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INTERVIEWS AND ARTICLES: "MEAN STREET
MAGAZINE - MAY 2002 - BOX CAR RACER" Living the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle is pretty much a 24/7 occupation. When they are not performing with their bands, most rock stars fill their waking hours with two things -- plenty of rough sex and lots of bad drugs. However, some rock stars actually do find time to work on other projects, like starting a side band, for instance. For NOFX’s Fat Mike, being part of a cool side band such as Me First and the Gimme Gimmes seems to be all about playing old songs with talented friends and having a good time. Take one look at the official Me First web site, and you will see what I mean. "We’ve played weddings, anniversaries and New Year’s Eve parties," a message on the site reads, "and now we want to rock your bar mitzvah!" You can now add Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker to the list of world-renowned rock stars with big-ticket side bands. But unlike Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, don’t expect the members of DeLonge and Barker’s side band, Box Car Racer, to half-jokingly advertise their availability for upcoming proms and private parties anytime soon. After seeing Box Car perform at the Key Club in Hollywood, it became apparent to all that DeLonge and Barker consider their new side band to be anything but a summer vacation. Box Car began its fourth-ever show as powerful industry types sat at tables along the Key Club’s balcony, sipping wine and looking down at the band below. Backed by drummer Barker, and flanked by second guitarist David Kennedy and bassist Anthony Celestino, vocalist/guitarist DeLonge quickly took center stage. With DeLonge leading the way, the four-piece Box Car combined a wall-of-guitar rock sound with some very downbeat lyrical content. And in between songs, DeLonge made several dedications -- to the memory of his late grandmother and the victims of Sept. 11. Unfortunately, not everyone at the Key Club was willing to give the new band a fair chance. One "fan," who wore a shirt with the words "fuck you" stamped all over it, made this comment after Box Car’s 11-song set: "They lived up to my expectations, [sarcastic pause] which were pretty low anyways." (Her companion quickly admitted that they had arrived at the concert late and heard only one song.) Others, in the press, were not any more generous with their praise. The following day, a reporter for CDNOW posted these equally closed-minded criticisms on the retail music site: "Vocally, it’s difficult [to take DeLonge seriously] after years of fart jokes via Blink. The result of both [Box Car’s big guitar sound and DeLonge’s serious lyrics] is a less entertaining show." A lighter mood, thankfully, prevailed at a listening party at the Cat Club on Sunset one week later, where MCA Records executives previewed tracks from Box Car’s soon-to-be-released debut CD. Although DeLonge and Barker were unable to attend -- Blink and Green Day had opened their three-month-long Pop Disaster Tour in Bakersfield the night before -- Kennedy made the 150-mile drive up from San Diego to represent Box Car. But despite the fact that Box Car’s music received an all-around thumbs-up from the Cat Club crowd, you could tell that Kennedy, who leads a straight-edge lifestyle, did not feel entirely comfortable in this environment. Furthermore, the guitarist was not extremely happy with how "the fans" had treated Box Car at the Key Club the previous week, either. Sitting on a makeshift patio behind the Cat Club, Kennedy talked about the high expectations placed on Box Car because of Blink’s larger-than-life profile. "When Box Car played at the Key Club, nobody knew what we were going to sound like," Kennedy said. "I think the people there were expecting to hear Blink. Since Blink is so huge and they’ve been playing forever, I don’t think anyone there looked at us and said, ‘Well, considering it was only their fourth show, they’re pretty cool.’ I felt that Box Car was somehow expected to sound like it was on Blink’s level, even though the band hasn’t had all of those years of building chemistry and touring and playing together. And that show was really weird because the crowd was so industry-based. I saw so many people standing there with their arms folded, looking at us like, ‘So what’s this going to be about?’ Honestly, for us onstage, it was a horrible feeling. Instead of coming to see Box Car out of curiosity, it seemed like people came to judge us." The next afternoon in Phoenix, Barker and DeLonge found themselves doing press for Box Car while at the same time finishing soundcheck for that night’s show with Blink. "This is like having the weight of the world on your shoulders," DeLonge explained over the phone, "and having somebody go, ‘Do you want to carry Jupiter and Pluto as well?’ That’s a completely stupid joke (laughs)." "Being in Box Car and Blink are like having two different jobs," Barker calmly added. "Playing with Box Car is like working in a small retail store and playing with Blink is like working in a big warehouse. There’s no way you can even compare the two." For both DeLonge and Barker, the decision to start a side band came during a break after Blink-182’s 2001 summer tour. "Originally, I decided to try some other things," Barker explained. "First I joined a band called the Transplants with Rancid’s Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman. And then Tom saw what I was doing and told me, ‘Man, I’m restless, too. I’ve been working on some new music, but I’m not sure if it’s going to turn into anything for Blink.’ Later, when he finished, he came to me and said, ‘I want you to arrange and add drums to the songs I wrote. I want you to make them more rock-oriented.’ But we didn’t set out to create darker or heavier songs. That’s just what we were into at the time. Tom is the one who is into conspiracies, the end of the world, and all that shit. You can talk to him about it because I don’t want to surround myself with all the negative shit that might happen." "Box Car is good," DeLonge adds, "because it allows me to write lyrics that are darker and heavier than those I’ve written for Blink. In Blink, we’ve written heavy stuff like ‘Stay Together For The Kids’ and ‘Adam’s Song,’ which are songs that talk about divorce, broken homes and suicide. But with Box Car, I’m writing about the end of the world and death." "We’re a little bit more political in Box Car," Barker pointed out, "and we talk more about important things that are going on in the world. While in Blink, we stick to talking about relationships, girls and friendships. Box Car just shows another side of us, especially Tom." Barker also got a chance to show-off his experimental side in the studio while recording Box Car’s album. "I came up with a bunch of breakbeats and arranged all of my drum parts in five or six days," Barker remembered. "I would use one kit for the verse, then a totally different kit with cracked, fucked-up cymbals for a bridge, and then a normal kit that sounds good for the choruses. We also put T-shirts over the snare drums to get different kinds of sounds." And with the additions of Kennedy and Celestino, DeLonge was eager to demonstrate that Box Car is more than just a two-man operation. "I went to high school with David, and we grew up together," DeLonge said. "He has very strong morals, and what he believes in are very positive things. And Anthony is one of Travis’ really close friends. It just worked out that Travis and I wanted to do something together, and so did a couple of friends of ours." One friend that DeLonge must get used to being apart from is Blink’s Mark Hoppus, who does not sing or perform onstage with Box Car Racer. "I’m like the whole enchilada when it comes to singing in
Box Car," joked DeLonge. "Travis just wants to play his drums,
and he doesn’t necessarily want to talk to the crowd. That leaves
me stuck up there with a microphone all to myself. And sometimes, I
don’t know exactly what to say." |