Everything You Never Wanted to Know about Rock...: August 2008

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Stardom By Death

Just recently an upstart band Tickle Me Pink got a boost for exceptional notoriety- the 21st century way- their lead singer died on the same day as their national debut album "Madeline" was released. On August 3rd they gave a concert as openers to the bands Finch and Scary Kids Scaring Kids at Denver's Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom downtown. They have a replacement lead singer in Joey Barba (who is a Pantera fan, my era !) and a trendy sound which will keep them being heard on indy airwaves regardless of the fact that it is sudden tragedy which put them on the musical map.

The Denver gig was their homecoming gig so a Rocky Mountain News music journalist recently caught up to them to ask questions about where they're headed and how they were able to carry on. Even with most questions unanswered about the death of Johnny Schou they decided to forge on with the national tour that comes along with a debut album. If you check out the links at the end you can see what venues they've already played at and where they're headed next.

Songs such as the title track "Madeline" have taken on new and deeper meaning for the band which were initially difficult to sing at the onset of the tour are now helping them get through the tour on the emotional tide it's running. This is the tour that Bill Stevenson of The Descendants told them they'd never get through without air conditioning ! !

Mark Brown: The fans gave you an outpouring of support. Did that help ?

Sean: So, so much ! Especially initially when none of us had really gotten on our MySpace for a couple of days. It was the last thing we were thinking about. I finally logged on and there were literally thousands of comments and messages. It was overwhelming. I started bawling. Kids love our music. We need to press on. Johnny would want us to press on.

M.B.: How is the road right now ?

Sean: I was glad to leave. We had two weeks before we left and I couldn't go home. It was too weird for me. I was just staying with my parents and at a hotel. I never even went home. Getting out on the road was a relief. I can be productive. I'm sure when I get back for a couple of days I'll feel more comfortable now.

M.B.: How did you pick Joey Barba to play with the band ?

Sean: If there'd just been some random studio musician who'd come in to play with us, we wouldn't have done the tour. A lot of the songs on our record are pretty deep about life and death. I couldn't have been able to sing those lyrics onstage and look over and see some studio musician there in the place of Johnny. We're lucky that our good friend Joey Barba came out....he was good friends with Johnny and lived with us for a while.

M.B.: How hard was that decision ?

Sean: He went through this big emotional dilemma about what he should do. We wanted him to not feel obligated to the situation so we had a big ordeal. If Joey's not going to do this, we're not going to do this tour.... he came to the conclusion that he wanted to do it....there's something about having our unity with each other that makes it easier.

M.B.: After the tragedy, what were your thoughts ?

Sean: We didn't wanna go on the road. We needed to take some time. Then we thought for a while about what Johnny would want us to be doing and really evaluated our own lives individually. We came to the conclusion we needed to do this in Johnny's honor. Every song we play off this record- he helped write it- we're sharing a piece of him with everyone. Now we have so much more purpose, to where it makes it a little easier to play.