CANDLEBOX's KEVIN MARTIN Has Changed His Mind About Making Another Full-Length Album: 'We're Doing It'

During an appearance on the October 28 episode of SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk", CANDLEBOX frontman Kevin Martin once again explained why he decided to back out of his plans to retire from touring, despite the fact that he and his bandmates announced their "farewell" tour, "The Long Goodbye", and released what was being billed as their "final" album of the same name more than three years ago. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I think the funniest thing about it is when I had finished up the 3 DOORS DOWN tour, that's when I was wrapping things up. And then I got the phone call that [BUSH's] Gavin [Rossdale] and [ALICE IN CHAINS'] Jerry [Cantrell] wanted to do this BUSH and Jerry Cantrell tour, and they wanted us on it. And I'd never had a chance to tour with Gavin, I'd never had a chance to tour with Jerry. So I was, like, 'Okay, I'll do that, and then that'll be it.' And then, of course, [original CANDLEBOX guitarist Peter Klett] comes back midway through that and starts filling in for some shows, and we start talking about music and we start jamming, and I'm, like, 'There's no way I'm getting away from this.' So, yeah, you guys are still stuck with me. I'm still here."

Regarding his working relationship with Klett, Martin said: "Yeah. Well, the thing is I love my guys, and I don't wanna discount anybody that's ever played in CANDLEBOX. Brian Quinn, who replaced Pete initially 12 years ago, is a phenomenal guitar player. Of course, he's from the band OCTANE and FOSTERCHILD, and he's a brilliant human being and I love that kid, and he's a rocker from Philly and he knows how to play guitar. And Island [Styles], the kid who plays with me still, he's a brilliant guitar player. [We have] a great drummer, BJ Kerwin, and my best friend Adam [Kury] on bass. But Pete is... There's that thing. Everybody says it's Joe Perry, it's Steven Tyler, and Robert [Plant] and Jimmy [Page], and there's a thing that happens between a singer and a guitar player that I don't know what that chemistry is, I don't know what that compound is, I don't know what the makeup of it is. But every time Pete plays guitar, I sing the song exactly how it's supposed to be sung, and that's the thing that I think made me realize when he came out and filled in for those dates on the BUSH/Jerry Cantrell tour, and I hadn't sung those songs that way in years. The minute he started playing, I was, like, 'Oh, that's the melody and here's the verse. This is how it goes.' I mean, it's the old shoes that you pull out of the closet and you go, 'Oh, I love this pair of shoes.' Or it's that classic old guitar that you find in the attic that you forgot about, and you start playing it again. It reignites all of that energy and you realize how comfortable that position is. And Pete's a phenomenal player. He's got magic fingers. Even when we wrote the new music we're working on, and it's coming out, it's the same person that I wrote with 35 years ago when this band started in 1991 in Seattle. And I can't deny that, and I can't argue about it. I can only say that I'm loving every minute of this. We're having a blast out here. I'm a little tired. It's been a long run. But Pete's playing has been fantastic. The shows have been amazing. We're selling these things out, and somehow people still wanna see us. So, yeah, I don't know what that is, but, yeah, I really love having him back in the band. It's an absolute pleasure."

Elaborating on his musical chemistry with Klett, Martin said: "There's no denying it. You really can't explain it. And again, when you start these bands… Like when CANDLEBOX started, Seattle was blowing up, and we were young kids, 16 years of age, when SOUNDGARDEN was playing at the Vogue and all these great clubs and stuff, and we were all hoping that we'd at one point have an opportunity. When Pete and I were introduced to one another back in 1991, through Kelly Gray, who was our producer of the first album, and also played in QUEENSRŸCHE for a while with Geoff Tate, Pete and I instantly had something. And I'd never met him. I didn't know him, hadn't seen any of the bands he was in. He didn't know me. He hadn't seen anything. 'Cause I was a punk drummer. I was playing drums in a couple punk bands, so I wasn't even singing in a rock band until I met Pete. So it all happened at the same time when it should have happened. And I think that's maybe what that chemistry is — it's that building block. The foundation of the home starts with the foundation of the home. And no matter how many times you try to build on top of it, it's always gonna be foundation. And that's the thing that I love most about playing with Pete, is that he's just like he was back when he was 19, 20 years old, jamming with me in rehearsal studios in Seattle. It's a very, very cool thing."

