Deep Blue Something would be best known for the hit single Breakfast at Tiffany’s and
while the song shot the group to fame around the world, there history would be plagued with legal
troubles and changing trends. Today let’s take a look at whatever happened to Deep Blue something.
Two brothers from Texas Toby and Todd Pipes would attend Sam Houston State University
together in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Todd was the eldest of the two and It was
during their time at Sam Houston State, that the younger brother Toby wanted to change his major,
but the program he wanted wasn’t offered at Sam Houston, so he transferred to the University of
North Texas in Denton. Once Todd graduated from Sam Houston with an English degree.
he would receive a call from his brother who told him how great the music scene in Denton was.
For Todd it presented a great opportunity as his mother was after him to go to graduate school
and going to University of North Texas would let him get that degree and join the music scene with
his brother. Keep in mind this was the spring of 1991 so grunge wasn’t popular yet at the time.
And initially Toby and Todd’s first musical outfit they put together leaned in a major electronic
direction utilizing keyboards and drum machines taking inspiration from British groups like EMF,
The Stone Roses, & Happy Monday’s. Side note i’ve done a video on the stone roses,
link is down below. The initial plan was for Todd to front the band while Toby would play keyboards.
As the brothers started to look at booking live gigs they soon realized that they were an anomaly
out of a lot of bands who were playing clubs and they couldn’t just go up on stage with a
synthesizer and drum machine, so according to Todd who told backstage and behind he
scenes youtube channel out of convenience the brothers changed their sound to be
more straight forward rock n’ roll band. Toby who only played keyboards up unil this point
had to learn how to play guitar, while his brother would front the group and play bass.
The brothers would enlist a drummer named john Kirtland who was playing
in a band LoveSwing. They wanted to add a rhythm guitar but make it acoustic..
They would end up finding a guitar player named Clay Burgus who actually lived in
their apartment complex as them. They decided to call their own band Leper Messiah not taking
their name from the Metallica song but from a line in the David Bowie song Ziggy Stardust.
Frontman and bassist Todd Pipes would admit to Backstage and Behind the Scenes YouTube channel,
that because of the band’s name some people at their first several gigs thought they were
a metallica tribute band. Of course the band’s sound was nothing even remotely close.. It was
after a few gigs of not wanting to be mistaken for a metal band that the group finally changed
their name. . Drummer John Kirtland suggested Deep Blue Something not thinking that would be he name,
insead thinking the word something would be replaced with another word,
but Todd loved the name and instead of using it for just the song they used it as their moniker
going forward. By this point in time grunge had taken over, and for the band’s they presented
an alternative sound. The approach worked as they were soon selling out shows around Denton.
Despite their early success Todd would tell backstage and behind the scenes that
even though they now made music their career they had no idea about how to go about marketing
themselves. They didn’t have band photos, they didn’t even have a demo, they didn't
have a bio or even a mailing list. Eventually the band started to learn the trick of the trade
by talking to other bands in the scene and they would turn to a fan of there’s for financial help,
They would cut their first album 11th song in 1993, which was put out independently.
It was by this time the band’s second guitarist Clay Bergus would leave the group. He would be
replaced by Kirk Tatom. The band’s first album would contain the track Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Todd Pipes would recall writing the song writing for esquire saying “I wanted to see what I could
get away with in a pop song and still have it be easy on the ears. I didn't want to repeat
any words in the chorus, which is just criminal. And I'd had the phrase "Breakfast at Tiffany's" in
my head for quite a while. I took it to the band when I had a spare fifteen minutes and we started
cranking this thing out. We played it later that night. As for the title of the track, some would
think it was inspired by the audrey hepburn movie, but it wasn’t. It would be another movie
of her's named Roman Holiday, but Todd thought Breakfast at Tiffany’s would be a better title.
The song tells the story of a failing couple who have little to nothing in common
except for both liking the movie breakfast at tiffany’s. The band’s second album 1994’s
Home would be financed by a bank loan that was co-signed by a local club owner
and put out on Rainmaker Records. Home would once again contain the track Breakfast at Tiffany’s
which started to get airplay on the local dallas station KDGE. Major label Interscope took notice
and signed the band re-releasing Home in June of 1995 Home would peak at number 46 on the billboard
album charts moving over half a million copies and breakfast at tiffany’s would peak at number
5 on the pop charts. The song soon became a massive global hit in both Europe and Asia.
The band’s record company in England though never wanted to release Breakfast at tiffany in
the country despite it being a hit all over the world, because at that time a lot of the record
charts were dominated by british bands. According to Todd who told backstage and behind the scenes,
it was kids in England who were buying up import German copies that shot the song to
number 1 on the charts. In fact England was the last country for the song to go number 1 in.
