FUEL SPEED AHEAD/ Pennsylvania band gets first taste of fame Page 1 of 3
Publication: Colo Spgs Gazette; Date: Jul 17, 1998; Section: GO!; Page: 5
FUEL SPEED AHEAD/ Pennsylvania band gets first taste of fame
Amy Curtis Asay; The Gazette
Funny thing, success.
One day, you're playing Pennsylvania bars, scraping together enough cash to pay the rent but little else.
The next, you're on Conan O'Brien and your video hits MTV.
That's the story of Fuel, four Pennsylvania guys who attracted the record label 550 two years ago with their heavy alt-rock sound.
Fuel will join Candlebox, Creed and the Gandharvas at KILO Rockfest '98 today at Sky Sox Stadium.
Fuel guitarist Carl Bell says the newfound success hasn't sunk in yet.
"I don't think any of the band feels it as much," Bell says. "I'll see (the band) on MTV maybe, but it hasn't hit yet."
The added exposure has interesting results for the foursome that features Bell along with lead singer/guitarist Brett Scallions, bass guitarist Jeff Abercrombie and drummer Kevin Miller.
"It's an interesting feeling to go to a gig in an area you've never been before and people are singing all the lyrics," Bell says.
There were times when the band played five nights a week, driving to a location, setting up their own equipment, playing, tearing down the equipment and driving home, only to do it all again the next day.
Bell even had doubts the band would be able to support itself solely by performing. "I didn't mind the hard work," he says, "but I was worried that the work was in vain."
He turned to school to provide a safety net and enrolled in Penn State University. But when the band signed with 550, Bell set aside earning a teaching degree to pursue a future with Fuel. He's glad he didn't give up his dreams of music for a more traditional career.
"(Music) is obviously my first love."
It goes back to his childhood in Tennessee. Bell's brother won 500 albums in a Memphis radio contest, which, were passed on to Bell.
"From my brother, I inherited the complete Rolling Stones, the complete Led Zeppelin ... all these great old rock bands," he says. He also was influenced by Alice Cooper and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Growing up without a television, there was plenty of time for listening to music.
"Instead of coming home at night or after school and flipping on 'Gilligan's Island,' I was throwing on Rolling Stones and 'Sticky Fingers' or something like that."
His older brother also contributed to Bell's interest in guitar.
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"My brother has a guitar in the closet and I picked it up one day and just started banging away at it."
Bell and Abercrombie grew up together in Tennessee, and the two played together in several bands before Fuel.
The band crystallized in 1993 with the addition of Scallions.
"When Brett joined the band, it was the voice and the front man that we had really been needing to move forward," says guitarist Bell.
Fuel moved from Tennessee to Pennsylvania in 1995, lured by the city's support for local bands and its proximity to big venues such as New York City.
The songwriting usually has fallen to Bell, who says music comes easier than the lyrics.
"The lyrics are definitely the hardest for me. Trying to get something and trying to say something that has substance is not an easy pursuit."
He starts out with an idea of what he'd like the song to express and comes back to it later to fill in the lyrical details.
"I'll usually get myself a working title or at least give myself some kind of direction for how I was feeling at that moment and then try to embellish that with the rest of my feelings," he says.
Many of the band's songs on their 1998 album, "Sunburn," have dark, searching lyrics.
The first song, "Untitled," represents the mood of the album, Bell says. Its bleak chorus: "I wanted to find/One thing that was mine/and leave this behind/But I can't find my way/To get far away/And bury these days."
Bell says he's more moved to write when life isn't as good or things "are a little heavy," and lyrics often express feelings he's having.
"Most of it is pretty close to home for myself," he says. "I think it's true for a lot of writers that you write better or you're more moved to write when there's some kind of drama in your life," he says.
He uses the music therapeutically.
"It just helps to get (an issue) up out of your system, and get it up to where maybe it's in a more tangible form, where you can deal with it a little bit better," Bell says. "I think a lot. I probably think too much, and so a lot of that comes out."
Now Bell and the rest of Fuel have new success to contemplate. Maybe Fuel's next album will express thoughts about appearing on Conan O'Brien.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: KILO Rockfest '98, featuring Fuel, Creed, Candlebox and the Gandharvas
WHEN: 5 p.m. today
WHERE: Sky Sox Stadium
ADMISSION: $9.43-$18; call (800) 517-7328
@CUTLINE: Danny Clinch - Fuel will be one of four bands featured at KILO Rockfest '98 today at Sky Sox Stadium.
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