Why success tastes like sugar

OSAKA – Who would have imagined that this bundles of raw energy and aggression believed such hits as Fly, Mean Machine, Every Morning, Someday and When It’s Over is composed of gentle creatures?

Away from screaming fans and eager autograph-seekers, guitarist Rodney Sheppard; Craig "DJ Homicide" Bullock, drummer Stan Frazier, bass guitarist Murphy Karges and vocalist Mark McGrath are sober, feet-on-the-ground guys who act as if success is not the big deal that it is.

Their track record is overwhelming. The Sugar Ray band has proven to be serious chart contenders, starting with Fly, the multi-format smash debut single from its RIAA (Record Industry Association of America) triple-platinum second album Floored. Among its many feats, Fly held top position on Billboard’s Hot Airplay chart for six straight weeks. Its companion video became an across-the-board #1 clip at MTV, VH1 and The Box.

Their third album 14:59 (referring to the fleeting nature of fame) has scored double platinum, or sold 80,000 units in the Philippines alone. The RIAA-certified triple platinum album not only enjoyed commercial success. It got rave reviews as well.

People named 14:59 their Album of the Year and noted that its "catchy tunes are at heart as sun-kissed as (Mark) McGrath’s bleached blonde hair and the streets of their hometown (Southern California)."

Their song Every Morning rose to the top 5 on Billboard’s Hot 100, besides becoming a number one smash at Modern Rock, Triple-A, Modern AC and Adult Top 40 formats, a top 5 track on the Billboard’s Hot 100 Single Sales chart and a #2 track on the Hot 100 Single Airplay chart. Someday, the second single off 14:59 reached the Top 10 on Billboard’s Hot 100.

Do we see the quintet blushing?

Actually. Rodney shakes his head in protest when a journalist shows amazement at how a celebrity band like them rode the bullet train from Tokyo to Osaka.

They have fun making light of the frenzy they create – whether in Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur or elsewhere they go on tour.

"They (the fans) would follow us to the train. They were really polite and gave us T-shirts," Mark relates his Osaka experience.

"Then, we wave and Mark pulls down his shades," chimes in Stan. Then, he opens a doggie bag and says, "They even gave us gifts for our dogs. Great gifts!"

Murphy adds, "We’re like the boy in the bubble."

When their Osaka fans found out that the band’s luggage was delayed and all they had were their backpacks, they showered their idols with T-shirts.

"Which is why," they chorus self-deprecatingly, "we were all wearing the same shirts that day."

The group has no pretensions about enjoying the same VIP treatment right at their own backyard. In fact, it seems they’re having the time of their lives being anonymous in their own turf.

DJ Homicide relates how he bought his own album three times "and no one knew I was on the cover!"

Murphy interrupts the guffaws by relating his own brush with hometown anonymity:

"I bought a record with my own face on it and (holding up an imaginary album beside him) asked, ‘How much is this?’"

Stan observes, "Ah, the things we have to do for love!"

What? A top band talking about themselves as if they haven’t graced the widely-viewed Today show, or performed with The Rolling Stones, U2, Destiny’s Child, Bon Jovi and The Sex Pistols, among others?

Mark provides the answer: "Success happened late (for the band). Our first record was not successful. We’ve been around for 13 years. We’ve paid our dues. We knew how it was to perform in front of empty seats."

Murphy relates a true-to-life incident that will always pull him back to reality.

"I know of somebody who had gone to success in Hollywood. He was making big money and brought a big house of his own."

Obviously, the guy lived beyond his means. And Murphy promised himself since he won’t get so smitten by success that he’ll think it will last forever.

Mark is blunt about it: "This industry is so fragile and we’re so blessed there is a power behind the band that keeps it going. It could end tomorrow. So if you’re pressured into selling records, you won’t enjoy the moment. You won’t enjoy the fact that you’re in Japan today and doing an interview. You have to stop and smell the flowers!"

To think this is the guy whose pinup- boy looks made People Magazine name him one of the 12 Sexiest Men in 1998; the one who appeared on the cover of Cosmopolitan and became a familiar presence on MTV!

Mark could go on and on making fun of himself.

"You’re the utility guy who comes in when someone cancels (a TV appearance) and somebody has to put lotion on someone else’s back!"

Part of the band’s charm lies in the members’ ability to show themselves – warts and all – to the world.

Mark is the first to admit, "I was not born to be a singer. I was yelling and screaming."

But he had the humility to listen to experts, among them his – and the other members’ – idol Paul McCartney. In doing so, he – and band – made themselves a lot better.

Rodney states, "We deal with realism. We never said we’re the greatest band there is."

Each of them does not hide some normal "dark sides" – like being moody, prone to complaining, etc., which makes them all the more human and reachable.

