Band rises from local underground to opportunity for big-time success
Justin Elrod had a message on his cell phone. Joe Major, who he hardly knew, said Marc Debiak was interested in signing Secret Lives of the Freemasons to his label, Astro Magnetics.
Debiak helped launch the careers of New Jersey rock bands Thursday and My Chemical Romance. Debiak liked what he'd heard of Secret Lives, Major's message said.
Elrod, one of Secret Lives' guitarists, was skeptical. Other people had told the band they wanted to sign them before. Some of them didn't even have labels yet. That someone as big as Debiak would be interested just didn't seem real, Elrod thought.
Hitting the return button, he called Major back. Don't know how he got my number, Elrod thought as he waited for Major to pick up.
It's true, Major said - Debiak wants to hear more, up in New Jersey.
Josh Carden, the band's bass player, was in the pizza aisle at Ingles when Elrod called with the news. Carden folded his cell phone, turned to his dad "and I told him what it was, that it was a label off of Sony that would have a lot of money and stuff. My dad was like `yeah, right.' "
They're off
Astro Magnetics, based in Lyndhurst, N.J., is a subsidiary of Bardic Records and is distributed by Bardic Records/Sony RED Distribution. Debiak has a successful track record, having managed another flourishing rock label, Eyeball Records.
The Marc Debiaks of the world don't talk to small-town bands. Secret Lives, formed from the Asheville bands Throwing Myself and A Kiss Before Dying, played house shows. Once or twice a week, the members would load the van and drive to clubs in Atlanta, Charlotte or Johnson City, Tenn., to play. Because many of their fans were younger than 21, it was hard to get a gig in Asheville, ironic since nearly everyone in the band grew up here.
In the summer of 2003, Throwing Myself and A Kiss Before Dying were breaking up. They didn't really know it at the time, but when some members of each walked after a joint show at Green Eggs and Jam, a North Lexington Avenue record store, that was it.
Someone posted the breakups on AshevilleRock.com, and kids flipped out, lamenting the loss of two dynamic bands in the city's underground music scene. But the band members who were left weren't exactly upset. They'd been playing together already in a rehearsal space the two bands shared off Pritchard Park.
"The first time we played together as a collective was amazing," Elrod said during a recent band interview in the back shop of Empire Tattoo. "Everyone was jumping all over the place."
"Goosebumps," guitarist Tucker Ensley said.
"Everyone just looked at each other," Elrod said.
"These guys played with so much confidence," Josh Moore of the band Beloved said of a show he caught at The Casbah in Charlotte. "I could feel the excitement and the energy in the crowd. You could see it in people's faces. The ability to make that connection with people . is one of the most important things a band can have."
Secret Lives "made me realized the essential nature of the `hook,'" Will Gilreath of the Charlotte band Ten Missing Days said. "A hook helps people understand you on the first listen. If someone hears something they really like, it gets caught in their head. And they're more likely to go out and pick up a CD or come out to another show."
Win, place or show
The band went to Winston-Salem to record an EP ("The Cut and Thrust of Clear Thinking") at The Basement recording studio. Someone sent a copy to Major, an event promoter and booking agent in Columbia, S.C., who knew the band from its shows at the New Brookland Tavern in West Columbia.
"It was just so energetic and soul-filled," Major said. "It's almost like every word that comes out of Brien's mouth is something pouring out of his heart."
Major sent it on to Debiak. "For the last year and a half, he sent me about every band he came across from North and South Carolina," Debiak said. "I had to pass on all of them. The first one that blew me away was Secret Lives."
The day after Major called Elrod, Debiak asked the band to come see him. The guys couldn't believe it. They loaded their equipment in the van and drove all night to New Jersey. Fifteen hours of manfunk and bad jokes. And nerves.
It was pretty cool that Debiak suggested meeting at the flea market in the parking lot of the Meadowlands. There's a track there, and Debiak said `let's play the horses.' Nobody knew how, even Debiak. But guitarist Jim DeBardi won $40.
"I was looking at the odds," DeBardi said. "There was one, like, 30-to-one and I thought, that number's bigger than all the others, it must be good."
Debiak took them to a Mexican restaurant with Geoff Rickly of the band Thursday. Rickly poured them so many margaritas that by the time the band got to the Streets building in Clifton, N.J., and plugged in to play in the same rehearsal space that Thursday and My Chemical Romance used, they were pretty loose, if still a bit nervous.
"It's a really small room," Debiak said. "Myself and the other people from the label and a lot of our friends were all kind of right up in their face."
"To see Geoff Rickly standing right there in the front of our band and just this huge smile on his face . I felt so out of myself at that moment," Worsham said.
"It was nerve-wracking," Carden said.
"Like I remember every time I would pick my leg up when we were playing, my leg was shaking so bad," Worsham said.
"Josh got sick," Ensley said.
"Mixture of nerves and the margaritas," Worsham said.
Finish line
After the show, Debiak had a quick confab with his partners. He walked up to the band "and I said `if you want, you're welcome to join the family.' I had made up my mind before seeing them. It was pretty much a done deal for me."
Worsham remembers walking outside with drummer Travis Moss and letting it all sink in. At long last, Secret Lives had found a home.
Debiak took the band into the Rhinebeck, N.Y., recording studio of producer D. James Goodwin, who has produced George Clinton, Murder by Death, Fountains of Wayne and others. The resulting CD, "This Was Built To Make You Dance," is scheduled for release in March.
The CD will be placed "in all the chains," Debiak said, including Tower, Best Buy and FYE. There will be a big push on college and commercial radio.
"If (it) does well . it will change their lives dramatically," Debiak said. "They'll be on tour a lot. They won't be home much."
Contact Clark at 232-5854 or PClark@CITIZEN-TIMES.com.
Meet the band
Secret Lives of the Freemasons was formed in late summer 2003 from the breakup of two local bands, Throwing Myself and A Kiss Before Dying. The new sound mixes pop and hard rock.
Brien Worsham, 24 - vocals
Jim DeBardi, 21 - guitar, vocals
Josh Carden, 21 - bass
Justin Elrod, 23 - guitar, vocals
Tucker Ensley, 21 - guitar
Travis Moss, 22 - drums Upcoming CD: "This Was Built To Make You Dance" is scheduled for release in March
To read about the band, go to www.secretlivesofthefreemasons.com.
