Papa Roach

“Viva la cucaracha, you know what I’m sayin’?” Papa Roach singer Coby Dick told POLLSTAR. “The story kind of plays itself out like that.”

The band (P-Roach to its fans), with its punkish hip-hop, had been toiling around Northern California clubs for five years, picking up 500 fans here, 800 there, and slowly making an infestation.

Infest is not just an obvious album title; it’s the band’s strategy. In February, the members were touring independently in a van, playing to 10 or 15 patrons. But that was just like seeing one cockroach. Sometime soon afterward, a light turned on and boom P-Roach was everywhere. Its DreamWorks debut album, released in April, is already platinum and “Last Resort” is a chart topper. The band has jumped from the Warped Tour to opening for Korn. Then there’s MTV’s “Total Request Live,” the Conan O’Brien show and a nomination for best new artist on the MTV Awards, all within a week.

“[The award nomination] freaked me out because our album has been only out for, like, two months,” Dick said. “Crazy shit, man.”

Originally from Vacaville, Calif., Dick, Jerry Horton (guitar), Tobin Esperance (bass) and David Buckner (drums) have been together since high school in 1993, when they would play teen centers and parties. By their third indie release, Let ‘Em Know, in 1999, the band was packing 1,000-seaters in Northern California, and playing Los Angeles with (hed)p.e., Incubus, and Alien Ant Farm.

“We went up and down California,” manager Brett Bair said. “We were a headliner in Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, L.A., Orange County. When you’re a headliner in the biggest state in the country, what does that say about the rest of the country? The rest of the country is going to follow, and that’s what happened. But the speed we did it at is sort of crazy.”

In law school at the time, Bair showed up at band practice in 1996 and was hired mainly to handle bookings. Like everyone in the P-Roach family, he has been with the band ever since.

Let ‘Em Know also got the band a demo deal with Warner Bros. Records. P-Roach recorded five songs within a month, but the Bunny ultimately did not bite.

“We were so stoked that they didn’t,” Dick said, “because Warner Bros. went through all these crazy changes and our album probably still wouldn’t be out.”

DreamWorks, however, was ready to get an album out and promoted. “They did the same with Buckcherry, and Buckcherry’s album did well. Powerman 5000, they’re always promoting that. It’s cool to be a part of it and not be on some other label where there’s a zillion bands. And say our record didn’t blow up and shit, then they go, ‘OK, we’re done working your record,’ and onto the next band and hope they blow up. It’s not that. That’s why we’re with DreamWorks.”

The band has had plenty of attention turned toward Dick’s lyrics. The honest portrayals of suicide contemplation and divorce have been embraced by the band’s fans. P-Roach has been approached countless times after shows by those who see their own experiences reflected in the songs, and the band members have spent as much time hugging their fans as talking to them. And although the name Papa Roach has nothing to do with drugs and more to do with Dick’s grandfather, “Papa Roatch” the band is a sort of father figure, or “Papa,” to its fans.

“No shit. I never thought of that,” Dick said. “Come to Papa! … In a weird way, it wasn’t my intention to connect with people like that. My whole thing was I just wanted to get it out on paper. Then when we went around the country and kids bought our record, they’re like, ‘Dude, Coby, I’m really into your lyrics and I don’t feel alone when I hear that song.’ I didn’t realize the effect or power or responsibility, in a weird way, that you hold. It affects what kids do and I didn’t realize it until after the album came out and people were connecting with it on that level.”

Bair expressed concern with Papa Roach’s quick rise. With MTV exposure and the success of the single, it can be difficult for a band to keep its credibility. However, Papa Roach plans to follow the paths of bands it reveres, such as Fugazi and Faith No More, by evolving its music and building upon its successes rather than floating one pop hit out there then fading away.

Bair said P-Roach has seen plenty of bands come and go. “They’re very industry savvy,” he said. “They know how this game works.”

“Having a video is cool, a song on the radio, that’s cool,” Dick said, “but that’s all icing on the cake. You know, ‘Buy the record, but come see the show,’ you know what I’m saying? … because that’s when we really make our fans.”