Boota
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After 20 years together, Fetish hits Grammy ballot
Paul Allor
Staff Writer
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v666/Boota/newXXXcover.jpg
(The new XXX cover. Ain't it cool?
)
Back in 1986, Scott Carpenter was 16 years old, and paid a lot of attention to rock and roll. But he noticed something about the bands: they didn't look like him.
“I was looking at all the pretty-boy bands that were coming out, Poison, and all those bands wearing makeup, and I looked in the mirror one day and said, 'I'm gonna have to learn how to play,'” Carpenter said.
But then, he saw Mick Mars, guitarist extraordinaire for Mötley Crüe.
“He looked like a monster playing the guitar,” Carpenter said. “I thought, 'Hey, I'm ugly, I can do that too.'”
In the end, Carpenter decided he could do both: Learn to play, and stay “ugly” too. And now, almost 20 years later, Fetish is officially on the Grammy ballot, one of only 1,000 bands nationwide to be so honored. The band is in the best rock arrangement by a duo or group category.
“It's hard rock,” Carpenter said, explaining the band's sound. “I always think of it as Kiss-style riffs the way Metallica would play them.”
On a break
“A few months ago, we weren't doing much,” Carpenter said. “I had written a book, and I was taking time out. I was going to concentrate on writing, and had decided we were going to push the band to the back burner.
“Two days after I made that decision, I got a call from Al Gomes at Big Noise. They do our Internet marketing for us, and they're our record label. They He's on the Grammy committee, and he told us that they were interested in putting us up for a Grammy.”
Gomes and the band remastered their 1998 album, Triple X, and Gomes sent it to the Grammy committee, along with 13,000 other bands, soon to be whittled down to just 1,000.
“They've made it through a huge first step,” Gomes said.
The committee that named them to the ballot, Gomes said, is “made up of the biggest people you can think of in the business, the most professional in each category. Professionals, engineers, producers, songwriters.
Off a break
The band started playing again back in July, and just found out about the Grammy balloting recently.
Carpenter waited to tell his bandmates about it onstage at Kokonuts, less than two weeks ago.
“I was really shocked that we were even eligible,” Carpenter said. “I always assumed that you had to be signed to a major label.”
But Gomes said that is not the case.
“It's really not about sales at all,” he said. “By the time it gets to the finals, it's human nature that people look at the ballot, they see Sting, they see Paul McCartney, and say, 'Oh, I like them.'”
But he said in the genre categories, it's not uncommon for unknown acts to make it into the final stretch.
So of all the acts Gomes works with, why did he pick Fetish?
“The music,” he replied. “The music.”
And what would that 16-year-old kid watching Poison and Mötley Crüe videos think of all this? Did Carpenter think that 20 years down the road, he'd be in the running for a Grammy award?
“I thought it would be sooner,” Carpenter said with a laugh.
Whether sooner or later, Gomes said he's glad it happened.
“They're really great guys,” he said. “They deserve it.”
Paul Allor
Staff Writer
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v666/Boota/newXXXcover.jpg
(The new XXX cover. Ain't it cool?
)Back in 1986, Scott Carpenter was 16 years old, and paid a lot of attention to rock and roll. But he noticed something about the bands: they didn't look like him.
“I was looking at all the pretty-boy bands that were coming out, Poison, and all those bands wearing makeup, and I looked in the mirror one day and said, 'I'm gonna have to learn how to play,'” Carpenter said.
But then, he saw Mick Mars, guitarist extraordinaire for Mötley Crüe.
“He looked like a monster playing the guitar,” Carpenter said. “I thought, 'Hey, I'm ugly, I can do that too.'”
In the end, Carpenter decided he could do both: Learn to play, and stay “ugly” too. And now, almost 20 years later, Fetish is officially on the Grammy ballot, one of only 1,000 bands nationwide to be so honored. The band is in the best rock arrangement by a duo or group category.
“It's hard rock,” Carpenter said, explaining the band's sound. “I always think of it as Kiss-style riffs the way Metallica would play them.”
On a break
“A few months ago, we weren't doing much,” Carpenter said. “I had written a book, and I was taking time out. I was going to concentrate on writing, and had decided we were going to push the band to the back burner.
“Two days after I made that decision, I got a call from Al Gomes at Big Noise. They do our Internet marketing for us, and they're our record label. They He's on the Grammy committee, and he told us that they were interested in putting us up for a Grammy.”
Gomes and the band remastered their 1998 album, Triple X, and Gomes sent it to the Grammy committee, along with 13,000 other bands, soon to be whittled down to just 1,000.
“They've made it through a huge first step,” Gomes said.
The committee that named them to the ballot, Gomes said, is “made up of the biggest people you can think of in the business, the most professional in each category. Professionals, engineers, producers, songwriters.
Off a break
The band started playing again back in July, and just found out about the Grammy balloting recently.
Carpenter waited to tell his bandmates about it onstage at Kokonuts, less than two weeks ago.
“I was really shocked that we were even eligible,” Carpenter said. “I always assumed that you had to be signed to a major label.”
But Gomes said that is not the case.
“It's really not about sales at all,” he said. “By the time it gets to the finals, it's human nature that people look at the ballot, they see Sting, they see Paul McCartney, and say, 'Oh, I like them.'”
But he said in the genre categories, it's not uncommon for unknown acts to make it into the final stretch.
So of all the acts Gomes works with, why did he pick Fetish?
“The music,” he replied. “The music.”
And what would that 16-year-old kid watching Poison and Mötley Crüe videos think of all this? Did Carpenter think that 20 years down the road, he'd be in the running for a Grammy award?
“I thought it would be sooner,” Carpenter said with a laugh.
Whether sooner or later, Gomes said he's glad it happened.
“They're really great guys,” he said. “They deserve it.”
