The Old Man Motel
release party will be held June 19 at Berbati's Pan.
Fernando Viciconte has seen the future of rock 'n' roll, and
it's a lot like the Apocalypse.
"I was watching VH1, and Bono said, 'Rock 'n' roll is a
dead term. It's extinct,'" the Portland singer says. "When
the ground starts opening up and swallowing up all the rock
'n' roll bands, Bono wants to be [standing] on the edge
and going with the new term." Asked what this word might
be, Fernando quips, "I don't know. Bono. Bono-roll."
If you've seen Viciconte and his eponymous band, Fernando,
play, you know what he thinks of the U2 front man's forecast.
"I guess I'll be going down with rock 'n' roll," he says.
"I'd rather go down with the ship. Call me an old dinosaur."
But instead of going down, Fernando is on the rise. The
band's well-produced, guitar-heavy rock, which sounds a
little like Neil Young, has some other dinosaurs
of rock listening. Last month, Interscope
Records, currently perched atop the industry food chain,
flew the band to L.A. for a private showcase. Columbia,
Sony, Almo, American and Reprise have also nibbled. In the
middle of a recent conversation, Viciconte had to get off
the phone abruptly. BMG was on the other line.
"Once one major company is interested, they all start doing
the same thing, and now they're 'interested' regardless
of if they are or not," Viciconte says. "You have five or
six people waiting to see what the other person's gonna
do."
Interscope leads this pack because it survived entertainment
giant Seagram's December purchase of PolyGram, which consolidated
25 percent of global music sales, killed big-name subsidiaries
like Geffen and A&M, axed thousands of employees and
orphaned about 250 bands. Interscope, a Seagram subsidiary,
emerged intact. So when Interscope bosses like Jimmy Iovine
talk, people listen.
Lately, Iovine's been talking about Fernando. Last summer,
the band lived in L.A. for 10 weeks, ultimately landing
a chance to play for Geffen. The merger put things on hold,
but eventually Iovine, who has produced albums for Patti
Smith and, ironically, U2, heard a tape. Rumor has it he
loved it.
Industry heads play politics as well as follow-the-leader.
When Interscope flew Viciconte, guitarist Dan Eccles, bassist
Joe Chiusano and drummer Clayton Jones (since replaced by
the Flapjacks' Richard Cueller) to L.A. last month, other
labels wanted to hear them, too. But since Interscope had
paid for the trip, the boys couldn't oblige; they had to
come back to Portland and wait for other labels to pay for
another trip. Now two labels (Viciconte won't say which
ones) are offering to split the bill. Still, no money has
changed hands, no deals have been signed and, given the
industry's caprices, all this fury could signify nothing.
Meanwhile, the band refuses to sit still. Portland indie
stalwart Cravedog
Records planned to release Fernando's upcoming Old
Man Motel on May 3, but Interscope liked a few of the
songs and asked the band to hold off. After a few weeks
of negotiations, Fernando and Cravedog decided to forge
ahead; Old Man will come out June 19. "They want
to pick the record apart and go, 'We'll take these two songs
but not use the rest of the record,'" Viciconte says. "After
we worked on our record for a year, to wait another year
for it to come out on their label? It's ludicrous. I don't
foresee signing anything with anyone who's going to limit
us...and tell us what singles we're going to do. That's
not going to fly with us, and it's not of interest to me."
To the majors' consternation, Fernando doesn't have a singular,
easily marketable sound. The first Fernando album, Season
in Hell, was a one-man, one-guitar acoustic project.
On the second, Widows, Viciconte brought in a full
band for a folkier sound. On the new album, pop in the British
Invasion vein sits alongside gritty blues and head-banging
rock.
And then there's Fernando y Los Cochinos, an alter-ego
side project that played Spanish-language roots rock on
last year's Pacoima. It's a project close to Viciconte's
heart, but it hasn't figured into the majors' plans. While
hard rock is making a comeback and rock en español
is hot, no one knows what to do with a band that does both.
Especially one that also has alt-country, folk and blues
in its repertoire. Viciconte and Luther Russell, who produced
Pacoima and Old Man Motel, want to go even
further afield with a future collaboration. "It's going
to be a Black Sabbath Spanish album," Viciconte says, grinning.
Whatever the labels hope to get with Fernando, Black Sabbath
en español definitely isn't it, and Viciconte
knows it.
"The industry prefers that you do one thing because you
can make a demographic. Then you can sell it to people and
keep on shoving it down their throats," he says. "Of course
in order to do that, we have to play those songs
for a year. I can't do that. The band would've quit a long
time ago if that's all we did." He says a licensing agreement
that would let the band record for Cravedog and provide
for major-label promotion and distribution would be ideal.
As a partner in Cravedog, Viciconte is loyal to the label
and its owner, Todd Crosby, who also manages the band. So
far, the indie has earned praise but little cash. Viciconte
hopes to find a label or publishing company that can bridge
that gap. "You don't have to make a homogenized, calculated,
demographic record to be successful," he insists.
Viciconte is realistic about the odds of getting exactly
what he wants. "As a musician, you're so replaceable....
You're one of a million people that want to be in that same
scenario," he says. A refugee from Southern California (he
moved here in 1994), Viciconte has, in one sense, already
chosen Portland and its community of musicians over L.A.
and the industry scene. "No one in their right mind's gonna
come to Portland to become a rock star," he says.
"You move here to play music; you go into a basement and
record on 8-tracks."
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Willamette Week | originally
published May 26, 1999
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