LIVE URBAN SEXX TRIBE

Part 1:  Band background and band member background.

 

Live Urban Sexx Tribe (L.U.S.T.) Was formed in 1992 by Singer Jared Shane (Paolo Gomes) (currently Jahred Gomes) and Guitarist Sergio Cardenas (Danny Axxe).  The two musicians were in several other bands in the 1980’s which included The Clue and Hottbox respectively.  After the breakup of Hotboxx they formed a new band called Live Urban Sexx tribe where they recruited Bassist Mark Young, Drummer Eric Hurwit and Lead Guitarist Neel Viradia.

 

Much like the agenda for many new bands, the idea for L.U.S.T.  was to just write and play what they knew, what they felt and to draw from their experiences and inspirations.  Something different from their prior bands and ultimately different from any band that any of the five members had ever been in.  Unbeknownst to them they would eventually forge an entire new sound which stemmed from their individual musical backgrounds, influences and styles.   

 

They all hailed from five different musical backgrounds, five different ethnicities, and five different sets of influences that shaped their individual musical styles.

 

Although they were all familiar with many styles of music, they each had their favorite styles and artists that shaped and influenced their own identities and style of playing.  This was evident in the types of bands that each member had been in previously.  The level of musicianship in L.U.S.T. was envied by many of the bands that were playing the LA circuit at that time. Each member of L.U.S.T. was practically a master classman at his instrument and each had several years of experience playing in other bands, writing and honing their individual crafts. 

 

So when the 5 of them banded together, it was a perfect storm of musicianship, talent, a multitude of stylistic influences.  They were projected and expected to go straight to the top by many in the industry as well as club owners and fans.  However differences of the minds would cost them in the end and would eventually lead to a premature and sudden break up before they had a chance to leave a big impact in the music industry. 

 

As mentioned earlier, what made them so unique was the fact that they were five guys from five different musical backgrounds and from five different ethnicities.  It became evident that when there is that much diversity, it can only lead to creating something that incorporates all the styles and eventually produces something brand new, unique and fresh.  This was not planned nor was it realized until after

the band had been together for over a year and realized that they really were on to something very unique and new.

 

Jarred Gomes is of Brazilian, French and African American descent.  He grew up in Southern California primarily with a lot of hip hop influence which was fused with other styles that influenced his writing such as disco, rock, punk, R&B and funk as well as hard rock and some metal.

 

 

Sergio Cardenas is of Mexican descent and also grew up in Southern California.  His influence came from a predominantly funk, R&B, new wave background but also had interest in punk, rock, pop, blues and some metal

 

Neel Viradia is of East Indian descent and was born and raised in New Jersey before moving to Los Angeles in 1989 and attending Musician’s Institute in Hollywood for Guitar.  His musical influences came from blues, 70’s rock, 80’s heavy metal/ hard rock background with a huge passion for R&B, funk and even was influenced by disco, jazz and fusion.

 

 Mark Young was born and raised in Newcastle England and moved to Los Angeles in the mid 1980’s.  His influence came from a punk, rock, new wave, fusion based background which also included funk, industrial, rock and heavy metal.  His signature slap bass technique and melodic bass lines and precise timing are evident by what influenced him.

 

Eric Hurwit is your typical but not typical American born Caucasian.  His diverse talents and skill set inside and outside of music are endless.  His cerebral style fused with incredible artistry and vision made him one of the most versatile fiercest drummers around.  His influences stemmed from fusion, acid jazz, contemporary rock, hardcore, funk, punk, country, hard rock and metal.  Eric’s skill set has no limits and he showed his many drum styles while in L.U.S.T.

 

Once the band started finding its niche and kept writing and perfecting their sound, they eventually forged their own unique genre of music which was vastly different from other bands that had preceded them and that followed them. One columnist said that LUST sounded as if you put Aerosmith, Guns & Roses, Run DMC, Dr. Dre, James Brown, Parliament Funkadelic, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine, Faith No More,  Jimi Hendrix and Fishbone all into a blender and mixed them all up….and It is

very evident when one listens to the music of Live Urban Sexx Tribe to be able to hear all the different styles and influences from each of the five members which cohesively runs and weaves within each song. 

