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In a recent interview with Darren Paltrowitz, host of the “Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz”, CANDLEBOX‘s Kevin Martin was asked if he is the type of artist who works on music every single day. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “No, man. I’m not prolific at all. I probably don’t deserve the success I’ve had. [Laughs] I don’t work very hard at it. And that’s a terrible thing to say, ’cause when I’m in the studio, I do. But I don’t look at music that way. I don’t have that desire. I guess it probably stopped… When I met my wife Natalie is when I really lost that kind of drive to just produce music every day. I fell madly in love, and I still am. So I think I’d much rather hang out with my wife and my son and go to the beach and vacation than I would write a song. I just don’t find writing to be that cathartic for me. Unless I’m in the mood — if I’m in the mood to write, then I’ll produce two or three songs in an hour. Like at soundcheck the other day, we wrote three things. But that’s only if I’m triggered into it. I don’t sit around with a guitar all day, with a notepad writing lyrics. I just have never been that guy. I don’t know why. I just am not.”
When Paltrowitz brought up DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE‘s Ben Gibbard, who has been quoted as saying that he treats songwriting like a dayjob, Martin said: “I was a drummer for years and years and years prior to singing for CANDLEBOX. And what I find is I don’t like to reach for inspiration that way. I allow it to pretty much punch me in the face, and then I recognize it: ‘Oh, that’s a song.’ I just am not that person. And Ben‘s a profoundly prolific motherfucker. I have every record that guy’s ever released. I’m a huge fan. I love that he treats it like a dayjob because I always have new music from him. But one of the things that I think that happens in that is that sometimes, it’s my opinion, that you can lose sight of what it is that you are writing about. If you’re constantly reaching for something or looking for a story or you’re trying to write about an experience that you had, sometimes I think that’s forcing it. And again, that’s just my opinion of things. I don’t make records until I’m absolutely ready to make records, until I’m absolutely ready to say something. And that’s just me. I think that musicians that can produce on the level of Ben, I mean, it’s just shocking to me, but it’s still brilliant that there are musicians out there that do that. I’m just not one of ’em.”
CANDLEBOX‘s latest album, “Wolves”, was released in September via Pavement Records. The LP was produced by Dean Dichoso at the legendary Henson Studios in Los Angeles, California. It is the Seattle-based rockers’ follow-up to 2016’s “Disappearing In Airports”.
Most of the “Wolves” recordings were finished in August 2019, and Martin completed his vocals in January 2020.
Earlier this month, CANDLEBOX announced dates for the “Candlebox Unplugged” tour. The 14-show routing will kick off April 20 in Cincinnati, Ohio at Memorial Hall and hit the southern and East Coast states before culminating in a special two-show finale at City Winery in New York on May 7.
