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Web Exclusive Interview
Sugar Ray's Stan Frazier
 Sugar Ray's Stan Frazier
The
SoCal band Sugar Ray, with poster-pinup lead singer Mark McGrath,
guitarist
Rodney Sheppard, bassist Murphy Karges, DJ Craig "Homicide"
Bullock, and drummer Stan Frazier, have definitely proved to all
the
critics who once labeled them "one-hit wonders" that they are here to
stay.
by Billy Amendola
For
those unfamiliar with the band except for their radio-friendly hits,
you
may be surprised to learn that Frazier can play a lot more than
just those easy-feel good beats over loops. This dude can play.
And not
only drums. Stan also plays guitar, and he co-writes those songs you
hear on the radio just about every fifteen
minutes.
MD: Do you play electronic drums?
Stan: I did a few years back. I bought one of the
Roland pad kits. I loaned it to Darren from the band Goldfinger,
and he hasn't given it back to me yet. [laughs] I also
loaned him some
DW pedals, which I haven't seen either! Darren, I really do want that
set back. You know what,
though? He's actually tried to give it back,
but I was on tour. I think he knew I was on tour, that's why he
called
while I was gone. [laughs]
MD: And at this point the band probably figures, He can afford to buy another
one, no problem.
Stan: Yeah, exactly. But that's a misconception. So, anytime you want to return it,
Darren [laughs]
MD: I noticed that in the video for "When It's Over" you have a Simmons kit.
Stan: Oh yeah. Ross Garfield, the Drum Doctor was the guy we rented those from. I love that stuff. I wish I had
that
kit. But technology is advancing so much now - The V-Drums are cool. The
drummer from The Start, who opens
our show, plays a Tama 24" kick with
the Roland V-Drums. It's a pretty cool setup.
MD: Let's
change gears. "Disaster Piece" from your new record, has a strong Rolling Stones influence.
Stan: Oh yeah, that
song is a straight-up tribute to The Stones.
Charlie
Watts is so great. Some of his drum parts are such great hooks.
Like
the song "Hang Fire." Everyone knows all those fills he does and the
way he takes the notes off the hi-hat. Some of his
stuff is just so
awesome. I love his traditional style. It's fitting for The Rolling
Stones. If they had some big flashy
drummer it wouldn't work. You've
got Mick and Keith, and you've got Charlie holding it down.
MD: How was it opening for KISS?
Stan:
When we got that call, Rodney and Mark were
both freaking out because
they are huge KISS fans. I was never a big KISS fan. I was more of a
"classic rock" guy. But I
appreciated what they did, and I thought what
they did was right up our alley. We always kind of believed in the
KISS/David
Lee Roth kind of philosophy for Sugar Ray. We just want to
entertain people. If we can make some people smile and forget
about
their lives for a minute, that's what we want. And that's what KISS
did. I did freak out one night when we
finished our set and in walks
Gene and Paul in full makeup, standing 6'10" or whatever they are. I'd
never seen
KISS live before. I went out and sat in the audience with my
girlfriend, and it was like, Wow. The show, the pyro - We were like,
Man,
I can't believe how great that was.
MD: You seem to be having a good time on tour.
Stan:
Yeah, I'm really having a lot of fun out there. I think that the people
who come to see us live
leave with a smile on their face. They leave
satisfied. We deliver a lot of the songs they're going to know, and we
give
them some stuff from the first record, which they don't really
know. And that's when people go, "Hey, that guy
can play
drums!" [laughs] Then I get to come out front and play guitar, and
people are like, Man, you have more fun
out there than you do behind
the kit. I'm just having fun because it's different. It's a good
dynamic; it's a
good balance. It's great to be able to be playing
drums, but also writing, playing guitar, being in a band
that's
current - I'm really fortunate. And as long as this lasts I'm willing to
work. Whenever I'm not
working on music or working with the band, I
feel guilty. I hate relaxing. I need a day off from touring, but one or
two days off
and I'm going stir crazy.
MD: How did the band get signed to Lava/Atlantic Records?
Stan:
When we got signed to Atlantic we only had between three and five
songs. We had made a video,
and fortunately Doug Morris [from Atlantic]
saw the live energy in the video and said, "Sign that band, this is
entertaining." It
was a song called "Caboose," which is on Lemonade & Brownies.
We just made a balls-to-the-wall video with a
good friend of ours named
McG. He's been like the sixth member of our band since the very first
incarnation of it.
He's helped collaborate, and he co-produced Lemonade & Brownies with DJ Lethal. He takes our band pictures.
