Friday, May 11, 2001 | 9:17 a.m.
Vacaville, Calif.? Pull off the highway after passing nothing but farms and cow pastures for miles and miles and, as the off ramp drops away, the infestation of corporate America looms large -- Staples, Petsmart and Starbucks greet visitors to this remote cow town in Northern California.
With little else to do after school, kids congregate at local arcades sucking up a homogenized brand of national pop culture.
But peel back another layer, other kids influenced by the "crazy white boy" funk of the Red Hot Chili Peppers take to their parents' garages. They strap on guitars in search of the ultimate means of escape from "The Onion Capitol of the World," as Vacaville is called, by becoming big rock stars.
Funny thing is, with the playing field so level, sometimes even in Vacaville that dream can come true. And as we look in on the four former high school buddies known collectively as Papa Roach ("P. Roach" to their fans) who have been stumpin' the rock trail for some seven years, that dream busted right through to triple platinum following their first major-label album "Infest" on DreamWorks Records.
Catching attention for frontman/songwriter Coby Dick's (born Jacoby Dakota Shaddix) outrageous and charismatic stage persona, the band is flirting with the big time. In the year since the release of "Infest" the band has picked up a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, another for its video "Broken Home," started its own record imprint New Noize/Dreamworks, and also managed to "hug a million kids" with its songs of divorce, suicide and alcohol abuse.
Reached by phone from a hotel room in San Diego, Dick, 24, was trying to quiet his co-Roaches -- Jerry Allan Horton Jr., from Charleston, S.C., on guitar; Tobin Esperance (the only native Vacavillian) on bass; and former violinist Dave Buckner on drums. Dick was also trying to save his lunch from being consumed by the rest of the band.
"It's always like (a) crazy ghetto around this band. But we've been doin' this since we were all about 15. That's when Dave and I met playing football," Dick said. "We quit to be in a band 'cause we were always more like rock 'n' roll kids then the whole jock wad thing. But we are glad we played football because it taught us how to work with people as a team. And a band is a team, a family really. We've seen mistakes that other bands have made and learned most of our lessons.
"What's important is to ignore the hype and to go out there and do the dirty work."
A good part of that "dirty work" involved forming the indie label, Onion Hardcore Recordings to issue the band's first four recordings. First up was the single "Potatoes of Christmas" (1994) followed by "Caca Bonita" ('95) and the band's first full length recording "Old Friends From Young Years" ('97). Next came what Dick calls "two five-song demos" titled "5 Tracks Deep" ('98) and "Let 'Em Know" in '99.
"Let 'Em Know" got a bit of attention at Warner Bros., enough to get the band a demo deal, but not enough to get the band signed. And, after paying for a five-song demo, Warner cut Papa Roach free.
"The studios we recorded the demos in were all piddling compared to where we went for 'Infest.' I will always love our early records because they are part of my life. But as far as recording quality and the intensity 'Infest' is way more bangin'," Dick said.
Instead of hiring models or actors for the "Last Resort" video -- the band's breakthrough first single -- Papa Roach asked its fans to submit photos of themselves to its website (paparoach.com) and invited the first 500 responders to come to the shoot, Dick said. "The song is about suicide (based on a former roommate) and we wanted to make it totally dark and stuff. We got the concept from this book 'Alone In My Room.' The video is mainly live performance and then it goes to depressed kids sitting alone in their rooms singing the lyrics. That is pretty much where kids kill themselves, the bedroom or the garage.
"It's got totally good hooks plus it's a song about reality, and I think a lot of people can connect with that," Dick said.
Connecting with the audience is a job Dick, who has Attention Deficit Disorder, willingly takes on as frontman for the band.
"I'm a nutcase. I'm a really wild and flamboyant kind of person and the ADD gets me going crazy. I'm unpredictable," said Dick, who used to enter and exit his shows with a blaring siren (until the unit was stolen). "I crowd surf, mess things up, break stuff and start a riot. I really like to get the crowd in it."
Yet as unbridled as the band's performances get, the band focuses its songs on weighty issues. "Binge" deals with alcoholism, "Broken Home" speaks in the first person from Dick's experience of his parents' divorce, the latest single "Between Angels and Insects" about getting caught up in the glitz of Hollywood.
"Our songs are not about having a cheesy good time. It is heartfelt music that speaks of my life and how these issue affect the people around me," Dick said. "I don't do music for escapism. I do music to go deeper."
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