BRAND NU SHOOZ
Nu Shooz is a new group from Portland, Oregon, and they are certainly gaining momentum in the pop world with their hit singles “I Can’t Wait” and “Point Of No Return”—both of which feature zany videos from their debut LP, Poolside. Recently, Valerie Day and John Smith (who are married and who are the singer and guitarist of the group) spoke with ROCK-SHOTS about becoming a successful pop group and how the single “I Can’t Wait” turned them into a dance club and MTV favorite.
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BRAND NU SHOOZ
Nu Shooz is a new group from Portland, Oregon, and they are certainly gaining momentum in the pop world with their hit singles “I Can’t Wait” and “Point Of No Return”—both of which feature zany videos from their debut LP, Poolside. Recently, Valerie Day and John Smith (who are married and who are the singer and guitarist of the group) spoke with ROCK-SHOTS about becoming a successful pop group and how the single “I Can’t Wait” turned them into a dance club and MTV favorite.
John, who’s originally from L.A., “just decided one day to walk to Portland. I had three dollars and turned it into an empire,” he jokingly recalls. Since becoming “famous,” the one thing Valerie and John dislike are the constant questions about being married.
“The only problem with being married is that interviewers ask us about it too much,” John says. “Because we’re musicians, and not just married. We like to keep that separate from our involvement in the music business. We’re married, but we’re different people. Val is very much the frontperson and I play guitar and I’m the music director and songwriter. But, yeah, I’m having a great time.”
Unlike most groups, who put together a demo tape and then try to get record companies to listen to it, Nu Shooz got lucky and avoided that difficult task. Their single was being played heavily in dance clubs and on the radio in Oregon and Washington. But, even so, it was a struggle to get that far—and as John puts it, “Sometimes they have to be hit over the head with it, you know? It sold itself, basically. A radio station in Portland gave us a chance and started playing ‘I Can’t Wait.’ It got wildly successful in Oregon and Washington, but the record company just said ‘Well, yeah, Oregon and Washington are just too supportive of their local product.’ So, they just turned us down. And, besides we didn’t have blue hair.”
Soon after, the single was put on a disco record; 1,000 D.J. copies were made. One went to Holland where it was remixed. And although it didn’t do too well there, it came back to the States and New York went wild.
“A guy who was a delivery boy at Atlantic Records—he’s since been given an office—mentioned it to them. But, we’ve also gotten a lot of support from radio. We became #1 on the dance charts, #1 on the black charts, and then it started to go pop after all that had happened already. It got on the pop charts and we were just blown away. We got to #11 and I didn’t care about #1,1 just wanted to go Top 10. And then nine. I said ‘I’ll be good!”’
The Poolside album sits at #36 as we go to press. Quite an accomplishment for a debut LP that’s been on the charts a mere 10 weeks! Looks like good things are coming for Nu Shooz!
