Gin Blossoms’ Robin Wilson & Jesse Valenzuela – HuffPost 9.24.10

[Note: This interview excerpt from my interviews with Gin Blossom’s Robin Wilson and Jesse Valenzuela offers a couple of insights new artists might want to check out.]

Mike Ragogna: New Miserable Experience is full of hits. You have “Hey Jealousy,” “Until I Fall Away,” “Hold Me Down,” “Found Out About You,” plus “Lost Horizons” and what I think could have been a hit single, “Pieces Of The Night.” What a classic album and what a fine “product” for a label to work with.

Robin Wilson: We were lucky to have so many great songs, and of course, so many of them were Doug Hopkins songs. We were fortunate to be in a band with Doug, and it’s too bad that he wasn’t able to be a part of everything we ended up doing. That being said, yes, it’s really cool to have made a record that is that solid. I remember just before we went to record it, I was with my roommate and we were listening to Drivin’ N’ Cryin’. They had an album out at the time called Fly Me Courageous, which is just a great record with eleven awesome songs. I remember saying to my roommate, “God, I hope that we can make a record that is this good.” My roommate kind of raised his eyebrows and said, “I don’t know, Rob. This is a really good record.” That was kind of what we were shooting for, to compete with who we wanted to be our peers. To have pulled that off, and to have made a record that stands up like that is what it’s all about. We’re very lucky. All you ever dream about when you’re growing up dreaming to be a rock ‘n’ roller, is to make some sort of impact and to have that kind of a moment. We’re really lucky that we did.

MR: Yeah, that’s a classic album. When I heard “Hey Jealousy” on the radio, I had like a The Jerk moment – ”If this is out there, I wonder what else is out there!”

RW: Right, and that’s what it’s all about–to be able to reach people the same way that Tom Petty or Cheap Trick reached me.

MR: It seems there needs to be a new paradigm in the music business.

JV: Well, I think there is a new paradigm. I think there are a lot of hit records out there right now. We had a manager in the mid-’90s who told me that kids want there own heroes, so enjoy your time in the limelight because there will come a time where you aren’t on the radio like you are now. Hopefully, you do your groundwork now, and you can work as a songwriter or musician for the rest of your life and enjoy it. To think you can be constantly out there, let’s just say it doesn’t happen very often. Very few bands make that transition.

MR: It must be difficult after having the amount of hits you’ve had, such as “Hey Jealousy,” “Found Out About You,” “Til I Hear It From You,” and there are many more songs everybody knows.

JV: Yeah, it’s a good thing to have.

MR: A very good thing to have.

JV: If someone were to listen to our band now, they’d think that this is actually the most enjoyable part of our career. It’s a wonderful thing to simply play music and not be that concerned about radio placement. We’re on 429 which is an indie, and I don’t see that many people our age in the Top Forty. At the same time, with our situation and with the situation of a few of our contemporaries, we’re still able to go out and play major shows, play to a great deal of people, and still sell to a core audience. There are always new people showing up and grabbing on. I just don’t think two million is realistic anymore.

MR: Yeah, and things change. You move on to the next stage.

JV: Who knows what things could happen? In our situation, I think if you wound up with a song in a movie that did well like John Hiatt on Benny & Joon, those are probably the situations that are going to happen. A great band like Train, for example, is right in the bucket we’re talking about right now because they have a big smash. They’re a great band, and they really never broke up, though they took a couple of years off, but who doesn’t? Then, they’re still with Columbia and they’ve always had a devoted following over there. And what a singer, my goodness. So, I just say congratulations to them.