I had the pleasure of conducting an interview with Carl Bell, the primary songwriter and lead guitarist of the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania band Fuel. Fuel's full length debut, Sunburn is in stores right now and the album's first single, "Shimmer," is a top ten hit on modern rock radio. Catch the band live this summer.

Alternative Rock World: How did you first get into music?

Carl Bell: I grew up without TV in a small town in Western Tennessee. My family chose not to have TV, so naturally you have to do something to fill the void. My natural gravitation was toward music and radio; we had plenty of radio around. My brother was a huge music fan. We used to follow the American Top 40 charts weekly. Because we didnít have TV, I was greatly influenced by radio.

ARW: When did you play your first musical instrument?

Carl: We had a piano around the house and I used to bang around on it a lot. I'm not sure if I would call that playing; it was more like noodling or something. I picked up songs off of the radio and tried to play them on the piano when I was seven or eight.

ARW: Do you consider yourself to have a musical ear?

Fuel: Oh yeah. I can't read music. It's like the old joke: how do you stop a guitar player from playing; you place a sheet music in front of him (we laugh). All of my training was just from ear training and trying to mimic what I heard.

ARW: Who are your personal guitar heroes and why?

Carl: I love Stevie Ray Vaughn and of course, Eddie Van Halen. When I first joined a music club, I bought the entire Eddie Van Halen collection because he was so hot back in the day. Even he said that he can't figure out what he used to do back in the early days. I also liked David Gilmour. He's really expressive and he doesn't have to play a million notes to express what he wants to express. Itís more like what he doesn't play expresses more than what he does play. Knowing when not to play is very important and Gilmour has that down to a science.

ARW: The new Van Halen does not compare to the old stuff.

Carl: Yeah, theyíre older now; they're mellowing out; theyíre married and they lead different lives now.

ARW: Escape seems to be a theme woven throughout your music. How did you cope with being a creative mind in such a small town?

Carl: I think that's why there is the theme of escape in the music because we felt like we wanted to transcend from where we were at and keep our lives moving. There were great people there, but there weren't many opportunities. For you to pick up on the theme of escape is pretty cool.

ARW: Who are your musical influences?

Carl: I listen to everything. I always liked big melodies, agressiveness, and energy in music. Influences, hmmm. My brother won a huge album collection off of a radio station when I was 13. I've inherited the complete Led Zeppelin, the complete Stones, Joni Mitchell, Alice Cooper, you name it. I used to just throw that stuff on when I came home from school. I have this huge library of music in my head thatís not neccessarily the eclectic side, but more mainstream.

ARW: That's awesome.

Carl: It's was just an awesome vinyl collection. We had cool stuff like the original copy of Sticky Fingers with the real zipper on the front.

ARW: You don't get the same feeling from a CD or especially a cassette as you do from vinyl. It's easier to get into the groove. Do you think that your album would translate well to vinyl?

Carl: It's on vinyl (said enthusiastically). It's so cool for me because I grew up on vinyl. I actually felt like I had a record.

ARW: Is it widely available?

Carl: No, but if you look really hard you might be able to find it. I don't have a clean copy. I just have a promotional copy with the edges cut off. I want a "real" copy of the album with cellophane and the works.

ARW: It reassures you that you are a part of the business. Who are your songwriting influences?

Carl: To me, music has to be engaging on all levels. The lyrics have to be as engaging as the music. I can think of bands whose music is great, but their lyrics do not feel totally fulfilling. I like the older Elton John stuff with Bernie Taupinís mysterious lyrics, Pink Floyd. There's a girl called Beth Orton. I just got her record, Trailer Park. It came out last year but I just picked it up.

ARW: Yeah, she was the best of all of the artists on the Lilith Fair tour last year. With your writing, you seem to have a jaded look at life. What do you attribute this to?

Carl: I think that everybody has their ups and downs. I'm more inspired to write about the things that are a little more painful. When I'm doing great, I don't feel like writing because I'm enjoying the happy times. You just feel closer to the music when you're feeling down. With happy songs, I don't feel the same flow as I do with more depressing tunes.

ARW: How and when did Fuel form?

Carl: Jeff (the bass player) and I grew up together in a tiny town called Kenton, Tennessee with about 1,000 people. There were only 27 people in my graduating class. It was basically soybeans and cows. There were some great people there. Jeff and I have played guitar from an early age. We were in a few bands together. In 1993, we saw Brett Scallions, our lead singer, in a club in Jackson, Tennessee and we were losing our lead singer at the time. We asked him to join our band. When Brett joined, the whole sound of the band gelled because Brett was the missing link that we were looking for. In 1995, we moved to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania because there wasn't much going on in Tennessee for us. We put out our own CD and got airplay on the local stations. They played "Shimmer" (off of our EP Porcelain) there before we were signed and that generated label interest. We played at the Troubadour when we came to L.A on our first tour.

