Famous and infamous the world over for being the breeding ground that spawned national acts like Limp Bizkit, Creed, Puya, and the monstrosity known as the modern boy band, Florida can now add Miami's Darwin's Waiting Room to the growing list of hometown heroes. Rising like a pheonix out of the ashes of the South Beach dance scene, Darwin's Waiting Room, which features emcee Grimm, singer Jabe, guitarist Eddie the Kydd, bassist Alex Cando, and drummer Joe Perrone blend the best elements of hip-hop, metal, reggae, and punk to create a sound that is uniquely their own.
Since being signed to MCA Records, they've toured relentlessly behind their debut album, Orphan, and have shared the stage with hard rock heavyweights such as Godsmack, Deftones, and fellow South Floridians Nonpoint. "Feel So Stupid", their first single, scored a decent amount of airplay on rock radio and the video made its mark on music channels such as MTV2 and MUCHMUSIC. On the strength of their energetic live shows, the fivesome were asked to open for Machine Head as part of their "Supercharger Tour".
Before their stop at the House of Blues on Jan. 29th, I sat down with vocalist MC Grimm to discuss the band's past, present, and future.
Future: What are the origins of Darwin's Waiting Room? Grimm: The band had been around since '95, but the line-up has changed a little bit. The line-up we have now has been together since Jan. 1, 2000. Eddie joining the band was the final piece to the puzzle. We've all known each other from the South Florida music scene for years. Everybody in the band has been prevalent in the scene at one time or another. Jabe and Joe had a band prior to Darwin's called Outlit. I was in a live hip-hop group called Your Mom, which was sort of like a Roots-type thing. Eddie was in a band called Crime and Alex was playing in a bunch of different bands and doing his thing. The line-up was pretty much complete with the exception of a guitarist. Eddie was parting ways with Crime, and when he jammed out with us everything seemed to click.
Future: With so many different influences between the five of you, how does the songwriting process work? Is it complicated to keep it democratic with some many different points of view? Grimm: Every member of this band is crucial. It's not like there's somebody in the band that is Jabe's brother, or something. We didn't say, 'Well, this guy helped us out in the beginning and he built our website and he's a good friend of ours, so we'll let him in'. Everybody that's in this band deserves a place in this band. We've all worked very hard to get here and everybody has contributed more than you could possibly ask for. We're a very democratic group and we vote on a lot of different things. Usually everything comes to a vote and 3/5 of the vote wins. We all want what's best for the song. Whatever it takes to make the best song possible, then that's what we're aiming for.
Future: You guys have started to taste success within the last year. You've been signed, you're touring the country, you've gotten airplay with your first single and your video's been on MTV. It must have been a whirlwind of events for you, so how did the band as a whole handle this newfound success? Grimm: We're really grounded. We try to stay grounded at all times. We're not an ego-driven band. We have a healthy ego and we feel that we make great music because we try really hard and we put all of our time and effort into it. I think we have a long way to go, though. I think a lot of people haven't heard this record. I think the record has been slept on and a lot of people don't know it exists. If they did, I think they'd appreciate what we have to offer. There are a lot of talented bands that took awhile to break through and get their names out there. These are some of the bands we'd like to model ourselves after. You know, your Deftones, your Sevendusts, your Incubuses, where the first albums weren't sure-fire successes, but they built a loyal following through non-stop touring. It takes time, but we're a band that's willing to take that time and go the distance.
