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November 1999
DriveSHAFT- A second tour of the handle?
by Nicolas Perrin
French Rolling Stone, June 5, 2002
Click on the thumbnails to see the full sized scans.
Translated Article Text
If the climb up was fast, the slide down might very well be all the more vertiginous. After a first album shot down by the critics but which met tremendous success with the public—DriveSHAFT didn't just make it to the top of the British charts, it managed to accomplish what very few apart from Oasis have done before: it seduced the American public—DriveSHAFT, those Mancunian children of rock and roll are back with a new and indeed more mature album which unfortunately isn't turning out to be as popular and successful as the first one was. We met up with them while they were in Paris for one last date on their European tour before they go back to their native England. Between tensions, fights, unending partying, the four lads from Manchester tell us about their hopes (sometimes disappointed), the future and the rumours which have lately come to tarnish their reputation.
*************
Stepping inside the little bar of the Parisian hotel where DriveSHAFT are staying while in Paris for a concert at La Cigale, I was expecting another one of those British bands with an inflated collective ego and band members fighting for the reporters' attention. Maybe I've interviewed the Gallagher brothers too often.
The atmosphere in this rather for now deserted bar is friendly. Charlie Pace, Patrick Gleason and Adam "Sinjin" St. John are together at a table, playing poker apparently, half empty beer bottles kept handy. They're joking around, are throwing peanuts at each other, are laughing happily... they remind me more of a group of students on holiday than of one of the more popular British bands of the moment. Charlie spots me first, but after introducing himself he introduces me to his bandmates, singing their praise. Listening to him, it seems he's merely the fool of the gang while Gleason and St. John are the soul of the band. I for one am having a hard time reconciling this young boisterous clown and the singer the British tabloids have been depicting in less than flattering terms more and more often lately. "You mustn't believe everything Charlie says," says Gleason, "but you mustn't believe everything the tabloids say either."
"We all have our problems, our difficulties that we need to deal with," adds St. John. And it is true that one would be sent off kilter by less: a first album coldly received by the critics but which nevertheless dragged them all on a tour on the other side of the Atlantic, more than one single at the top of the charts... we all know the effects such sudden fame can have on the members of a rock band. "There were all these girls all of a sudden... they were raining down from the sky I swear! I might be a good catholic boy but I'm no saint!" Charlie jokes. Easy girls, easy money, alcohol, drugs... "When you're famous and it's going good for you, people are there, more people than ever and you end up doing things you'd never have done otherwise" Charlie continues to add. "It's a bit as if the world was fading away: there's not much you're responsible for anymore since everybody else is doing everything for you.
Gleason confirms: gigs, groupies, parties... hard not to lose your head. But how can they keep in sight what brought them there in the first place? What happens to the music? "Music is my life." With those words, Charlie becomes more serious. The clown gives way to the musician. "That's what we're here for, everything else is a bonus. But we can't forget about the music. We'd stop everything if we did."
I'm ready to believe that claim, particularly since Charlie's eyes light up at the mere mention of their upcoming concert in Manchester. Here is a boy who's not faking the love he has for his art, I'm sure of it. Yet, he wouldn't be the first to get lost on the way, others before him have been lost body and soul to the whirl of success and its least glamourous consequences. Not to mention that watching Charlie be both exuberant and serious, both here and elsewhere (his eye glaze over when he talks about what the recording of the second album was like), seeing the dark shadows under his eyes which are making him look older than his 26 years... I can't help but think that there is some truth to the rumours. Even though they assure me of the opposite, didn't they lose sight of themselves there for a while? Why two long years between the two albums?
"It's true, we were wrong for a bit. We wanted success but we weren't ready for it. That's also why we took our time" St. John explains. "We wanted to enjoy it, we wanted to have everything and even more, that's normal" Gleason adds, "and then the touring, the exhaustion, the tensions like the tensions within a family... we needed to grow up apart from each other for a while, we needed to become more mature as individuals and as a group."
And maturity is what this new album is about: an oil change, a new start, the desire to go forward faster and further... "I know people are surprised, they wanted another '(You All) Everybody', but we couldn't do the same thing again. We wanted to be different." Charlie's right, the hardcore fans might still be here but it's hard for them to recognize in this new and darker opus the melodies which seduced them two years ago. 'Oil Change' is everything but predictable, which is commendable but doesn't necessarily rhyme with success. "It was to be expected though! Liam's no longer doing his job of charming all the ladies so they're going somewhere else." Charlie the clown is back, laughing and laying it on thick, yet reminding us that since we're talking about maturity, Liam is now a dad, has been for just a few days. A sign? "We're all having a harder time keeping up with the schedule on tour, of course, but it doesn't have anything to do with whether this second album will be successful or not," Gleason adds, "we made this record because we wanted to, not because we had to in order to keep the fame. Sure we'd like it to do as well as the first one, we'd like it to be easier. At the moment, we're starting from scratch and that can be frustrating." But Charlie doesn't quite agree, "we're not starting from scratch, we have fans, we have means... we're just not doing things the exact same way so we have to keep explaining ourselves. Me, I put the same energy into 'Oil Change' that I put into DriveSHAFT, that hasn't changed. But I have changed, so has Liam... the band has changed and so the image isn't the same. Because our music is like a mirror, you know. You can see us in it."
Its then that Liam finally appears. I ask him whether he agrees with his brother on this, whether he shares that optimism which seems to drive Charlie to believe that the fans, the industry will follow the band on this new road they've just taken. His answer is more cautious, less certain: "I don't know, we'll see. Anyway, it's no good counting chickens before they are hatched. We don't make it with this one, we'll record another, or even we'll do something else." Then he talks about this baby who was just born, about a future which seems to be less tied to music for him than it is for Charlie. The atmosphere becomes a bit heavier, even though every band member is excited about their lead singer becoming a daddy. I understand better now what Gleason meant before about the group being like a family: besides the fact that Charlie and Liam are family for real, all four young men talk and act like brothers; they argue, they disagree but in the end they're all united by the same love. It's Liam who concludes the meeting, one arm around his brother's shoulders and a smile on his face: "Charlie's a genius, DriveSHAFT without him wouldn't even exist. You'll see, whatever happens you'll hear about him, I'm betting on it!"
Oil Change – DriveSHAFT, Rhythm Records, on sale since March 2002
DriveSHAFT will be live at La Cigale in Paris on June 13th, 2002
