Restraining Bolt

About

While producing an album for guitar legend, Nils Lofgren, New York producer, Roger Greenawalt discovered a CD on Nils' Coffee table. The band was called Radish, the album was called Dizzy. Impressed by the writing and singing talents of 13-year old Kweller, Greenawalt immediately phoned the youngster to see if there was a way he could work with the group and help land them a recording contract. During spring break of his freshman year of high school, Kweller and co., began to seriously develop their chops under Greenawalts creative and inspiring guidance. Roger worked the band 24/7 for a week straight, focusing only on only three songs. The team worked relentlessly making each note bulletproof and each arrangement air-tight. Soon after, they all went to Sheffield Studios in Phoenix, MD, where they recorded the three songs. After completing their 3-song Demo, The band took on the legal guidance of music industry veteran, Jonathan Ehrlich, who in turn began shopping for a record deal. The Radish 3-song Demo caused quite a stir among record execs and soon the band was caught in the middle of a typical 90's era bidding war. The band decided on Mercury Records and it was time now to make their major label debut. Once again, the band returned to Phoenix, MD with Greenawalt to record Restraining Bolt. Several weeks mixing the album at Sony Studios in NYC, Kweller, became disheartened by the album's "overly-polished" and "steril" feel. To try and give the album more of the raw sounds of their live show, the band flew to Boston, MA, to work with dynamic production duo, Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie. Radish re-cut all electric guitars on "Bolt", and re-recorded the first single "Little Pink Stars". In addition, The trio recorded three new songs with Slade and Kolderie; "The You in Me", "Still I Wait", and "My Guitar". The album was mixed, mastered and came out on Mercury Records on April 22nd, 1997. Restraining Bolt earned the band a cult following in the UK, as well as a top 40 UK single with "Little Pink Stars", which landed 15-year old Kweller smack on the cover of Metal mag - Kerrang!. The Band went on to Tour the world with the likes of Faith No More and Seven Dust, and played many festivals such as, Lollapalooza '96, Reading Festival, V Fest and T In The Park.

via Last.fm