NASHVILLE |FROM: AMANDA CAGAN/ MAGGIE WANG/ MITCH SCHNEIDER
Q&A WITH LEAD SINGER WAYMON BOONE
OF SPLENDER
PRESENTLY IMPACTING RADIO WITH “I THINK GOD CAN EXPLAIN,”
THE THIRD SINGLE FROM THEIR DEBUT C2/COLUMBIA DEBUT ALBUM ‘HALFWAY DOWN THE SKY’
Can you describe the on-stage chemistry of SPLENDER?
I think our chemistry as a band is one word to me..electric.” When the four of us played together for the very first time, it was immediate and undeniable, as though we’d been playing for years.
What’s your most memorable live experience?
I would have to say our most memorable live experience would be when we played the Zetafest in Miami. It was a huge outdoor baseball stadium. It had rained the night before so the place was muddy. The crowd started getting out of hand and throwing mud at each other and everywhere. The mosh pit was savage and unyielding and being the constant antagonist that I am at the end of the set, I dared the crowd to throw all the mud they could grasp at us. As expected, they obliged by pelting us and every inch of the white stage with black mud. It was awesome.
We read about the large festivals you played at before your album was ever released in May ’99. What was that like?
We consider ourselves to be very seasoned veterans. We’ve played seemingly everywhere around the country and around the world before we ever even got a record deal. European festivals are incredibly diverse. The crowds there don’t seem to come just for the name on the marquee, but rather for the music. So we learned a lot about the essence of a performance, regardless of language, and just how to keep things real.
What was it like for you to record these songs considering that it was your first album after having started the band with JAMES 10 years ago?
Well in a way it felt more like a “greatest hits” than simply a “new artist” as we have been presented as. We have so many songs and so much experience and history between us.
Recording these songs in a way was cathartic yet life threatening to me. It was a life-long dream for JAMES and I to make a record but it was such a long and tedious process to create it that I feared having a nervous breakdown in the process. Quite an unusual and unpredictable situation, I would say.
In the credits, you end your thank-yous with “In spite of all I have overcome, I am truly blessed.” Can you expand on that?
Well, that could be difficult to explain, but I don’t believe that one has to “suffer for his art.” In many ways I do have regrets that I had to suffer for my art.
I lived a somewhat hellish existence–I truly never thought I’d live this long to see this many sunsets. I was broken beyond repair and had very little structure or comfort in my so-called family life. I was an only child and had a lonely and secluded existence. I moved constantly–we couldn’t afford to stay quite anywhere. I felt I raised myself and I remember waking up in so many strange towns just going out to try to find something to eat alone by myself and I never really felt like a son. I suppose I felt more like a plant that could be moved to better suit the light. Maybe that’s why I have incredible survival skills now. I wasn’t close to anyone and was abused in so many ways that I’m proud of feeling like a good man and human being now inspite of all of my past. I don’t make any excuses for it. Maybe what didn’t kill me, really did make me stronger.
Can you talk about what it was like to travel with your mother (a ’70s R&B singer) at such a young age and how that influenced you to become a musician yourself?
Well, it was a circus. I spent almost as much time as a kid traveling around from town to town as I do now. I was born into the life so it’s really easy to see how I grew up to do the same thing.
Is there any advice she offered you, musician-to-musician, that helped you to deal with the business so far?
Yes. She told me to “trust no one” and “choose a different profession.”
What were you like in high school?
Well I was incredibly quiet and to myself. I spoke when spoken to, but I’ve also been in bands since I was 12 so I could gain much respect, attention and sheltering from that forum. I was the kid to be voted “most likely to not get to know.”
What will you remember most about the ’90s?
I personally will remember it as a time of complete pain and discipline. A decade of sleeping on my rehearsal room floor and singing till my lungs collapsed and head spun, and a time of NEVER stopping to even acknowledge it.
If you were writing a review of your band, how would you describe yourselves?
I would review our band as being “a hard-hitting rock band with great melodic pop sensibilities over brooding and intense lyrics.”
How do you feel about the current state of music and what is that “something different” you think you are contributing to it?
I think the state of music is in one state only “ongoing.” Right now music is reaching the full demography. Kids have something to listen and relate to once again, and the angry always have a place to vent. I feel SPLENDER has a darker place in the sun by straddling the two happily.
Who are your influences?
Well it ranges for all of us, but for the most part, I would say artists like: The Beatles, David Bowie, The Police, Jackson 5, and Fleetwood Mac, to name a few.
What motivates you as a writer?
What motivates me to write is simply my life. I’ve been destroyed and rebuilt over and over again so every song I’ve ever written to this point has had a purpose in my world to tell a simple or strange or decadent story that fills that void within me. It’s an insatiable and uncontrollable instinct that needs to channel its way out of me.
Any enlightening/interesting/funny stories about recording the album?
I would say the funniest thing about making the record was seeing all the strange hippie-type characters that would meander into the studio to rejoice at the sight of Todd Rundgren.
What did working with Todd Rundgren bring to the sound of SPLENDER?
Working with Todd brought a clarity to the songs and production. He wouldn’t let us fuck around too much or stray to far from the path. He kept us in line like a School Headmaster!
Where does the name come from?
It comes from the movie “Splendor In The Grass.”
When you were growing up were there particular musicians, writers or actual experiences in your life who inspired you?
Well my first inspiration would be seeing the Jackson 5 at Madison Square Garden when I was six years old. I mean how cool is that? Although I knew I was born to do this, I think after that show it may have been the first time I mentioned it out loud!
If you were hosting a dinner party, what four people (dead or alive) would you like to invite?
John Lennon, William Shakespeare, Joan of Arc and God. What jokes we could tell.
What’s your idea of perfect happiness?
When a smile lasts without any interruptions.
Have you ever had a “supernatural” experience (to borrow the phrase from your song)?
Yes…no one believes me, but in a dream I witnessed a killing before it happened. I saw the person, the street and the time. The next night it came on the six o’clock news EXACTLY as I had seen it. I stopped breathing.
What’s your greatest fear?
To be boring.
Name a guilty pleasure.
Watching TV ’til my eyes go blood red..I would say sex..but that’s too boring.
Who would you like to write, record or sing with in the future?
Bowie comes immediately to mind but, I’d love to write with a female artist like Bjork. I think our voices would create great emotional landscape.
What’s your motto?
“Can’t is a dying word.”
# # #