 

 

 

Part 2:  The band’s rise

 

The band started out playing small venues and gigs around Los Angeles and Southern California mostly around Hollywood and on the Sunset Strip.  They opened for local metal and hard rock bands.  Unfortunately the live music club scene was the “pay to play” format back then so bands had to pay to play clubs and try to recoup their money by selling tickets to their shows.  In the beginning LUST didn’t have much of a following and were able to draw fans from other bands on the same bill as well as personal friends, family and word of mouth.  It wasn’t until one night somewhere around 1992/1993 when they played a show at Gazzari’s and there was a columnist from a rock magazine that wrote an entire article about the band and praising their musicianship, electrifying live performance, unique sound and the depth and quality of their songwriting.  This single article somehow propelled them from an opening act to headlining within a few short months. 

 

 

On one specific evening the band had a show at the Troubadour and when they arrived for soundcheck at 6pm the line was already 300 people deep and around the corner up Doheny Drive.  At first the band had thought the fans were in Line for one of the other bands on the bill however they were shocked to find out that the line was indeed for LUST.  Since that day, they sold out every show they played in So Cal and were given priority shows and dates at certain venues.   The manager of the Troubadour, Lance was such a big fan of the band that he offered them at least one headlining Saturday night a month and anytime the Troubadour had a national act play, he had LUST as the opening band.  Lance did not make LUST pay to play since they packed the house and he treated the band extra special by offering them free beer, water and perks that many other local unsigned bands did not receive.   He said that LUST was going to be as big as the next Guns and Roses and he wanted to be a part of the ride when it happened.  So he had them open for practically every national band that played the Troubadour.   And since LUST was a funky rock band, they opened for bands that ranged from Metal to Funk.   This was great for LUST as far as growing their fan base however it didn’t turn out that well for a few of the national acts.  One in particular was a band called Arcade which was fronted by Ex Ratt singer Stephen Piercy.   After LUST received a huge ovation and request for several encores, the crowd later booed Arcade off the stage while chanting “Live Urban Sexx Tribe!”

 

 

Most of their popularity came from word of mouth and a buzz that they generated by playing live shows and articles that were written about them in various local music papers and magazines.  They really needed a demo tape to sell and pass out however they didn’t really have one up to this point.  At least not one that had current material and that was professionally produced.  They had some older demos that they recorded themselves but that was way before the band even had a following.  They eventually started recording a demo at a small studio in the valley from a mutual connection but that didn’t really pan out, and then they recorded another demo at A&M studios with an engineer by the name of Dan Glover (no relation to the actor).  At some point Dan had moved on was unable to be reached and it is not clear if anyone from LUST even received a copy of that demo.  Aside from these which nobody had physical copies of, they really didn’t have a current demo that had songs from their new sound.  This caused a lot of friction within the band since they needed a new demo but they never had any luck in recording one that especially captured their ‘Live feel’ on the demos.

 

 

During this time the band was constantly rehearsing and writing and evolving, often playing new material at upcoming shows and dropping older songs from their live set.  They started to really generate a buzz in town and eventually were able to catch the interest of some record labels.   A few A&R reps and producers had even come to their rehearsal room to hear them rehearse.  

 

 

One night in 1993 Brian Christian who is an accomplished producer and engineer had come into the Troubadour.  Brian had engineered The Wall by Pink Floyd, produced Peter Gabriel, The Babys and a slew of other big name bands during his tenor.   Brian’s company BCP (Brian Christian Productions) was contracted by Warner Brother’s records to find “the next big” band,  a new band with a unique sound.  This was not an easy feat since that time was right when Heavy metal was dying and when Grunge was taking over the music scene.  Brian had checked out a few bands and was still looking for that one band to sign to a development deal with WB.  He had heard wind of a band and decided to go see them perform at the Troubadour.  It happened to be on the same night that LUST was playing.   After the band Brian was waiting to see had finished performing he had realized the buzz in the crowd and the excitement for LUST to take the stage.  So he decided to stay and wait for LUST to perform.  It only took him a few songs to realize that this was the band that he was waiting to find and that he would sign to a development deal with WB.  He introduced himself to the band and at that time made a verbal agreement with the band.  He then spent the next four months, 3 to 4 days a week at every rehearsal

and involved in every step of the bands practicing, writing and performances.  He turned them from a tight killer band to a fine tuned well oiled machine.

 

After 4 months they were ready to record their record.  They recorded their record at the prestigious Westlake Studios in West Hollywood. During this time they were still gigging and touring and doing as many shows as they could to promote themselves.  And also there was no written contract between BCP and LUST yet.  Everything was done on a handshake up to this point. 