ARW: Yeah, the Troubadour is a legendary venue. Elton John performed his first American show here.

Carl: I saw that performance on VH1 just the other day. We were writing and working on the song, "Sunburn," just before our first performance here.

ARW: Why don't you do the singing?

Carl: I do sing some and I will sing more on the second record. We actually tracked a song that I sang for this record, but it was omitted. Brett's voice is just the voice that I wish I had. He just brings a song to life when he sings it with his distinguishable voice.

ARW: Definitely. Will Brett be writing more for the next album?

Carl: I'll bring in the mass of the work and they'll make additions. They'll definitely contribute more to the writing as we go along.

ARW: Do you feel like you have a great bond with the band?

Carl: Yeah. We've been together since 1993. We've gone through a lot of stuff. It's going to be different with the pressures of the next album. We're like brothers. Sure, we fight, but we always make up later.

ARW: How did you sell 5,000 copies of your demo while living in such a small town?

Carl: Actually, that was after we moved to Harrisburg. We sold them from stage, took them to used CD stores, sold them out of the trunk of our car. We were getting radio play so there was awareness of the album.

ARW: From your biography, it sounded like you sold them while in Tennessee. That DIY story is absolutely awesome. What made you decide to move away? Why Harrisburg? Why not New York?

Carl: A lot of bands in New York are seen before they're ready for the big time. Being in Harrisburg, you can be a big fish in a small pond conquer the little market there and you would get lost in the shuffle someplace else. We could always just pop into New York for gigs occasionally. It seems a little more special when you play in the city.

ARW: Smart reasoning. Harrisburg is a good central location. At your new home, how did you start garnering so many fans?

Carl: We played all the time. We had our own PA system, our own light show, and all that stuff. Two guys would be in the Honda Civic and two guys would be in the equipment truck and set up our stuff. We just worked hard at getting ourselves known.

ARW: You guys have the ultimate do-it-yourself story. It's amazing how you could come from a small town in Tennessee and sell 10,000 copies of your CD by yourself.

Carl: It was a lot of work. We'd reinvest the money we earned to make our next record. We got good breaks.

ARW: What do you think rests in your music that makes your fans so fervid?

Carl: I'm not sure. I think that it's a bit early in the game to decipher that. We have agressive music with a good melody and that marriage makes people like us. Maybe they like the lyrics. It's the combination of those three.

ARW: Do some of your fans believe that you've sold out and how do you cope with these "fans."

Carl: Nobody has really accused us of selling out. I don't know how to address selling out. I read an article where Art Alexakis of Everclear was quoted as saying that the whole sell out thing was created by some guy with a trust fund or something.

ARW: Why did it take so long to release Sunburn?

Carl: We wanted to release the album at the right time. We had problems with getting the right artwork together.

ARW: I heard you rehearsing a song that isn't on the CD. Have you been writing a lot of new material?

Carl: We had a lot of stuff from before also, but yeah. I've got a big backload of songs and I have a lot of new songs. I really enjoy songwriting. It might be painful and frustrating at times, but I really enjoy it.

ARW: How many songs did you record for Sunburn?

Carl: Fifteen. Eleven made the cut. A song called "Sunday Girl" is featured on the B-side of the 7' picture vinyl single of "Shimmer." There are some more songs that we didn't put on because we didn't feel like we captured it like we should. There was also some other stuff that really didn't fit our sound also.

ARW: What does some of the new stuff sound like and when are you planning to release the second album?

Carl: Hopefully we can get a few singles off of this record. We'll probably release a new album in about two years. The new stuff sounds pretty similar to the stuff on Sunburn. Some are different though. One song has a Fleetwood Mac Rumours feel to it. In a couple of years, we'll have a lot of songs to choose from.

ARW: In the songs "Mary Pretends" and "Ozone," you mention the word "fly" a lot. Do you have an obsession with flight?

Carl: I think it comes from the freedom of flight. Flight gives people the idea of escape.

ARW: Describe your live show from your perspective.

Carl: There's a lot of polka and we wear dresses (we laugh). The music is pretty agressive and the live show is pretty intense and aggressive as well.

ARW: How did you react when you first heard "Shimmer" on a radio station outside of Harrisburg?

Carl: The first time I heard it, I heard it on K-ROCK in New York. It's great how so many people can hear a song with just one listen. We've been doing it ourselves for a long time with local airplay, so it doesn't make us go crazy. It's pretty cool to hear your song in a place like Tucson, Arizona.

ARW: Do you think that success will change you?

Carl: We've been through enough so far and I'm not sure if we're actually successful. The album has only been out for about 3-4 weeks. I really hope not. I'm pretty well grounded. Being famous is more baggage than I want. Playing and writing music is the only thing I want to do.

ARW: Any last words

Carl: Buy us a new bus or buy our bus for us. We bought this bus thinking that it would be the end of our touring problems and it's a '98 and a total piece of crap. If anybody wants to buy a bus, we're selling it for cheap.