Mark even thinks "Acknowledging your weaknesses is a step forward."

The bottomline is, people are listening.

Sugar Ray is the featured artist on MTV Asia, Channel V Asia and Winston’s Power Hits this month.

As DJ Homicide puts it, "We now know what we are best at. We make songs people react to, and our music is so diverse."

So diverse that one cannot put a label on the Sugar Ray sound. Nowhere is this more evident than in their fourth album, simply titled Sugar Ray (look ma, no statements, whatsoever!).

Produced by Don Gilmore, the long-in-coming album (two years after the one before it) shows what DJ Homicide meant when he talked about diversity.

Sugar Ray is a blend of pop, punk, hip hop and rock ’n roll, a fitting comeback album after a long break which saw the band on the road, seeing how fans have, in Mark’s words, "validated us."

The adrenaline level goes extra high once more when Sugar Ray mounts the stage, plucks children as young as six and eggs them on to do whatever feels right.

Wonder no more why the band’s no-holds-barred performance style figured prominently in an animated music video courtesy of Cartoon Network Online.

Each guy picked out his favorite cartoon character and made animated versions of themselves. Turns out each member is a cartoon fan and shooting the music video was a breeze.

Thus it was that Murphy looked like someone out of The Flintstones; Mark reminded someone of the classic Hanna-Barbera, Harlem Globetrotters animation; Stan adopted a space-age look inspired by the futuristic family The Jetsons and Rodney paid tribute to Speed Racer. As for DJ Homicide, he could be himself. He is an animated character in his own right.

Sugar Ray carries its invasion into kiddie territory even further. They are seen in a chase scene around an island in another kiddie favorite, Scooby Dooby Doo.

Besides boundless energy and a bottomless sense of fun, Sugar Ray has another common denominator with children – most of them, anyway: a love for pet dogs. You see the members’ canine friends everywhere, from their first to the fourth album.

As Murphy, proud owner of a retriever says, "Dogs run our lives."

His dog started it all by appearing in the band’s video. Rodney’s pet Austin had a memorable part in the Mean Machine video.

This total devotion to man’s best friend is all over the band’s fourth album, where everyone’s pet dogs (all proudly carrying their adoring master’s surnames) appear on the CD jacket.

A pair of white dog paws resting on a mat cut across a photo of people swimming on a pool that is the cover 14:59.

Whenever the band takes a protracted break from recording or touring, it is their relationships (an allusion to girlfriends and a wife, in Rodney’s case) and their dogs that the members return to.

Save for Homicide, all the members are into long-term relationships. Mark has a girlfriend of seven years with no plans of getting married yet because of his erratic life on the road. Stan just got engaged and plans to marry next year. Murphy has a smooth-sailing relationship for years now. Rodney has an almost one-year-old son by his wife.

As for Homicide, he hopes to find a girlfriend in Manila, where the group is raring to go, soon.

Family is the other big thing for Sugar Ray. The members’ mothers sing hallelujahs to their son in one video and Stan’s nephew appears in another. Thanks to Stan’s parents who provided the living room in which they can rehearse, the then struggling band (known then as Shrinky Dinx a toy in America in the ’70s) had a place to start.

Mattel, makers of Shrinky Dinx, was unhappy over the (mis)use of its popular product, and sent out a cease and desist order. Thus was the band renamed after the great boxing legend Sugar Ray (minus the Leonard).

Shortly after, the band landed a deal with Atlantic and came up with their first album, Lemonade and Brownies. It bombed.

They were luckier the next time around. Floored, their second album, sold more than two million copies. Fly hit the charts in 1997, and, true to its name, soared.

Mark’s When It’s Over, carrier single of their fourth album, has shipped to multiple radio formats in the US. The love song has also been creating giant waves in Manila.

Looking back, Mark muses, "We don’t know if we’ll be talking to you (a writer interviewing him) if we pursued Shrinky Dinx."

Neither, it seems, will millions of the NBA fans see the band perform at the finals game at the Staples Center in Los Angeles if they didn’t adopt the name Sugar Ray. "We started playing 13 years ago playing other people’s songs. Nothing has changed, except that now, the noise you hear is the stuff we’ve written ourselves," comments Mark.

It’s the kind of "noise" now being heard all over the world – making people sing, feel, get up and dance, and this smooth-rocking Southern California band so happy they plan to bring their music (Manila, here they come?) to more places sooner than soon.

"We’ll keep on playing as long as the fans want to hear from us," promises Mark.

"Yeah," adds Murphy with humility. "We’ll know when it’s over."

No, Murphy. It’s not over. Of course not. Your fans, your producers merrily making their way to the bank, and those effusive reviews will see to that.