Toryn Green of Fuel
While he was enjoying the beautiful weather of SoCal, new Fuel singer Toryn Green and I had some time to chat recently. Life in Alaska, workout regiment and People magazine's Top 50 Most Beautiful People were all things we talked and laughed about. In this RMR Exclusive, Toryn also discusses his entire audition process as well as how the fans have reacted to having a new voice to Fuel.
Asif: Hey man, how's it going?
Toryn: What's goin' on bro?
Asif: Not too much man. How have you been?
Toryn: Pretty good
dude. Just tryin' to enjoy the weather out here in Southern
California! (laughs)
Asif: (laughs) Nice! Its gotta be a lot different than Alaska, huh?
Toryn: Yeah, I gotta say dude, everything is pretty much different than Alaska! (laughs) But I've had a chance to be out here for a little while. Since October '98.
Asif: What is the biggest difference to you from SoCal and Alaska? I know a lot of the world hasn't been fortunate enough to discover Alaska yet…so shed some light on your original home man!
Toryn: Well Alaska is pretty cool in like that in the summertime the daylight hours are really crazy. It doesn't get dark till anywhere between like midnight or one o'clock, and even then it's kinda dusky. So it kinda makes it difficult on the 4th of July! (laughs)
Asif: (laughs) So your 4th of July would actually occur at like 3 AM on July 5th?
Toryn: Exactly! (laughs) You're just waiting for the fireworks to shoot off and you're waiting forever for it to happen! (laughs)
Asif: (laughs)
Toryn: You're just like "Come on! Get dark!" (laughs) And then for New Year's…cause for New Year's it's gonna be dark - the winter you only get four hours of daylight in the deepest part of winter. But then it's so cold that you're bundled up, so that doesn't really work either! It's really great, its beautiful mountains...the wildlife… the winter months might make things a bit dreary, but it makes you welcome the summer for sure. But coming here to California its pretty much warn and sunny here and all the time.
Asif: Well, besides now knowing that you are originally from Alaska, a lot of fans might not know too much about the new frontman of their favorite band. You play any sports in high school at all?
Toryn: When I was in high school I wasn't ever too much into school sports or things like that. I was around it a lot, but I was into martial arts. Go figure! I started when I was about 13. I got my 1st degree black belt when I was about 18. Then I started teaching from my school and was running one of two locations by the time I was 21.
Asif: So you pretty much don't need a roadie or bodyguard…you can take care of yourself and just kick some ass!
Toryn: (laughs) I don't really want that job! Whoever is security can have that job. I'm pretty happy just being the guy on stage!
Asif: So
this kinda leads me into my next couple questions. Believe it or not, for
the first time ever, when I told some people I was interviewing you, I had
a bunch of ladies emailing me "Oh my God, you have to ask him this!" and I
was like "are you kidding me!?"
Toryn: (laughs)
Asif: So I'm going to take two questions from the many I got specifically from female fans…
Toryn: Sure!
Asif: Alright, the first one! Obviously you told me that you have done martial arts, but what is your workout of choice? Do you just lift weights, do cardio, or a combo of both and how much?
Toryn: Martial arts - I haven't done it as much as I did when I was younger. But now, I do a combination of weights and cardiovascular training. I'll go in and do chest and triceps on one day, then after that I'll do abs and cardio for 40 minutes on a StairMaster or treadmill. The next day I'll come back in and do back and biceps followed by abs are cardio. Then the next day I'll go in and do shoulders and legs followed by abs and cardio.
Asif: Is that your workout on the road too!?
Toryn: No, it's just when I'm at home. When I'm on the road, it's just a matter of push-ups and sit-ups. I'll get off the bus and try to get a scope of the grounds and I'll try to jog. Like if I'm at a fairground I'll try to find a track to do some laps or something.
Asif:
Cool man. Alright, the second question. (laughs) I can't believe I'm
asking this one. A lot of the ladies think that you can get some votes…do
you ever think you'll make it into the Top 50 Most Beautiful People of
People magazine?
Toryn: (laughs hard) Oh dude…I dunno! I would consider it an honor to be that, but I think there are a lot more beautiful people out there than me! (laughs)
Asif: (laughs) So what do you like to do for fun?
