Tonic entered the rock 'n' roll fast lane quickly with their debut album, Lemon Parade, which sold more than 1 million copies and produced the most-played rock song on U.S. radio in 1997.

And just as quickly, the Los Angeles rock band discovered the downside of fame.

Their three-years-in-the-waiting second album, Sugar, hits stores Nov. 9. One of the songs on the new disc, "You Wanted More" (RealAudio excerpt), is about the strain of being in love with someone in Los Angeles while living on the road. The song, which also appeared on the "American Pie" soundtrack and was a summer radio hit, starts with a heavy, descending riff and rises into a bittersweet chorus, during which singer and chief songwriter Emerson Hart sings, "You wanted more/ More than I can give."

"It became so much work to maintain this," Hart, 30, said of the relationship, while talking from a tour stop last week in Pennsylvania. "It was killing me."

"You think about it as a kid — you want to be in a rock band," bassist Dan Lavery, also 30, said earlier from New York. "You want to be a musician for the rest of your life. Everybody gets into their 30s, and here we are, doing it. At the same time, everything comes at a price."

"You spend two and a half to three years promoting a record that's doing so well," said Lavery, who joined Tonic in late 1996 (Lemon Parade was recorded with original bassist Dan Rothschild). "Anything else you had in your life — your relationships, with a girlfriend or family or just friends — you don't see them anymore."

Tonic formed in Los Angeles in 1994, often sharing bills at local clubs and doing impromptu jams with the Wallflowers. The group won rock radio's heart with Lemon Parade, released in 1996. The album included the soaring pop-rock songs "Open Your Eyes" and "If You Could Only See" (RealAudio excerpt), the latter having topped Billboard's rock airplay chart for 1997.

"I went from working schlock jobs ... to having a hit record," Hart said.

"It's funny. It changed the way everyone else viewed me more than it changed me. I know a lot of people say that. I used to think, 'Ah, that's bull.' But that's not true I totally went through it" (RealAudio excerpt of interview).

Plus, Hart said the pressure to release an immediate follow-up to Lemon Parade, combined with two years of touring and promotion, left him with writer's block for six months last year.

A conversation with God changed his fate and helped ignite the writing and demo sessions for Sugar, he said.

"I was sitting in my den in Los Angeles, and I was looking around, and I looked up at the sky and said, 'Why do you have to be so mean to me?' " Hart shared. "Ask and you shall receive, man" (RealAudio excerpt of interview).

The question ultimately became the chorus of "Mean to Me," a slow but angry arena-rock song. Sugar is filled with other such songs, driven by melodic guitar playing and vocal harmonies. The title track is built on a gentle acoustic guitar and lyrics that implore a lover to "get your shoes on" and "sugar my love." The single "Knock Down Walls," now getting radio play, turns up the volume with bar-band bravado that would make heartland rocker John Mellencamp proud.

Free, temporary downloads of "Mean to Me" and "Knock Down Walls," in Liquid Audio format, are available until Dec. 9 at Amazon.com. The files will time out Dec. 30.

There's a free and easy feeling to much of the music, but it carries a predominant theme of separation from lovers. "Hoping you'll never be lonely again/ It's a feeling you just can't face/ So I'm just waiting for the light to change," Hart sings on the ballad "Waiting for the Light."

Jack Joseph Puig, who produced Lemon Parade, was unavailable this time around, leaving Hart, Lavery, guitarist Jeff Russo and drummer Kevin Shepard to act as their own producers. The result sounds similar to the first album.

Hart said the band learned a lot from keeping schedules and maintaining a budget in addition to playing the music.

"That was a factor we really didn't consider," he said. "All and all, it went pretty smoothly."

Tonic are on an MP3.com-sponsored tour of college campuses, opening for the Goo Goo Dolls.