 

After several weeks in the studio the album was completed and Brian Christian had really captured LUST’s ‘live’ feel, energy and dynamic nuance on the record.  The plans were in motion for a listening party in the upcoming month and to promote the album, however the contracts needed to be signed first. 

 

 

Part 3:  The band’s fall

 

When Brian presented the contract to the band, it was shocking but not completely abnormal.  It seemed that WB & BCP wanted to sign the band and have complete control of publishing and writer’s share royalties, creative control of the music and the videos and complete control on the direction and decisions of the band for the first 7 albums.  Basically the gist of the contract was that the band was to be employees or puppets so to speak.  This did not sit well with the band and Jared especially took it very personally stating that “after all we’ve been through it seemed Brian was like a father figure and now he is trying to screw us” The band hired renowned music attorney David Rudich to review the contract who said that he hadn’t seen a deal this one-sided since the Berry Gordy Motown days.   At this time the band was being managed by Long Paul who was a disc jockey for KNAC, a Southern California hard rock and metal station.  Paul was a loyal, nice guy and did his best but lacked the business acumen or pedigree of a pro manager or real management.  The band didn’t even have a demo up to this point, nor pro management nor representation legally or in any capacity.  

 

With only being able to afford David Rudich to read the contract, the band wasn’t able to afford him to rewrite or counter offer.  If the band had countered the contract and asked for writer’s share, creative control, etc and made it a 3 album deal instead then there may have been a chance for negotiations and to eventually come to an amicable agreement between the band and BCP/WB.  However Jared took this personally and basically told BCP and WB to ‘F’ off and that the band was not interested anymore.   This

basically breached the deal, halted the album since BCP/WB had ownership of the master recordings but the band had the rights to the songs, a copy of the album was never given to the band and only Brian Christian and WB had the master copies.

 

During this time Robert Trujillo (the current bass player for Metallica and at that time was the bassist for Infectious Grooves, Suicidal Tendencies) was a big fan of Live Urban Sexx Tribe.  He was at one of the band’s last headlining shows at the Troubadour approached Jared after the show.  Jared had told him that the band had parted ways with BCP/WB.  Trujillo then convinced Jared to have the band go to North Hollywood and record a new 5 song demo with his producer Michael Vail Blum.   The band went and recorded the demo however Vail Blum didn’t really know the material and didn’t capture the ‘live’ feel or real energy of the band on this recording.

 

This led to a lot more frustration which led to a lot of internal fighting between some of the band members.  The band played a few more shows and were trying to shop interest from other labels when suddenly one day at rehearsal Jared basically broke up the band.  He had been in discussions with 2 members from Liquid Tree (a band that used to open for LUST at many shows) and was feeling frustrated and stagnant with the problems that LUST had incurred and he decided to form a new band.  So Jared, Sergio (Danny Axxe) and Mark decided to join with Chad and Wes from Liquid Tree to form Hed PE.   Sergio was part of this in the beginning but left soon after since they were going in a musical direction that he was not interested in.   

 

When the news broke that LUST had broken up, it caused a lot of buzz around town.  Lance from the Troubadour called the members separately and begged them not to break up.  Neel and Eric and most likely Sergio as well were getting offers from several bands and a few big name artists to audition or fill in spots in their band.  Various club owners and fans were in shock and couldn’t believe that such a magnetic powerful band just called it quits.  However that was the end of LUST and the beginning of HedPe.

 

HedPe has had several albums and practically dozens of revolving members over the last 25 years.  Mark recently left HedPe to pursue other music projects in Oregon.

 

Sergio who still plays guitar and records actively went on to open a successful advertising business and lives with his wife and children in Southern California.

 

 

Eric went on to become a veterinarian but has also played drums on various artists albums .  He has also since become quite a guitar player and has recently released his own album in which he not only wrote and produced but he also played all the Guitar, Drum & Bass parts and programmed the sequencing arrangements.  He now resides in Connecticut.  

 

Neel went on to play in a few other various original bands and cover bands and sat in as a hired gun for a few bands performances.  He and a fellow composer started a small music company called Sky Blue Productions  where they wrote and produced music for TV, Film, Advertising, Social media until around 2005. Neel has also done and still does studio guitar work for various artists albums ranging from rock to hip hop to pop.  He is currently playing in a newly formed band.  He resides in Los Angeles.