Fuel

In fact, the group’s major label full-length debut on 550 Music, Sunburn, was the first recording to knock the Titanic soundtrack out of the No. 1 position on SoundScan’s regional chart in central Pennsylvania. Of the total sales of Sunburn, some 10 percent have come from this region alone.

And this relatively new, hard-rockin’ act is even featured on the mega-huge Godzilla soundtrack.

Now, as Fuel is in the midst of a lengthy national tour of clubs and festivals, the band that was born in a town of a thousand people is leaving the comforts of its northeastern fan base to gain a new, nationwide following.

And to attract those fans, it will require a great deal of hard work and determination. But Fuel guitarist/songwriter Carl Bell already knows something about the struggle.

From the band’s early days, Bell realized the first step in Fuel’s success would be to leave the small, rural western Tennessee town of Kenton for the glamour of the big city. “I had 27 people in my graduating class,” Bell told POLLSTAR. “Obviously, there’s not many places to play around that area.”

With lead vocalist/guitarist Brett Scallions, bassist Jeff Abercrombie and drummer Kevin Miller rounding out the lineup, the four guys from Kenton headed for the “big city” of Harrisburg, Penn.

“We moved to Harrisburg in ’95 because we had been playing through there before,” Bell said. “We saw that there was good fan support for bands. We knew they had great radio stations there that played local music. And the locale was great because you were close to all the major markets.”

About six months after arriving in Harrisburg, the band signed with Media Five Entertainment, which is the management company for Live. “Great management is so key and we knew we needed somebody who knew the inroads to the system there,” Bell said. “So Media Five picked us up locally.” The company initially booked shows for the band.

“We were doing a lot of different gigs throughout Harrisburg and the whole central Pennsylvania region,” Bell said. “We had our own P.A. system, our own light show and we were playing six nights a week, just really working hard at it.”

Bell remembers: “When we would play the Jersey Shore, it’s a three-hour drive, so we would drive three hours, set up the full P.A., the light show and all of our gear. [We would] play the show and tear it all back down, drive back home three hours, get home at like eight or nine in the morning and get up at noon and do it all again somewhere else.”

But the band’s relentless touring schedule wasn’t enough to satisfy Fuel’s determination to succeed. The band recorded and released an independent CD, Porcelain, in 1996, which enjoyed heavy airplay on local radio and eventually sold about 10,000 copies.

With the success of the band’s independent effort, national attention slowly drifted toward Fuel. “The program directors of the various [radio] stations were calling New York, going, ‘Hey, I’ve got this song and people are calling and requesting it. You might want to come and check this band out,'” Bell said. “So the record companies started calling because of the radio play … and the fan base we had built up.”

Once record companies became aware of Fuel’s local success, a recording contract was a cinch. Bell recalled one gig at Tramps in New York City where “after the show, there were literally about 25 record companies downstairs.” However, it was a show at the Troubadour in Los Angeles that would lead to Fuel securing a record deal.

“Polly Anthony from 550 and her A&R guy, Ben Goldman, had really expressed a lot of interest in us,” Bell said. “And actually, Polly flew out to the Geffen-sponsored L.A. show and we thought that showed, obviously, a lot of interest and tenacity. And we decided to go with 550.”

But it was ICM’s Mike Krebs who really saw something in the band. “When we sent Porcelain out, Mike Krebs from ICM heard the record and he called us on the phone saying, ‘I’m coming for you guys.’ We were kind of like, ‘Well, we’re not signed.’ He said, ‘I don’t care. I love the record and I’m all over you guys,'” Bell said. “It was so awesome.”

Fuel acknowledges the hard work Krebs has done, overcoming many obstacles for the band. Most recently, the group was in-between road managers, so Krebs stepped out from behind the desk and took to the road. “I think he had a good time, traveling around in the old bus and getting out of the office,” Bell said.

The band is looking ahead, preparing for the Fuel big step. “Now we’re playing bigger stages and a lot of sheds this summer with a lot of these radio festivals,” Bell said. “And people are going, ‘How is it to walk out on that big stage?’ And we’re like, ‘Look, we’ve been playing so long that it’s just like coming home to us.'”