Kevin also talked about "I Remember Everything", the first CANDLEBOX music to feature Klett since the band's 2012 album "Love Stories & Other Musings", and the first since his return from a ten-year hiatus to reunite his guitar work with Martin's songwriting, a milestone that eluded even 2023's "The Long Goodbye" and 2024's "The Longer Goodbye (Tour Edition)". Released in September, the independent single was produced by Kemble Walters at Good Noise Studio and mastered by Jeremy Costa at Backward Clock Sound Studio.

Asked if "I Remember Everything" came first or if the reunion with Klett on the road preceded it, Kevin said: "The reunion on the road came first. When he came out and did the shows, we talked about, 'Well, let's see where this goes. If we're gonna do something, we need to kind of make sure that it's something special. We don't wanna throw something out there just so people have music to listen to.' So we started working on some of the songs, just out jamming on guitars and stuff, and talking about what direction we wanted to go, what we were thinking, we were feeling we wanted to do. And then we went to our friend's studio in Nashville and did some writing. And then I happened to come across a very good friend of mine, Kemble Walters, who plays bass in CHEVELLE. He's also the guitar player/singer in ÆGES. And he works at Matt Sorum's studio out in Palm Springs. And I've got a house in Palm Springs, so I said, 'Kemble, can we do some songs with you?' And he's a great producer. I mean, I don't know if you know what Kemble does, but he's a phenomenal producer and he's a great player, he's a great artist and an even better human being. And he was, like, 'Yeah, man, come in the studio. Let's do it.' So we went in there and we tracked three songs. And they all happened really, really fast. We had the ideas and we molded them the way we wanted to mold them and knocked that first track out. And the next one, I think, comes out in December, which is called 'Still Running'. And we're gonna release a full-length record, which I don't wanna do, but management beats you up and tells you, 'You gotta do it'. So that's gonna come out some time next year. So I'm still playing the game. I'm still playing the game. I don't know why I'm doing it, but I'm still playing."

Asked if "the short attention spans" of the music-listening public is the reason he was hesitant to make another full-length album at this point in his career, Kevin said: "That's exactly it. I mean, everybody's scrolling through songs every day. We're listening to music on these crappy headphones. You and I know that we remember the days where you put on the great headphones that cost $1,000 and you listen to music, and you went through the vinyl, and you spent time reading the lyrics and reading the liner notes and all that stuff, and that doesn't happen anymore. I've released seven records that a few people listen to, and that's a hard thing for me because you put every ounce of your being in these albums, and you want people to... And maybe they're crappy records — I don't know — but you want people to listen. You want them to dig into them. You want them to understand that CANDLEBOX is more than one record. And so that's kind of where I'm at with it. I think that the attention span is obviously... And the crazy thing is when I'm seeing the younger generation, they're all getting off of socials. My kid's 18. He's in New York. He doesn't even use Instagram or TikTok or anything anymore. He just uses his phone to get to and from class. And I think that that's interesting because you think these 18-, 19-, 25-, 26- to 30-year-old kids are all spending time on this stuff, and they're not. There is no time anymore. So I'm hesitant to release... And it costs $70,000, $80,000 to make a full-length record. That's a lot of money. And we're not on a label. We're an independent band, so we fund all of that. And it's just difficult. It's a difficult pill to swallow. But we're doing it. And my manager's convinced me that there's interest out there from labels. So we'll see."

CANDLEBOX released "A Little Longer Goodbye (Tour Edition)", the digital deluxe version of the album "The Long Goodbye", on all DSPs in July 2024 via Round Hill Records. The digital release featured the 12 tracks on the record plus two bonus live songs, "Elegante" and "Cellphone Jesus" (recorded at Club Amanda in Santiago, Chile on October 27, 2023),as well as the single "Washed Up".

Emerging from Seattle's influential rock scene, CANDLEBOX quickly became one of the city's breakout bands of the early 1990s. Led by founder, vocalist, and songwriter Kevin Martin, CANDLEBOX exploded on to the national stage in 1993 with the release of their quadruple-platinum self-titled debut album, which has sold more than four million copies worldwide. The band's rise included a main-stage performance at Woodstock '94 and tours alongside METALLICA, RUSH and AEROSMITH. Following a hiatus from 2000 to 2006, CANDLEBOX returned with a string of acclaimed albums, including "Into The Sun" (2008),"Love Stories & Other Musings" (2012),"Disappearing In Airports" (2016) and "Wolves" (2021). In 2023, the band celebrated the 30th anniversary of its debut with "The Long Goodbye", followed by "The Longer Goodbye (Tour Edition)" in 2024.

Photo credit: Libby Rafada