If you remember the summer of 1999, then you might remember the pop hit Steal My Sunshine.
By the Canadian group Len. Hailed the song of the summer back then, it was pretty much inescapable,
but whatever happened to the group Len? That’s what were going to explore in today’s video.
Len would be The brainchild of brother and sister named Sharon and Marc Costanzo the pair grew up
together in Montreal before the family moved to Toronto in the late 80’s.Influenced by punk rock
and hip hop, Marc started a punk rock band in 1991 & His sister Sharon would join the band a
year later, but Marc’s own admission his band’s musical talent was limited and usually resulted
in the group’s members smashing their instruments on stage since it seemed to attract more people.
Soon enough Marc grew tired of playing in a failing band & it was during this time he
bought equipment to create his own home studio and started recording other bands.
He would soon meet some other musicians including DJ Moves and D-Rock who would
become future members of Len. It was these chance meetings that led Marc to start creating his own
beats. & soon enough Len would be born and the group would release 2 rock and
pop oriented albums in 1995 and 1997 on their own indie label Funtrip along with a lone EP.
According to Billboard magazine, each independent LP sold around 10-15,000 copies.
Marc who would sometimes go by the name burger pimp would draw
on influences including the beastie boys, ll cool j and the fat boys.
Marc would remark on the music scene in the late 90’s saying to the LA Times “The reason why we
listen to a lot of old-school is that new-school hip-hop--besides underground [stuff]--is so lost,
Len’s lineup would consist of Marc and his Sharon along with a revolving cast of studio and touring
musicians. The band would sign a deal with Sony subsidiary Work. Their time in that punk rock
band i previously discussed would come in handy as the band subscribed to the punk rock ethos of DIY.
Even after signing with a label they had it written in their agreement that they
direct their own videos in addition to taking care of the art for their albums.
The band would also launch a feature on their website in 1999
called Len TV that would allow fans to see old home movies of the group.
Titled “You can’t Stop the Bum Rush”, the album’s name would influenced by the 1987 public enemy
album, of a similar name.. The group’s major label debut would be recorded in Marc’s home studio
and contain their hit single Steal My Sunshine' The song was actually a sleeper hit and it
would first gain traction months before their album came out when it was included in the teen
film Go. The soundtrack contained tracks from No Doubt,and Fatboy Slim. Out of all the songs on the
soundtrack, radio seemed to gravitate towards Steal My Sunshine. LA radio station KROQ would
add the song to it’s playlist dubbing it and i quote “the song of the summer.” Soon enough
other radio stations started playing the track. The song would peak at number 3 in the US on the
pop charts and number 9 in canada and become a top ten hit in several other countries. The success
of the single helped the group’s album sell 2 million copies of their major label debut & Len
would also achieve a rare feat being selected by both vh1 and mtv as the young new act to follow.
The label who was taken aback at the song’s success moved up the release of you can't
stop the bumrush and a video was shot for the single. The success of the song
took both Marc and Sharon by surprise Marc would explain the origin of the
song telling the Guardian newspaper "We were at this huge three-day rave
and I ended up partying, partying, partying. We went back to my house and Brendan Canning from
Broken Social Scene was DJing and played More, More, More by Andrea True Connection. I ended up
sampling it that morning and looped it, it sounded great. Somewhere in the next couple of days I
recorded it, I know Deryck Whibley from Sum 41 was there in the room when I put down the lyrics.
It's just a song about what happened that night of the party" he'd remember.
Meanwhile Sharon would tell the washington post how her collaborations with her brother
were pretty spontaneous recalling "Marc just dragged me out of bed and into the studio one
morning and said, 'Do you want to sing on this?' " "Later, he told me he was going for that Human
League vibe and had always wanted a song like that and as soon as we recorded the song,
it was done for me. We both liked it, but then I never thought about it again" she'd remember.
And she was right the group almost forgot about the song for a year and a half and
almost lost the track with Marc revealing to the LA Times “Dude, it was under my bed until the
day we had to mix it,” “The reel was actually unwound under my bed, with dust all over it.”
Brendan Canning of the group broken social scene would tell CBC he did the spoken word
part at the beginning of the song and received a cheque for $2,500 from the group’s label.
The video for Steal My Sunshine would have a whopping budget of $100,000
with Marc confessing a lot of it was spent on alcohol for the band.
The video was shot over the course of the week in both Daytona Beach in Florida and at Vence Beach
in Los Angeles, The original concept called for the group to ride motorcycles, but due to their
alcohol consumption they used scooters instead. . Often drunk while filming the video, the band
weren't allowed to ride proper motorbikes for many of the scenes, so were given scooters instead.
The group’s second single would be Feelin Alright which would feature a guest appearance from
poison guitarist cc deville both on the song and in the music video but it went nowhere.
Steal my sunshine would mark the high point for the group with
Marc sharing share some famous last words with billboard magazine in 1999
revealing“if we turn out to be a one-hit wonder that doesn’t mean
we’ll think any less of our music. We’ll still be making beats and records years
from now. Even if the record company drops us, we’ll still be making music" he'd say.
It seemed like Len knew they wouldn’t have a long career at
the top as during the peak of their fame marc showed off his entrepreneurial side launching
his own record label and starting his own skate magazine called Vice.
The group also grew tired of being on the road. According to outloud magazine,
80 dates into a 200 date tour they cancelled the subsequent shows and headed home to Canada
much to the disappointment of their label and manager. Lucky for Len,
the success of Steal my sunshine afforded them the opportunity to pursue passion projects
including running several business and making music at their own pace.
Len would eventually got out of their recording contract with Sony and signed a deal with Dream
Works who according to Markpaid them $750,000 based on a conversation he had with them claiming
he had claming he had a whole album full of hit songs, which in reality he never did..
As Len readied their next album The Diary Of The Madmen Dreamworks folded and the album got
stuck in limbo and wouldn’t be released until 2005 on Marc’s label. but it made no impact.
Marc would announce on his MySpace blog sometime in 2008 that Len was finished,
But they would end up remerging in 2012 releasing their most recent album it’s easy if you try.
Since their last release Marc has proved to have a successful careerin the music industry
serving as a senior creative at EMI publishing
and signing a number of high profile artists including discovering Sum 41.
Marc would give an interview in 2020 where he discussed what he was up to revealing how
he now runs a new company called Inside music Nashville who owns the publishing of different
artists that totals 35 million albums sold. Meanwhile his sister appears to live in the uk. .
Sharon would tell the guardian here feelings on the song looking back almost 20 years.
When I hear the song now it makes me laugh. It makes me smile. It takes me back to that time.
I know how I felt. When people play it I dance to it. Two weeks ago I ended up at
a bar and it was karaoke night and Steal My Sunshine was in the book,
so I said let's do it! I'm going to London soon and if anyone wants to call me up I'll
fucking show up at their house and I'll sing this song." That does it for today's video
guys thanks for watching we'll see you next time on rock n' roll true stories take care.