If you were going to launch a hard music band, chances are you'd likely pick a handle for your group that was somewhat more descriptive and intimidating than "beanbag." But upon witnessing a volatile live performance by the Australian groove rock band or hearing one of its overpowering recordings, listeners invariably ask themselves, "eh ... what's in a name?"
Indeed. After taking its own continent by storm during 1997 and 1998, beanbag set its eyes on the international marketplace in 1999, launching an assault on U.S. ears with the underground hit recording Guttersnipe and its inpop Records debut, freesignal. Critical plaudits and relentless radio exposure helped result in the band picking up Dove Award nominations last spring for "Whiplash" (Best Hard Rock single) and freesignal (Best Hard Rock Album). Two massive tours (with Newsboys and the "Extreme Days" trek with Pax217) added thousands of new fans to the fold, as did high visibility on U.S. television shows like "ESPN X-Games" and "Dawson's Creek." Now beanbag stands poised to rock worldwide audiences once again with its explosive sophomore inpop disc, welladjusted.
"The title is sort of ironic, isn't it?" exclaims guitarist Michael. "No one in this world is really 'well-adjusted' until they become like Christ. Our intention for this album is for it to be very personal. It deals with relationship problems, frustrations in society, and the mindset of trying to be something that you're not, and many other issues youth are dealing with in our time. Our mission is to offer comfort but in a non-confronting way. We believe strongly that the way Jesus spoke with people is how we should also speak as a band. When Jesus spoke in this manner, it separated the people who wanted to follow Christ from the people that just wanted to listen. The people who were ready would search for the meanings in the parables, and often would ask Jesus what they meant. That searching heart is what we hope to instill in people, in order that we can point them to Christ."
Listeners will immediately notice not only more challenging lyrical concepts on welladjusted but also the broader sonic landscape that the album surveys. Michael's guitars churn and crunch through the engaging arrangements; bassist Hirvy and drummer Phil explore new rhythmic complexities; and vocalist Hunz, who did more rapping than singing on freesignal, explores new melodic and harmonic horizons on welladjusted, revealing a passionate delivery in the process.
"We feel the songs have greater depth," says Michael. "Every musician likes to think they get better at their craft with time and believe we've written better songs for welladjusted. The songs have provided Hunz with much more room to move and be expressive. Our influences are so diverse it's amazing sometimes we have the ability to collaborate! Phil likes The Beatles, Hendrix and Oasis; Hirvy's very much the funk man; the latest things in my CD player are Coldplay and Massive Attack and Hunz likes electronica, as well as artists like Tori Amos and Seal. So if this album is melodic, intricate and yet accessible because of that, great! That's what we wanted."
Michael says that beanbag feels the disc's packaging has also captured the adventurous spirit of the music on welladjusted. "We are dealing with the concept of 'questioning' in the artwork, in order to direct the listener's thoughts to a certain frame of mind. In this manner, we want them to question the songs, lyrics and where we are coming from-asking questions such as 'Is there more to life?' Things that will make them demand a better life than the one they are trying to live. The images are a lot more gritty than those on freesignal, and are more reflective of who we are as a band."
beanbag established its credibility in its native Australia during the late 1990s with a series of demo recordings, culminating with the critically lauded, 7-song CD, Guttersnipe. Without the luxury of a built-in marketing tool like the U.S. contemporary Christian music scene from which to launch itself, beanbag took its case to the street, spending two years grinding out a steady stream of shows in night clubs, bars, schools and other public venues, as well as playing Christian music festivals and other Christian events throughout Australia. "If you play shows just for Christian people all the time," says Michael, "you can become insulated by your environment to the point where people foreign to that scene cannot relate to your music at all. Someone once said they felt sorry for us because we had to play bars and clubs in Australia, which I was surprised to hear. We loved doing those shows because that's where it's at. I think the best show we did all last summer was at a little club for 40 people."
Underground radio play of Guttersnipe in the U.S. engendered a wave of support that convinced Peter Furler (Newsboys), Wes Campbell (First Company Management) and long-time chum and entrepreneur Dale Bray to make beanbag the inaugural artist on their fledgling inpop label. "We signed with inpop because it was the next logical step," explains Michael. "It provided us with the opportunity to bring our music to another country where we could do it full-time. inpop believes we have something that could work in the mainstream, so we are considering taking welladjusted in that direction this year."
It's been general market bands such as Korn, Rage Against the Machine and Tool to whom beanbag has most often been compared. But Michael can't help noting two distinct differences between beanbag and the aforementioned artists-"lack of world-wide success and money, for a start! Seriously, there are many other things, from the instrumental textures we use to the cultural differences; the subject matter of our lyrics would be another obvious difference. But then again, to whom should we be compared? Sometimes I think the nicest compliment a band can get is to be compared to a variety of artists, because being compared to one particular band all the time would be a bad sign. We are simply four very different guys who got together to write music. We're none of us sure exactly why the music of beanbag turned out the way it did!"
With over 170 U.S. concert dates under its collective belt in the past year, beanbag has helped ease and even erase many of negative stereotypes often associated with hard music artists, even Christian hard music artists. But Michael says he and his band mates tend to think of "success" not in terms of awards or mainstream acceptance, but on a much more personal scale. "All our aspirations for welladjusted album have been prior to the release rather than post. We hope it sells well and impacts people, but what we wanted to make was an album that was really representative of beanbag at this time in our lives. Now, we want to work hard, teach people what we have learned and learn from others what we don't know."
