Sick Puppies in The Columbian (in Vancouver, WA) 4/22/11

[stephb]

http://www.columbian.com/news/2011/apr/ ... luck-work/

Sick Puppies succeed with luck, work
YouTube video, move to U.S., tours widen the rock group’s exposure
By L. Kent wolgamott for The Columbian
Friday, April 22, 2011

“We’ve crossed over to the pop format,” said bassist Emma Anzai in a recent phone interview. “That’s amazing. We’re a rock band. But we’ve had songs on the pop radio, and people like them.”

“Maybe” went Top 10 on Billboard magazine’s Adult Pop Songs chart. That success landed the Australian band a slot on the recent Blizzard Music Tour 5.0, which is headlined by hit-making rapper Nelly and features the electro-pop duo 3OH!3 and hip-hop artists Cali Swag District.

The opportunity to join the tour seemed cool but also strange to a band not yet accustomed to the pop-music world, Anzai said.

But Anzai said the tour gave the band a chance to reach an audience that might not have seen it if it were playing a rock show on its own.

“We’re working to build this,” she said. “This will help. Everything helps. But in the end, it’s about the music. You get the music out there, and it speaks for itself, right?”

With the Blizzard tour finished, the band is now on a headlining tour with a rock-oriented bill that features Framing Hanley, Adelitas Way and Madam Adam when it reaches Portland on April 27.

The new tour is a sign that Sick Puppies continues to gain momentum in a career that started with a bit of a bang but has mostly seen the group gain fans through touring.

The band’s first wide exposure came via YouTube, where the Sick Puppies became an unexpected international sensation five years ago.

In 2006, a video for the song “All the Same,” featuring singer-guitarist Shimon Moore wearing a sandwich board that says “Free Hugs,” was uploaded to YouTube.

Since then, the video, which supported the Australia-based Free Hugs Campaign, has received more than 68 million views, most of them in the first few months it was on the website.

“We were lucky like that,” Anzai said. “It was right about the time that YouTube was getting noticed, really getting huge. It was one of the videos that got a lot of views really fast. That helped us get signed, but it took a while.”

It took a while because Moore and Anzai were in transition, moving from Sydney to the States.

The musicians moved following their first album release in search of a bigger market for Sick Puppies’ brand of punk-influenced hard rock — a sound heavily influenced by Rage Against the Machine and trios such as Silverchair and Green Day.

“We love the three pieces that can really make it sound big,” Anzai said. “Every person has to make the most of their instrument. You have to have the song and make it sound big. The dynamics are important. It has to be big and loud.”

Getting a major label
Anzai and Moore, who started the band as high school students in 1997, got jobs and worked for a couple years before making the move to Los Angeles in 2006. There, they recruited drummer Mark Goodwin via Craigslist to replace Chris Mileski, who remained in Australia.

Running contrary to today’s indie do-it-yourself surge, Anzai and Moore had one make-it-or-break-it goal when they came to the United States.

“We had to get a major (label) deal to stay here,” Anzai said.

The band said its YouTube hit was the result of luck, but it would take more than luck to succeed.

“With a major label, they’re still going to have the means to be able to get your music out in a way you would never be able to do yourself,” Anzai said.

The musicians got their wish when they signed with EMI-Virgin Records, and subsequently released “Dressed Up as a Love” in 2007 and “Tri-Polar” in 2009.

“Polar Opposite,” an eight-song EP of acoustic versions of some of the band’s better-known songs, was released March 1, with CDs selling exclusively at Walmart, and digital tunes available through online retailers.

But there won’t be any new Sick Puppies music coming out any time soon, Anzai said.

“We have a new single out, ‘Riptide,’ and we’re going to be touring, touring, touring,” she said. “We haven’t written anything for a new record yet. We’re happy to be out on the road.”

That constant touring will continue well beyond the current headlining tour, though the group said it has no plans to play its native Australia any time soon.

Anzai and Moore have returned to Australia to play just once since moving to the U.S., opening a few shows for Nickelback there last year.

“We spend 90 percent of our time in the U.S.,” she said. “The market there (Australia) for our kind of rock isn’t very big, so we don’t really think about going back, even though it would be fun to play for people we know.”

[dlcramer]

I want a copy of "Dressed Up As LOVE"!

[stephb]

Nice.