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A drummer's eye view of rock stardom
by Chris Roberts, Minnesota Public Radio
July 15, 2004

Jacob Slichter, the drummer for the band Semisonic, writes about the ups and downs of being in a rock band in his memoir, "So You Wanna Be a Rock and Roll Star." (Image courtesy of Random House)

In 1998, the Minneapolis rock band Semisonic soared to international stardom on the wings of its smash single, "Closing Time." Three years later, the band was dropped from its record contract, and left contemplating an uncertain future. Semisonic drummer Jacob Slichter has written a memoir retracing the band's beginnings, its meteoric rise to fame, and fall from major label grace. The book is called "So You Wanna Be a Rock and Roll Star: How I Machine-Gunned a Roomful of Record Executives and Other True Tales From a Drummer's Life."

Minneapolis, Minn. — Near the end of 2000, Semisonic drummer Jake Slichter felt like a conqueror, on the verge of taking over the pop music world. He tells it like this in his book.

"The routines of my life, the eruption of cheers that I heard every night when the houselights went on, the faces smiling at me from the front rows, the waves goodnight and the knowledge that we would come back for one, two, and sometimes three encores -- those routines had transformed my exterior into an armor."

"My head was full of our new songs. The word was, our album was going to be big."

	Jacob Slichter, author

As it turns out, the year that followed was marked by one crushing disappointment after another, and the new album which was released was a commercial flop.

"So You Wanna Be a Rock and Roll Star" is a tale of exaggerated dreams crashing into the maddening reality of the music industry, told from behind the drum kit. It grew out of Slichter's road diary, which he initially posted on the band's Web site. Slichter knew early on he had a book on his hands. His desire was that it appeal to those beyond the Semisonic faithful.

"I wanted to write a book that would be interesting to someone who didn't necessarily know Semisonic or 'Closing Time,' but wanted to know about this general scene of rock bands, of what happens to them," he says.

Parts of the book include Slichter's hilarious, and occasionally painful, accounts of his struggle to become comfortable in his rock star skin. They also detail the hum drum monotony of a musician's life between shows. When he joined his friends Dan Wilson and John Munson to form Semisonic, Slichter was an anxiety-ridden wreck with severe stage fright and a Rolaids addiction.

"I was a real rookie on stage. I was having panic attacks and everything," says Slichter. "I would never go on stage without a pack of Rolaids in my jeans, and especially backstage beforehand, I'd go through three or four easy."

	Slichter with his band mates

The book is a chronicle of Slichter's journey of self-discovery. But what makes it stand out is its step-by-step examination of the band's interaction with the music industry.

It starts with Semisonic's search for a major label deal and ends with MCA Records summarily releasing the band from its contract, three CDs and several years later. In between is a non-stop schmoozefest of meetings and mini-performances, and a perpetual tug-of-war with managers and producers, record executives and radio programmers.

One of Slichter's more harsh realizations was that critical raves and fan adoration, which were showered on the band, had little impact on CD sales.

"For music, I don't think people really rely on the reviews," he says. "They rely on radio, and that's why the whole game with radio and payola and everything is just all the more painful."

As he explains in the book, Slichter discovered that record companies and radio stations have come up with a way to circumvent laws prohibiting payola -- when record companies pay stations to play their music, without the station disclosing it.

(There) was a time when there were a lot of different music styles that were exciting ... and I think the music business has really conspired to sort of stamp that out. And that's sort of choking the fun out of all of it. - Jacob Slichter

Slichter says what happens now is independent promoters pay stations huge sums of money to be their sole programming advisor. Those promoters then charge record companies enormous amounts to get their songs added to a station's playlist. Slichter says as a result, the cost of getting radio airplay has become ridiculous.

"To get to launch a song on alternative radio, I was told it cost at least $200,000. To get 'Closing Time' on the radio they spent something like $700,000," he says. "And then there's all the illegal stuff -- some people said, 'Listen, you don't even want to know what we did to get your song the radio.'"

