SHUDDER TO THINK
Like a bullet from a gun shot straight into your
brain, Shudder To Think slams you down with a
mixture of hard sound, important lyrics, and an
anti-rock star attitude that makes them the critic's
choice band of '97. Frontman Craig Wedren knocks
my dunce cap off as he speaks:
Describe to us your recent bout with cancer.
I was really lucky. I got a treatable form of can-
cer, so if there is a kind of cancer to get, it would
be Hodgkin's Disease. There is a really high cure
rate as long as you catch it in time. I wouldn't say
that it was a pleasant experience in the least, but
life is full of different events that shape who we
are as people. When I was diagnosed with cancer.
it made me look at the
world and myself in a
whole different way.
My life might cease to
continue. I might not
get better and possibly
die! It opens your eyes
up to how delicate life
actually is. One day
everything is going
along great and bam!
you're told you have a
potentially terminal
illness. It definitely
helped me get my pri-
orities in line to what
was most important
to me in my life, like a
wake-up call.
"Survival," on your
newest release
50,000 BC, is that you
dealing with your vic-
tory over your battle
with cancer?
Well, as a creative
being, everything that
I see, do, or am
exposed to shapes what I spew out in my lyrics.
So, subconsciously, and without me actually
knowing it, I'm sure that "Survival" deals with how
all humans must face the demons that confront
them daily and live through the adversity and sur-
vive. We did not intentionally set out to write a
song about my experience with cancer, but that is
what I believe music is all about: If you hear a
song, and it reminds you of something that is
important to you personally or has meaning to
you as an individual, then it is your right to inter-
pret it any way you want. As a musician, I'm glad
when people can relate to our music or even a
particular song to their life. When this happens, it
gives what we do as artists meaning. To me, it's a
better thing to positively affect someone's life
than to receive a big royalty check from our
record label, it's an inner reward.
Did you really perform nude at your Lollapalooza
performance in San Diego?
Yes, but people really blew it all out of propor
tion and have tried to make it into a big publicity
stunt thing or whatever, and that was not my
intention at all. We were asked by The Smashing
Pumpkins to perform as an opening act, so we
figured it would give us the opportunity to get
84
our music in front of people who had no idea
who we were or what we were about, exposure
to our show. Instead, it was a bunch of people
that seemed to not give a shit about our music or
our show at all, so while dealing with this major
production that is known as Lollapalooza, my
frustration grew to the point where I might as
well take off my clothes and perform in the nude!
So, I did. More as a protest or statement than an
attention-seeking stunt. I thought it would be an
isolated lesson to an unruly audience in one
town. But the press had a field day with it, and
there we were in these national magazines, cen-
sored pictures of the band performing, and me
singing totally naked. Our music is what we
want people to appreciate, not the fact that I
got pissed off and did a show naked. That just
goes to show you how mixed up the priorities are
in the music industry today.
What should one expect when they listen to your
music or see one of your live shows?
First of all, you must forget everything you think
you know about music. Unlearn yourself! No
band wants to be pigeon-holed or boxed into a
certain category, but we cannot be neatly placed
into any box, because every record we've done is
completely different from the last record. You will
not be able to categorize us, because we make
music that goes against the grain. Songs that are
anti-mainstream, our focus is to deliver something
so different that it can stand on its own as music,
you can listen to appreciate without feeling like
you're listening to a Led Zeppelin tribute band. The
critics either like us or hate us, but we still have
not received record sales that we would like.
So, you want to sell records and be successful.
How do you do that without selling out?
No matter what any band says, they want to be
successful, and so do we, but only on our own
terms. It is our directive to put out good music that
we would like to listen to ourselves and would buy
if we walked into a record store. Somehow groups
seem to jump on bandwagons and end up sound-
ing too much like bands that have already come
and gone. They borrow and rip off their sound and
song contents so much so that there seems to be
almost no originality to their own music. In
Shudder To Think, we steer clear of sounding like
anybody in particular. If you hear heavy guitars,
hardcore punk influences, screaming vocals, or
basic from-the-soul rage, you can bet that no
matter what we release will be really ours.
You guys were voted Sassy magazine's cutest band,
and Seventeen magazine's "alternahunks." How
can you ever live that down?
No matter who you are, every guy has a dream of
being featured on the
pages of women's
magazines that are
read by women.
memorized by
women, and basically
used by teenage girls
as a fashion bible.
They didn't ask us,
"Hey, do you guys
want to be featured
in our teen beat girly
magazines?" they did
it on their own. For
years we had been
playing underground
alternative gigs and
getting little-to-no
attention at all, then
all of the sudden
we're classified as
punk rock pin-up
guys by two major
female magazines. So,
why fight it? Then we
were asked to par-
ticipate in a photo
shoot for Vogue.
another magazine worshipped by females world-
wide, and since everybody in the group likes cool
clothes, we figured we'd do it as a joke, all in good
fun, and it opened up a whole new audience,
which was all female, to our music due to three
magazines that merely mentioned us and includ-
ed our photographs. So, if you want to meet hot-
looking women, come see a Shudder To Think
show, because if they've been reading all the prop-
er female brainwash propaganda magazines, and
they're paying attention to what they are told is
"cool" music or "cool" bands, they'll be there.
So, how does it feel to have made it and be
rock stars now?
Rock stars? We are far from that, that's for sure.
From the day we started this band, we have done
everything we have wanted to do our own way and
left the ego out. While recording one of our
albums, we were in the same studios as the late
70s rock group. Foreigner. We took the opportuni-
ty to keep ourselves in check by harmlessly making
fun of these has-been rock stars, and it made us
realize what we did not want to end up someday.
Seriously, does anybody really care about any
"rock star" in the gos?
-Jon Stain
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