Snfu by Chris Walter

Author:Chris Walter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: GFY Press
Published: 2012-09-17T04:00:00+00:00

Living Large and All That Good Stuff

Although the Belkes and Ken Chinn wondered how they could work together after everything that had happened, no real problems materialized. “We realized that we’d created something of significance and we were happy to be able to do it again,” reflects Marc Belke. Instead of open warfare, or even steady bickering, the two parties simply avoided unnecessary communication. Chi Pig kept his cards particularly close to his chest. Even Dave Fortune, who always got along with Chi Pig, found him to be very reserved. “Maybe this will be the boring part of the book, but he’d leave the venue and go directly to his spot in the van, which was the passenger-side loft, and fall sleep until the next stop,” remembers Fortune. “In 2009, Brent Belke and I went to see Open Your Mouth and Say… Mr. Chi Pig, and we were amazed at how little we actually knew about him.”

The paperwork flew back and forth between Vancouver and Los Angeles, leading to a three-record deal that was more or less identical to contracts signed by other bands on Epitaph. Although SNFU would receive what seemed like a small percentage of each unit sold, they would receive those monies before the production costs were recovered. The label would also offer tour support and advances on future sales. “The reality is that most of the record contracts out there are carbon copies of each other, but Epitaph was always generous with us,” says Dave Fortune. Although Chi Pig thought the deal could have been better, Brent says he would sign that same contract today.

The Belkes were glad to be done with the paperwork, but they didn’t like to sit idle. Less than a week after they signed to Epitaph Records, SNFU embarked on a fourteen-date tour that went well and made money. Despite that, Marc and Bunt could hardly wait to play as the Wheat Chiefs again. “It seemed like the Wheat Chiefs finally had their own identity,” says Brent.

On May 8th, the Wheat Chiefs did a show at Station Street for the Music West Festival in Vancouver. SNFU had played the Town Pump as part of the festival the night before, but other than Brett Gurewitz and his wife—who had flown in from Los Angeles—they hadn’t noticed any media types or music industry hotshots. Because of this, the Wheat Chiefs didn’t take the show seriously, even polishing off a bottle of whisky between themselves during the set. “The lights were so bright that we couldn’t see the audience, and we didn’t really care who was out there,” says Brent Belke. To their surprise, a flurry of business cards landed on the stage after the set. People were watching—music industry people. “We were a bit shocked,” Bunt remembers.

Incredibly, one of the offers came from Mercury Records, a subsidiary of the mighty Universal Music Group. The advance added up to more than a million dollars, but Mercury was rumoured to be in trouble, and the Wheat Chiefs were hoping that another major label would make a similar offer.

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