The Rebirth of Verve Pipe Singer Brian Vander Ark
by Andy Argyrakis
Photo: Steve Chen
After fronting the multi-platinum selling rock band The Verve Pipe over the last decade, releasing three albums on RCA Records, and touring the planet with everyone from the Goo Goo Dolls to KISS, singer/songwriter Brian Vander Ark sure has a lot of travel stories. In fact, switching from planes to buses to concert stages to video shoots has become second nature for this Midwestern musician, who even after all these years still seems to thrive from the pure comedy and commotion of the road. “There’s been so much that’s happened to us, it’s hard to pick just one tale to tell,” says the Grand Rapids, Michigan native turned Chicagoan, as he lounges backstage before a Park West appearance. “One of my favorites is the time our rental truck got stolen with all our gear the night before we were supposed to fly to L.A. for our first video shoot.”
The story starts following a South Carolina concert in 1996 when band members were unwinding before hopping a red eye flight to film the MTV clip “Photograph.” Around 2 a.m., the band’s drummer and sound guy made a gas station run for snacks and porn, but upon exiting with the goods, they saw the band’s truck with all its contents peel out of the parking lot and dart towards the highway. “It was at that point the rest of us got a call at the hotel and thought they were totally joking or just really drunk,” recalls Vander Ark. “But they weren’t lying and we got really panicked because there was $75,000 worth of gear in that truck which we needed for the shoot!”
After calling the police and filing a report, members racked their brains as to how they could possibly solve the disastrous dilemma. Area authorities offered sympathy but guessed the bandits were long gone and off to pawn, but the guys were determined to reclaim their items. “We piled in another car and just drove around by ourselves until the sun came up,” Vander Ark says with a laugh. “We were just about ready to give up until we pulled down some crack town street and saw our truck parked at the end. We got to the truck and saw they’d stolen a laptop from the front seat, but the crazy thing is they never even touched the gear and even left our plane tickets on the seat! And to think it was all for the sake of porn, which to this day I still approve.”
And thus began the crazy ride that would take singles like “Photograph,” “The Freshman,” “Cup of Tea,” and “Never Let You Down” sailing up the Billboard charts and solidifying the group’s fan base internationally. Spots on Late Night With David Letterman and The Tonight Show, soundtrack placements on the Great Expectations and The Avengers soundtracks, plus Vander Ark’s roles in Rockstar and Road Kill turned these humble locals into fawned over superstars. However, that attention and adoration came with a hefty price tag, which besides driving members to exhaustion distracted them from music making. “I don’t miss any of that because all the running around just wiped us out,” Vander Ark reveals. “You had to jump through a lot of hoops everyday just to stay on top and there was so much pressure from the label. The focus wasn’t about music anymore; it was about fashion, why I wasn’t dating anyone famous to get press, or why I wasn’t parachuting off a cliff to get people talking.”
Though the band didn’t break up when the temperature to conform was enough to burst a thermometer, they did retreat from the limelight, pursuing their own creative endeavors over nonsense publicity stunts. For Vander Ark, that meant breathing time following the band’s Underneath album in 2001, thus allowing his original ideas to incubate. It may have taken him a few years, but 2003’s close spawned his debut solo release, appropriately titled Resurrection to signify an inventive rebirth. “When making this album, I didn’t have to write something on a deadline and then instantly send it out to a bunch of label people to get their approval,” says Vander Ark of the record’s independent status. “The flipside is it lacks the distribution and exposure that you’d get on a major label, but it’s a lot more fulfilling to go out on the road, sell records, and actually talk with the people who are relating to your music.”
Thematically the disc pushes Vander Ark to a much more introspective thought process, touching on the emotional ride through the spotlight while reexamining his surrounding relationships. Sonically the project takes a slightly stripped down approach from The Verve Pipe’s crunching guitars and aggressive rhythm section, leaning more towards beefy acoustic guitars and organic instrumentation. “I feel like the record has a cinematic feel where I’ve searched inside myself for stories that can come to life,” he notes. “It’s sort of like watching a film with a soundtrack that musically fits into what Verve Pipe fans will like, but solely from my perspective.”
As for whether this solo move will end the band he birthed, Vander Ark insists The Verve Pipe’s door hasn’t closed completely. Although his tour schedule is mostly dominated by solo performances (including a recent national run with cult icons The Samples) the band reunites often throughout each year for spot dates. “I don’t think it will ever be at the frequency of before, simply because we’re all so busy,” Vander Ark ventures. “I’m very proud to have been in that band and still be in that band for 11 years so far, but I’m excited to explore this current set of visions on my own and where it takes me.”
For additional insight on the man behind the music, log onto www.bvamusic.com.
|
|
