Verve Pipe lead-singer Brian Vander Ark chats with Newski about being in the hit film "Rock Star" with Mark Wahlberg, being high with Willie Nelson, a disastrous opening tour with Kiss, and surviving as a DIY musician in modern times. The Verve Pipe are best known for their 90's alt-rock hit "The Freshmen".
More on Brian: https://www.brianvanderark.com/
Why it sucks opening for KISS. (Highlight)
SNIPPET:
Brett: So tell me about your speaking tours, are you pumping people up? How does that look?
Brian: It’s kind of a motivational thing. It’s called “Rockstar Reinvention.” I tell the story of The Verve Pipe, and how we started. How we were our own business who sold independent records, and sold about 50,000, and then we got signed.
We gave over the business, then made a big successful record, and then followed that up with a record that nobody bought, and then we had a huge comeback record with the song “Colorful” which was used in the movie Rock Star, and we had a song called “Never Let You Down” on the charts. And that was the 9/11 album, so I had to reinvent myself after that. So I tell that whole story.
Brett: For those of you just tuning in, your album came out like three days before 9/11, is that right?
Brian: I think it was a week after. It came out on, I think, September 18th with a bunch of albums that did very well. Tenacious D’s album came out, everybody bought that record.
Brett: Oh that was a gem.
Brian: Great record. So there really was no excuse. But you couldn’t go out and market or promote anything after 9/11, no one wanted to hear about your record, so that album was doomed.
Anyway, so I tell this whole reinvention story, how I sold everything and bought an RV and started my Lawnchair and Living Rooms tour. And that was in 2008.
So UBS and all these financial corporations bring me in, and I tell the story, and during the linear story I’ll play “The Freshman” and then I’ll play “Colorful” and then a motivational song I wrote at the end. So it’s 45 minutes to an hour of that. It’s fun.
Brett: So you were really on the second wave of the whole house concert thing, 2008? I was a little kid then, almost, so I didn’t know anything about it.
Brian: I didn’t know what to do. How it started was, I got an email from a fan asking me to play at her birthday party. And we were out of money. And I said, eh, I’m kind of a rockstar, we don’t play birthday parties. I didn’t really say that, but that was my attitude about it. And she said, “I’ll give you $2,500” and I was like, “Oh, what time is that party? I’ll be there.”
And I was driving home that night, $2,500 check in my pocket, and $500 of merchandise sales, and it was a great show. And I realized I had 4,000 people on my mailing list, and all of them have birthdays, so that’s ten million dollars, oh my God, I’m gonna be a kajillionaire.
So I sent an email out, and I’m very flattered, this email went into somebody’s marketing book, because I just put it out on the line. I said, “I don’t know what this is, you can call it whatever you want, backyard barbeque with BVA or something, I’ll come to your home, and play for an hour, and hang out for an hour, and just book it directly through me.
And I sent that out, and I got 51 shows booked in the next 24 hours. And 100 the next year. And I did that for 14 years. I just retired that last summer, good timing.
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