Fuel

Posted in MusicWorld on December 8, 2003 by Paul Zollo

Fuel burns. It's the main ingredient of their sound: burning, blazing guitars. Comprising singer/guitarist Brett Scallions, guitarist Carl Bell, bassist Jeff Abercrombie and drummer Kevin Miller, they emerged from Pennsylvania, where they debuted in 1996 with an independently released EP, Porcelain . Its success was stellar: It sold over 10,000 copies locally, as the single "Shimmer" became a major hometown radio favorite. This led to the band's signing by Sony's 550 imprint, which first released the band's 1997 EP, Hazleton . Fuel's first full length CD, Sunburn , came in 1998, and featured the song "Shimmer," which raced up the charts. With other hit singles such as "Bittersweet," "Jesus or a Gun" and the title track, a highpoint of the Scream 3 soundtrack, Sunburn went platinum.

In 2000, Fuel released a new album, Something Like Human , and their latest album, Natural Selection , is racing up the charts. The name Fuel was chosen because the band based itself on energy and aggression. They were attempting to be as powerful and as aggressive as they could, and they saw the sun as a huge source of energy, and an appropriate metaphor for the direction of the band's music.

Carl Bell was born and raised in Tennessee, and moved to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where the band released an independent CD in 1996. Then they essentially split up and started a record company. Brett Scallions was working radio, Jeff Abercrombie was doing merchandising, and Kevin Miller was taking records to retail. Carl Bell continued recording, and writing songs. The record companies heard some of the records, and before long, the band was receiving a lot of airplay in the Harrisburg area.

Fans are constantly searching out and downloading Fuel's music from the Internet. But it doesn't bother the band. Their first album, Porcelain , is out of print, so the musicians feel that if their fans go to the length to find it and download it, that's a testament to their level of dedication. It's when fans no longer seek out and download their music, they've said, that they'll start to worry.

SOURCEMusicWorld TAGS Rock Musicworld Hitmaker Artists Fuel