By When most bands get dropped from their record label it’s normally a career ending move, but pop band The Format has proven to be a major exception. The Peoria, Ariz.-based duo has actually been dropped by two different labels, but when I caught up with them last December they were playing for sold-out amphitheatres along with the All-American Rejects. For a pair of guys who call themselves The Format, it doesn’t seem like they are following the format at all.
The video game “Guitar Hero” was flashing on the screen when I met with vocalist Nate Ruess in the back of the band’s tour bus. He was quick to boast about his high percentage rate on the game. I was impressed at first, until I saw he was playing the game on the medium difficulty setting.
Ruess seemed smaller and paler than I remembered him being on stage at the band’s sold-out headlining show at the House Of Blues in Anaheim a few months before, but he explained he had a stomach virus and had been battling it the whole tour.
The beginning of The Format seems simple. Ruess and his bandmate Sam Means were friends in Arizona. Ruess had an uncle on Broadway and Means has an uncle that was a professional harmonica player, but neither were from big musical backgrounds.
The two were in a bunch of mediocre bands early on, but after high school they started experimenting with music at a friend’s studio. The music got passed around and ended up on a local radio station. Soon after, they get a call from Elektra Records, which wanted to sign them.
“We were kind of always taught since we were younger growing up in the punk rock scene and in the do-it-yourself community to be weary of things like major record labels,” said Ruess. “Right away, out of nowhere, Sam and I were offered pretty much anything we could ever want. You get blinded by that for sure. It wasn’t until after the ink was dry that we realized that we got to be really cautious [about] the way we handle thing because these people are going to try and run how we are as artists.”
Elektra put out The Format’s debut album, “Interventions and Lullabies” in late 2003 but right as the first single was coming out, the record label got shut down. Without even releasing a single, the band was dropped.
The duo soon after found out that the band’s contract was purchased by Atlantic Records, but Atlantic didn’t want to put any effort behind “Interventions and Lullabies.” They wanted the guys to just write an identical album.
“The first record flopped by commercial standards,” Ruess said. “After touring so much, and being introduced to so many kinds of different music and having nothing to do but listen to music, I think we decided we wanted to go in a different direction.”
“Then we met up with Atlantic,” continued Ruess, “and they said, ‘We’re not going to have any problems as long as you make the same record as the last one.’ It’s hard to think that, because the last one wasn’t successful. If that was the case, then they should have worked the last record instead of putting these expectations on us to write the exact same record the second time.”
The Format refused to write the same record, but Atlantic wouldn’t let them go.
“We spent the next year in limbo, writing music that apparently wasn’t commercial enough for them,” Ruess said. “Eventually they dropped us, fortunately, so we were able to go make the record ourselves. It really was just a business thing of Sam and me not wanting to play the game, and them having set-in-stone ways. We decided after working with a major pretty much from the get-go that it wasn’t how we wanted ourselves to be portrayed.”
So the duo started their own record label called The Vanity Label and finally had the freedom to make the record they wanted to make, but they teamed up with their management company to make sure their music would be available.
“We felt like we knew what was best for our band, and we have a great management company that takes care of our distribution, so it’s major-label distribution,” Ruess said. “Our songs are on the radio and our videos are on MTV, but that’s something we never really wanted anyways. We just want to tour and make the records that we want to make, and I found we can do that if we do it ourselves. There are no restrictions because it’s our own label.”
Three years of songwriting were finally recorded in three months at The Bank studio in Burbank. They named the album “Dog Problems,” and it was set to be released in July of 2006.
“It’s sort of Sam and I’s baby,” Ruess said. “We spent three years writing it. It was supposed to be a concept record, but we kind of moved away from that as soon as we started writing conventional pop songs. Originally it was very much a Broadway musical, but we realized we were in over our heads with that. Its got its orchestration and its lush arrangements. It’s a pop record.”
But the Internet proved to be a menace, and “Dog Problems” was leaked online in May. In response, the band made a digital version of the album available through an online music store for only $7.99. They hoped if fans couldn’t wait for it, they would at least support the band monetarily.
“I didn’t know what to think,” Ruess said. “I guess I just sat back and read what people had to say about it, because it was something we spent so much time on and it was so different. From reading the reviews it seemed that everybody was positive about it after about the first week I just stopped paying attention and stopped worrying about it.”
“Dog Problems” sold almost 3,000 digital copies and was released to rave reviews. All 12 tracks were a great blend of Ruess’s high-pitched croons and Means’ keyboards and guitar. It brought a new style of pop to 2006 and was listed by an insane amount of their peers’ “Best Albums of 2006” lists on Absolutepunk.net.
The success of the album was enough to land the band a headlining club tour and an opening slot on an amphitheatre tour with the All-American Rejects and Motion City Soundtrack.
“I think it’s from the success that we’ve had from being our own band and being the people we are and not compromising that,” Ruess said. “We just be ourselves, and I think that shines through in our live show. It’s the reason why people come and support us. It’s something different. I’m really proud of it myself. I think other bands see that and want us to go on tour.”
Whatever it is, the guys in The Format have found a way to get their music worldwide exposure and do it on their own terms. They couldn’t be happier, and we couldn’t be happier to have it.
The Format will be on tour with Guster this spring.