Despise all of the band’s newfound success, not everything was going smoothly. Back in 1993 during
the band’s early days they had reached out to a guy named Louis Bickel Jr. Bickel was a massive
fan of the band dating back to when they were Leper Mesiah. He was convinced back then the band
was going to be huge someday and maybe he could share a piece of the pie. He would eventually
befriend them and put up $3,000 of his own money for them to record their debut record. Bickel
offered up the financing while in return he would ge the band to sign an agreement with him in 1993
essentially giving him rights to all of the songs on the band’s debut record 11th
including the track ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s” Not just that, but The deal according to the Dallas
Observer and i quote “ called for Bickel, who was doing business as Doberman Records, to receive a
percentage of money made from "all [Deep Blue Something] songs past, present, and future,"
As the band was touring the world in 1995 and selling hundreds of thousands of records,
Bickel felt resentful. Having made only a a few thousand dollars off the band’s debut record
he wanted his agreement enforced. He soon went after the band and their label for them renagging
on their 1993 agreement. Bickel wanted 5% of album royalties for their breakout release Home
turned over to him. But the band and the label claimed the contract they signed in 1993 was
void because Bickel never lived up to his end of the agreement
refusing to give the band an accounting of sales of their debut album
and the label claimed that Bickel was only entitled to get his $3,000 investment
back and that was it. The lawsuit was eventually settled out of court.
While bands are normally hailed as heroes in their hometown,
not everyday back in Denton counted themselves fans of Deep Blue Something. The Dallas Observer
would report that while the band was conquering the globe in the mid 90’s
Some in their hometown of Denton considered the band too soft or poppy After all Denton was home
to a band named Brutal Juice, who released an album named Mutilation Makes Identification
Difficult . Another band that was popular locally was a group named Caulk spelled Caulk whose
vocalist Aden Holt started printing shirts that read ‘Deep Blow Someone’ on their merchandise.
While it may have been a publicity stunt, the City of Dallas felt the same way towards the
band. Holt would tell the Dalls Observer "I think the Toadies' fans were kind of embarrassed that
Deep Blue Something was being said in the same sentence as the Toadies, considering they had
no relationship whatsoever," "Plus, with Hagfish, Tripping Daisy, Brutal Juice, the Reverend Horton
Heat, there was this whole wave right then, and Deep Blue Something didn't have a space in that."
Side note guys i’ve covered The Toadies and Tripping Daisy the links are down below.
The lack of love from their hometown did little to hurt the band member’s feelings at the time with
Toby telling the Dallas observer "When people do that it almost promotes you,
"We must be really successful. We must be pretty big if people are that upset."
But it was during the tour to support the group’s major label debut that guitarist
Kirk Tatum was fired and he turned around and sued the band and received his settlement.
Original guitarist Clay Burgus would rejoin the band.
WIthin a short period of time the band soon noticed the changing trends of the music
business.. Todd Pipes would write for Esquire We went back to Europe to support "Halo" and "Josie"
from the same record (Home), but the musical landscape had changed so much. That's when we
started getting at odds with the record company. The band would record their follow up to Home,
but by this point Interscope was more focused on nu-metal acts including Limp Bizkit
and the album was put on the backburner not seeing a US release and was only put
out in europe and japan.. Unhappy with their label, Deep Blue Something sued Interscope
and successfully got out of their contract,and walked away with their masters and some money.
Todd would reveal what came next writing in esquire.
Toby and I started producing other music and got distracted with more grownup endeavors.
We put out another record referring to their final LP in 2001, but it was just half-hearted. The band
never broke up. We just stopped. You always think it's gonna be a lifelong thing,.... When we saw
the compromises we'd have to make to maintain that level of fame, we realized we didn't want that.
The brothers soon learned how to run a recording studio Bass Propulsion Laboratories in Dallas.
They would work with some pretty big people in the industry learning their craft including Prince,
Duran Duran and Avril Lavigne producer David Leonard in addition to Queen Producer Roy Thomas
Baker. One of the first big names to record at their studio would be drowning pool. Side note
i’ve done a whole video on drowning pool. The link is down below. In addition to owning a recording
studio the brothers would be involved in their own musical projects with Todd doing some solo work.
In 2014 the band would reform. Todd at the time would finish his second solo album and
in talking to his brother they threw around the idea of finishing up some Deep Bloue Somehing
left over songs that were never recorded with Deep Blue Something. This would lead
to a reunion and a new EP 2015’s locust house.From 2014 onwards the band has been
somewhat active on the touring circuit with their most recent shows happening last year.
That does it for today's video guys thanks for watching. Be sure to hit the like button
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