarious, self-explanatory bonus track, "Let's Get Fucked Up." And onstage, it's these numbers that get the band in a particularly party-hardy mood. "I really get into it when I sing, on the hip-hop songs especially," says Luke. "I make a lot of faces; I might even do some gyrating! I get to grab the mic and jump around and just act dumb. It's pretty fun."
Ah, yes, ultimately it's all about fun for START TROUBLE - a surprisingly refreshing and welcome attitude amid the current growing glut of angst-ridden, sad-sack rock bands that don't seem to realize that rock 'n' roll is supposed to be nothing but a good time. That's a big problem, but luckily, START TROUBLE has the solution.
START TROUBLE debut release Every Solution Has a Problem will hit the street on March 23, 2004.
