WE’RE GETTING THE BAND BACK TOGETHER Stone Temple Pilots aren’t the first band to reunite after a hiatus, particularly one where many thought the band was over for good. Tara Simmons looks at a few other acts who have jumped back on the wagon. The Police - Andy Summers, Sting and Stewart Copeland - originally formed in 1977. After being one of the first new wave groups to reach mainstream success, they broke up in 1984. According to documentary Last Play At Shea, Sting felt it was because the band had reached ‘Everest’ and he then decided to go solo. After a few sporadic performances to commemorate special events, the band officially got back together for a reunion tour through 2007-2008 to mark the 30th anniversary of their single, Roxanne. The surviving members of Led Zeppelin also reunited in 2007 for a one-off benefit concert. Following this there was much media speculation about their future, with vocalist Robert Plant quoted in the Sunday Times saying “having to live up to something is terribly serious”. The band has not performed together since.
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And then there are the bands that maybe should just break up already. Take INXS. Since singer Michael Hutchence was found dead in a hotel room in 1997, the band has tried numerous times to replace him. For some reason something just isn’t right and one couldn’t possibly think why – no matter how many times Never Tear Us Apart is played. Sometimes it’s just time, in the words of The Beatles who broke up 40 years ago, to let it be. But also it appears leaving when you’re on top and coming back to celebrate works well too. Whether it’s due to your slow-tocatch-on band or maybe just your band members, reforming isn’t a bad idea if you’ve nothing to lose.
NINETIES ALT-ROCK GIANTS STONE TEMPLE PILOTS ARE BACK WITH THEIR FIRST NEW ALBUM IN TEN YEARS. “I DON’T THINK ANY OF US WANTS TO REDO ANYTHING WE’VE ALREADY DONE,” GUITARIST DEAN DELEO TELLS DOUG WALLEN.
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he career of ’90s rock figureheads Stone Temple Pilots is littered with prestigious awards, gold and platinum albums, six #1 singles in the US and more than 35 million albums sold across the globe. Despite 2003’s cherry-picking anthology, Thank You, however, that blockbuster career sat dormant between 2002 and 2008. Coming off hiatus for an extensive North American tour in ’08, the California quartet stayed together and got down to work on a sixth album. Fans and haters alike may not have expected a new chapter in the STP saga, but for guitarist Dean DeLeo, it was always just a matter of time.
way rehashes the grunge thrills of platinum-selling early efforts like 1992’s Core and 1994’s Purple. The bluesy hooks of Take A Load Off and Hazy Daze may immediately be of the familiar STP brand, but most of the songs have a ’60s or ’70s feel, flitting between power pop, glam, baroque rock and more. Hickory Dichotomy and First Kiss On Mars are decidedly Bowieish, while Between The Lines recalls Tom Petty by way of Nirvana. The closing Maver is a harmony-ripened ballad underscored with piano and Dare If You Dare is a dreamy Beatlesque vision until the chorus tips its hat to Mott The Hoople’s Bowie-penned All The Young Dudes.
“I can’t say I was really surprised,” he admits, sounding as relaxed as could be. “I can say I patiently waited. I was ecstatic that the next chapter arrived. I knew it would, but I didn’t know when. I just felt like it wasn’t really over. None of us did.”
“We sure didn’t set out to make that type of record,” DeLeo asserts. “I think we just wanted to be a little more expressive. Being the guitar player, I really have all the paints in front of me. That’s where all the colour comes from. I just wanted to approach things a little differently, with cleaner tones and a lot of Telecaster stuff. It’s funny you say ’60s or ’70s: I think the record has a real country tinge, quite honestly.”
Self-titled and self-produced, the new record is positive proof of the reignited partnership between singer Scott Weiland, drummer Eric Kretz, DeLeo and his bassist brother Robert. DeLeo had been saving many of the new songs for a long time, making it a particular thrill for him to see them finally greet the light of day. “I love recording music, especially songs that have been sitting in my pocket for many, many years. It’s quite cathartic to get them out. It’s very relieving. And that I have the opportunity to have guys like Robert and Eric and Scott embellish upon my music… it’s mighty fine, man.” Romping through 12 songs in 41 minutes, Stone Temple Pilots is built on effortless choruses and splashy guitar licks. Helmed by the brothers DeLeo in LA, it in no
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He cites a country influence in everything from Huckleberry Crumble and Hickory Dichotomy to Maver and First Kiss On Mars, admitting that the latter started as a “nice little country ditty” before Weiland introduced some very cosmic lyrics about a “bipolar disco” and “super magic robots”. “That’s what’s so exciting about Scott coming back with something. He comes back with the complete, complete unexpected.” Although Weiland has said this is basically the first album where his lyrics weren’t preoccupied by his heroin addiction, witness the rascally refrain of the
lead single Between The Lines – “You always were my favourite drug/ Even when we used to take drugs”. Vocally and lyrically, he then approaches something like vintage Britpop on the super-romantic Cinnamon, a song written and demo’d entirely by Robert one night after dinner. Coaxed along by the cascading jangle, Weiland swoons, “You’ve got to be the prettiest girl/ I’ve ever witnessed in the whole world”. “We threw a lot of material at him,” DeLeo recalls. “We were demoing three, four songs a day. We worked up 20-something. Then we got together and, in our usual fashion, we played most everything acoustically so Scott could really hear the chordings that were happening. Then we played the stuff live. So the album was actually cut twice – once in demo form and then for real.” The album, he adds, was recorded digitally, albeit with the band’s own collection of vintage gear. As for the record’s eye-catching cover, it’s an image of fingers making the universal peace sign, courtesy of influential artist Shepard Fairey (the man behind the Obey Giant). Between that image and the decision to make the album self-titled, Stone Temple Pilots are letting the image and album speak from themselves. “That pretty much sums it up,” argues DeLeo. “Our name’s not even on the cover. We didn’t want anything to disturb that image. That image, to us, was like a flower. How do you improve on that?” Asked if the album could be taken as untitled, he laughs and says, “Call it what you want, man. You can call it Peace.” He acknowledges that, in the tradition of The Beatles’ White Album, fans will sometimes mint their own name for a record.
With a new album hitting the world and more tour dates in the offing, STP are poised to make their first-ever visit to Australia early next year. Live, the band remains simply a quartet – “There’s nothing else playing but guitar, bass, drums and a singer, the way God meant it to be,” beams DeLeo – but there has been talk of adding a touring member to man keyboards and other extras. Either way, “We’ve played those songs as a three-piece live and it works.” Whatever one’s thoughts about Stone Temple Pilots in the year 2010, the band has avoided any cashing in on the burgeoning grunge revival. As DeLeo tells it, the new album isn’t derived from the band’s initial lifespan but rather the years spent on hiatus. “We haven’t made a musical statement as the four of us in eight years. A lot happens in one’s life in a week, let alone eight years. [This] is just a reflection of what has transpired in our lives.” At the same time, he doesn’t put much stock in the idea that his time in various projects and Weiland’s years spent fronting Velvet Revolver lent some profound perspective to the new songs. “That doesn’t really affect me too much. I treat everything differently. I don’t think any of us wants to redo anything we’ve already done.” WHO Stone Temple Pilots WHAT Stone Temple Pilots (Warner)