Holden out: (Left to right) Mike Simpson, Sam Mesumeci, John Faye, and Ritchie Rubini

By GREGG KIRK
October 1994

It seems like a man can’t shake a stick without hitting a signed band in Delaware these days. Amidst the many rumors of small local bands wrestling with indie-label deals, two homegrown groups have emerged from the fray with the brass rings. Last summer, Wilmington’s Smashing Orange signed to MCA Records for an amount of money that supposedly would make most people weak in the knees, and last April another Wilmington band, the Caulfields, did the same thing with A&M Records.

It was our original intent to spotlight both of these groups in the same issue, just as Smashing Orange’s first major-label release hits the streets in the middle of this month, and hot after the Caulfield’s return from San Francisco where they recorded their first big outings. But just as plans were being made to schedule the interviews, Smashing Orange landed the opening slot for Luscious Jackson‘s national tour, and the Caulfield’s bass player’s mother got very sick. Luckily for the band but unluckily for us, Smashing Orange had to split before we could talk with them, and fortunately for everyone, Sam Mesumeci‘s mother’s health improved to the point where we could conduct an interview with the new line up of the Caulfields.

Yes, just to make everything (including this introduction) more convoluted, when the group returned from San Fran, they experienced an amicable parting with their drummer Scott Kohlmorgen, who was replaced by local veteran Ritchie Rubini. The band now consists of John Faye on guitar and vocals, Mike Simpson on guitar, Sam Mesumeci on bass, and Ritchie Rubini on drums. On the day of the interview, all of them showed up, but Mike had to leave for a dentist appointment, so we took his picture, but he doesn’t appear in the interview. Did you get all that? Here it is…

Big Shout: How did you get signed?

John Faye: We got Doron Segal (manager of Matt Sevier and Huffamoose) to manage us last November, and a couple weeks into that, he recommended that I give a tape to Rudy Rubini. And everything sort of happened after that. Rudy heard our tape, which was just a crummy eight-song demo that we recorded at Sound Lab, and he literally called me around the clock for about a week saying how much he liked it. He said that his old friend Mark Mazetti (vice president at A&M Records) was coming in for the holidays and he’d like to play him the tape and maybe bring him out to see us. That happened. We played Mark the tape when he got into town, and we set up a little, private rehearsal/showcase to play for him.

BS: Where did you guys play?

JF: At the Opera House in Philadelphia, which is like a real junky rehearsal space off Route 76. We played six or seven songs, and it was just us, Mark, Rudy, Doron, and our soundman. After we got done playing our little set, Mark got up and said, “I think you guys should be making records for A&M,” And we didn’t actually believe him at the time because we didn’t know Rudy that well, and we obviously had only just met Mark, and we had been through the A&R grist mill… So after he left, we were like, “So was he serious?” And in the next couple of days that followed, we found out that he was serious. After that, we had to get a lawyer and start negotiations and everything. Of course, after that… everything happened with Rudy (he died from a heart attack), and it was the most horrible thing you could think of happening.

BS: What was going on right around the time Rudy died?

Sam Mesumeci: It was almost exactly a month after he brought Mark out to see us.

JF: At that point, it was pretty much known that we were going to get a deal, but as far as the terms of the deal… that was still way up in the air. The deal wasn’t finalized until April. So it was known all along, “yes, they want to make a deal with us, but the terms of it…” there were moments when we were like, “Well, we better be careful what we ask for.” But it worked out well. We signed the deal in April and started looking for a producer.

BS: How did you start shopping for a producer?

JF: The record company really helped a lot with that. Most of the producers that are around are on a big roster, and they are managed by certain people. They were mainly looking at the James Fehlan company, and he manages Kevin Mulroony (who produced Sinead O’Connor‘s Lion and the Cobra). We made arrangements with him lat in May, and that’s also when we determined that we wanted to use a separate engineer. We sort of wanted Kevin to concentrate on production and have someone else do the engineering, so we got Tracy Chisholm, who engineered Belly‘s record and Body Count as well.

BS: As far as getting signed to the big deal, what did you guys learn? What are some of the things you didn’t know about until you encountered them?

SM: When it came down to actually signing the contract, we went up to the lawyer’s office, his assistant walked in, threw the papers on the table, and said, “Go ahead and sign them.” And then we left (laughs).

BS: When did you start recording?

JF: We started pre-production in June at R.P.M. in Philadelphia. Kevin flew in for that and helped us go through all the songs and narrow down the list to 17. We just worked on those for two weeks straight. Then in July we flew out to California and started the tracking at the Plant.

BS: How did it go?

JF: Well, you know, every recording has its ups and downs. I’m not going to lie and say it was totally smooth, but in the end, the results are there. I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. It’s the record I’ve always wanted to make. It has all the elements that I’ve wanted from way back.

BS: What happened after you got back?

JF: When we got back from California, Scott Kohlmorgen, our former drummer pretty much determined that… you know, we had never been away from home for more than two months, and he was coming to the realization that his home life and his family life were not something that he wanted to give up in order to pursue the band any further. So, luckily, Ritchie was there to step in.

BS: What’s next?

JF: The immediate thing for us is to rehearse every day until the time we have to go to California, which is in late October. We’re going to be doing two showcases out there. The album’s coming out in January, and from there, it’s constant touring.

BS: One last question, which songs on your album did Jerry Lehane write?

JF: All of them! Every last one (laughs). In some cases Jerry comes to me in a dream.