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The Oklahoma musicians may be All-Americans, but when it comes to selling discs they’re certainly not Rejects.
The All-American Rejects, who will be in concert Saturday night at the University of Toledo, were trying to come up with a humorous and memorable band name when someone suggested the All-Americans. Another person recommended the Rejects, and the two terms were merged into one to give the punk-pop band from Stillwater, Okla., its distinctive name.
The group’s self-titled debut disc, released on the DreamWorks label in 2003, sold more than a million copies, fueled by the hook-laden hit single, “Swing, Swing.”
Nick Wheeler, the band’s 22-year-old guitarist, said in a phone interview last week that he and his musical and song-writing buddy since junior high, Tyson Ritter, the Rejects’ 21-year-old bassist and lead vocalist, got their first break from Doghouse Records, a label that was founded by Toledoan Dirk Hemsath.
“When we were signed by Doghouse, we only had five songs,” Wheeler said. “Dirk and [wife] Emily came to Tulsa in the summer of ’01 and signed us pretty much right there. We had to wait one semester for Tyson to finish high school, and then we finished the album.”
The music, with its brash guitars, tuneful melodies, and punk-rock spirit, caught on with skaters and teens and got the attention of DreamWorks, the major label that signed a distribution deal with the smaller, independent Doghouse.
Now the Rejects are back in action with their sophomore release, “Move Along,” released last fall on Interscope.
Recording the second disc, which already has gone Gold and produced three hit singles — “Dirty Little Secret,” “It Ends Tonight,” and the title track, proved a formidable challenge in many ways for the young rockers.
For one thing, the DreamWorks label folded, leaving the All-American Rejects temporarily in the lurch until they were picked up by another major label, Interscope Records.
For another, the musicians felt more pressure than ever to produce more hits.
“It’s hard enough coming out of nowhere,” Wheeler said. “It’s harder when you’ve got somebody’s attention to keep their attention.”
One record company official told the young musicians that not only was he counting on them to score another best-selling CD, so was his entire family.
“He said we were his livelihood, that we are his kids’ tuition, and we gotta make this happen,” Wheeler said with a sigh. “Everybody was certainly freaking out and unsure of themselves at times.”
“It’s kind of nice. We’ve been unwinding, finding our headspace, remembering why we do this in the first place,” he said.
He started playing guitar when he was 7 and grew up listening to his parents’ country music discs, including such artists as Vince Gill, Garth Brooks, and George Strait.
“Then I discovered my sister’s collection, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, and it was all over after that. Then my mom had to get the cable company to disconnect MTV because it’s all I watched.”
He and Ritter moved from Oklahoma to Destin, Fla., a town of about 12,000 in the Florida panhandle, a few years ago, forsaking the usual music-business capitals.
“L.A. and New York are kind of busy, there are always distractions,” Wheeler said. “We grew up in the anti-distraction of Stillwater, Okla. We wanted to re-create that, but with a beach.”
The All-American Rejects will be in concert at 8 p.m. Saturday in the University of Toledo’s Savage Hall. Tickets are $15 for UT students at the Savage Hall box office and Rocket Copy in the Student Union, or $30 for the general public, available from the box office, 419-530-4653. More information on the band is available online at www.theall-americanrejects.com.
Contact David Yonke at: dyonke@theblade.com or 419-724-6154.
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