Sunday, June 27, 1999 | 4:32 a.m.
First published July 22, 1998.
Johnny Flamehead vocalist Jeff Henderson surveys the nearly empty merchandising shelves at his band's offices, just a few doors down from hot venue the Boston Grill & Bar.
"We gotta get the new designs done. We're almost outta stuff," he muses distractedly.
"For (last year's) debut, we had so many boxes in here you couldn't walk. Now it's gone," adds bassist Phill Robertson.
It's a 100-degree-plus Saturday afternoon, and we are relaxing in the air conditioning. A few doors down, Professor Punn is loading in for the evening's show. I am munching on tacos, looking over the industry contacts and to-do lists on the walls, noting the promo packs boxed on the floor, eyeing the computer center, the CDs scattered everywhere. These are the digs of an ambitious band on the move.
"The Adventures of Johnny Flamehead." A year ago, that phrase was the title of the Flameheads' debut album. These days, given their degree of local success and the twists and turns of recent events in their career, it may more aptly describe the band members' daily lives. With the new EP "Disappear", their recent triumph at the EAT'M conference, commitments by radio watchdogs Gavin Report to push them in 145 new markets and a freshly inked management and representation deal with heavyweight industry lawyer George Stein (who represents Bryan Adams, Jewel and the late Jeff Buckley, among others), things are getting adventurous indeed.
Turns out that Stein caught the band's packed EAT'M showcase at Tommy Rocker's by accident, having originally showed up to check out another band. But he was taken, as many are, by the intensity and weight of the Flameheads' show. Talks ensued. Initially suspicious, the notorious DIYers took their time researching his background and weighing what he had to offer.
Eventually--perhaps inevitably--a deal was struck.
"Fundamentally, it makes us all a little uneasy to be relinquishing all that control to someone, turning over duties that we've put such a personal stake in. That's a little weird," says Henderson. But Stein's stellar reputation, enthusiasm and willingness to go to bat for the band in pursuit of the ever-elusive record deal won them over.
"Look, he represents Liv Tyler," quips drummer Jack E. Roth.
'Nuff said.
The release party last year for Johnny Flamehead's debut--a complete concept album and comic book with centrally tied storylines and characters, with Marvel Comics-quality artwork--was quite an event, with radio stations, Hollywood-style klieg lights, heavy advertising and tons of merchandise and CDs, all underlining the Flameheads' presence on the scene.
People were struck by the professional quality of the merchandise, CDs and artwork; it's a standard that the band still adheres to and refuses to compromise. Some were impressed with the multimedia concept; others thought it gimmicky. Either way, the album has sold over 4000 copies to date--strong numbers for a band that has yet to play an out-of-town show.
"The first album did really good for us and we're proud of it in a lot of ways," says Henderson, "but in some respects I don't think it was as accurate a representation of what we do as "Disappear" is. Production-wise, it was way too clean and nice and inside the lines. A lot of the attention to the arrangements and the production got overshadowed a bit by the ambitiousness of the whole thing."
Indeed, the sound of "Disappear" is more raw, like the band actually plays live. They cut back on overdubs and tried a more live-in-the-studio approach. Songs like "Everybody Else," with its meat-cleaver opening riff, and "Anything At All," with its punkish speed, are prime examples. And although Henderson did all the characters and artwork on the Adventures CD and comic book, such imagery is nonexistent on "Disappear's" simple black and white packaging.
Having said that, it should be emphasized that Johnny Flamehead isn't entirely on the "heavier is better" bandwagon. An interesting live acoustic version of "Anything At All" included on "Disappear" was discovered by Jessie Jessup (from the now defunct 103.5 The EDGE) and was given multiple spins by the popular DJ, one of the band's most enthusiastic supporters.
"Jack's into rap, Phil and Greg are into heavier stuff and I'm more into straight pop," says Henderson. "We all appreciate a lot of stuff, and rather than trying to edit ourselves, saying, 'these are the narrow parameters that we've defined for our sound, everything has to fall within that,' we just write and record, and whatever ends up working, we use."
None of which means that the Flamehead sound that fans dig will disappear like a Smashing Pumpkins drummer; the band likes it heavy.
"We're too aggressive to be anything else," says Robertson. "It'll come out that way no matter how you filter it."
"I can't understand why a band can't be Rage Against The Machine but with vocals," adds Roth. "There's never a melody, and we were always like, well, why can't that be? So I think we're a lot closer to a heavy melodic band."
The afternoon is winding down, I'm fresh out of tacos, and as I get ready to leave the talk turns to motivations. Why do musicians do what they do when the money is spotty, there's little job security, and virtually no future guarantees of any kind of life or career? Is it the sense of self, of accomplishment, of personal expression? The chance at a better life? The admiration of others? The members of Johnny Flamehead have a simpler reason.
"We do it because it's fun---I mean, I think a lot of people take this shit a lot more seriously than we do," says Henderson. "There's no big lofty thing where we think we're gonna create high art or where we're interested in a higher ethic. We're just four guys who have a genuine adolescent enthusiasm for what we do."
That attitude has served them well--consider that in roughly three years the band has gone from being basically nonexistent to recording two CDs and building the foundation and network necessary for a shot at the big time--all done through a combination of hard work, vision and a healthy dose of the right attitude. If they keep doing what they're doing, we ought to see Johnny Flamehead burn a lot brighter still in the months to come.
For more information on Johnny Flamehead, check out the official website: www.johnnyflamehead.com. "Disappear" and "The Adventures of Johnny Flamehead" are available at Tower WOW! and other local record stores.
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