Although he wasn’t quite sure how to make it a reality, Brendan B. Brown always knew that music might be his calling.
But it wasn’t until graduating from the University of Scranton in 1995 with a dual major in both psychology and history that the “Teenage Dirtbag” singer decided the time was right to form the band Wheatus.
Wheatus’ eponymous debut album in 2000 featured the above-mentioned track and became a worldwide success, leading Brown and the band on a rocket ride that’s been soaring ever since.
On Friday, Wheatus will mark the occasion by performing their debut album in its entirety as well as other songs from the band’s vast catalog and fan requests during a tour stop at the Sherman Theater in Stroudsburg.
I recently spoke with Brown about Wheatus’ upcoming performance in Stroudsburg and more in this new interview.
Q: Wheatus formed in 1995. Did you ever think we’d still be talking about the band this many years later?
Brown: At the time I had no idea of how it was going to go except to get through making the first record, which was like building a rocket. It was one of those things where you think it’s going up and coming back down with a parachute and everything is OK. Well, it went up but never came back down. There was a long time where we weren’t making any money and those first 10 years were very touch and go, but we’re still on this ride!
What can Wheatus fans expect from your performance in Stroudsburg?
Because it’s the anniversary we’re focused on performing the first record in its entirety. I’m not sure we’ll be doing it in order but we’ll be checking all the boxes on the album, which issomewhere around twelve songs in total. Of course, we also do requests for people who call out songs they’ve been wanting to hear.
Can you give me some of the inspiration behind the song, “Teenage Dirtbag?”
I wrote that song on a futon on the floor of my apartment, which was actually a living room that had blankets taped up and pinned to the wall to make it look like one [laughs]. I originally had the riff in high school but didn’t know what to do with it. The song itself is a fairytale that happened to me. I really wanted to capture the feeling of being a young music fan in the summer of 1984 when I was growing up.
Did you always know music would be your calling?
I think I always aspired to do it but didn’t know how to do it in a professional context. In the practical reality it didn’t seem like a thing. Then you start playing shows and you begin tounderstand that the business of the show is just a microcosm of the larger business of the music industry.
I graduated from the University of Scranton in 1995. I went in as a pre-med major and got to bio-chem and decided to switch my major to psychology and history. After graduation and getting my first batch of jobs it occurred to me that the only thing that I ever had consistent passion for since I was young was music. I started finding myself thinking about lyrics every day on the ride in to work and every time I got home, and not just songs but concepts for an entire record. That’s when I realized it had always been my thing.
What other projects are you working on?
We have the anniversary tour and at the same time we have a movie that’s been made about us that started filming during the dark times around 2009. We’re also touring the UK later this year and doing a bunch of festivals. We know what we’re doing up until the middle of December. There’s so much going on.
Of all the highlights of your career, what stands out as most memorable?
We once opened for Joey Ramone as part of a record release party at CBGBs which was a notable moment for me. Then a little over a year later we opened for James Brown in Belgium. You can’t even call it an honor; it was more like a religious experience. He was such an undisputed king of performance. I think I learned more that day then in the 10 years prior about how to do shows.
What excites you the most about this next phase of your career?
Getting to a place where we can afford some roadies [laughs]. It really takes away from some of the energy you have for the show. It’s been years of doing it ourselves but we’re starting to see the possibility of expanding our operation.
James Wood is a freelance writer. You can contact him at jimmywood@gmail.com
