Disciples of the new millennium, Days of the New named themselves for the year 2000 -- that "spiritual" turning point when all four strapping teens will finally reach legal drinking age.
Until the next century, however, these megahit minors are content swilling the profits of their post-high school anthem "Touch, Peel and Stand" -- the Scott Weiland-esque debut single that clung to Billboard's #1 slot for 16 consecutive weeks -- and shrugging off predictable industry criticism.
"When we first came out...some reviewers would compare us to a Silverchair, or a Hanson, or a Radish because we are teenagers," says 19-year-old Days guitarist Todd Whitener. "People would read that and they would assume that our music was a Hanson-type pop that didn't have the deepness that we feel. People would automatically blow us off."That was until Outpost Recordings spotted the angst in vocalist Travis Meeks' growl. He had the leer, the tattoo and the troubled-childhood lyrics of a sure thing. The grassroots Outpost, founded and engineered by R.E.M./Nirvana producer Scott Litt, steered Days of the New into a Nashville Studio in late 1996 and set about making a radio phenomenon. And a video icon.
Bare chested and pensive, Meeks has come to represent Days of the New. His alienated, suffocating adolescence in blue collar Charleston, Ind. is most often cited as the impetus for lyrics like "Kick me out/Let me go/I don't belong here no more" from the current MTV staple, "Shelf in the Room."
"(Travis) has so many emotions built up inside of him from everything that has happened to him in the past, that when he grabs his guitar, he just pretty much draws them out," Whitener says.
In this era of Spiceworld grunge backlash, Meeks has renewed the record industry's faith in anguish and hostility as tried and true marketing tools. So far, Days of the New's freshman effort has sold more than a half million copies and earned the band the number four rank in Rolling Stone's Top 20 Reader's Poll. Now the greenhorn rockers are vying for an opening slot on their beloved Metallica's Reload U.S. tour, where they could rope in the just-hatching metal heads.
"Maybe (our music) is more (accessible) to teenagers because we are teenagers and we are drawing out the emotions that we feel," Whitener says.
The Days of the New trademark is not, however, its pubescent appeal or aspirations to ride the lightning. What sets these shaggy rockers apart from the Marcy Playgrounds and Third Eye Blinds is their betrayal of the amplifier. For more than two years, Whitener has been thrashing away at an acoustic guitar, forging an unconventional sound usually reserved for MTV's Unplugged or a tender benefit show.
"We have all been in our fair share of heavy metal Metallica-like, Pantera bands -- doing the electric thing like everyone else," Whitener says. "It was getting old, to be honest with you. The same sounds were coming out that have been produced for the last 20 years. And so this acoustic thing was just an idea that we had, because it is just so much more soulful and you can just bring out so much more natural emotion."
Producer Scott Litt who "turned down the lights, lit up the incense, got the candles going" and allowed Days of the New to hurl this emotional brand of rock 'n' roll at a wider audience. It was Litt's patient, nurturing style of producing that quelled the band's jitters and exposed their true voice, Whitener says.
The whole "small family" of Outpost Recordings has nurtured Days of the New and allowed them to experiment with both the acoustic guitar and more nontraditional, international instruments on the band's forthcoming second record. Whitener says this "ethnic approach" will include European stringed instruments, African percussion and a female vocalist, who may or may not join the band on the road.
Days of the New will wrap up its current tour with the Geffen band Black Lab in a matter of weeks, and then plans to head straight back to the studio. This schedule, which has been churning on for the last year and a half, has kept Whitener's mind off the intellectual stimulation he snubbed back in Louisville, Kentucky.
"Right when I met (the band) I had just been offered a couple college scholarships, so I was planning for that," he says. "Then this came up and, hell, I couldn't pass up the opportunity."
Now that opportunity has surpassed even Whitener's wildest dreams. The success of "Touch, Peel and Stand," followed by the brooding "Shelf in the Room," have made the members of Days of the New into unlikely role models. "It is really important to be sending out a positive message," says Whitener. Positive and lucrative, that is.
"When we all got into this, we had really, really high expectations...but we had no idea that things would be happening this fast for us," Whitener says. "I wake up every morning thanking God for where I'm at."