Slowrush

Rob Daiker – lead vocals, guitar
Garth Parker – guitar
Caleb Spiegel – bass
Adrian Ost – drum

Volume, the dynamic Epic debut from SlowRush, makes a fission statement that is as much about mass as it is amplification. While its 12 power-packed tracks demand playing at vaporization level, it’s the density and devastating beauty of lead singer/guitarist Rob Daiker’s words and music–embellished and energized by guitarist Garth Parker and bassist Caleb Spiege–that make Volume such an explosive and attention-getting musical event.

Daiker’s cunningly-crafted songs couple sophisticated chording with pickax delivery. Volume covers an impressive sonic spectrum ranging from the siren wail of “Concrete Bubble,” a dark tale of a life spent dreaming of escape from the bunkers, to the obsessive love/hate compulsion of “Junkie” and the relentless charge of “Pain.” It’s that mix of smart sensuality and primal thrust that make this music so unavoidably compelling.

“Some of the things we sing about are considered taboo, but they’re part of our culture, they happen,” says Daiker. “Art is about real life and if you can’t show what’s really happening in life, then what’s the point?” So where did Rob Daiker’s potent mix of music and emotional mayhem develop? Not from any marked childhood trauma, says the singer. Raised in a quiet suburb of Portland, Oregon, Daiker attributes his initial attraction to music as simply something to do.

“There really wasn’t anything going on where I lived, and nobody to do it with but myself,” he says. “I started playing piano when I was four, then moved to the drums before picking up the guitar as a teenager.”

“The first record I ever bought was ‘Whip It’ by Devo,” Rob says with a telling smile. “I started writing songs at 16 or 17, using two little tape decks–recording back and forth, playing all the instruments. It was like ping-pong overdubbing. The pitch would pick up with every ‘dub, going higher and higher. They were pretty funny.”

“But after a while I got into guitar and songwriting hard. I listened to Van Halen all the time. When I was in high school, it was the era of the hair bands–the Bon Jovis and the Ratts–so that was part of my time and I took some of that with me.

“Then I went through a period of time at 17, 18, where I got really bored with rock. I was carrying something in my head that I wasn’t able to find on the radio or the record store. I experienced this backlash and started listening to nothing but r&b and funk. Sly and the Family Stone, Parliament-Funkadelic…I went way back. These guys really knew what they were doing. It was amazing stuff and it still holds true.”

After leaving high school Daiker went the cover-band route, working clubs up and down the West Coast. It was a less than fulfilling experience. He began studying record production, learning how to better construct and arrange his songs. “I listened to a lot of Prince,” he admits.

“But when Nirvana and Stone Temple Pilots came out, it shook me back to my rock roots. And Bauhaus and Nine Inch Nails appealed to my darker side. The music became far more genuine and interesting again. I was hearing bands using more sevenths and ninths but still keeping it heavy, which was exactly where I was going.”

In 1996, Daiker made a solo recording titled Extract on his own dime. The album did well enough, especially in Europe, to allow him to go on to a second project. Under the group name Generator, he began recruiting players: Guitarist Garth Parker, a Seattle indie rock veteran, joined on.

“I was really drawn in by the vocals, the harmonies,” says Parker. “And Rob’s guitar style was also very complimentary to mine. And [the music] was totally professional–it was easy to get swept away by it.”

Bassist Caleb Spiegel joined next. “I saw him playing in this small Portland club,” remembers Daiker, “and I knew he was what I was looking for. I was with my friend Dan Reed and he said ‘Oh yeah, Caleb’s good.’ I said, ‘You knew this guy? Why didn’t you tell me about him a year ago!’”

The band recorded the self-titled Generator, released independently in 1998. A second opus, originally titled Fashion Brain, got the attention of Epic Records. In the spring of ’99, the group stepped up to the major leagues. “A lot of companies will tell you ‘We love your music’ and then try and change everything they love about you,” says Rob. “Epic didn’t do that. They let me produce the record and gave me final say.”

Daiker and company reworked the original Fashion Brain tracks into Volume. Along the way, Generator became SlowRush. But a band’s name is only as memorable and important as the music it represents–and music is the real strength of SlowRush.

“What we came up with was a band who was working to find it’s niche and found it,” says Rob Daiker. “We tried a lot of different things, worked and reworked the songs. My direction to the guys has simply been to make the kind of music we’d go out and buy because we liked it ourselves. It’s the only way to come up with what you really want.”