Peter Klett rose to prominence with the Seattle-based Candlebox during the grunge era, but the genre didn’t affect his guitar playing. “I don’t think the scene in Seattle had anything to do with my style,” he says. “I had developed what I wanted to do long before the 90s thing happened.”
His aim was feed his devotion to ‘70s hard rock and rock – but hit songs like You and Far Behind from Candlebox’s 1993 self-titled debut prove that’s not how things shook out.
Klett describes his younger self as having a “huge ego” and laments his use of alcohol. Looking back on the band’s moment in the sun, he says: “It was quite a whirlwind. I think when you have that kind of success at a young age, reality becomes distorted. Other people are going off and having families, and we were going off on tour. You end up kind of living in a bubble.”
Article continues belowAfter having abandoned plans to retire, Candlebox plan to tour as often as possible, and they’re working on a new album – which should yield interesting results. “I don’t really listen to heavy rock anymore,” Klett says. “I’m really all about lo-fi chill music. And I’d rather mix music in a studio than play guitar as much as I used to.”
When I was really young, I couldn't care less about musical instruments. I went to camp one summer and somebody had a guitar. They taught me Smoke on the Water, and I played it over and over to the point where people were going mad! I got home, confiscated my sister‘s nylon-string guitar, and started the adventure.
That Christmas I got my first guitar, a 12-string Yamaha acoustic, which I’m glad I got because it was hard to play and helped build my strength.
I wish we could all go back to those simpler times without all the distractions. Back then, you chose an instrument and you perfected it. These days the kids learn everything, which is great. But some learn everything while never really learning how to do one thing well. My goal was to be a guitar player.
What led to the formation of Candlebox?
I was floating around playing with bands. The band I was in knew Kelly Gray, who produced our first two records and had done some demos for us. Kelly thought I was a great player. He was friends with Scott Mercado, who was in the band Uncle Duke with Kevin Martin
Their guitar player quit, so Kelly introduced me to them, and the rest is history. Once I fired the bass player and we got Bardi Martin, the band was complete.
It was the grunge era, but Candlebox wasn’t quite grunge. Did you feel lumped into that scene?
Yeah, we were lumped in. My goal was not to be a grunge band. Our goal was to just make some really great rock ‘n’ roll music, but because we came from Seattle, they labeled us as ‘grunge.’ We were a blues-based rock ‘n’ roll band.
What do you recall about the recording and writing of You and Far Behind?
The versions you hear are actually demos that we did at Robert Lang Studios a while before. We made a demo that became known as The Red Tape. We knew there was something special about those two songs. I believe it's a Peavey VTM120, a Marshall Mosfet with an Ibanez Tube Screamer, and a 1987 Gibson Les Paul Classic. That’s it.
We couldn’t capture the same vibe when we got the record deal, so we just remixed the demos and put them on the record. I think you’re always surprised when you have that kind of success, but we knew they were special.
In the ‘90s Candlebox opened for Aerosmith and Metallica. What was that like?
Aerosmith was a short two-week run, which was great. They were super cool, but we didn’t spend a whole lot of time with them. Metallica, on the other hand, was a long tour. We got to hang out.
It was quite a challenge with their audience, but by the end of our set, they went from giving us the finger and throwing things at us to giving us the metal sign and letting us know that we rocked.
One of the coolest things about that whole tour was that all the guys in Metallica, individually at separate times, told me what a great guitar player I was – except the guitar player!
What gear were you using by then?
I was using all Mesa/Boogie amps and Rectifier cabinets. For the most part, it was and still is late ‘70s early ‘80s Gibson Les Pauls, though I started to play a Fender Telecaster in a band I did called Red Light Music. But with the Les Pauls, I liked the pickups of those particular years.
Candlebox also toured with Rush.
That was our favorite tour by far. The guys were super generous and hung out with us all the time. When you go out on tour with a band that you’ve looked up to for decades, and they hang out with you like you’re one of them, it’s quite an experience.
Those were our first large arena shows; we were quite nervous. But when we walked out onto the stage for that first show, we knew we had gotten somewhere. There were cool little things, like an end-of-tour golf party, where I got to borrow Geddy Lee’s shoes!
Speaking of feeling like you’d gotten somewhere, Candlebox played Woodstock in 1994. What gear did you use, and what was that like?
For the Rush tour and Woodstock, I used the same Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifiers, with a wah and, I think, a Tube Screamer as my distortion pedal. I wasn’t switching between two amps then, but I did have a volume pedal.
Woodstock was quite overwhelming… I remember walking into catering and I was in awe at how many famous people were in one place for a show.
After being away for a number of years, you’re back with Candlebox.
It’s not over – but it’s gone through a few changes and there have been a couple of shutdowns. Kevin and I are going to go tour and do another record, and then tour again on that, so we still have a future ahead of us.
Candlebox was set to retire a few years ago, but it seems that’s changed.
Kevin and I had been talking, and I’d expressed my desire to do it again and maybe do it differently this time. He thought that was great, so we decided to see how it goes, and it ended up being a really positive experience. So we’re gonna go forward until we don’t want to anymore.
Where does your rig stand today?
I adopted a two-amplifier scenario when I had some time off, using an A/B pedal and a stereo pan pedal going between a dirty amp and a clean amp. Instead of having to stomp channels on the downbeat, I can just slip into the parts.
I have a small pedalboard and rig that I travel with, and I have a larger board that I use, depending on the tour. I have a wah, a Rotovibe, and I really like the DigiTech Hardwire distortion pedal. I’ve got two Les Pauls, and all my guitars have my signature pickups by Carondelet, the Dreambucker PKs.
Any regrets?
The only regret I really have is my huge ego back in the day and how that affected my relationship with the guys. And I wish I could have done it all without alcohol.
- Peter Klett’s signature Dreamnucker PK pickups are available from Carondelet.
