-- MTV News staff report
What would you do if a seven-figure recording contract came your way by the time you reached your mid-20s?
For most, the offer would be a dream come true. But for Walter Martin, Paul Maroon and Matt Barrick of the Walkmen, it just wasn't good enough. Back in 1997, when the three were members of New York's former "It" band Jonathan Fire*Eater, signing to Dreamworks Records was not everything they expected.
"It really didn't seem like a very big deal at all," Martin said. "We were still playing cruddy shows and doing crappy tours and it was very similar to how it is now."
While life on a major didn't bring a change of lifestyle, it still brought its share of big-time pressure. The high stakes of life in the majors led to serious problems within the band, causing the million-dollar outfit to break up in 1998. Martin, Maroon and Barrick rose from the ashes, however, and decided to give it one more shot. They pooled their remaining contract money and built their own recording studio. The trio then filled out their roster with two additional New York musicians — Hamilton Leithauser and Peter Bauer of the Recoys — and officially became the Walkmen. And with the new lineup and new moniker came a new approach to business.
"We write the music. We record it ourselves. We pay for the actual record production, the vinyl, and then we mail order it out and mail them out ourselves ... and we silk-screen the covers too," Leithauser noted.
That freedom — and the freedom that comes with your own recording studio — allowed the Walkmen to separate themselves from Jonathan Fire*Eater by exploring a lusher, more symphonic sound.
"People always say we sound like U2," Martin said. "We were consciously doing that for a while, I think."
Whatever the Walkmen have been doing — conscious or not — seems to be working so far. The band's debut album, Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone, hits stores this week. Smooth sailing it seems, as long as a certain Japanese corporation doesn't have a problem with the band's name.
"I'm more worried about if this record got really big, Sony would slap a lawsuit on us for the name," Leithauser said.
Going from potential bill millionaires to indie bill sharers may not be the most traveled road to rock stardom, but for now, their dreams lie not in their bank accounts, but rather in creative control — and in the chance to quit their full-time jobs.
"I work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art," Leithauser said. "They just left me a message on my phone. They want me to come in to work tomorrow."
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