And who pays for this? The band. All the other costs, including video-making, touring and recording, also end up on the band's tab. Slichter says when music groups sign contracts, they're actually getting loans from the record company -- loans most bands will never be able to pay back. Some end up drowning in debt until they're released from their contract.

"In the case of Semisonic, we sold two million records and we were still millions of dollars in debt with MCA," he says. "So it's hard to imagine how few bands actually ever do recoup all of their costs."

Then there's the overly-safe -- many would say bland -- tastes which prevail in commercial radio programming. Slichter says one of the reasons Semisonic had so much trouble getting radio airplay is because it didn't fit neatly into any format, so radio had no use for it. He says it's easy to figure out why the music industry has been in such a state of decline.

"I think the music industry has itself to blame for a lot of the listener apathy that's out there. For instance, when you have radio stations all playing the same music and keeping the playlists very narrow, that doesn't spark people's imaginations," he says.

	John Munson

"Think back to your favorite memories of when music was really exploding in your own life, and I'll bet it was a time when there were a lot of different styles that were exciting you. And I think the music business has really conspired to sort of stamp that out. And that's sort of choking the fun out of all of it," says Slichter.

If Slichter ruminates in his book over the reasons which led to Semisonic's downfall, he spends as much time recalling the fun -- even euphoric moments. There were the appearances at the Billboard and Grammy music awards for example, the wardrobe revamping before video shoots, and most of all, the music.

In one passage Slichter recalls Semisonic's first stadium show in Washington, when the group drove the crowd mad, waiting, waiting for the band to launch into the final chorus of its mega hit, "Closing Time."

"So You Wanna Be a Rock and Roll Star" is receiving glowing reviews. Singer songwriter James McMurtry, son of writer Larry McMurtry, critiqued it for the New York Times. McMurtry praised the book for not indulging in tales of rock and roll debauchery, and concentrating instead on the "often banal and soul-sullying work of becoming a rock star." As a musician, McMurtry says he saw himself on the pages, which was part of the book's power.

	Dan Wilson

"Any work of art, whether it's a book or a song, you want to read about yourself as much as anything else," McMurtry says. "And part of what makes a hit song is everybody hears themselves in it. So I guess part of the appeal of the book for me was having seen some of that, and relating to it."

Both Slichter's bandmates, guitarist, singer and songwriter Dan Wilson, and bass player John Munson, loved the book. Munson says he's grateful to have what he calls a historical document of Semisonic's experiences, although there was one chapter that mad him feel bad.

"You spend as much time as we all spent together on the road, and you think you might know everything about a person," Munson says. "But when I was reading the chapters where he was describing his experience of stage fright and how freaked out he would get, my heart just went out to him so much and I thought, 'Why wasn't I there for this guy when he was really suffering?'"

For his part, Dan Wilson says he was unaware of Slichter's preoccupation with the business aspects of making music. Wilson says if he had written a book on Semisonic, it wouldn't have been nearly as funny as Slichter's, nor as tragic.

"My book probably would have been, 'And then we played a show, and then we all went out to this great nightclub in Amsterdam and had a great time.' I think my book might have just been like a travelogue," Wilson says. "Jake's has so much more, like all the dashed expectations and the ironies that he ran into are partly because he had such a specific dream of what it would be to be a rock star when he was a kid. Of course as we all learned it's nothing like anybody imagines."

Jacob Slichter hopes "So You Wanna Be a Rock and Roll Star" becomes required reading for bands on the hunt for major label glory.

"If I had had this book to read," he says, "I would have been a lot more savvy about stuff as it happened, and much better prepared for the various bumps along the way."

Slichter says he was no hard feelings about what happened to Semisonic. He feels privileged the band got as far as it did. He says if he's bitter, it's toward himself, for becoming hooked into the music industry's measurements of success and being, as he puts it, such a sucker.

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