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Squint makes its home on the road

“No” is a word independent bands hear a lot. Getting gigs, getting radio airplay, getting press — most of the time, the answer is no.

But all it takes is one good “yes” to change everything.

Rock four-piece Squint knows a lot about rejection. It’s just as much a part of their story as acceptance.

For more than seven years this indy power-pop-punk group has been touring the country, playing between 180 to 200 gigs a year and developing a national fan base. They have enjoyed success on college radio, earned a mention in Rolling Stone, scooped up a nomination for the New Music Award at the 2003 American Music Awards and even have had their tunes featured on this season’s episodes of MTV’s Road Rules.

Sounds like they’re on the verge of something big, right? But still, no major labels have come knocking.

It may be frustrating, but lead singer Dale Adrian says the band is having fun waiting for major success.

“We have every intention of being rock stars,” he said. “Ultimately we just love to play music. We love to play live. We love the people we’ve met along the way. I think it’s beautiful to have created something from nothing. The fact that our fans listen to this music and identify with what we are saying is a beautiful thing. It makes you want to work even harder at it.”

The band formed about seven years ago in a little town called Houghton in the frigid northern reaches of rural Michigan. It was there that founding members of Squint (Adrian and Matt Fredrickson) first began playing music together. The two friends were determined to make a career out of music but it was clear that in order to do that, they would need to flee their hometown.

“Houghton, albeit a beautiful town, is in the upper pensile of Michigan,” Adrian said. “The upper pensile is a very large chunk of land. It would take about six hours to drive from end to end. And in that entire chunk there are only 100,000 people. Before you could start a tour, you would have to drive four our five hours just to play your first show.”

So Adrian and Fredrickson uprooted themselves and found an unlikely new home base in Ruston, Louisiana, home of Louisiana Tech University.

“From a band’s standpoint people might think Louisiana is the middle of nowhere, but try Houghton, Michigan,” Adrian said. “The decision was made to move from Michigan to somewhere. When looking for a place to go we sat down and looked at our goals. We knew we were a live band and we loved to tour. So we looked at the different regions of the country which make since to move to. First thing you think is if you are a rock band, then move to L.A. or go to New York. But from a touring position L.A. kinda sucks. If you go to the east you have nothing but desert and to the west you have the ocean. So basically you are confined to the coast. Plus the cost of living is outrageous and it’s already saturated with rock bands already. L.A. didn’t make since for most of the reasons New York didn’t make sense.”

The decision to move to Louisiana was based on music and the location.

“We basically sat down and thought, what towns do we want to play? Dallas, Austin, Nashville, Atlanta,” Adrian said. “We looked at all of those places and figured out, you know what, Louisiana is right in the middle. Plus, if you want to get to L.A. it’s not terrible and if you want to get to New York it’s not terrible. We’ve been to both places because we are right in the middle. So that’s why we chose Louisiana. Lots of people think we’re crazy, but I don’t regret it.”

In Louisiana the two friends enrolled at Louisiana Tech and in the meantime met people to fill out the band, Tote Burnett on drums and Young Charles on bass.

Soon the group recorded its first album, Beeker, and began touring, putting school on the back burner.

“Half of my schooling was done from the road,” said Adrian who eventually finished and has a degree in industrial engineering. “I did a lot of independent studies. I would take a laptop everywhere. I would walk in to a venue and ask to use their phone line so I could fax or email my assignments. Eventually I ran out of school, they handed me a degree. I got that out of the way. I have a degree but have no intention of ever using it. I mostly got a degree to shut Mom up.”

After a few years touring in support of Beeker it was time to record another album. While their debut was thrown together over a four-day recording and mixing marathon studio session in early 1998, the band had decided it wanted to put together a more professional sounding album that captured the energy of a live show for the next album.

The bandmates went through their own record collections in search of albums they admired for their production quality and sound. A quick glance through liner notes turned up a few names of producers and possible studios that they wanted to record in.

“There was one particular band called Five Eight that sounded unbelievable and they have a great live show,” Adrian said. “They are this indy punk rock band from Athens, GA and they had a record deal with a minor label. They put out this record [Gasolina!, 1996] and it just sounds so good. All of their previous recording just didn’t capture what they are like live. But [Gasolina!] did. We know this was what we wanted. So we looked at who produced it and where it was recorded. Because it was an indy band we figured [the producer] was a nobody and we could get this guy to do it and we would be able to afford him because he’s some nobody studio rat.”

With a little research the group discovered that the studio in which Gasolina! was recorded was out of business but they were able to track down the former owner. “We wrote the owner an e-mail and he wrote back that we could get ahold of the producer through his management out in L.A.,” Adrian said. “I was like, ‘Management? L.A.? What kind of studio rat has management in L.A.?”

Adrian quickly realized that this was no studio rat, but in fact a guy named Ed Stasium, a legend in the music biz (he even has his own fan club) who has produced records for The Ramones, Misfits, Soul Asylum, Talking Heads, Mick Jagger, The Smithereens, Reverend Horton Heat and many more. Impressed but not discouraged, Adrian contacted Stasium’s manager who is turn asked for samples of Squint’s music and a budget proposal.

“A budget proposal? What’s this?” Adrian remembers thinking. “So anyways, I just did it. I also just sat down and wrote a letter that said. ‘We are an indy band, we heard your work on this Five Eight album and we are impressed with what you did.’ I explained the situation and gave him our budget which compared to a major label was pretty laughable.”

Betting that Stasium would ignore the band’s meager plea, Adrian went ahead and made a follow-up call to his management. To his surprise, the legendary producer had agreed to do the project as a “labor of love.”

“He respected what we were trying to do and understood where we were at,” Adrian said. “He respects that. He works with a lot of punk rock bands. He was there when the Ramones started and the Talking Heads started. Asking Ed really instilled in me a ‘no fear’ attitude. It’s like asking that girl in junior high to dance. The worst thing that can happen is that you will be told no. So why not ask? How much is that going to hurt?”

Recording for the new album (Tinsel Life) went ahead. The album was released nationally this summer.

Since the album’s release, the group has enjoyed a snowball of success and accomplishments with Stasium’s name behind them. In their latest coup, Squint has been signed to a sponsorship deal with Jagermeister.

Work for their next album is under way, and touring is proceeding nonstop. The band plans to reach the Northwest this fall.

“The drive and the push and the reason we work our butts off is all because we want to do this as a career,” Adrian said. “This is what we want to do. The only way to do that is to push and fight. There are so many bands out there. It’s overwhelming. The competition is outrageous. So if this is what you want to do, you fight for it. We work and work harder than anybody else and hopefully in the end we will be the ones left standing.”

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