Everybody Loves Our Town_ An Oral History of Grunge - Mark Yarm [177]
KEVIN MARTIN Now, everybody knew that Madonna was looking for a band from Seattle. They weren’t looking at us specifically. She’s not stupid. She knew that she could find something from Seattle that would give her a great opportunity to start her label.
GUY OSEARY That’s absolutely one million percent not true. She never told me what she was looking for. I was there, I was a young kid at the company, and this is what I liked. I gave you the story: I walked into the club, and if the party around the corner was great, I would’ve never made it over. It was one of those fortuitous moments.
KEVIN MARTIN And this is where it got really fucked up. Green Apple Quick Step was being managed by Kelly Curtis. Green Apple had been flown down by Maverick. We were staying at the Holiday Inn Regent Plaza Suites, which was right on Hollywood Boulevard. Green Apple was staying there, as well. We ran into them and said, “Hey, what are you guys doing?” They’re like, “We came to do a showcase for Maverick.”
We had just gotten a phone call that Guy and Abbey Konowitch are on their way to come meet us to talk to us about signing to Maverick and we’re like, “That can’t happen. These are our friends.” They were flown down by Maverick, that’s just not going to work. They’re gonna fuckin’ think that we’re trying to take the deal from them, which wasn’t our thing.
We knew what was going to happen, and it sure as shit did. Kelly Curtis called up Maverick and said, “How fuckin’ dare you? You can’t have both bands. Who the fuck is Candlebox, dah dah dah?”
GUY OSEARY I was looking at Green Apple Quick Step, and they were meeting with a lot of people at the time, as well. We were given an ultimatum, if I recall, from someone in the Green Apple Quick Step camp. An “us or them” sort of thing.
I’d been lucky to spend some time with Jeff and Stone from Pearl Jam, and I thought, These are two of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Candlebox reminded me of that vibe. Good, quality people. Candlebox knew we were looking at Green Apple Quick Step, and they didn’t give us an ultimatum. I wanted calm, easygoing guys who don’t care that we may sign two bands from Seattle. It just felt right.
KRISHA AUGEROT We were just not down with having them sign two bands from Seattle. Green Apple Quick Step wanted their own thing, and found that more with Kevin Patrick at Medicine, which was part of Columbia Records. In our minds, it was more of a decision based on Guy or Kevin. Maverick was a really new label at that time. Guy was super-young. He couldn’t even drink. There were pros and cons for both. Madonna was really the pro for going over there, ’cause she had so much muscle. But we felt like Columbia was tried and true, and Kevin Patrick’s a real music-head. So I think our decision was based more on that than on Candlebox.
PATTY SCHEMEL (drummer for Los Angeles’s Hole) I moved from Seattle to San Francisco in ’91. I was there for a bit, and I got a call from Dylan Carlson, who said, “Hey, Kurt’s wife is looking for a drummer, and I suggested you.” So I went to L.A. and tried out and Courtney called me and said, “We want you to play drums in the band.”
When I moved back up to Seattle, it was totally different. It just seemed like everybody had a record deal. Even the smallest bands. No offense to this band, but there was a band called Green Apple Quick Step, which is the dumbest name I’ve ever heard, and they have a record deal.
GUY OSEARY The first artist that I ever tried to sign was Hole. I was 17, 18 years old. The second band I tried to sign was Rage Against the Machine, and the third group I tried to sign was Candlebox. Both Rage and Hole were down to the wire—both didn’t sign with us—and here comes Candlebox, who had other people interested and signed with us.
KEVIN MARTIN We got a ton of shit for being on Madonna’s label. Everybody thinks that you sleep with her. She had just released her Sex