CAPTIMES, October 31, 1996
IP.SI--1 Student Carl_ Bell
...1.4c) rriember of Fuel
• . . what happens when a new work of art is created is something that happens
simultaneously to all the works of art which preceded it. . . ." T.S. Eliot
Jody L. Jacobs
Editor
It's 2:30 a.m., Monday,
at Mechanicsburg's Holiday
Inn on the Carlisle Pike. The
Polynesian torches on the
deck of the hotel's club
Wanda's have just been
capped off for the night. The
bartenders and waitresses,
clad in their blue and white
staff shirts, have collected
the last of the empty beer
bottles and cocktail glasses
scattered throughout the
club, and now count their
receipts and cash in their
tips.
Carl Bell stands on
the club's small stage which
is draped by a fluorescent
red, orange, blue, and yellow
tie-dye backdrop. He
removes the earplugs that he
purchased from WalMart six
hours ago, and the silence of
the empty bar intensifies.
Then, the guitarist picks up
his wine-burgundy Les Paul
from its stand, frees it from
the amplifier, and lays it to
rest for the night in its hard,
black instrument case.
With guitar in hand,
Bell walks out into the crisp
autumn night and toward his
Ford pickup truck. Towering
above him, the Holiday Inn
marquee glows with its fluo
rescent message: "FUEL,
LIVE EVERY SUNDAY NIGHT."
As Bell drives back to
his Middletown apartment, he
thinks how nice it is to leave
so early.
Usually after a gig, he
and the other members of the
local band Fuel: Jody Abbott,
Jeff Abercrombie, Brett
Seallions, and sound man
Randy Lane, would still be
inside tearing down their
equipment for about another
hour. But, the group will be
back later that afternoon for
rehearsal, so they have left
their equipment there until
then.
Until rehearsal, Bell
will have a chance to catch a
few hours of sleep before
making an 11:00 a.m. class at
Penn State Harrisburg (PSH),
where he is a secondary edu
cation major. This alternative
rock musician will soon be
discussing the works of
Wordsworth and T.S. Eliot.
By then, he will have
shed his gray/black, retro
alternative band attire, as
well as his animated per
former persona, for the more
conservative henley-collared
shirt, jeans, sneakers, and
canvas jacket worn by many of
the male undergraduates on
campus.
Do students know, as
they sit next to Bell, dis-
coursing about Eliot's
"Tradition and the Individual
Talent," that hours before he
was performing the "works"
of the Rancid, Green Day,
Everclear, Rage Against the
Machine, as well as Fuel's
own originals?
"Absolutely not,"
says a shocked American
studies major Beth Summy.
She had heard, of course,
about the band, Fuel. What
she didn't know was that Bell
is a member.
"He seems so conserv
ative in class. I could never
picture him on stage," she
says.
"Well," says Fuel's
drummer, Jody Abbott,
"Carl's a conservative guy."
Another reason why
students might be a bit sur
prised to discover that Bell is
in Fuel, 3s because he rarely
talks about band 1 ife at
school.
Bell says that he's not
ashamed to admit he's in the
band, but he doesn't volun
teer that information either.
He says that people "start
deducting IQ points immedi
ately" when they find out he's
a professional guitar player
and he doesn't want to be
judged by the stereotype.
"I kind of like the
anonymity," he says.
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Glen Mazis, associate
professor of humanities and
philosophy, has taught Bell in
class. He says that Bell's
cautious attitude about
telling students that he's in a
band is understandable.
"Carl is so down to
earth and approachable. He's
completely opposite of the
stereotype that is associated
with a musician," he says.
Mazis believes that
Bell's musical and academic
pursuits "augment" each
other and aide his creativity
"Part of being an
artist is being a student," he
adds.
Students, Mazis says,
might find it a bit "intimi
dating" to be sitting next to
someone in class for whom
performing music is more
than just a dream, but a goal
that is being professionally
pursued.
He adds that because
of the glamorous images that
are associated with rock
music in our popular culture,
students may also make
assumptions about Bell that
are not true.
Although writing and
performing music are Bell's
passion, he will quickly tell
you that life on the road to
the label contract is anything
but glamorous.
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Jody L# Jac 9 bs
Editor
Fuel curteritlY
aWa the release of their
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Actually, he says,
"It's a lot of hard work."
Fuel performs about
four days a week. In addition
to their regular Sunday night
gig at Wanda's, they also per
form at other clubs in the
eastern side of the state and
in N.J.
In addition to per -
forming, Bell also writes the
group's original material
"Somewhere, in the
middle of all of that, I go to
school too," Bell says.
Right now, the band
has no tour bus and driver,
although the group does own
their own truck to haul their
equipment. And, there are no
roadies to set up and tear
down the sound equipment.
What they do have, however,
is five guys, who are so
determined to make their
Omirpprpjettrs
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recorded, mixed, and pro
duced "Pottelains this past
summer.
Drummer JodY
D a r l u :reditS . aS
Abbott,
imam song
the band's
writer.
pct disc
mPa
The c°
features
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and "n ide away,"whi h we re
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band a success, that they
work the 60 to 70 hour weeks
to get all of those jobs done.
"They are a great
bunch of guys," Bell says.
"This i s a common dream that
we each want to see come
t rue."
The PSII campus is
where Bell pursues his other
dream, to be a high school
teacher
"Teaching is also a
stage. It will give me another
opportunity to make a con
nection with people," he says
Mazis says that
because Bell has such an
excitement and wonder about
learning, "he should be a
teacher." He also thinks that
Bell will be able to reach
teenagers, because he is con
nected to something that they
written 1 . . y Ben.
B e g w h o describes
Fuel's sound as "intense gui
tar-based =dent rock,” says
that he has writ.tett liundreds
of songs, but only a few will
L'make the cut s to he ilicioded
in a retarding.
. . .
. .
He days tit 'when be is
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melody or perspective going
through his mind and he says
he carries a recorder with him
to capture his inspirations.
to be written 'because they are
a form of se 1 f -expressiart,” he
says. "1 write my songs with
the hope that somebody/,some
where has those same feel"
tags."
Bell says that his col
lege studies of the classial
writers, including
Wordsworth, Eliot and Thoreau
indirectly, (and sometimes
directly), affect the music he
writes.
work of past artists, he says,
does help him to create some
thing "unique in the present.'
After the release of
"Porcelain," Bell says that the
nature of the band's perfor
mances will begin to include
more of Fuel's originals and
fewer covers.
WAND AS
WANDAS
MEZAANICSSL:7.7..FA
To find out more infor
mation about Fuel's schedule
WANDAS
515C. , _ 4 .N:C7,3 7 -;7.:.?...
or their compact disc
"Porcelain," call the band's
(call hotline)
hotline at (800) 674-8178,
extension 0070.
F el !,..i . 6
• • •
"The music I write has
The knowledge or the