SULLIVAN — Times are tough. This isn’t your father’s rock ’n’ roll fantasy.
If you’ve heard the Nickelback song “I Wanna be a Rock Star,” it paints an image of filthy rich musicians, piling up cars, hilltop houses, limit-free credit cards and jets equipped with bedrooms.
Contrast that with the exciting yet far more earth-bound reality awaiting the Sullivan-based band Precore.
The trio just signed a recording contract with a California record company. The phone call from DBM Records’ A&R; man Mark Evans conjured up no grandiose illusions of the weeks and months ahead. Recession rock offers little time for laying around hotel pools.
“He basically said, ‘If you think you’re doing hard work now, get ready,’” Precore bassist Jon Kuykendall said, as he did some painting on a renovated building in Terre Haute — his day job.
Undiscovered bands longing to hear their songs on the radio in 2009, alongside the Nickelbacks of the world, must do something we seldom connect with recording artists … work.
“They have to work hard,” Evans said by telephone from the DBM offices in San Diego, “harder than they ever have in their life.”
Precore must tour tirelessly, selling their music and memorabilia at every club they play from Chicago to Albuquerque. “You have to live on the road,” Evans said. “You have to be in that van, eating four-day-old pizza.”
And they have to write songs in virtually every waking moment they’re not on stage, rehearsing and revising the best ones and working them into the next gig. And they must be willing to hear “brutal” critiques, provided by Evans, who also will solicit opinions of their songs from fellow recording industry pros.
This week, the guys in Precore will receive a phonebook-thick “six-month marketing plan” from the record label. It will include a rigorous schedule for songwriting and touring. DBM Records expects its “developmental” bands, such as Precore, to get busy and stay busy. Success rarely happens without sweat equity, Evans said. And when Americans are thinking twice, or maybe three times, about spending a few bucks on CDs or a cover charge at a nightclub, the folks making the music can’t afford to give less than 100 percent.
“It’s a lesson for everyone about our economy — work hard and put your nose to the grindstone,” Evans said.
Even with that demanding regimen, the Precore members are excited. When Kuykendall got the news from the label, he called drummer Mike Cole’s cell phone. “He was in a movie theater,” Kuykendall said, “and I just heard him scream.”
The band has been working pretty hard since founding members Jon Kuykendall and his brother Jeremy — the lead singer, guitarist and songwriter — moved to Sullivan from rock music hotbed Seattle a few years ago. The Kuykendalls like to tell people they wound up in Sullivan because their van broke down there. Actually, musical interests lured them to move close to the well-regarded Cedar Rock Studios, operated in rural Shelburn by Alan and Dawn Drake.
That was the first of several smart moves.
Precore recorded its first of two independent albums, “Analog Daydreams,” at Cedar Rock in 2007. Last year, they boldly enlisted guerrilla-rock guru Steve Albini — who engineered Nirvana, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant — to produce their second CD “Sick” at the famed Electrical Audio Studios in Chicago. That disc caught Evans’ attention at DBM, which stands for Dirtbag Music, a division of the popular rock apparel company Dirtbag Clothing.
“The album they delivered to me, ‘Sick,’ is good,” Evans said. “It’s a great freshman offering.”
Thus, the Kuykendall brothers and Cole, who joined them last year, are preparing for their rock ’n’ roll basic training. As intense as it seems, they’re smiling a lot and keeping a sense of humor.
“So now it’s, ‘OK, give us that hit song,’” said Jeremy, scratching his braided beard. “And, yeah, I’ll get right on it.”
Beneath the wisecracks, the Kuykendalls are anxious to get to work on their live performances and a new album for DBM, and appreciate the label’s interest. “They’re serious about us,” Jon said. “It’s just a matter of getting out and doing as much as we can.”
DBM tries to teach its bands how to succeed in a hard business, and then pushes them to follow that course, Evans said. Dirtbag also gives artists unique freedom, allowing them to leave the label any time they wish. The bands retain full control of their master recordings, publishing rights and merchandising.
If they follow DBM’s advice, a larger contract with one of the four major U.S. labels, hit songs — and maybe a few extra cars — could be in their future.
“We hope to get Precore there,” Evans said. “That’s what we want to do with these guys. And they’re really, really close.”
Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.
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