Remastered from p 34 people. Then they put out that first Creed album and it was a huge hit, so they turned to us and we’re like, “Okay, we’re gonna do another Pollen album. You’re gonna be our first rock band after Creed.” They tried to mold us into something different than what we were. I was very protective of what we were doing artisti- cally. We had an option to do more albums with them, and the contract Wind-up was gonna give us offered enough money that we all could have quit our jobs. That’s the dream right there. But they tried to micro- manage us constantly. They would give me a little money to work on demos and I’d send the songs to and Buffalo Tom. Couldn’t be further away from Third Eye Blind! So that was it. They said, “If you’re willing to do this, we’ll overnight you the check. If you can’t, I think we’re at the end of the road. Take the weekend to think about it.” Thank God Dan said, “I don’t need the weekend to think about it. Just send me the paperwork to end our contract ’cause Bob will never agree to this in a million years.” And Wind-up tried to talk Dan down but he was adamant. I’m thankful Dan did that because I think if the question had been posed to me I would have said yes and then completely ignored everything they said. It would’ve been a giant struggle and a nightmare to make the records we really wanted to make. If they forced us to record songs their way I would have spilled soda on the tape afterward. But Dan got us out and pretty quickly after that we signed with Fueled By Ramen. Looking back after all this time, what’s it like to listen to Pollen’s albums now with where you’re at in life? My musical tastes Double Helix Records them and they’d say, “Can you give us like five more songs like this one?” I don’t really write songs to order. Whatever comes outta me is what comes out. At the end of the process we had enough material for at least two more albums. Toward the end, one of their A&R guys called me and gave me tips on what kind of things to write songs about, and I responded extremely poorly, I assure you. He kept saying, “You know, maybe write more songs about rela- tionships,” and I’m like, “Dude, that’s what every record’s about. That’s all my songs.” So what was the breaking point with Wind-up? It finally came to a head when they called Dan and said, “Hey, we’ve approved everything, everything’s great, we’re ready to cut you a check and you guys can quit your jobs and get in the studio next month. There’s just one last thing we want to ask you guys. You know, Creed didn’t sound like Creed when they started out. We shaped them into being our Pearl Jam. And what we’ve decided is we want you to be our Third Eye Blind.” They told Dan that our songs are fine, 36 they love the songs, but they just wanted us to slow them down a bit and make them more groove-oriented and basically just change our whole sound. At the time, I was really influenced by Rocket from the Crypt and Boston bands like The Lemonheads have shifted a lot over the years and I don’t really listen to or work on music that sounds anything like what Pollen is. Sometimes I get weirded out that we’re pushing these 30-year-old albums, and people who know me from my work as a producer, who know my production style or my film score work, would pick up these records and be like, “Oh, this is what Bob’s band sounds like.” It’s what made going back to this stuff feel so weird because I wouldn’t make a record like this today. I don’t know that I would write songs like this today. When Pollen broke up [in 2001], I really didn’t look back much. I got into chamber pop and power pop and more orchestrated stuff. For a while these records seemed kind of square to me. Any time an offer came up for us to play I’d say, “I’m not interested, that part of my life’s over.” During the pandemic, Chris Serafini, our old bass player, called me and said, “I know you kind of looked down on Pollen, but for better or worse you need to understand that we did some really cool things that nobody else was doing at the time, and the greatest part of your musical legacy is gonna be these albums.” Thinking about that made me pull up our old tapes, and listening to Pollen again made me realize there is a lot of interesting, good stuff here. Or maybe it’s just that my hatred of ’90s alternative music has faded by now. It’s taken me this many years to have enough distance on it to say, “You know what? What we did was pretty cool.” Pollen’s Crescent is available now via Double Helix Records. AUG 18TH–AUG 24TH, 2022 PHOENIX NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | NEWS | OPINION | FEEDBACK | CONTENTS | phoenixnewtimes.com