Toryn: Umm…honestly, what do I do? Umm…I guess for the longest time before the tour I had a girlfriend. So a lot of my time was spent with her. But we split right before the tour. So now it's just a matter of coming home and having a lot of extra time on my hands so I'm doing a lot of songwriting. I'm spending a lot of time, more time than I ever thought I would, online. (laughs)
Asif: (laughs) So, April of last year you auditioned with hundreds and thousands of people for the Fuel spot. Can you tell me about the entire audition process?
Toryn: (laughs) The short version or the long version?
Asif: Whatever man! Just from the time you were like "yeah, I'm gonna tryout for this" to the time you found out you had the gig.
Toryn: My original guitar player for a band called Patience Worth called me up and said "Dude, Fuel is looking for a singer. You go and download "Hemorrhage" from their website and put your own vocals to it and you put a picture and they basically just review those." So I was like "Shoot, I'll do that." So I stopped my car, turned around, and went home. I basically downloaded the song and went to my friend Orion's house, who is the original drummer from Patience Worth. He has like a little studio. We basically tracked the song. I went home and submitted it that night with a picture…so probably within a couple hours of hearing it, they basically had my submission. I waited two days, and nothing happened and I was just like "I don't know what I did that wasn't enough to standout." So I went to a record store and I bought instrumental versions of "Bad Day" and "Innocent". I tracked those songs. Then what I did was make a medley of all three songs kinda where one fades into another, but it was just like one. So the whole thing was about 4.5-5 minutes long.
Asif: That sounds way cool man…
Toryn: Yeah! So, I resubmitted that from a different email address and then I waited. I waited about another two or three weeks. This is in February of last year. So then around the second week of February, I got an email from Fuel's management saying that I was chosen as a finalist from all the submissions. I believe there was something like 1,300 submissions or something like that. So they had to go through and individually listen to each one of these. (laughs) Which I guess is a pretty crazy task in itself!
Asif: (laughs) I'd say so!
Toryn: (laughs) What they did was they put the email addresses of every one of the finalists on this list. So you could see that there were 12 people they had chosen. You could see the email of each of these 12 people. They did that so the 12 finalists could like talk, work out travel arrangements for the audition, and things like that. They said the auditions would be held on April 18th of last year. So the guys started talking smack to each other. They started like sending in their submissions and trying to review each other and then they would cut each other down and I just basically sat and watched the whole thing happen. I didn't want to submit anything. You don't play your cards until it's the right time, you know? (laughs)
Asif:
(laughs) Right!
Toryn: So basically while all of this is happening, I looked at the list and realized I was on the list twice: From the first submission and also from the second one.
Asif: Whoa!
Toryn: (laughs) Pretty cool, huh?
Asif: Yeah!
Toryn: So I went to the audition on April 18th. They basically had us prepare for four songs. I was in line with maybe three other people who were scheduled around my time. The first person that went in sang two songs, and then just came out. Then the person who went in after him basically sang two songs and came out and it was my turn. I was kinda nervous at this point. I went in, met the guys, they seemed pretty cool, and we ended up going through all four songs. I guess they wanted to keep on going and everything was being videotaped. After we did all four songs they decided to take a break and walk with me out onto the street back to my car where I showed them stuff of my old bands, pictures on my iPod, and a music video we had shot. It was kinda funny because as we are walking out all the other people auditioning were looking like "What's going on here? Why is the band walking out with him?" (laughs)
Asif: (laughs)
Toryn: (laughs) But it was pretty cool! The very next day I was playing a show with my other band and I got a call from the management saying "This is Paul, I manage Fuel. The guys really liked what they saw, so they basically just want you to come back in and re-sing the songs." So I said "Sure, I'll be there in a few hours" cause I was in Anaheim. So I got in my car, drove up there and played the songs again and then we all went out to dinner. We basically hung out for a couple hours just kinda vibin' each other's personalities to make sure I wasn't some serial killer that would be thrown off the bus the very first day! (laughs)
Asif: (laughs)
Toryn: So basically, they invited me back to lunch the next day. I had a feeling things were going pretty good. Over the next couple weeks they had told me narrowed it down to three guys. I guess among those three guys were a couple other pro guys from other bands, but they kept me under the wraps on who it was. Then a couple weeks later they said "Look dude, we want to have you come in and record a three song demo for SONY before you get the green light." So I went over there, tracked three songs which ended up being three songs that ended up being on Angels and Devils, which comes out August 7th. I was like "How many people are doing the demos? How many people are submitting?" and they were "You are the only guy". (laughs) At that point I knew I had a good shot! So I basically submitted the demos. After they got the demos, maybe a week later, they had to review them and the video they had from the rehearsal and all that stuff. One day I was over at Jeff's house [Fuel bassist's Jeff Abercrombie] and we were all just sitting around waiting from the word from SONY. Basically we got the word and we had a little "Welcome to Fuel" and all this stuff. It was pretty exciting and I called my family. That was in early May when that finally happened. And then I signed on in July…I think it was technically August. That's pretty much the timeline!