He would drive us around. McG looks out for us. Recently he directed the movie Charlies Angels.
MD:
He's a good person to have in your corner, especially in the MTV generation. Music is just as visual as something you
hear.
Stan:
Absolutely. Without him pushing us and being there, we wouldn't be
here. He was
instrumental in our success. We were separated for a time,
and McG kind of brought us back together. There was a time where
we
decided, OK, this isn't really happening for us. What are we going to
do? Mark had just graduated from college at
USC and really wanted to
get a job. And rather than pursue the music thing, he was being
pressured to join the real world.
That was when we kind of split up for
a time. And then we all realized what bullshit it was to do what we
really didn't
want to do, and immediately we got back together. The
next thing you know, we were making a video, and then we got signed.
MD: Perfect timing or luck?
Stan:
Good timing, but it was a lot of luck too. I can't say
we haven't
worked our tails off. We started this band over thirteen years ago, and
we worked as hard as we could. We
lived all those band stories of
living together in a big house, having zero dollars, humping gear to
San Diego every Wednesday
to play our cover gig. We did it all.
MD: Well, no one in this business gets there without paying dues.
Stan:
No, nobody does. And if they do, they're out of here soon. Our dues
definitely got paid - and
then some. And to have four records out - that's
more career than I ever thought I'd have. What we've
done
completely exceeded our expectations. It's given us all opportunities
to do other things. I'm very interested in
getting into film, for
instance, and those are things that Sugar Ray has brought to me. I'm so
lucky to be here. I wake up
every morning pinching myself, going, "Oh
my God, did this really happen?"
MD: As a drummer, you've
co-written quite a bit.
Stan:
I think it's challenging. I'm always trying to outdo myself or come
up
with something better or more clever. I look at guys like Elvis
Costello as complete inspiration. I want to be as witty and
clever and
cool as that.
Don Gilmore, is kind of stickler on lyrics, so a
lot of the time it would be Don, Mark, and I
sitting in the console
room, in front of an iMac, waiting for divine inspiration. [laughs]
What works best for me, writing-wise, is
taking a CD home of the latest
versions of the songs, and driving around with it playing. I do most of
my writing in my car. Or I
put it in the CD player at home and just sit
there with a legal pad.
Sometimes I'll be riding my bike or
eating a
piece of pizza, and I'll hear a melody and try to think of a
lyric. Like with "Every Morning." "Every morning there's a
halo hanging
from?" That whole thing came into my head in five seconds. I was
leaving the studio one day and on my way to
the parking lot and the
lyrics and the melody came right into my head. I went back in, and our
engineer, Steve Gallagher, was
putting the mic's back in the boxes, and
I said, "Steve, throw everything back up. I've got something for the
cowboy
song" - "Every Morning" was originally called "The Cowboy Song"
then I put it down and everyone heard it the next day and they
were
like, "Oh my God, that's going to be huge." Another time we were locked
up in a recording studio in New York, and
it was really a downer time
in my life. We had released Lemonade & Brownies, and it did
well in Europe but it
was failing here in the States. So the feeling
was like, "Okay, you guys are going to get dropped. You'll have to go
back
to your day jobs." But there was one guy [Jason] at Lava Records
who gave us a second chance to make a record. Jason said,
"Come to New
York," so we went there for a month and started writing all these
songs. We had just come off Lemonade
& Brownies tour, and
we were writing heavier stuff. Plus, we had done some tours with The
Deftones and Korn and
all these bands that were really heavy. We'd had
some heaviness to us, but we also had more groove tracks. There's
even
an R&B song on our first record, "Dance Party USA." We were looking
for an identity, and we just didn't have
it yet. So were locked in this
recording studio, writing all this heavy music, and that's when the
shit hit the fan, because
Mark, didn't like the songs we were writing
and just decided, "I'm out of here." So he disappeared into the
New
York night for weeks.
So anyway, one day we were in the
studio, and Murphy started playing this bass line,
just A to D, the
simplest thing you'd ever heard. I was so depressed because I thought,
"Man, this is it. Mark is out of
here. He's given up." So, I was up in
my room one day, and I was like, I just want to jump out the window and
fly out of
New York and go somewhere else. And I wrote the chorus.
[sings] "I just want to fly."
It's bizarre when I think
about
this band in terms of starting from nothing and getting to this. It's
been the most amazing thing, and I can't
think of anything other than
this that I'd rather be doing.
For more check out Stan's feature in
Modern Drummer Magazine's January 2002 issue.
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