Future: There's this huge word of mouth surrounding your live show. Would you be more content to build a grassroots following and let your live show do the talking? Grimm: For any band to be a real band, you gotta throw down live. We want to be known as a live band. We want people to say 'they make great records, but their live show is where it's at'. If we have a radio hit, awesome, that's great, but if we don't it's still word of mouth and we'll continue to do things that way. I think the majority of people who know who we are is because of our live show. I think that's the attraction to this band. Future: I realize that you guys have been doing this for a long time, way before the huge rap-metal boom. How frustrating is it that some people who may have never heard of you might think you guys are jumping on a highly profitable bandwagon? Grimm: We're not rally looking to say 'we're a metal act, or we're hip-hop, or we're this or we're that'; we're just trying to appeal to a mass audience. Rock and roll and hip-hop have always been infused over the years, since the days of the Beastie Boys and Public Enemy. We're not trying to cash in on some trend and when it goes away, it's not like we'll say 'Okay let's try something else now'. We'll continue to create music that defines us. I leave labeling to the people that don't get us. People will say 'well, you have a singer and you have a rapper so you guys must sound like Linkin Park'. No disrespect to Linkin Park, they're a talented band and they write great songs and their live show kicks, but we don't sound anything like Linkin Park. If people ask us to define our sound, we just say it's Darwin's and that's it.
Future: What's it like to meet a rock/star performer that you guys have looked up to and have been inspired by way before you got signed? Grimm: Luckily, for us, every band that we've toured with has been great. We got our touring experience started with Papa Roach and Alien Ant Farm and I think they set the standard for how new bands should be treated. It was something passed down from Korn to Papa Roach. Korn told them that when they started out they were treated great and they wanted to pass that down to every new up and coming band. We became really great friends with bands like Godsmack, the Deftones, Reveille, Mudvayne, Puddle of Mudd, and others. We've had some great tours and we've been really lucky in the sense that everyone that we've met who we've admired and respected has been great to us.
Future: Your musical exploits have even taken you to other continents. How was the experience of playing in Japan? Grimm: It was the most amazing thing we've ever done as a band, period. When arrived at the hotel in Tokyo, there were people already waiting for us in the lobby, wanting to take pictures with us, wanting us to sign the album, and just meet us. It was unreal. It was like 'Are you (expletive) kidding me'? It was very Beatles-esque. I don't know how it happened, but it happened, and it was just amazing.
Future: Orphan seems to have themes of alienation, abandonment, and betrayal running through it. Are these things you have all experienced throughout your lives? Or did the kids you've talked to on the road influence the content of the album? Grimm: A lot of it is stuff that has unfortunately been prevalent in a lot of our childhoods, but we're trying to serve as a voice for people that don't have one. I'm hoping that a parent will hear our music and understand that their son or daughter is listening to this record and identifying with it, so maybe this is something that they should talk about. We want to create a dialogue between parents and their children. I remember a show where I was talking to a kid before we went on and it was weird how he just came out and told me, but he was like 'I'm lucky to even be here today, because I tried to kill myself a few days ago'. It's shocking how someone who's 15 or 16 has that much drama, or pressure, or stress in their lives. Hopefully, our songs will help address situations like this. The chances of us writing frilly little pop songs that mean absolutely nothing, well, that's never going to happen.
Future: You seem like an odd choice to open up for an established metal band like Machine Head. Are you worried about the backlash you might face from close-minded, hard-core fans? Grimm: That was one of the things that we were scared of on this tour, since it's considered a very "metal" tour. A lot of the people that are into Machine are into Machine Head. We didn't approach this like 'Okay, let's be more metal this tour'. We do what we do, you know. The people that have been coming out so far have been really great and supportive. There was one show where one guy was just chanting Slayer the whole time, which is the metal equivalent of (Lynyrd) Skynyrd, and I met him after the show and he was like 'Hey, I really enjoyed your band and I'm going to pick up your record'. As soon as we break down all the boundaries that divide us, the better off we'll be.
Future: Thanks for your time. Before we go, can you tell us what's coming up next for the band? Grimm: After this tour, we're looking to head back to Japan this spring. Things are really taking off for us in Japan. They did specials on us on MTV Japan like five days in a row and people are e-mailing us from Japan wondering when we're coming back. We're bringing Nonpoint with us as sort of a return favor for them taking us out on the road. We're writing the new album on our tour bus, but hopefully we can keep touring behind this record. There has been some talk about us doing Ozzfest this summer (knocks on wood), which would be a tremendous opportunity for us, but right now we're taking it one step at a time and one show at a time. We're trying to live in the moment and enjoy being back home for the next few days.
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