BACKSTAGE PASS ARTICLE OCTOBER 1997
REBELS WITHOUT APPLAUSE
Heavy metal. When you use this term to describe a band, several other words come to mind. Power, aggression, and volume might be a few of them. However, there is one word that is usually not synonymous with Heavy Metal - SOUL. Chicago’s Rebels Without Applause has everything you would think that a Heavy Metal band has - powerful guitar riffs, pounding drums and bass, and screaming vocals. Yet, they also have that one added ingredient that makes them stand out in today’s tattered rock climate. They have SOUL.
You might be asking yourself - what does SOUL have to do with Heavy Metal? In the case of Rebels Without Applause it shows in their musical style, with their grooves and melodies. Each member of Rebels Without Applause offers his own influences and unique style to create a sound that is truly out of the ordinary. Greg Fulton delivers a soulful vocal style while adding a heavy rhythm on guitar, Mark Alano adds those powerful guitar riffs, Scott Schafer puts the groove in their power-groove style with his bass, and Tony Heath adds the pounding and precision beat on the drums. Separately, they all come from different backgrounds and influences, together they are a lethal combination of power riffs, groove, and soul.
The roots of Rebels Without Applause goes back to 1981 with Greg, Scott, and Tony. They were the core members of the band Znowhite, who released several albums on Roadrunner Records and toured every inch of America. “We toured nonstop in the back of a Ryder Truck. Eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and we just went everywhere,” explains Greg.
In 1988, Tony left the line-up and they began recording what would be their last album for Roadrunner. After the label was bought out and all of the people that signed Znowhite and were behind the band were no longer with the label, Znowhite “fell between the cracks”, according to Greg. They were released from their deal, changed their name to Cyclone Temple and began playing showcases at every dive and small club in New York that they could. “Every two months we’d sleep on people’s floors and eat spaghetti for a week,” explains Greg.
After struggling for months, playing in front of nobody at these showcases, they struck gold. “We played at The Cat Club on a Wednesday night,” says Greg. “And this lady who wrote for the New York Post came and wrote a little blurb that said ‘band to watch’. The next time we played, 25 people came. They were people from labels, management, agencies, whatever. The next time we played that number doubled. Then people from Sony and other companies, Gold Mountain Management - who used to handle Nirvana and Hole, were giving us their cards,” he continues. Relativity was the first label to step up with a hard offer and say ‘this is what we can offer you’. In hindsight, if we had been a little wiser, I think I would have waited. But because we were in a situation like this we thought ‘we might not be able to get anything else’ so we grabbed at it.”
Cyclone Temple signed with Relativity and released “I Hate... Therefore I Am” in 1991. This propelled Cyclone Temple to a new level. Greg explains. “There wasn’t a rock magazine that we weren’t either reviewed in, advertised in, or had an interview in. I gotta tell you, the highlight of my career was when I called home from the road and my mom said ‘I taped your video off MTV’. That blew me away.” Unfortunately it didn’t last. Relativity was sold to Sony and they cleaned out their roster of artists, including Cyclone Temple. After that they changed singers two times and released two independent albums under the name Cyclone Temple. “Then it just fell apart. We just didn’t go any further. Sometimes it’s just better to stop and say ‘this isn’t working’.”
Then about two years ago Greg started talking to Scott, Mark (who had been one of Cyclone Temple’s guitar techs toward the end), and Tony and they decided to try it again. They are currently in the studio cutting five songs that will be released independently in Chicago and to shop to labels. But they are keeping a realistic frame of mind. “It’s kind of hard starting over because once you get at a certain station, you have certain expectations,” says Greg. “But then you start to realize that you are starting over and you’re looked upon as a new band. That’s kind of where we’re at now.”
Rebels Without Applause have gained quite a following. They constantly play locally and out of town to capacity crowds and they are one of the top ten requested bands on Rebel Radio, WVVX FM 103.1. They do have high hopes for the future as well. “Being in the music business,” says Greg “is hard but it’s not impossible.”
You can get rebellious with Rebels Without Applause at Bedrock’s in Chicago on October 17 and tapes and shirts will be available at the show.