Asif: Wow - that is awesome man! That had to be such a roller coaster of emotions the whole time!
Toryn: Oh man, I tell ya. I had a day job. I was selling cars in Burbank! (laughs) So I was working all day long and I was on the phone constantly and my managers would get mad at me and be like "Why are you on the phone all day long!?" (laughs)
Asif: (laughs)
Toryn: (laughs) But it all worked out! (laughs)
Asif: Most definitely man! What was the hardest song for you to learn in the Fuel library, if any?
Toryn: As far as ranges and things like that, I never really thought that the ranges of the old catalog were that challenging. I'd say the only thing was maybe that when I was going through learning lyrics to the songs that have three choruses - like, the tempo of the song "Scars". Musically it kinda sounds the same you just kinda got to know what verse you're going to. That was pretty much it. That was the one thing that I remember being kinda challenging. Aside from that, everything has been really great. Of course, all the hit songs were a blast to sing. I actually covered "Hemorrhage" in another band! (laughs) So it was cool to sing it for real!
Asif:
That's awesome to hear man! You said everything went great…did you find it
easier to work with seasoned pros with guys like Carl and Jeff in Fuel
compared to maybe some of the guys in your other bands earlier in your
career?
Toryn: Absolutely! It was a whole different world really. There is so much more that goes into doing a show on a pro level as opposed to doing a show before. Everyone has always acted professional, but there is so much more involvement on what goes into doing a pro show. The crew, working with tour managers, and so many different things you have to incorporate into your show. So that in itself was a lot of learning for me. Then, by the same token, a lot was the same thing as far as going into recording in the studio. Working with professional producers and engineers. The manner of which things are done versus just recording things at a home studio.
Asif: That is a lot to digest man!
Toryn: Yeah! I was never that guy "I've done all this before." I always embraced things with open ears and eyes trying to learn as much as I can.
Asif: You've done a few shows with the band already too…so how have the fans responded to you?
Toryn: You know,
it's funny. I was a huge fan of the original Fuel. I knew there was going
to be some people that were just like "I don't care! Even if it's great,
I'm not going to listen to anything because Brett is gone." And I can
understand that because I was a Brett fan too. But it has been tremendous!
I would say like 98% of the responses have been positive. People have been
writing me going "I have been a Fuel fan for years. I thought that Fuel
was over the moment that Brett left and I just wasn't open to the idea.
But since I've heard the new songs and I've seen your show in xxxx place,
I'm a believer and thank you for bringing my favorite band back to me." I
just love those – I save them!
Asif: I have to admit man, I was part of that 98%. I was really skeptical and I was like "Oh man, how are they gonna sound with a different voice" and then I was like "Alright, I got to check this new Toryn guy out". And when I did, I was absolutely amazed man! I was checking out some of the videos of you online doing the past hits, and I was like "Oh my God, this is amazing! This sounds as good as Brett, if not better!"
Toryn: Oh man, thank you!
Asif: And the new stuff is fantastic too! "Wasted Time" is great. "Gone" is just a killer track. I love "Gone".
Toryn: I was actually kinda hoping that "Gone" would be our first single…and we were leaning towards "Gone", but then ultimately decided "Wasted Time" would be the first single.
Asif: I'm really excited for you guys. Honestly even more so than in the past. What I've seen and what I've heard is just amazing stuff bro! Amazing!
Toryn: That's awesome bro. Thank you so much!
Asif: Alright man, thanks for your time. I'll let you get back to enjoying the beautiful California weather!
Toryn: (laughs) Absolutely dude! Take care!
www.myspace.com/fuel
PHOTOS: Courtesy of
Toryn Green and Fuel
