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"No one really knew that this record would not suck," says Cake frontman John McCrea of his band's new record, Prolonging the Magic, out this week. |
The potential suckage stemmed from a two-year period of prolonged touring, unexpected success and internal strife, the last of which resulted in the physical exhaustion of McCrea and the departure of both guitarist Greg Brown and bassist Victor Damiani.
McCrea considered dissolving Cake after Brown, co-writer of some of
the band's best material, including the alterna-hit "The Distance,"
left earlier this year (Brown, since replaced by guitarist
Xan McCurdy, has formed a new outfit called
Misty. Damiani was replaced by original bassist
Gabe Nelson). "I thought it was really stupid, his
[Brown's] leaving," says McCrea, who'll only say their split was
motivated by "political differences." "It didn't please me. But now
I feel okay. Things were hard before. I think we're all better at
communicating than we were. You can't bring too many childhood
issues into it, you know?"
Though McCrea is intentionally ambiguous about the group's
makeover, it's fairly obvious that a lengthy and rancorous tour in
support of the band's second record, Fashion Nugget,
didn't do much to improve intra-band relations. "You put five males
into a small space for hours on end and you're gonna have something
happen, because we're just animals," McCrea says. "There were some
interesting power dynamics, but I don't want to say too much."
The band would ultimately cancel several weeks worth of dates,
citing McCrea's tour-induced exhaustion as the reason. While
"exhaustion" is usually publicist-speak for an affliction of a more
ominous nature, McCrea says he was just tired. Seriously. "I was
starting to get burned, partly because of the way things were in
the band, but also because of traveling a little too much. I think
you sometimes get what they call exhaustion if you cross too many
time lines in too short a time. In three weeks I had been to Japan,
Europe twice and the States twice and I got insomnia and just
started feeling physically horrible. So we stopped for a little
bit."
McCrea bowed out of the tour at the height of the band's success,
against the advice of numerous handlers hesitant to disrupt things
while the band was still going the distance, going for speed. "When
you stop the train, everyone tells you you're dust, and they tell
you that because they're afraid," he says. "It's possible that you
could become dust, and a lot of people do, but I think you have to
be true to yourself in the present as well as the future. Your
concern for the future should not make your present a living
hell."
Somewhere around the time McCrea ran out of metaphors to describe burnout, Fashion Nugget went platinum. And, based on the early success of Magic's first single, "Never There," McCrea may need to stock up on plasma for another whirlwind tour. The group expects to hit the road later this month to promote the new album, which welds together pop, country and more quasi spoken-word and mariachi, all of which got a sonic nod on Fashion Nugget.
Regardless of whether Magic matches the success of
Fashion Nugget, Cake won't be chartering flights any time
soon. "We're playing thousand-seaters on our next tour, and that's
enough," he says. "When you get to the next level [of fame], I
think it gets really stupid. Having a bunch of strangers think that
they know you is more of a theoretical pleasure. You know, I made
as much as a dentist last year. A friend of mine's father is a good
dentist, and he made just as much money as I did. To be like a
dentist, that's fine with me. That's all I would ask for."
ALLISON STEWART(October 5, 1998)