Although their hit song "Hate Me" has made Blue October a household name among modern rock fans, many would be surprised to know that the band has actually been together for 10 years now.
"We've had a lot of ups, and probably a lot more downs than ups," said drummer Jeremy Furstenfeld.
After Jeremy and his brother, lead singer Justin Furstenfeld started the band back in Texas in 1996, they soon gathered a loyal fan base. One of the "downs" was undoubtedly when the band was signed to Universal Records in 2000, only to be dropped by the label in 2002 due to poor radio play.
But the band continued to persevere, and after they again received attention from their single "Calling You," which was featured on the "American Wedding" soundtrack, the band was again signed to Universal Records.
Although a decade seems like forever to wait on success, Jeremy said the wait might be well-suited for the band.
"It seems like a really long time, but our music isn't the kind of music that is normal dinner conversation music," he said. "It isn't stuff people really feel comfortable talking about, so maybe 10 years is appropriate."
According to Jeremy, after finishing their last album, "Foiled," the band was surprised that the song "Hate Me," a tale "about the different paths you take and what happens to people around you," was the one chosen by the label as their first single.
"It's the last song that we ever thought would be a single because it's blatantly honest and also because the album version we originally recorded was over six minutes long and it was more of an art piece," he said.
After editing the song down to a better time for radio play, the song has dominated the airplay on rock radio stations. The band's second single off "Foiled," "Into the Ocean," is receiving a little less love from rock radio because of its pop sound, according to Jeremy.
"When you've got Godsmack and Evanescence, it's kind of hard to throw that into your line-up," he said.
Although being in a band with one's sibling for a decade could be stressful for some people, Jeremy said "it's really great to be there and share all this with him.
"We're both completely opposite people - he's like the super artist in the band, and I'm the more construction guy who could probably do anything," Jeremy said.
Jeremy also said that growing up together and sharing a room enabled them to get "most of our fighting and choking out of the way years ago and now we're business partners."
Despite the band's recent success, Jeremy said he still enjoys the fact "that we can do this for a living and still come home and walk through the grocery store."
"We live fairly humble lives as far as notoriety goes," he said.
And that fits in perfectly with Jeremy's hopes for the band's future.
"We just hope to keep doing what we've been doing in a slow process of spreading the word farther out there," he said. "We'd like to become a worldwide band, not just a I-35 and over to Little Rock band, which is where we started out, and we'd like to still maintain a normal family life - although normal means absolutely nothing when it comes to rock 'n' roll."
